HOW TO PAINT CHINA AND HOW TO FORM STYLE.
Mrs. Dove had a great many lodgers--she let rooms on each of her
floors, and she called her lodgers by the name of the floor they
occupied--first floor, second floor, third floor came and went to 10,
Eden Street. The girls were known as "the attics," and Jasmine felt
very indignant at the name.
"It's almost as bad as being a tare," she said to Primrose. "Dear,
dear! I never thought I should turn into an attic! What an unpleasant
place London is! I begin to think Poppy is quite right in what she
says of it."
"I begin to suspect," said Primrose, "that London, like all places,
has its shady side and its bright side. We are in the shady side at
present, dear Jasmine--that is all."
Mrs. Dove had not only lodgers who seemed to worry her from morning to
night--for, unlike her name, she was always fretting or scolding
somebody--but she also had a husband, and this husband made his
presence felt by every lodger in the house. He was often away for a
whole week at a time, and then comparative peace reigned in No. 10;
but he would come back at unexpected moments--he would enter the
house, singing out, in a loud rasping voice--
"Mrs. Dove,
My only love!"
And then poor Mrs. Dove would get flushed and uncomfortable and lose
what little self-possession she ever had, and would own in confidence
to the first floor, or the second floor, or the attics, just as they
happened to be present, that Mr. Dove's honeyed phrases were only
words after all, and meant quite the contrary.
The girls were not a week at No. 10, Eden Street, before it became
very apparent to them that there was little of the real Eden to be
found in the place. They kept themselves, however, quite apart from
the other lodgers; they began to get out their books and their
employments, and what with housekeeping, and what with cleaning their
rooms, and going out for long rambling walks in all directions, they
were busy from morning to night. Primrose said they would spend a
fortnight in the attics, and then the education which was by-and-by to
lead to bread-winning must commence. Never did three more ignorant
girls gird themselves for the fray. Primrose had a natural love for
painting. She had none of the knowledge, none of the grounding, which
is essential for real success in all departments of art in the present
day; but she had a quick and correct eye for color, and all that Miss
Martineau knew she had imparted to her. Primrose looked in at the shop
windows, and saw the lovely painted china, and resolved to take
lessons in this art. After some little difficulty, and after
questioning first Mrs. Dove, and finally the much-dreaded Mr. Dove,
she was directed to a teacher, who promised to instruct her at the
rate of three pounds three shillings for twelve lessons. Primrose did
not know whether her teacher was good or bad, or whether she was
paying too much or too little--she resolved to take the lessons and to
spend some of her little capital in buying the necessary materials.
"After I've had my twelve lessons Mr. Jones thinks I may begin to
offer some of my plates and things for sale; he says he will be very
glad to put them up in his own shop window. He thinks," continued
Primrose with her sweet, grave smile, "that I may be able to recoup
myself for the expense of learning at the end of a few months."
"And now," said Jasmine, "what am I to do? It's all settled for you,
Primrose--you will be an artist--and you shall paint a breakfast set
for our nest in your odd moments, and I'll buy it from you when my
ship comes home. Oh! and we are both going to be very successful, are
we not, darling? and we won't have any trouble at all in supporting
our pet Daisy and her kitty-cat. You know, Primrose, my gifts lie in
the poetic and novelistic line. I have really thought of a glowing
plot for a story since I came to London, and Mr. Dove is to be the
ruffian of the piece. I'll introduce Mrs. Dredge and poor Miss Slowcum
too, and, of course, you'll be the heroine, my beautiful sister. I
mean to buy some paper, and work away at my novel in the evenings next
week; but as we have come up to London expressly to have our education
perfected, and our gifts developed, don't you think I ought to be
having some lessons in English style? After all, Primrose, I do not
think Mrs. Flint's way of speaking was correct. Arthur Noel did not
talk in the least like her, nor did dear Mrs. Ellsworthy; and after
all, they are a real lady and gentleman. I wonder, Primrose, who would
teach me proper style. I wish I could meet Arthur Noel again, that he
might tell me!"
"Oh, Jasmine, it is dreadful of you to speak of a perfect stranger by
his Christian name! Don't do it, dear--I know it is not right."
"He did not seem the least like a stranger," said Jasmine, pushing
back her curling locks. "Well, Rose, who is to teach me style?--you
see, if I am to earn money by my pen I must be polished up. I have got
a poem now in the back of my head which would exactly suit the ----
_Review_. It's almost exactly on the lines of one they published not
long ago by Tennyson; but I'd rather not send it until I've had a
lesson or two from some gifted person here--who shall I go to,
Primrose?"
"You must go to a school, of course," answered Primrose. "There is a
seminary for young ladies just round the corner--we will call there
this afternoon, and find out if the lady can give you lessons."
Miss Egerton, the principal of the seminary in question, opened her
eyes a good deal at Jasmine's modest request.
"I don't want French, nor German, nor music," quoth the young lady,
"but I do want to be helped to make very smooth and flowing verses,
and I want to have the plots of my novels cut up and criticised--for I
don't mind telling you," continued Jasmine, looking full into Miss
Egerton's deeply-lined and anxious face, "that I mean to live by my
pen. My sister is to be an artist, and I am to be a novelist and
poet."
Miss Egerton owned to herself afterwards that she had never met such
extraordinary girls; but then they were so pretty, and so fresh, and
the times were hard, and the High Schools were carrying off all her
pupils, so though she knew little or nothing of making up verses or
developing plots, she promised to receive Jasmine as a pupil, to
direct her reading, and to help her to the best of her ability. She
was a good and kind-hearted woman, and she made a further suggestion.
"What is to become of your little sister while you are both so busy,
young ladies?" she said.
"Oh, Daisy promises to be very good," said Primrose with a tender
smile at the little one. "Daisy will stay at home, and take care of
the Pink, and she is learning to sew very nicely. When Daisy is good
and stays quietly at home she helps our plan, and does as much for our
cause as any of us."
Miss Egerton looked straight into Daisy's eyes. Long ago this dry and
hard-looking old maid had a little sister like Daisy--a pretty little
lass, who went away to play in the heavenly gardens many and many a
year ago. For the sake of little Constance Miss Egerton felt a great
kindness welling up in her heart towards Daisy Mainwaring.
"Your little sister must not stay at home by herself," she said. "She
shall come to me. While I am teaching Miss Jasmine, Daisy can play or
work as she pleases, only not by herself in your lodgings, young
ladies, but in the room with her sister."
So it was arranged, and the three girls might fairly have been said to
commence their work.
When Primrose had gone to Mr. Danesfield and asked him to allow her to
draw their little capital out of his bank, he had made wonderfully
few objections. Of all their friends, he was the one who had opposed
Primrose's scheme the least, and perhaps for that reason she was more
willing to take his advice, and to be guided by him, than by either
Mrs. Ellsworthy or Miss Martineau. Mr. Danesfield had said to her: "My
dear, you and your sisters are in some particulars in a very unique
and unfortunate position. You are all three very young, yet you are
absolutely your own mistresses. No one in all the world has any real
control over you. If you ask me for your money, I cannot refuse you--I
have absolutely no choice in the matter; the money is yours, and when
you want it you must have it. Now I tell you plainly that Mrs.
Ellsworthy and Miss Martineau are dreadfully shocked with your scheme.
I may be wrong, but I confess I am not shocked. I fancy that you are
the kind of girls who will come out victorious, and that though you
will have rather a hard struggle, you will not be beaten; but there is
one thing I am most anxious to do for you, and that is to keep part of
your money. You have exactly two hundred pounds. How much of this
little capital do you propose to spend a year?"
"As little as ever we can," answered Primrose.
"Yes, my dear young lady, but you must have some sort of idea with
regard to your expenses. I would counsel you on no account to spend
more of your capital than seventy pounds a year; by restricting
yourselves to this sum you will have a very tiny but certain, income
for two years, and will have something to fall back on even in the
third year, if you are not then earning enough. Suppose I divide your
seventy pounds into four quarterly instalments, and send it to you as
you require it. You know nothing of keeping a banking account
yourself, and it will absolutely not be safe for you to live in London
lodgings, and have a large sum of money with you. Take my advice in
this particular, Miss Primrose, and allow me still to be your banker."
"There is one little difficulty," said Primrose; "we really want to be
independent, and as we know that there will be difficulties and
discouragements in the career we are marking out for ourselves, and
that we may often grow faint-hearted and lonely, Jasmine and I feel
that we had better put ourselves quite out of the way of temptation.
We have, therefore, made up our minds not to give our address to any
one in Rosebury for at least two years. How can you send us the money,
Mr. Danesfield, if you don't know where to send it?"
"My dear young lady, I fear you are a little bit too headstrong, and
though I admire your spirit, I cannot quite approve of your cutting
yourselves off from all communications with your friends. However, it
is not for me to interfere. Will this satisfy you, Miss
Primrose?--shall I give you my solemn promise only to use the address
with which you favor me to forward your money each quarter, and never
to divulge your secret to anybody else?"
Finally this plan was adopted, and Primrose received her small
quarterly allowance with great regularity.