GETTING LOST.
Primrose's scheme had, of course, been considered most wild and most
foolish by all her friends at Rosebury but even they were not prepared
for her crowning act of folly. She, Jasmine and Daisy had a
consultation together. This consultation was really nothing but a
matter of form, for Primrose, quiet as she appeared could lead her two
sisters as she willed--her slightest word was law to them, and the
most outrageous plan proposed by her would have been delightful in
their eyes. Her suggestion to them was as follows:
"We will go to London," she said--"we will try to be independent, and
to earn our own living, and in order to do so really, and to prevent
ourselves being tempted by Mrs. Ellsworthy's riches, or by Miss
Martineau's advice, we will not give our address. We will stay for a
short time at Penelope Mansion, and then we will go away. We will find
those nice, clean, cheap lodgings, where we can hang up our muslin
curtains, and keep things lovely and fresh, even though we are in
London, and we will stay there without troubling our friends about us
until we have succeeded. The moment we have succeeded in earning
enough to live on we will write home."
Jasmine, and of course little Daisy, approved of this idea--Jasmine
said it was both romantic and strong--Daisy said she only wanted to be
with her own Primrose and her own Jasmine, and if the Pink might
always stay with her too she would be quite happy.
Accordingly, when the girls' week of pleasure had quite come to an
end, Primrose reminded her sisters that it was time for them to begin
to get lost.
"We are not really lost here," she said. "Mrs. Ellsworthy thinks
nothing of coming to town, and she could come to us at the Mansion any
moment; and now that we have met that friend of hers, that Mr. Noel,
she may be sending him to see about us--so you see it is more
important than ever that we should find a place where we can really
commence our work."
"I don't dislike Mr. Noel at all," said Jasmine. "It is a great pity
he is related to our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy, for we might have had
the comfort of his advice without being considered dependent. Oh,
Primrose! is it possible that we are too independent--I can't help it,
Primrose; I do feel lonely. I must cry just for a minute. I'd rather
do a page of the 'Analogy' to-night than not cry for a minute."
"My darling," said Primrose, putting her arms round Jasmine, "I am
sure that girls like us cannot be too independent, but I won't go on
with it if it really breaks your heart, Jasmine."
"Oh, but it doesn't really," said Jasmine; "I think it's a noble plan;
I wouldn't give in for the world. I have had my cry now, and I'm
better--but, Rose, how are we to look out for these nice, clean, cheap
lodgings if we aren't to consult any one?"
"We can consult people, and find out the locality we want, but we need
never tell the people we consult what number in the street we really
choose. Oh, there are lots of ways of finding out what we really want
to know."
"I'll talk to Mrs. Dredge to-night," said Jasmine. "I think Mrs.
Dredge is very practical and kind, and I don't know why Miss Slowcum
should dislike her so much. I'll get her all by myself this evening,
and talk to her."
Accordingly that evening, after the inmates of Penelope Mansion had,
as Mrs. Flint styled it, "tea'd," Jasmine sat down on a footstool at
Mrs. Dredge's feet, and laid herself out to be bewitching. No one
could be more charming than this little maiden when she chose, and she
had tact enough to adapt herself on most occasions to her company.
"I'm sure you have lots of experience, Mrs. Dredge," she began; "you
look as if you had--your face tells me that you have gone through many
episodes"--(Jasmine was rather proud of this expression; she began to
consider that her style was forming).
"Episodes, my dear, and experiences?" answered Mrs. Dredge. "Well,
well, I'm not to say over young, and years bring knowledge; but if you
mean, Miss Jasmine, that I'm up to the acquirements of the present
day, that I'm not, and I never will be,--no, thank Heaven! that I
never will be."
"Do you mean with regard to education?" remarked Jasmine. "Is the
education of the present day wrong?--is that why you're so thankful
you are not up to it?"
"My dear Miss Jasmine," answered Mrs. Dredge, with great solemnity,
"the education of the present day is to the heart hardening, and to
the mind demoralizing. No, no; none of it for me. Miss Slowcum, now!
Miss Jasmine, between you and me I don't admire Miss Slowcum."
"Oh, she's very kind," answered Jasmine; "but look here, Mrs. Dredge,
what I want to consult you about has nothing at all to say to
education, and it has a great deal to say to experience. It's a great
secret, Mrs. Dredge, but we want to find cheap lodgings."
"Oh, my dear! and don't you want to abide at the Mansion--all things
considered, it's a respectable and safe quarter--you are all three
young and attractive, my dears, and you have the advantage of being
guarded here by women who have years on their shoulders. Yes, my dear
Miss Jasmine, with the exception of your three selves and the maid
Sarah, there is no one in Penelope Mansion who will ever see fifty
again. Don't talk to me of Miss Slowcum being younger than that--I
know better."
"Dear Mrs. Dredge, it is a secret, but we are really not going to stay
here long, and we want, if possible, to find very cheap lodgings."
"Very cheap, love; and you think I can guide you? Well, well, I have
had, as you wisely say, my experiences. About what figure would you be
inclined to go to, my dear?"
"I don't know," answered Jasmine. "Our house in the country was twelve
pounds a year--I don't think we ought to pay as much as that, for of
course we should not want a whole house, only two rooms. A nice,
large, airy bedroom, and a cheerful sitting-room. We should not mind
how plain the furniture was, if only it was very, very clean. You know
the kind of place, with snow-white boards--the sort of boards you
could eat off--and little plain beds with dimity frills round them,
and very white muslin blinds to the windows--we have got our own white
muslin curtains; Hannah washed them for us, and they are as white as
snow. Oh! the place we want might be very humble, and very
inexpensive. Do tell us if you know of any rooms that would suit us."
While Jasmine was speaking Mrs. Dredge kept on gazing at her, her
round face growing long, and her full blue eyes becoming extended to
their largest size.
"My dear child," she said, "wherever were you brought up? Don't you
know that the kind of lodgings you want are just the hardest of all to
get? Yes, my dear, I have experience in London apartments, and about
them, and with regard to them, there is one invariable and unbroken
rule--cheapness and dirt--expense and cleanliness. Bless you! you
innocent child, you had better give up the notion of the cheap
lodgings, and stay on contented and happy at the Mansion."
Jasmine smiled faintly--said "Thank you, Mrs. Dredge," in a pretty
gentle voice, and a moment or two later, with a deeper carnation than
usual in her cheeks, she quietly left the room.
"Primrose," she said upstairs to her sister, "we mustn't ask advice
about our lodgings; we must take the map with us, and go and look for
them all by ourselves. Mrs. Dredge says that clean lodgings are very,
very dear, and it is only dirty lodgings that are cheap."
When Jasmine ran into the room Primrose was standing by the
dressing-table, and in her usual methodical fashion was putting tidily
away her own things and her sisters'; now she faced Jasmine with a
little smile on her face.
"There is just one thing," she said, "that we can do--we can with our
own hands make the dirty lodgings clean. Never mind, Jasmine darling,
we won't ask anybody's advice; we'll go out and look round us
to-morrow."
Early the next morning the three sisters set out--Daisy having first
locked the Pink in their room. It may be remarked in parenthesis that
the Pink did not like her new quarters, and had already made herself
notorious by breaking two saucers and a cup, by upsetting a basin of
milk, and by disappearing with the leg of a chicken. In consequence,
she was in great disgrace, and Mrs. Flint had been heard to speak of
her as "that odious cat!" The Pink, however, was safe for the present,
and the girls set out on their little pilgrimage of discovery.
"London," said Primrose, in a somewhat sententious voice, has "points
of the compass, like any other place. It has its north and its south,
its east and its west. The west, I have been told, is the aristocratic
and expensive quarter, so of course we won't go there. In the east,
the miserably poor and dirty people live--we won't trouble
them--therefore our choice must lie between the south and the north.
On the whole, I am inclined to try the north side of London."
"For dark and true and tender is the North,"
quoted Jasmine with enthusiasm. "By all means, Rose, we will go
northwards, but how shall we go?"
"We'll inquire at the post-office just round this corner," answered
Primrose, with decision.
Accordingly, having received some rather lucid instructions the girls
found themselves in a few moments in an omnibus going towards
Holloway. About noon they were landed there, and then their search
began. Oh, the weariness of that long day! Oh, the painful experience
of the three! They knew nothing about London prices--they had not an
idea whether they were being imposed upon or not.
"On one point we have quite made up our minds," said Jasmine,
sturdily; "we won't go back to the Mansion until we have found rooms."
The truth of Mrs. Dredge's prophecy became only too apparent. All the
apartments that were bright and clean and cheery were quite too
expensive for Primrose's slender purse. At last she came to a
resolution.
"Girls," she said, "we must take rooms that look dirty, and make them
clean. We have at least been taught how to polish, and how to scrub,
and how to clean. You know, Jasmine, how shocked Miss Martineau was
when she saw you one day with a pair of gloves on down on your knees
polishing the drawing-room grate at Rosebury. You said you liked to do
it. How distressed she was! and how that grate did shine!"
"Don't let us talk about Rosebury just now," said Jasmine, with a
quiver in her voice. "Yes, Primrose darling, of course we can make our
own rooms clean--we can even re-paper the walls, and we can whitewash
the ceilings. Now we know exactly what to do. At the very next house
where we see 'Apartments to Let,' we'll ask for dirty rooms, then of
course we'll get them cheap."
"Those attics that we saw at that last house?" questioned Primrose,
thoughtfully. "They were rather large, and not very dark. If we took
down that paper, and put up a fresh one, and if we whitened the
ceilings and scrubbed the floors, why, those rooms might do. They were
not very expensive for London--only twelve shillings a week."
"A frightful rent!" said Jasmine. "No wonder the people here look
careworn, and pinched, and old. We'll go back to that house, Primrose.
On the whole, the rooms may suit us. What is the landlady's name?--Oh,
Mrs. Dove. We'll go back to Mrs. Dove and take her rooms."
Accordingly, in a funny little street off the Junction Road, the three
Mainwaring girls found a nest. It was a queer nest, up at the top of a
tall and rambling house; but Mrs. Dove appeared good-natured, and had
no objection to the young ladies doing their own papering and
white-washing, and as Primrose took the rooms on the spot, and paid
a week's rent in advance, she became quite gracious. Every morning,
as soon as ever breakfast was over at Penelope Mansion, the girls
started off to the new home they were preparing for themselves.
There they worked hard, papering, white-washing, and, finally, even
painting. By the end of a week Mrs. Dove scarcely knew her attic
apartments--elegant she now called them--a charming suite. The
enthusiasm of the three young workers even infected Mrs. Dove, who
condescended to clean the windows, and to rub up the shabby furniture,
so that when, at the end of the week, the attics were ready for
occupation, they were by no means so unlike Jasmine's ideal London
rooms as might have been expected. The girls kept their own counsel,
and during the week they were preparing for their flight to Eden
Street--for No. 10 Eden Street would be their future address--they
told no one at Penelope Mansion of their little plans. The good ladies
of the Mansion, Mrs. Flint excepted, were very curious about them;
they wondered why the girls disappeared every day immediately after
breakfast, and came back looking hot and tired, and yet with bright
and contented faces, at night; but Jasmine had ceased to confide in
Mrs. Dredge; and Primrose, when she chose to be dignified, had quite
power enough to keep even Miss Slowcum at a distance. Mrs. Mortlock,
who was stout, and rich, and good-tempered, tried the effect of a
little bribery on Daisy, but the sweet, staunch little maid would not
be corrupted.
"Oh, thank you so much for those delicious chocolate creams," she
said. "Yes, I _do_ love chocolate creams, and you are so kind to give
them to me. Where do we spend our day?--but that is Primrose's
secret--you would not have me so naughty as to tell!"
So the week drew to an end, and the nest, as the girls called their
rooms, was finally ready for its inmates. The snowy-white muslin
curtains were really put up to the now clean windows--the walls,
covered with a delicate paper, had a soft, rosy glow about them--some
of the pretty home ornaments were judiciously scattered about, and the
rather small bedroom had three very small, but very white, little
beds in it.
"We'll go in for lots of flowers, you know," said Jasmine. "I don't
suppose even in London flowers are very dear."
At last there came a morning when the girls went away from Penelope
Mansion as usual, and only Mrs. Flint and Poppy knew that they were
not returning in the evening. Mrs. Flint felt rather indignant with
the young ladies for deserting her--not that she said anything for she
always made it a rule not to wear herself out with unnecessary words,
or with fretting, or with undue excitement; nevertheless, on this
occasion she was a little indignant, for surely, what place could
compare with the Mansion? Poor Poppy bade the young ladies, whom she
loved, good-bye with an almost breaking heart.
"It's all one, Miss Jasmine," she exclaimed; "if it was my dying
breath, I'd have to own that London is not what we pictered
it--vanities there is, and troubles there is, and disappointments most
numerous and most biting. But for the one happy day I spent out with
you dear young ladies, I hasn't known no happiness in London. Oh, Miss
Jasmine," drawing up short and looking her young lady full in the
face--"what dreadful lies them novels tells! I read them afore I came,
and I made up such wonderful picters; but I will own that what with
the ladies in this mansion, as worrit me almost past bearing, and what
with you going away all secret like, and what with me being no longer
Poppy the tare, but Sarah Jane the drudge, even if I was to get one of
the bonnets that they show in the shop windows in Bond Street, why, it
wouldn't draw a smile from me Miss Jasmine!"