This offer from so good a friend had come, she felt, at
the right moment. Accept it she must; find the ten pounds she must;
and once again she thought with a feeling of satisfaction of Mr.
Danesfield's letter, and felt glad that she had been able to pay Dr.
Jones's bill without breaking into its contents.

She went upstairs, and instantly told Jasmine of the proposed change.

"But we can't do it," said Jasmine; "you know that we have not ten
pounds to spare."

"I think," said Primrose, "that perhaps the time has come when we
should open that letter Mr. Danesfield put into my hand the morning we
left Rosebury. You know, Jasmine, how we determined to keep it, and
return it to him unopened some day if we possibly could; but we also
resolved to use it if a time of necessity really came--we resolved not
to be proud about this. You know, Jasmine, it has come over me more
than once lately that I have been headstrong in coming to London, only
I could not endure being dependent on any one."

"Of course you could not, darling," said Jasmine. "I am certain you
have done right; of course we are rather depressed now with
difficulties, but I think yours was a grand plan. I have a kind of
feeling, Primrose, that our worst days are over; I think it more than
probable you will have a great run on your china-painting bye-and-bye,
and if _The Downfall_ and the other magazines begin to wish for my
poetry, why, of course, I shall earn two or three guineas a week. I am
told that a guinea is not at all a large sum for a good poem, and I
have no doubt I could write two or three a week; and then my novel--it
is really going to be very good. Mr. Dove says that he would recommend
me to put it in a newspaper first, and then offer it to a publisher to
bring out as a book. I said I would only let my first work appear in a
very high-class newspaper. I never much cared for newspaper stories,
but I might put up with one of the illustrated weekly papers if it
paid me well. Yes, Primrose, I feel hopeful; and I have not the
smallest doubt that we can earn the ten pounds for our furniture very
quickly, so let us borrow the money out of Mr. Danesfield's letter.
But Rose, darling, how do you know there is any money in the letter?
You have never opened it and you can't see inside."

"I've never opened it, certainly," said Primrose, "but from a hint Mr.
Danesfield gave me on the last day I saw him, I believe there are
three five-pound notes in the letter