ry faint color; at Poppy's words it deepened
slightly.

"We've tried to act in a sensible way all through," she said, with
gentle dignity. "Perhaps Miss Martineau does not quite understand. We
love one another very much; we are not going to be foolish, but we
cannot help grieving for our mother."

At these words Jasmine rushed out of the room and Poppy's round eyes
filled with tears.

"Oh, Miss Primrose--," she began.

"Never mind, Poppy," said Primrose; "we'll see Miss Martineau
to-night. I am glad you told us she was coming."

The neighbors at Rosebury were all of the most sociable type; the
Mainwaring girls knew every soul in the place, and when their mother
died there was quite a rush of sympathy for them, and the little
cottage might have been full from morning till night. Primrose,
however, would not have it; even Miss Martineau, who was their
teacher, and perhaps their warmest friend, was refused admittance. The
neighbors wondered, and thought the girls very extraordinary and a
little stuck-up, and their sympathy, thrown back on themselves, began
to cool.

The real facts of the case, however, were these: Primrose, Jasmine and
Daisy would have been very pleased to see Poppy Jenkins, or old Mrs.
Jones, who sometimes came in to do choring, or even the nice little
Misses Price, who kept a grocery shop at the other end of the village
street; they would also have not objected to a visit from good, hearty
Mrs. Fry, the doctor's wife, but had they admitted any of these
neighbors they must have seen Miss Martineau, and Miss Martineau, once
she got a footing in the house, would have been there morning, noon
and night.

Poor Jasmine would not have at all objected to crying away some of her
sorrow on kind Mrs. Fry's motherly breast; Primrose could have had
some really interesting talk which would have done her good with the
Misses Price; they were very religious people, and their brother was a
clergyman, and they might have said some things which would comfort
the sore hearts of the young girls. Little Daisy could have asked some
of her unceasing questions of Poppy Jenkins, and the three would
really have been the better for the visits and the sympathy of the
neighbors did not these visits and sympathy also mean Miss Martineau.
But Miss Martineau at breakfast, dinner, and tea--Miss Martineau, with
her never-ending advice, her good-natured but still unceasingly
correcting tone, was felt just at first to be unendurab