QUITE CONTRARY.
"I have done it, my dear Joseph," said Mrs. Ellsworthy. "I went to see
the children, and I wrote to that little proud princess Primrose. It
will be really very nice if they all come here. We have such heaps and
heaps of money, more than we know what to do with; money becomes
uninteresting when you have so much. I think I have tried most of the
pleasures that money can buy. I have heaps of dresses, and quantities
of jewels, and my lovely country home, and my season in town, but what
I have never yet had, and what I have earnestly longed for, was a
daughter. A boy, after all, has to go to school, and to fight his way
in the world--our boy is at school, and a very good place for him--but
a woman wants a girl of her own to quite satisfy her heart.
"Now it seems to me that I may have three girls. We must keep up the
fiction of Primrose being useful to you in your library, Joseph--you
must give her letters to write, and you must be very patient with her
when she makes mistakes, for the dear child has not been educated,
and will probably make the worst of secretaries. Never mind, you must
try to appear delighted, and to seem as if you never could have got on
until Primrose Mainwaring came to help you.
"Then the little ones--of course they are coming under the supposition
that they are only to stay until I have found them berths in one of
those horrid charity schools for the orphan daughters of military
men--but I promise you those berths shall be hard to find. The three
will insensibly consider themselves our adopted children. Oh, what a
delightful plan it is! and how picturesque I shall feel with my girls!
Joseph, did you ever see a brighter or more bewitching little soul
than our Jasmine?"
"Our Jasmine?" repeated Mr. Ellsworthy; "she is by no means ours yet,
my love. Well, I trust your plan will succeed--they are nice girls,
and I like to feel I am doing a kindness to poor Mainwaring's
daughters. I shall be very pleased indeed if they make your life any
happier, Kate."
Mrs. Ellsworthy stooped down and kissed her husband's brow--she was
all impatience for the morning to arrive, for surely early then would
come an answer to the letter she had written.
But Mrs. Ellsworthy was doomed to disappointment. The next day brought
no answer from the Mainwaring girls. The good little lady bore her
suspense as best she could until noon, then she ordered her carriage
and drove into the village.
Jasmine herself opened the cottage door for her. Jasmine was looking
excited, and there were red rings round her eyes as if she had been
crying, and yet at the same time those bright eyes of hers were
shining, and her lips were quivering between smiles and tears.
"Oh, you have come!" she exclaimed; "Primrose is in the village--she
has gone to Mr. Danesfield about our money. Please come into the
drawing-room. We are rather upset, for we are beginning to pack, and
Hannah is washing out the anti-macassars and the white muslin
curtains, for we think the muslin curtains will look so nice in our
cheap lodgings. We are very busy, awfully busy, but do come in and sit
down. Eyebright, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy. Mrs. Ellsworthy, isn't
Eyebright a silly?--she is quite fretting because she won't see those
last seeds of hers come up in the garden. Now, if she was asked to
leave the Pink I would say nothing, but of course the Pink comes too."
"Yes, dear, and Daisy shall have plenty of garden ground for fresh
seeds. Oh! my dear children," continued Mrs. Ellsworthy, "I shall be
so delighted to welcome you all to Shortlands, only I think you might
have replied to my letter."
Mrs. Ellsworthy was by this time seated in a low arm-chair by the
window, and Jasmine was standing before her, while Daisy sat demurely
on the floor, and folded up the anti-macassars.
"We might have answered your letter?" repeated Jasmine. "Well now, do
you know, to be quite frank and open, your letter was a little bit of
a lecture. You did give it to darling old Primrose, and somehow or
other you made Daisy cry. You spoke about a plan, and you said it was
a delightful plan, but--but before we read that part of your letter
Primrose thought of another plan of her own, and _it_ was so
exquisite, so perfect, that we tore up your plan for fear we should be
tempted by it. We don't know your plan, Mrs. Ellsworthy, and we don't
want it, for we have made our own, and ours is--yes, ours is lovely!"
Mrs. Ellsworthy had an expressive face, and while Jasmine was talking
it changed and grew anxious; her husband's words, "She is not our
Jasmine yet," returned to her. Like many rich and pretty women, she
was unaccustomed to opposition, and when it came it but whetted her
desire, and made her also feel irritable.
"It is rude to tear up the letters of kind friends," she said. "I made
a proposal which would have been in every way suitable to you girls,
and you did not even trouble yourselves to read it. No, my loves, I am
not angry. Daisy, come and give me a kiss; Jasmine, hold my hand. Now
shall I tell you the little plan which you would not read about last
night?"
"Oh, we would not be rude to you for the world," said Jasmine. "Daisy,
come here, and give Mrs. Ellsworthy one of your sweetest kisses. Of
course I will hold your hand--I love you, and so does Daisy, and so
does--"
"No, so does _not_ Primrose," answered Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose is
the opposing element--still I trust I may conquer her. Now, my
children, may I tell the plan?"
"Oh yes, do tell us," they both answered; but Jasmine added, "It will
not be of the slightest use, for we have made our own."
"Well, dear, plans of girls as young as you are made to be altered.
Now listen to my scheme.
"Mr. Ellsworthy writes for the papers and for one or two magazines. He
has scientific tastes, and writing in this way gives interest to his
life; but his eyes are not very strong, and he has for some time been
wishing for some nice girl to whom he can dictate his thoughts. It
seems to him, and to me too, that Primrose is just the sort of girl he
wants, and if she will come and live with us at Shortlands, he will
pay her something for giving him a couple of her hours daily--thus,
you see, she will be earning her living and will be quite independent.
You and Daisy, Jasmine, are to come to us on a visit, until we can
find a school where, for your father's sake, your education may be
finished."
"You mean a school for the orphan daughters of army men," said
Jasmine, "I know. Well, thank you very much, but I'm afraid your plan
won't answer. Neither Daisy nor I would at all like to go to a school
for orphans. We don't fancy the idea of school, and dear mamma once
said that she would never allow her girls to be taught at school, so,
of course, that point is settled. Then you know we could not always
remain with you on a visit, for we are no relations of yours--you
never heard of us at all until a few days ago, although we have lived
here most of our lives. Of course you don't mean to keep us always on
a visit, so it would be very silly to begin a thing which could not go
on. Then about Primrose--may I be quite honest with you about
Primrose?"
"Oh yes, my dear."
"Well now, she doesn't write well--not really--her hand moves so
slowly, and I have seen some spelling mistakes now and then in her
letters--I fly over the page myself, but then I only can read my own
writing. I am greatly afraid that poor Mr. Ellsworthy would find
Primrose a bad secretary. No, no, no; ours is a much, much better
plan. You see, Mrs. Ellsworthy, you must not be angry with us--we love
you very much--we are greatly obliged to you, but we have quite made
up our minds--we will not be separated. Ah! here comes Primrose.
Primrose, darling, here is Mrs. Ellsworthy--she is just going to
listen to our plan--she has told us hers, and I have been explaining
to her that it will not answer, for Daisy and I are determined not to
go to school, and you know, Primrose, you are really stupid with your
pen."
"How do you do, Mrs. Ellsworthy?" said Primrose--she came in looking
fagged and tired, and with a worried expression between her eyebrows.
"Mrs. Ellsworthy," she said, "I am most grateful to you for being so
kind to us. I know you won't approve at all of our plan--you will
agree with Mr. Danesfield, who said he thought we had taken leave of
our senses, but I think we have made up our minds, and as we have no
guardian, there is no one to prevent us doing as we please."
"Oh, Primrose, how sad you look!" said Jasmine. "Has Mr. Danesfield
been disagreeable to you? Well, I know our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy
won't. Tell her our plan quickly. Primrose, she says you don't love
her--tell her you do love her. Oh, she is sweet and dear and
kind--tell her our plan--she won't throw cold water on what we wish to
do--she won't think it wrong that we three girls should wish to keep
together."
"Our plan is this," said Primrose, "I have asked Mr. Danesfield to
give us what money he has of ours, and then we three are going to sell
our furniture here, and to give up the cottage, and say good-bye to
dear Hannah, and we are going to London. In London we shall learn. I
am going to have lessons in painting, and Jasmine shall study English
composition, and she shall be taught how to write properly; and Daisy,
too, must be taught, and we will do that with our money which is now
in the bank, and when it is spent we shall be able to support
ourselves. After all, it is a very simple plan, and the best thing
about it is that it will keep us together."
When Primrose began to talk Mrs. Ellsworthy threw down her hands in
her lap with a gesture of great impatience. Now she asked in a short
dry voice, "May I ask what money you have in the bank?"
"Yes, certainly--we have two hundred pounds--a little of that must be
spent in paying one or two small accounts, but then we shall have the
money as well from the sale of our furniture. Yes, I think we shall
have quite two hundred pounds to take to London."
"And we are going to be very economical," interposed Jasmine. "We are
going at first for a couple of nights to a boarding-house for ladies
only. It is called Penelope Mansion, and is in a street off the
Edgware Road--we have a friend, she is only a village girl, but we
call her our friend--her name is Poppy Jenkins, who has just gone to
Penelope Mansion to help her aunt, who is the owner of the
boarding-house. While we are there we will see the sights, for of
course that must be part of our education. We will go to Westminster
Abbey to be solemnized, and we will go to the Tower to perfect our
knowledge of the tragical part of English history, and we must take
Daisy to the Zoo, for she has always longed to see a lot of monkeys
all together. I don't think we'll have any time for looking in at the
shop windows, for we shall be very busy, and very, very earnest, but
these places we must see. I daresay Poppy and her aunt, and some of
the nice ladies in the boarding-house, will go with us. When Poppy has
dusted up and put things straight in the morning, of course she'll
have lots and lots of time. Oh, it does seem such an easy, sensible
plan."
"My poor, poor children!" exclaimed Mrs. Ellsworthy, "my poor,
deluded, silly, obstinate children!" and then the good little woman
burst into tears.