the world Mrs. Mainwaring knew that she was
a very poor woman indeed. Before the captain went to India he insured
his life for L1000, and after his death Mrs. Mainwaring lived very
placidly on her small pension, and for any wants which she required
over and above what the pension could supply she drew upon the L1000.
She did not care, as a more sensible woman would have done, to invest
this little sum as so much capital; no, she preferred to let it lie in
the bank, and to draw upon it from time to time, as necessity arose.
She had no business friends to advise her, for the few acquaintances
she made at Rosebury knew nothing whatever of the value of money. Like
many another woman who has been brought up in affluence, neither had
Mrs. Mainwaring the faintest idea of how fast a small sum like L1,000
can dwindle. She felt comfortable during the latter years of her life
at the knowledge that she had a good balance in the bank. It never
occurred to her as a possibility that she who was still fairly young
could die suddenly and without warning. This event, however, took
place, and the girls were practically unprovided for.

Mrs. Mainwaring had never really worked for her children, but a mother
who had worked hard for them, and toiled, and exerted all her strength
to provide adequately for their future, might not perhaps have been
loved so well. She died and her children were broken-hearted. They
mourned for her each after her own fashion, and each according to her
individual character. Primrose retained her calmness and her common
sense in the midst of all her grief; Jasmine was tempestuous and
hysterical, bursting into laughter one minute and sobbing wildly the
next. Little Daisy felt frightened in Jasmine's presence--she did not
quite believe that mother would never come back, and she clung to
Primrose, who protected and soothed her; in short, took a mother's
place to her, and felt herself several years older on the spot.

For a month the girls grieved and shut themselves away from their
neighbors, and refused to go out, or to be in any measure comforted. A
month in the ordinary reckoning is really a very short period of time,
but to these girls, in their grief and misery, it seemed almost
endless. One night Jasmine lay awake from the time she laid her head
on the pillow till the first sun had dawned; then Primrose took
fright, and began to resume her old gentle, but still firm authority.

"Jasmine," she said, "we have got