too was alone in London,
and you took me up. Do you remember how you met me, and took my thin
and dirty hands in yours, and looked into my face and said: 'Surely
this is a gentleman's son, although he is clothed in rags?' I could
just remember that I was a gentleman's son, and that I used to put my
arms round a beautiful lady's neck and kiss her, and call her mother.
Between her face and me there was a great horror of darkness, and
suffering, and ill-usage; and my memories were feeble and dream-like.
I don't even now recall them more vividly. You took me up, and--you
know the rest of my history.

"Well, it is a strange thing, but those girls, especially that little
Jasmine, brought back the memory of the lady whose sweet face I used
to kiss. Can I do anything for your girls? There are a thousand ways
in which I could help them without hurting their proud spirits.

"Yours affectionately,
"ARTHUR NOEL."

In a very short time Mr. Noel received a brief communication from Mrs.
Ellsworthy:--

MY DEAR ARTHUR,

"Your letter has been an untold relief. It was a special and good
Providence that directed your steps to St. Paul's on that afternoon.
My dear little Jasmine!--she is my pet of all the three. My dear
Arthur, pray call on the girls at that dreadful Penelope Mansion; they
are so naughty and so obstinate that they simply must be caught by
guile. You must use your influence to get them out of that dreadful
place. Look for respectable and nice lodgings, and go beforehand to
the landlady. If she is very nice, confide in her, and tell her she is
to look to me for payment, but she is on no account to let out this
fact to the girls. Kensington is a nice, quiet, respectable
neighborhood; you might take the drawing-room floor of a very quiet,
nice house, and ask the landlady to offer it to the girls for five
shillings a week, or something nominal of that sort. Primrose is so
innocent at present that she will think five shillings quite a large
sum; but tell the lady of the house to let it include all extras--I
mean such as gas and firing. I suppose you could not get a house with
the electric light?--no, of course not; it is not used yet in private
dwellings--gas is so unwholesome, but the girls might use candles.
Tell the landlady to provide them with the best candles, and tell her
I'll pay her something handsome if she'll go out with them. And, my
dear Arthur, _don't_ let them go in omnibuses. Do your best, and,
a