The Palace Beautiful: A Story for Girls by L. T. Meade (free reads .TXT) 📕

even Miss Egerton's unexpected return failed to astonish her. She said, raising two sad eyes to the good lady's face—

"It was only that old Spanish lace. I always knew it was not worth much. The man only laughed when I asked for Poppy's wages for it. He has given me ten shillings, and I am going off with it to Poppy to-night. Yes, Miss Egerton, I must, I really must."

"What have you tried to pawn, Jasmine?" asked Miss Egerton, when she could find her voice. "Surely not that lovely, valuable Spanish lace. My dear child, come back with me into the shop this moment."

"But I must keep my ten shillings," exclaimed Jasmine "Oh! Miss Egerton, don't, don't! You don't know what has happened to me!"

Miss Egerton took Jasmine's little hand in hers.

"My poor child, you shall tell me all. Jasmine, dear, that lace is worth pounds. I shall redeem it at once, for my sake, if not for yours. There, poor little girl, keep your ten shillings, if it makes you happy."

The man who had lent Jasmine half a sovereign on the Spanish lace of course knew little or nothing of its true value, and the good lady had therefore small difficulty in getting it back. She walked home holding Jasmine's hot little hand, took her into her own pretty drawing-room, feasted her on many good things, which she had brought from the country, and finally made her tell her all her sorrowful little story.

"You always said that my writing was not up to much," said Jasmine, in conclusion. "I did not like you to say it, and I was most anxious to prove you wrong, but now I know that you are right."

Miss Egerton looked quietly at the excited child.

"My dear," she said, in her gentle tones, "I do not know—no one knows—whether in the future you will be able to write. Our writers ought to be our teachers. Do you think you are fit to teach, Jasmine?"

"I do not know," said Jasmine, hanging her head.

Miss Egerton got up, and laid her hand tenderly on the pretty little curly head.

"This day has taught you a grand though painful lesson, dearest. You will be better able to write in the future for and because of the suffering you have gone through to-day. Now, Jasmine, I will say no more—you must go straight to bed and to sleep. In the morning you can take your ten shillings to Poppy. Yes, dear, of course it is yours, and for the present the Spanish lace is mine."

Jasmine, notwithstanding all her troubles, slept soundly that night, but Miss Egerton lay awake.

"The time has come," she said to herself, "when energetic measures must be taken. The girls—dear, brave, sweet girls—have undoubtedly to a certain extent failed. Poor little Jasmine! she might have had a worse experience than the loss of that silly manuscript. But what terrible dangers sweet little Daisy ran! Yes, I shall go and have a talk with Mrs. Ellsworthy to-morrow—I know she is in town."

Accordingly, when Jasmine went off to see Poppy holding her half-sovereign firmly inside her glove, and dimly wondering if she would have any money of her own left to buy some dinner with presently, Miss Egerton stepped into an omnibus which presently put her down in the vicinity of Park Lane. She was fortunate in finding Mrs. Ellsworthy at home, and also disengaged.

The good little lady received her with delight, for Miss Egerton was a prime favorite with her.

"Arthur tells me that you know my girls," she said presently. "He hints to me that you and he have a secret knowledge of the address of my naughty, troublesome girls."

"I do know where they are to be found," said Miss Egerton in her gravest tones; "but before I begin to talk about them I want to transact a little business with you. I know how kind you are, and how fond of helping people in distress. At the present moment a lady of my acquaintance is in great poverty; she has got some valuable Spanish lace. I should like to sell it for her."

"I adore Spanish lace," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, her eyes sparkling.

"I thought I once heard you say you did, so I have brought it with me. May I show it to you?"

"How good of you, dear Miss Egerton; let me see it at once. Real Spanish lace is of great value. Oh, and white, too! What lovely flounces!"

"The lady to whom they belonged know nothing of their real value; she was disposing of both shawl and flounces yesterday evening for ten shillings."

"Oh, Miss Egerton! oh, poor, poor thing! I will gladly give her fifty pounds for them."

Miss Egerton coughed, and colored slightly.

"The fact is," she said, "I do not think she ought to sell them; they are mementoes, and belonged to her mother. Mrs. Ellsworthy, I won't deceive you any longer. This lace is now the property of Jasmine Mainwaring. She took it to a pawnshop last night, and but for me would have absolutely given it away; I was just in time to redeem it. Now the fact is, I happen to know that Primrose does not wish this lace to be sold; I offered, long ago, to find a purchaser for it, but she looked terribly distressed at the idea. What I should like to do would be this; in short, in short—I do not quite know how to put it—"

"I know, I know," said Mrs. Ellsworthy, clapping her hands, "you want me to be a pawnbroker, and to lend money on it. I will, I will, with pleasure; oh, this is quite a fresh and delightful idea."

"Give me ten pounds to help the poor child over her present difficulties," said Miss Egerton, tears in her eyes. "Yes, ten pounds is quite enough. I will not take a penny more."

"Now, Mrs. Ellsworthy, as we have comfortably disposed of this little matter, I want to talk to you most seriously about the girls."

Mrs. Ellsworthy bent her head to listen with rapt attention; and the two women were engaged for a couple of hours in most earnest conversation.

That afternoon, when Jasmine, very weary and very depressed, toiled up the stairs to her Palace Beautiful, she found two letters awaiting her. One was from Primrose, containing very cheerful news about Daisy. Daisy was really getting better, and had even been out for a few minutes. The other letter had not come by the post, and Jasmine wondered who her correspondent could be. She opened it eagerly. It contained a folded sheet of paper, out of which dropped two crisp Bank of England notes for five pounds each. The sheet of paper itself contained the following words:—

"DEAR JASMINE:—I have found a pawnbroker who better understands the value of your old lace. I have borrowed ten pounds for you on it, with liberty for you to redeem the shawl and flounces at your convenience. You can pay me back the ten shillings I lent you last night when you get change; but there is no hurry. Come and have tea this evening at six, dear. I have much to talk over with you.

"Your affectionate friend,
"AGNES EGERTON."

Poor little Jasmine's delight can scarcely be conceived. She found it an easy matter to change one of the notes, and Poppy was in possession of the balance of her money long before the evening. Her radiant face seemed scarcely to belong to the same girl when she entered Miss Egerton's room in time for that good lady's tea.

"Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, when the meal was over, and Jasmine had exhausted her many expressions of rapture, and astonishment, and gratitude, "I have news to tell you. That dreadful man Dove has received a long term of imprisonment. He won't trouble our dear little Daisy again."

"And Daisy is beginning to get better," said Jasmine. "I heard from Primrose to-day, and she wrote quite hopefully about her. Yes, I suppose I am glad that Mr. Dove is locked up; it was so very wicked of him to frighten our little pet."

"I also had a letter from Primrose," said Miss Egerton. "She is unhappy because she thinks that I am at personal inconvenience for the money which I lent her instead of that which Dove stole. I am not inconvenienced for it—I can never regret making matters a little smooth for you poor children. I am going to write to Primrose to-night; but before I do so I should like to have a little talk with you, Jasmine."

"Oh, yes," said Jasmine, "I feel very humble to-night, and very thankful. I am in the kind of humor to-night when I could listen to any amount of good advice."

"Notwithstanding, Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, with a slight smile, "that advisers are never considered the most agreeable people. Jasmine, dear, I have seen Mrs. Ellsworthy to-day."

"Our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy," said Jasmine, flushing brightly; "and how was she? Does she know that I still care for her?"

"I think she does, Jasmine, and undoubtedly she cares for you. She again offers to help you, and, Jasmine, dear, I think the time has come when you must accept her help."

Jasmine smiled, and flushed brightly.

"I do not mind," she said; "I mean I do not mind as Primrose minds, but I know, I fear that it will go very hard with Primrose."

"It is often very hard to do right, Jasmine," said Miss Egerton, "and I can quite believe that Primrose will find it difficult to accede to our plan. At the same time I feel convinced that although she will have a great struggle, in the end she will yield to it. This is like the 'Hill Difficulty' to Primrose, but she is not the sort of girl to turn away from it without conquering its steepness and its toils. Jasmine, dear, you three have tried bravely to help yourselves, and you have—yes, I must say it, dear—you have failed. Primrose cannot spend her life as continual reader to Mrs. Mortlock; you see now, my dear little girl, that you are much too young to earn anything by your pen, and little Daisy—ah! Jasmine, how thankful we ought to be that we have our little Daisy still with us—but Daisy must never again have her peace of mind so seriously imperilled. Jasmine, you three girls want two things—you want education, and you want protection. You want to be thoroughly educated, first of all, in those general matters which all cultivated women ought to know about; and secondly, in the special matter which each of you has a taste for. That special taste or talent ought to be developed to the very uttermost, so that bye-and-bye each of you girls can take up a profession and earn her living usefully to others, and with ease and comfort to herself. If Primrose feels that she can after a time paint very exquisitely and very beautifully on porcelain, she ought to be apprenticed to one of the best houses, and there properly learn her trade; and you, Jasmine, whether you eventually earn your bread by writing beautiful stories, or lovely poems, or whether the artist within you develops into a love for making painted pictures instead of word pictures, you must for many years to come be taught to think and have your little mind and vivid imagination fed on the wise and great thoughts of others. Daisy's future we none of us can talk about, but I have no doubt she also has her special gift.

"Now, Jasmine, what a long, long lecture I am giving you, only the sum and substance of it all is, dear, that I want to protect you, and Mrs. Ellsworthy is willing and anxious to advance a sufficient sum of money to have you all properly educated. When you go to bed to-night I am going to write very fully to Primrose on the subject."

"I wonder if she will refuse," said Jasmine, speaking in a very thoughtful tone; "she is very, very determined. You think she will regard it as a 'Hill Difficulty' which she ought to climb. I think she will regard it as a fearful, dreadful temptation which she ought to put away."

Miss Egerton smiled, for Jasmine's sunny little face looked so grave and anxious, and there was such a disturbed frown between her brows.

"At any rate, dear," continued the governess, "you will not oppose my scheme. You will see, dear, that the greatest strength sometimes shows itself in yielding. Jasmine, dear, are you not quite tired of having your own way?"

"A little," answered Jasmine. "I mean," she added, "that I never again will offer my stories to papers recommended by people like Mr. and Mrs. Dove."

CHAPTER L. A DAZZLING DAY.

Mrs. Ellsworthy felt very much excited when Miss Egerton left her. She paced up and down her pretty boudoir,