crown, for a
shilling here, and two shillings there. When she returned the
half-crown it was generally done in this fashion--

"Oh, if you please, miss, I want to settle my little account. Oh,
dear, dear! I was certain I had half-a-crown in my purse. Well, to be
sure, I forgot that Dove took it with him when he went out to his
work this morning. Please, Miss Mainwaring, will you accept one and
sixpence on account, and we'll settle the rest in an hour or two.
There, miss, that's quite comfortable."

Yes, the arrangement was certainly quite comfortable for Mrs. Dove,
who could score out the half-crown debt from her slate, and quite
stare when Primrose ventured to ask her for the odd shilling still
owing.

Still, incredible as it may sound, Mrs. Dove considered herself a
strictly honest woman. Perhaps, had the girls only to deal with her
they might have struggled on, badly, it is true, but still after a
fashion. But, alas and alas! if Mrs. Dove considered herself honest,
Mr. Dove did not pretend to lay claim to this very excellent quality.
Poor Primrose little guessed that that lost five-pound note, which had
given her such trouble, and which had almost brought gray hairs to her
bright yellow head, had been really taken by Dove, who had come up to
the attics when the girls were away, had quietly taken the hinges off
Primrose's trunk at the back, had lifted the lid, and had helped
himself neatly and deftly to that solitary note!

When the girls discovered their loss no one had been more indignant
than Dove. He had come up himself to speak to them about it, had
examined the trunk in their presence, had told them that he had a
cousin of his own in the detective business whom he would put on the
scent of the thief, and in the meantime he'd be very pleased, although
he was a remarkably poor man, to lend the young ladies ten shillings.

Although they would not think of accepting his loan, the girls thought
that Dove had behaved rather kindly on this occasion, and they
certainly never in the least suspected it was into his pocket their
money had gone.

Without being at all, therefore, to blame, poor Primrose found
herself, as Christmas approached, and the days grew short and cold,
with very little money in her possession; of course, her quarter's
allowance would soon be due, but some days before it came she had
broken into her last sovereign. Still, she had a resource which her
sisters had forgotten, and which, luckily fo