was not sure that Annie ought not to have come to her help. The
younger sister did not see what advantage there was to the family in the
elder sister's being a nurse if she was not to interfere on occasions of
this kind. But Annie had the bad taste to take the story as a good joke
against Rose; and as for Hester Jennings, it was an instance of "_the
Queen laughed_" with a vengeance. However, Hester stepped in so far. She
would not let the soothing regimen, on which Rose was put, go the length
of depriving her of her tea and coffee in Welby Square.

Within the next few weeks Hester did Rose a still better turn. She
(Hester) came to her friend with an order for decorative designs in
scroll-work, which had reached the elder girl from a decorator of some
repute.

"I think you could do it, Rose," said Hester. "It would not take much
time, and if your work satisfied the great tradesman who has given such
an impetus to this kind of art, it might be a perfect windfall to art
students wishing to keep themselves. You need not despise it in the
light of house-painting. If you read your Ruskin, you will find him as
good as calling Titian and Veronese house-painters, though to be sure
frescoes are rather an extension of scroll-work."

"Indeed, I should never dream of despising it. I should be only too
thankful for any kind of copying or pattern-drawing, or designing for
Christmas-cards--like poor Fanny Russell--if it were the beginning of
the least little bit of an order," said Rose meekly, with a stifled sigh
given to her and May's old magnificent ideas of commissions. "But why
don't you keep the work for yourself, Hester?" the young girl inquired.
"You could do it so well and so easily, and it would be no pain to you;
it would be a pleasure, for it is graceful and true work so far as it
goes--not like these cruel illustrations."

But Hester waived aside the undertaking. "You have been more accustomed
to this kind of thing than I have. No, I mean to stick to my
illustrations, cruel or kind. There is a new man in the publisher's
office who is giving me more of my own way, and I feel it would not be
fair to leave him in the lurch. Who knows that we may not, between us,
lead the way to a revolution in the style of the cheapest original
English wood-cut. Besides, I do not want any more diversions from my
main business. I am already on four different committees for women's
trade unions, the female franchise, and all the rest of it. I