y in this chair. I am going to confess something to you.
I called to see you and your sisters yesterday morning, intending to
patronize you."

"To patronize us--why?" asked Primrose.

Mrs. Ellsworthy laughed in a slightly nervous manner.

"My dear child, we won't go into the whys and the wherefores. I found
I could not do it, that is all. I have not, however, half finished my
confession. I called to see you because Miss Martineau asked me to."

Here Primrose flushed a very rosy pink, and Mrs. Ellsworthy saw a
displeased look fill her eyes.

"You must not be angry with Miss Martineau, Primrose. She loves you
three girls very much. She is most anxious about you. She--my dear,
she told me of your poverty."

Here Primrose rose from her seat and said, in the quietest tone--

"We are certainly poor, but I don't think that is anybody's concern.
We don't mind it ourselves--at least, not much. You see, we have never
known riches, and we cannot miss what we have never had. It would be a
great pity for people to try to make us discontented. I think it was
ill-bred of Miss Martineau to mention our private affairs to you; but
still, as we have got to know you through these means, I forgive her.
You are a very delightful friend. Mrs. Ellsworthy, I think you must
let us go home now--Daisy is not accustomed to being up so late."

"Of all the tiresome, hard-to-be-understood young people I ever came
across, Primrose Mainwaring beats them," thought Mrs. Ellsworthy to
herself; but aloud she said very sweetly--

"Yes, dear--and you shall drive home in the carriage I could not hear
of your walking."

CHAPTER VIII.

THIRTY POUNDS A YEAR.

Miss Ellsworthy thought Primrose both tiresome and obtuse, but here
she was mistaken.

Miss Martineau's solemn looks, Mr. Danesfield's emphatic injunctions
to make the most of their visit to Shortlands, and, above all, the
expression of deep distress on Mrs. Ellsworthy's charming face when
she spoke of their poverty, were by no means thrown away on her.

She felt very grave as the three sisters were driven home in the
Ellsworthys' luxurious carriage. She scarcely joined at all in
Jasmine's chatter, nor did she notice Daisy's raptures over a tiny
white pup--Mrs. Ellsworthy's parting gift.

On their arrival at home the Pink greeted this unlooked-for addition
to the family with a furious assault; and Jasmine, Daisy, and Hannah
were all intensely excited over the task of dividing the c