dings, and finally left the cottage in a
state of deep offence, vowing within herself that she would never
trouble her head again over the affairs of such silly and obstinate
girls, she could not in the least shake Primrose's quiet resolve.

Primrose said over and over again: "Two things are absolutely
indispensable--we must be independent, and we must keep together. I
can think of no better plan than this--it may fail, but we can but try
it--we are certainly going to try it."

Mrs. Ellsworthy kept up her offence for twenty-four hours, then she
began to soften, and to agree with her husband, whose solitary remark
was, "My dear, you cannot coerce the children, and upon my word it's a
plucky notion, and if those girls are brave enough to carry it out
they must have real stuff in them."

"They may have plenty of stuff, and the plan may be as plucky as you
like, Joseph," replied his excitable little wife. "I am quite willing
to admire it in the abstract, but I am quite determined, if I have any
influence whatever, to prevent them carrying it through."

Then she went off to Miss Martineau, invading the schoolmistress in
the sacred hour when she was engaged with her pupils. Mrs. Ellsworthy
carried Miss Martineau away from her school, and shutting the door of
that lady's little parlor, clasped the governess's thin hands, and
poured her troubles into her ears.

"Joseph calls it plucky," said Mrs. Ellsworthy at the end of her
narrative.

But Miss Martineau's face was perfectly aghast.

"Plucky!" she ejaculated. "Dear Mrs. Ellsworthy, pardon me, but your
husband is a man--what can a man know about the intricate workings
which go on within the breast of a perverse girl? Plucky!--I call it
wicked--I call it wanting in all decorum, in all right sense. Primrose
Mainwaring has disappointed me deeply; she showed undue temper when I
spoke to her here the other day--oh yes, this thing must be prevented
by main force, if necessary."

Miss Martineau's pupils could not imagine what was the matter with her
that morning. She was known to be a most strict disciplinarian, she
was reported to have the sharpest eyes, and the quickest ears; her
pupils believed that nothing ever could pass Miss Martineau's
observation; nevertheless, after Mrs. Ellsworthy's visit she was
_distrait_, she was indifferent to mistakes, and she allowed her
naughtiest and most troublesome scholar to gabble through her French
translation without once correcting h