ed at Westminster Abbey, Poppy; but you must
remember that you are a very privileged person, and be thankful for
being permitted to see with your own eyes such a lovely, lovely,
glorious place!"

"It do sound, from your description, very awe-inspiring, Miss
Jasmine," answered Poppy. "Is there no other place where one might get
more, so to speak, into the festive mood, miss?"

"Oh yes, you silly Poppy, lots and lots; but we'll come to those
presently. You'll have to see the Houses of Parliament, where our laws
are made--if you don't feel grave there, you ought. Then you must
visit the Tower, where people's heads were cut off--it's very solemn
indeed at the Tower; and, of course, you will pay a visit to the Zoo,
and you can see the lions fed, and you can look at the monkey-house."

"I likes monkeys," said Poppy, whose face had been growing graver and
graver while Jasmine was talking; "and if you'll throw in a little bit
of gazing into shop windows, Miss Jasmine, and learning the newest
cuts of a bonnet, and the most genteel fit of a mantle, why, then,
I'll do even that dreadful Tower, as in duty bound. My mother calls
London a vast sea and a world of temptation, and nothing but vanity
from end to end; but when I thinks of the beautiful ladies in aunt's
boarding-house, and of the shop windows I feels that it is dazzling."

"I wish that I were going," repeated Jasmine, whose cheeks were
flushed, and her starry eyes brighter than usual; "I wish I were
going. Oh, Primrose, think of you, and Daisy, and me saying our
prayers in the Abbey!"

"We must not think of it," said Primrose; "God hears our prayers
wherever we say them, Jasmine, darling."

"Yes," answered Jasmine; "and I am not going to complain. Well, Poppy,
you are a very lucky girl, and I hope you'll be as good as gold, and
as happy as the day is long."

"And if ever you does come to London, Miss Jasmine," said Poppy, rising
to her feet, "you'll remember aunt's boarding-house, for ladies only;
and proud I'll be to wait on you, miss."

"But we can't come, Poppy dear--we are very poor now--we have only got
thirty pounds a year to live on."

To Poppy, who had never been known in her life to possess thirty
pence, this sum sounded by no means modest.

"Might I make bold to inquire, miss," she asked, "if the thirty pounds
is once for all, or if it's a yearly recurrence?"

"Oh, it's an income, Poppy--how stupid you are!"

"Then I'll consult my aunt in town, mis