--Primrose saw that her cup was well
replenished. Miss Martineau was poor and very saving, and it occurred
to her, as she partook of the Mainwaring's nice tea, that she might do
without much supper by-and-by. This reflection put her into an
excellent humor.

When the tea was over Primrose led her to a comfortable seat by the
window.

"My dear," she said, "it is well that I should sit just here, within
full view of the street?--your window is, well, a little too like
seeing company, my loves, and if my bonnet is seen by passers-by
you'll have everybody calling directly."

"Oh, we mean to see everybody now," said Jasmine "we--we--we think it
best, don't we, Primrose?"

"Yes," said Primrose, in her gentle tones. "It does not make us think
less of dear mamma to see people--and--and--we have decided to go on
much as usual now."

"You might have admitted me before, dears," replied Miss Martineau--"I
felt so intensely for you--I could never get you out of my head. I was
a good deal hurt by your refusing to admit me, my dear girls, for in
all respects I would have wished to be a mother to you."

"Please, don't," said Jasmine.

"We _couldn't_ have another mother," said little Daisy, clinging close
to Primrose, and looking up into her sister's sweet face.

Primrose stooped and kissed her.

"You may run into the garden, darling, and take the Pink," she said.

Miss Martineau had no intention of leaving the Mainwarings without
speaking out her mind. It was one of this good lady's essential
privileges to speak out her mind to the younger generation of the
Rosebury world. Who had a better right to do this than she? for had
she not educated most of them? had she not given them of the best of
her French and her music? and was she not even at this present moment
Jasmine's and Daisy's instructress? Primrose she considered her
finished and accomplished pupil. Surely the girls, even though they
had refused to admit her for a month, would turn to her now with full
confidence. She settled herself comfortably in the arm-chair in which
Primrose had placed her, and saying, in her high-pitched and thin
voice--

"Now, my dears, you will take seats close to me--not too close, loves,
for I dislike being crushed, and I have on my Sunday silk. My dear
girls, I want us now to have a really comfortable talk. There is a
great deal that needs discussion, and I think there is nothing like
facing a difficult subject resolutely, and going thro