ok as if you had--your face tells me that you have gone through many
episodes"--(Jasmine was rather proud of this expression; she began to
consider that her style was forming).

"Episodes, my dear, and experiences?" answered Mrs. Dredge. "Well,
well, I'm not to say over young, and years bring knowledge; but if you
mean, Miss Jasmine, that I'm up to the acquirements of the present
day, that I'm not, and I never will be,--no, thank Heaven! that I
never will be."

"Do you mean with regard to education?" remarked Jasmine. "Is the
education of the present day wrong?--is that why you're so thankful
you are not up to it?"

"My dear Miss Jasmine," answered Mrs. Dredge, with great solemnity,
"the education of the present day is to the heart hardening, and to
the mind demoralizing. No, no; none of it for me. Miss Slowcum, now!
Miss Jasmine, between you and me I don't admire Miss Slowcum."

"Oh, she's very kind," answered Jasmine; "but look here, Mrs. Dredge,
what I want to consult you about has nothing at all to say to
education, and it has a great deal to say to experience. It's a great
secret, Mrs. Dredge, but we want to find cheap lodgings."

"Oh, my dear! and don't you want to abide at the Mansion--all things
considered, it's a respectable and safe quarter--you are all three
young and attractive, my dears, and you have the advantage of being
guarded here by women who have years on their shoulders. Yes, my dear
Miss Jasmine, with the exception of your three selves and the maid
Sarah, there is no one in Penelope Mansion who will ever see fifty
again. Don't talk to me of Miss Slowcum being younger than that--I
know better."

"Dear Mrs. Dredge, it is a secret, but we are really not going to stay
here long, and we want, if possible, to find very cheap lodgings."

"Very cheap, love; and you think I can guide you? Well, well, I have
had, as you wisely say, my experiences. About what figure would you be
inclined to go to, my dear?"

"I don't know," answered Jasmine. "Our house in the country was twelve
pounds a year--I don't think we ought to pay as much as that, for of
course we should not want a whole house, only two rooms. A nice,
large, airy bedroom, and a cheerful sitting-room. We should not mind
how plain the furniture was, if only it was very, very clean. You know
the kind of place, with snow-white boards--the sort of boards you
could eat off--and little plain beds with dimity frills round them,
and very white muslin