ecure you a clean, respectable bedroom in a fairly
good locality. Constantia is an excellent woman; she is fifty, and
plain in her tastes, and has no nonsense about her. She has promised
me, for my sake, to accompany you to church in the evenings, and to
see that you wear your veils down when you go out, and that you are
back in your bedroom--you can't afford a sitting-room, so don't think
of it--that you are back in your bedroom by five o'clock in the
evening, as all girls who have any idea of what is correct and proper
are of course in by that hour in London. Now, my dears, Constantia
will be a sort of protectress to you three, and I had better write to
her at once. My dears, it is a relief to me to know you will be near
Constantia, for London is a pit--a pit, and a snare."

Miss Martineau had talked herself quite out of breath, and looked
quite pleading, but the same obstacle which had prevented the girls'
acceding to Mrs. Ellsworthy's request now debarred their taking up
their quarters near Constantia Warren.

They spoke of their plans, but would not tell what they were, and Miss
Martineau again went away offended.

"There is no secret in the matter," she said, when talking over the
affair with Mrs. Ellsworthy. "Primrose tries to make a mystery, and
Jasmine likes to look mysterious, but there is not the smallest doubt
that all the girls really want is to have their own way, and to be
beholden to none of us."

"Nevertheless, I love them, and shall always love them," answered Mrs.
Ellsworthy.

"Oh, for the matter of that, so will I always love them, Mrs.
Ellsworthy. It seems to me they want a lot of pity, poor misguided
young things!"

Primrose, Jasmine and Daisy all this time felt wonderfully serene.
They were very sorry to hurt their friends, but it is quite true that
they did want to have their own way. They had made distinct plans, but
they must go to London to carry them out. They thought their wisest
course was to go up to Penelope Mansion for a few days, and make their
final arrangements from there.

"I'd be very lonely in London if I wasn't near Poppy," said Jasmine;
and Primrose too said that she thought their wisest course was to go
up to Penelope Mansion, and make their plans from there.

Accordingly, one afternoon, when Poppy Jenkins had been three weeks in
her new place, she received a letter from Primrose Mainwaring, to
which she sent the following reply. Poppy's spelling need not be
copied, b