The Palace Beautiful: A Story for Girls

by L. T. Meade

  CHAPTER XX.

  GETTING LOST.

  Primrose's scheme had, of course, been considered most wild and mostfoolish by all her friends at Rosebury but even they were not preparedfor her crowning act of folly. She, Jasmine and Daisy had aconsultation together. This consultation was really nothing but amatter of form, for Primrose, quiet as she appeared could lead her twosisters as she willed--her slightest word was law to them, and themost outrageous plan proposed by her would have been delightful intheir eyes. Her suggestion to them was as follows:

  "We will go to London," she said--"we will try to be independent, andto earn our own living, and in order to do so really, and to preventourselves being tempted by Mrs. Ellsworthy's riches, or by MissMartineau's advice, we will not give our address. We will stay for ashort time at Penelope Mansion, and then we will go away. We will findthose nice, clean, cheap lodgings, where we can hang up our muslincurtains, and keep things lovely and fresh, even though we are inLondon, and we will stay there without troubling our friends about usuntil we have succeeded. The moment we have succeeded in earningenough to live on we will write home."

  Jasmine, and of course little Daisy, approved of this idea--Jasminesaid it was both romantic and strong--Daisy said she only wanted to bewith her own Primrose and her own Jasmine, and if the Pink mightalways stay with her too she would be quite happy.

  Accordingly, when the girls' week of pleasure had quite come to anend, Primrose reminded her sisters that it was time for them to beginto get lost.

  "We are not really lost here," she said. "Mrs. Ellsworthy thinksnothing of coming to town, and she could come to us at the Mansion anymoment; and now that we have met that friend of hers, that Mr. Noel,she may be sending him to see about us--so you see it is moreimportant than ever that we should find a place where we can reallycommence our work."

  "I don't dislike Mr. Noel at all," said Jasmine. "It is a great pityhe is related to our darling Mrs. Ellsworthy, for we might have hadthe comfort of his advice without being considered dependent. Oh,Primrose! is it possible that we are too independent--I can't help it,Primrose; I do feel lonely. I must cry just for a minute. I'd ratherdo a page of the 'Analogy' to-night than not cry for a minute."

  "My darling," said Primrose, putting her arms round Jasmine, "I amsure that girls like us cannot be too independent, but I won't go onwith it if it really breaks your heart, Jasmine."

  "Oh, but it doesn't really," said Jasmine; "I think it's a noble plan;I wouldn't give in for the world. I have had my cry now, and I'mbetter--but, Rose, how are we to look out for these nice, clean, cheaplodgings if we aren't to consult any one?"

  "We can consult people, and find out the locality we want, but we neednever tell the people we consult what number in the street we reallychoose. Oh, there are lots of ways of finding out what we really wantto know."

  "I'll talk to Mrs. Dredge to-night," said Jasmine. "I think Mrs.Dredge is very practical and kind, and I don't know why Miss Slowcumshould dislike her so much. I'll get her all by myself this evening,and talk to her."

  Accordingly that evening, after the inmates of Penelope Mansion had,as Mrs. Flint styled it, "tea'd," Jasmine sat down on a footstool atMrs. Dredge's feet, and laid herself out to be bewitching. No onecould be more charming than this little maiden when she chose, and shehad tact enough to adapt herself on most occasions to her company.

  "I'm sure you have lots of experience, Mrs. Dredge," she began; "youlook as if you had--your face tells me that you have gone through manyepisodes"--(Jasmine was rather proud of this expression; she began toconsider that her style was forming).

  "Episodes, my dear, and experiences?" answered Mrs. Dredge. "Well,well, I'm not to say over young, and years bring knowledge; but if youmean, Miss Jasmine, that I'm up to the acquirements of the presentday, that I'm not, and I never will be,--no, thank Heaven! that Inever will be."

  "Do you mean with regard to education?" remarked Jasmine. "Is theeducation of the present day wrong?--is that why you're so thankfulyou are not up to it?"

  "My dear Miss Jasmine," answered Mrs. Dredge, with great solemnity,"the education of the present day is to the heart hardening, and tothe mind demoralizing. No, no; none of it for me. Miss Slowcum, now!Miss Jasmine, between you and me I don't admire Miss Slowcum."

  "Oh, she's very kind," answered Jasmine; "but look here, Mrs. Dredge,what I want to consult you about has nothing at all to say toeducation, and it has a great deal to say to experience. It's a greatsecret, Mrs. Dredge, but we want to find cheap lodgings."

  "Oh, my dear! and don't you want to abide at the Mansion--all thingsconsidered, it's a respectable and safe quarter--you are all threeyoung and attractive, my dears, and you have the advantage of beingguarded here by women who have years on their shoulders. Yes, my dearMiss Jasmine, with the exception of your three selves and the maidSarah, there is no one in Penelope Mansion who will ever see fiftyagain. Don't talk to me of Miss Slowcum being younger than that--Iknow better."

  "Dear Mrs. Dredge, it is a secret, but we are really not going to stayhere long, and we want, if possible, to find very cheap lodgings."

  "Very cheap, love; and you think I can guide you? Well, well, I havehad, as you wisely say, my experiences. About what figure would you beinclined to go to, my dear?"

  "I don't know," answered Jasmine. "Our house in the country was twelvepounds a year--I don't think we ought to pay as much as that, for ofcourse we should not want a whole house, only two rooms. A nice,large, airy bedroom, and a cheerful sitting-room. We should not mindhow plain the furniture was, if only it was very, very clean. You knowthe kind of place, with snow-white boards--the sort of boards youcould eat off--and little plain beds with dimity frills round them,and very white muslin blinds to the windows--we have got our own whitemuslin curtains; Hannah washed them for us, and they are as white assnow. Oh! the place we want might be very humble, and veryinexpensive. Do tell us if you know of any rooms that would suit us."

  While Jasmine was speaking Mrs. Dredge kept on gazing at her, herround face growing long, and her full blue eyes becoming extended totheir largest size.

  "My dear child," she said, "wherever were you brought up? Don't youknow that the kind of lodgings you want are just the hardest of all toget? Yes, my dear, I have experience in London apartments, and aboutthem, and with regard to them, there is one invariable and unbrokenrule--cheapness and dirt--expense and cleanliness. Bless you! youinnocent child, you had better give up the notion of the cheaplodgings, and stay on contented and happy at the Mansion."

  Jasmine smiled faintly--said "Thank you, Mrs. Dredge," in a prettygentle voice, and a moment or two later, with a deeper carnation thanusual in her cheeks, she quietly left the room.

  "Primrose," she said upstairs to her sister, "we mustn't ask adviceabout our lodgings; we must take the map with us, and go and look forthem all by ourselves. Mrs. Dredge says that clean lodgings are very,very dear, and it is only dirty lodgings that are cheap."

  When Jasmine ran into the room Primrose was standing by thedressing-table, and in her usual methodical fashion was putting tidilyaway her own things and her sisters'; now she faced Jasmine with alittle smile on her face.

  "There is just one thing," she said, "that we can do--we can with ourown hands make the dirty lodgings clean. Never mind, Jasmine darling,we won't ask anybody's advice; we'll go out and look round usto-morrow."

  Early the next morning the three sisters set out--Daisy having firstlocked the Pink in their room. It may be remarked in parenthesis thatthe Pink did not like her new quarters, and had already made herselfnotorious by breaking two saucers and a cup, by upsetting a basin ofmilk, and by disappearing with the leg of a chicken. In consequence,she was in great disgrace, and Mrs. Flint had been heard to speak ofher as "that odious cat!" The Pink, however, was safe for the present,and the girls set out on their little pilgrimage of discovery.

  "London," said Primrose, in a somewhat sententious voice, has "pointsof the compass, like any other place. It has its north and its
south,its east and its west. The west, I have been told, is the aristocraticand expensive quarter, so of course we won't go there. In the east,the miserably poor and dirty people live--we won't troublethem--therefore our choice must lie between the south and the north.On the whole, I am inclined to try the north side of London."

  "For dark and true and tender is the North,"

  quoted Jasmine with enthusiasm. "By all means, Rose, we will gonorthwards, but how shall we go?"

  "We'll inquire at the post-office just round this corner," answeredPrimrose, with decision.

  Accordingly, having received some rather lucid instructions the girlsfound themselves in a few moments in an omnibus going towardsHolloway. About noon they were landed there, and then their searchbegan. Oh, the weariness of that long day! Oh, the painful experienceof the three! They knew nothing about London prices--they had not anidea whether they were being imposed upon or not.

  "On one point we have quite made up our minds," said Jasmine,sturdily; "we won't go back to the Mansion until we have found rooms."

  The truth of Mrs. Dredge's prophecy became only too apparent. All theapartments that were bright and clean and cheery were quite tooexpensive for Primrose's slender purse. At last she came to aresolution.

  "Girls," she said, "we must take rooms that look dirty, and make themclean. We have at least been taught how to polish, and how to scrub,and how to clean. You know, Jasmine, how shocked Miss Martineau waswhen she saw you one day with a pair of gloves on down on your kneespolishing the drawing-room grate at Rosebury. You said you liked to doit. How distressed she was! and how that grate did shine!"

  "Don't let us talk about Rosebury just now," said Jasmine, with aquiver in her voice. "Yes, Primrose darling, of course we can make ourown rooms clean--we can even re-paper the walls, and we can whitewashthe ceilings. Now we know exactly what to do. At the very next housewhere we see 'Apartments to Let,' we'll ask for dirty rooms, then ofcourse we'll get them cheap."

  "Those attics that we saw at that last house?" questioned Primrose,thoughtfully. "They were rather large, and not very dark. If we tookdown that paper, and put up a fresh one, and if we whitened theceilings and scrubbed the floors, why, those rooms might do. They werenot very expensive for London--only twelve shillings a week."

  "A frightful rent!" said Jasmine. "No wonder the people here lookcareworn, and pinched, and old. We'll go back to that house, Primrose.On the whole, the rooms may suit us. What is the landlady's name?--Oh,Mrs. Dove. We'll go back to Mrs. Dove and take her rooms."

  Accordingly, in a funny little street off the Junction Road, the threeMainwaring girls found a nest. It was a queer nest, up at the top of atall and rambling house; but Mrs. Dove appeared good-natured, and hadno objection to the young ladies doing their own papering andwhite-washing, and as Primrose took the rooms on the spot, and paida week's rent in advance, she became quite gracious. Every morning,as soon as ever breakfast was over at Penelope Mansion, the girlsstarted off to the new home they were preparing for themselves.There they worked hard, papering, white-washing, and, finally, evenpainting. By the end of a week Mrs. Dove scarcely knew her atticapartments--elegant she now called them--a charming suite. Theenthusiasm of the three young workers even infected Mrs. Dove, whocondescended to clean the windows, and to rub up the shabby furniture,so that when, at the end of the week, the attics were ready foroccupation, they were by no means so unlike Jasmine's ideal Londonrooms as might have been expected. The girls kept their own counsel,and during the week they were preparing for their flight to EdenStreet--for No. 10 Eden Street would be their future address--theytold no one at Penelope Mansion of their little plans. The good ladiesof the Mansion, Mrs. Flint excepted, were very curious about them;they wondered why the girls disappeared every day immediately afterbreakfast, and came back looking hot and tired, and yet with brightand contented faces, at night; but Jasmine had ceased to confide inMrs. Dredge; and Primrose, when she chose to be dignified, had quitepower enough to keep even Miss Slowcum at a distance. Mrs. Mortlock,who was stout, and rich, and good-tempered, tried the effect of alittle bribery on Daisy, but the sweet, staunch little maid would notbe corrupted.

  "Oh, thank you so much for those delicious chocolate creams," shesaid. "Yes, I _do_ love chocolate creams, and you are so kind to givethem to me. Where do we spend our day?--but that is Primrose'ssecret--you would not have me so naughty as to tell!"

  So the week drew to an end, and the nest, as the girls called theirrooms, was finally ready for its inmates. The snowy-white muslincurtains were really put up to the now clean windows--the walls,covered with a delicate paper, had a soft, rosy glow about them--someof the pretty home ornaments were judiciously scattered about, and therather small bedroom had three very small, but very white, littlebeds in it.

  "We'll go in for lots of flowers, you know," said Jasmine. "I don'tsuppose even in London flowers are very dear."

  At last there came a morning when the girls went away from PenelopeMansion as usual, and only Mrs. Flint and Poppy knew that they werenot returning in the evening. Mrs. Flint felt rather indignant withthe young ladies for deserting her--not that she said anything for shealways made it a rule not to wear herself out with unnecessary words,or with fretting, or with undue excitement; nevertheless, on thisoccasion she was a little indignant, for surely, what place couldcompare with the Mansion? Poor Poppy bade the young ladies, whom sheloved, good-bye with an almost breaking heart.

  "It's all one, Miss Jasmine," she exclaimed; "if it was my dyingbreath, I'd have to own that London is not what we picteredit--vanities there is, and troubles there is, and disappointments mostnumerous and most biting. But for the one happy day I spent out withyou dear young ladies, I hasn't known no happiness in London. Oh, MissJasmine," drawing up short and looking her young lady full in theface--"what dreadful lies them novels tells! I read them afore I came,and I made up such wonderful picters; but I will own that what withthe ladies in this mansion, as worrit me almost past bearing, and whatwith you going away all secret like, and what with me being no longerPoppy the tare, but Sarah Jane the drudge, even if I was to get one ofthe bonnets that they show in the shop windows in Bond Street, why, itwouldn't draw a smile from me Miss Jasmine!"