er dazzlingly brilliant hat, and with her cheeks quite
flaming with excitement, stepped into the carriage, and drove away,
facing Mrs. Ellsworthy and Jasmine, to the great scandal of the
footman, who was obliged, sorely against his will, to assist her to
her place.

Mrs. Ellsworthy took the girls all round the Park, and then to a place
of amusement, and finally she presented Poppy with a very neat brown
dress and jacket, and hat to match, saying, as she did so, that really
Jasmine, even though she forbade her to offer her any presents, could
not lay a like embargo with regard to her friends.

"It's of all the dazzlings, the most blindingly beautiful," was
Poppy's oft-reiterated comment. "Oh! won't I have something to tell
them ladies about bye-and-bye! Oh, my! Miss Jasmine, what a neat hat,
miss! I don't mind denuding this one now, for I has got a 'at from a
West End shop what beats anything that Miss Slowcum wears for
gentility."

Finally, Jasmine and Poppy both returned to their respective homes,
tired, but wonderfully happy little girls.

Mrs. Ellsworthy also laid her head that night on her pillow with a
wonderful sense of satisfaction.

"Even if they do not come to me--although they must come," she
soliloquized, "I am glad--I shall all my life be glad that I gave
Jasmine a happy day."

CHAPTER LI.

A LETTER.

A morning or two after this, when Daisy had greatly advanced towards
convalescence, and was sitting up in Hannah's tiny little sitting-room
to partake of a very dainty little breakfast, Primrose received a long
letter from Miss Egerton. This was what it contained:--

"MY DEAR PRIMROSE,

"You of course know that that wicked man Dove has received the
sentence which he so richly deserves. Alas, we cannot get back all the
stolen money, but we must manage without it, dear, and you are never
even to talk of repaying me for the furnishing of dear little Daisy's
Palace Beautiful. It has been a joy to me to have you, dear, and I
hope you will be able to bring Daisy back with you, and to live here
in peace and comfort next winter. Dear Primrose, it is more and more
evident to me that young girls should not venture to come to London
alone. You showed much bravery in your undertaking; but, my dear
girl, the pitfalls you exposed yourselves to were awful to
contemplate. I don't want to make you unhappy, dear, after all you
have suffered with regard to Daisy, but I must now tell you of a
little adventur