bsurd to be baffled by three little chits,
but I'll settle everything in a satisfactory fashion when I get them
to Shortlands."

Aloud she said, "My dears, I shall be very glad to see you--and can
you come to-morrow? To-morrow I shall be quite alone."

"Primrose," burst from Daisy, "there's a Newfoundland dog, and a
mastiff, and two English terriers at Shortlands. The Newfoundland is
black and woolly and the mastiff is tawny, like a lion."

"Will you really show us over your beautiful conservatories?" asked
Jasmine. "Primrose, she was telling us about her flowers; and they
must be lovely."

"I'll show you everything, and take you everywhere," responded Mrs.
Ellsworthy, stooping down to kiss Jasmine's upturned face. "You'll
bring your sisters to-morrow, Miss Mainwaring," she continued, turning
to the grave Primrose.

"Thank you--yes. It is kind of you to ask us," answered Primrose.

Mrs. Ellsworthy drove away in state, and the sisters saw her off from
their door-steps. They made a pretty group as they stood
together--Daisy's arms clasped her elder sister's waist, and Jasmine
shaded her dark eyes from the full blaze of the sun with her little
white dimpled hand.

As the great lady drove away Jasmine had actually the audacity to blow
a kiss to her.

The neighbors at the opposite side of the street felt quite
scandalized, and said to themselves that surely the poor young ladies
had seen the last of Mrs. Ellsworthy, after such a piece of
impertinence. But the lady of Shortlands was really delighted.

"To think of my being here all these years, and never knowing those
charming creatures," she soliloquized. Just then she saw Miss
Martineau crossing the street, and she ordered her coachman to draw
up.

"I have been with them, dear Miss Martineau--they are delightful--so
fresh--and so--so pretty! They are coming to Shortlands to-morrow.
Good-bye--warm morning, is it not? Home, Tomlinson."

The girls had entered the little house, cheered by Mrs. Ellsworthy's
visit. Primrose, it is true, did not share her younger sisters'
enthusiasm, but even she was pleased, and owned to herself that Mrs.
Ellsworthy was a very different neighbor from the village folk.

Primrose's mind, however, was a good deal absorbed by what she had
discovered in her mother's little old-fashioned cabinet. A letter
directed to herself lay there unopened. She longed to break the seal,
and to acquaint herself with the contents of this message from