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 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/littlemissprimro01tabo
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OP 
 
 ST. OLAVE'S," "JANITA'S CROSS," '' ANNETTE,' 
 "THE LAST OF HER LINE," 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
 m THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON: 
 HURST AJSFD BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 1880. 
 
 AH riahts reserved.
 
 LONDON ! 
 PRINTED BY DUNCAN MACDONALD, 
 BLENHEIM HOUSE.
 
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1^ " A H, me ! If only something would 
 
 ^' ^-*- happen!" 
 ^, Nelly clasped her hands behind her 
 
 head as she said this to herself, and leaned 
 • • wearily back in the little low chair beside 
 
 her bed-room window. 
 
 She was nearly twenty now, and nothing 
 
 ever had happened. For all these years 
 ^ the days had gone on, one after another, 
 
 so alike in their ignorance of love, or loss, 
 '^ or sorrow, or change. The drama of her 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 life had never had its scenes shifted, nor 
 even its actors. The same people came 
 and went, came and went, looking and 
 talking and behaving just the same, until 
 she was tired of watching them. If there 
 did happen to be a little appearance of 
 bustle sometimes, nothing came of it. It 
 reminded her of the village fair scene in 
 Faust. The actors walked in and out and 
 round about, apparently losing themselves 
 amongst each other, and trying to appear 
 as if they were a very great crowd indeed, 
 whereas it was all make-believe, and they 
 pushed and jostled each other, not because 
 they were obliged to do so, but only to 
 make the spectators think that the stage 
 was very much crowded. And they looked 
 as if they were very busy and interested 
 all the time, when there was simply no- 
 thing to be busy or interested about, as 
 she found out soon enough. But that was
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 6 
 
 not SO bad as finding out the same thing 
 in one's own life. 
 
 NeWy unclasped her hands and leaned 
 her elbows on the window-seat, and looked 
 out at the grey Minster front, scarce fifty 
 yards away. 
 
 That, too, was always the same, except 
 when the slant rays of the sun at evening 
 time woke flashes, as of ruby and emerald 
 and sapphire, in the great west window, 
 and lighted up with momentary warm 
 tints of rose and purple the queer, quaint 
 figures which were sculptured, tier upon 
 tier of them, over the gateway, and up to 
 the very battlements of the two west 
 towers. There was Earl Percy on one 
 side the door, with his lump of stone, and 
 Sir Rokeby Avenel on the other, with his 
 faofSfot of wood, this beino^ the reward 
 claimed by the two worthies in return for 
 their benefactions of granite and timber 
 
 b2
 
 4 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 towards the buildiDg of that part of the 
 cathedral. Over them was the Flight into 
 Egypt, once a brave piece of sculpture, 
 but now reduced by stress of time and 
 weather, to say nothing of ruder enemies, 
 to a headless, three-legged steed with a 
 couple of equally headless and crippled 
 bodies following. The founder of the 
 church, a little higher up, and therefore 
 more out of the way of Protectorate sticks 
 and staves, had fared better, only the nose 
 of him having disappeared, whilst the 
 saints and angels and martyrs above, 
 whom these earthly weapons had been 
 quite unable to reach, looked down with 
 their calm, everlasting smile, for them the 
 battle long since well ended, and the 
 crowned rest begun. 
 
 But they were so still, too, and un- 
 changeable. To them, as to the other 
 things and people which surrounded her
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 5 
 
 life, nothing ever happened. Nelly would 
 look at them sometimes by the hour to- 
 gether, as if to make them do something, 
 were it only to drop their sculptured eye- 
 lids in grave rebuke, or knit the majestic 
 brows round which the old monks had 
 wreathed palmy crowns of victory. But 
 no ; there they kept smiling down upon 
 her, and for all her questioning they had 
 no reply, and for all her impatience only 
 that everlasting calm ; until she could 
 have longed for a storm to hurl them 
 down, or the lightning to shiver their 
 reposeful stateliness ; only, of course, that 
 too never happened, any more than any- 
 thing else. 
 
 It was a pretty little room where Nelly 
 sat, thinking these foolish thoughts and 
 wishing these foolish wishes. It had been 
 her own ever since she could remember, 
 for she had never had any other home
 
 b LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 than this old house in the Chorister's 
 Court, her father, now one of the vicars- 
 choral, having married and brought his 
 bride there five and twenty years before, 
 when he was appointed curate to Mr, 
 Naresby, vicar of the Belfry chapel hard 
 by. And Nelly was their only child, and, 
 as soon as she was fairly out of the nurse- 
 maid's hands, this little room was fitted 
 up for her, and here she had been allowed, 
 through the days of girlhood and maiden- 
 hood, to follow her own ways and gather 
 round her the things slie loved best, until 
 the place had become a sort of little reflec- 
 tion of herself, as places do where a real 
 and actual life is lived. 
 
 And this was not an unpleasant reflec- 
 tion either, for Nelly Willoughby, though 
 given to foolish thinkings now and then, 
 was not a foolish girl, as one might gather 
 from the books, evidently well-used and
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 7 
 
 read, which filled the book-shelves at the 
 foot of her little white-curtained bed. 
 There were the histories, any number of 
 them — Eoman, Grecian, English, French, 
 Italian — which she had plodded through 
 so patiently under her father's superintend- 
 ence — for she had never been sent to 
 school — and of which she had written out 
 abstracts in innumerable copy-books, care- 
 fully stored up by him on the topmost 
 shelves of his study. There were the 
 " Standard Poets," a whole row of them, 
 which had been read aloud, every single, 
 separate line of them, by her mother, whilst 
 slie, Nelly, learned to hem pocket-hand- 
 kerchiefs or make shirts for her father; 
 and at the end of every reading she had 
 had to answer questions about all the 
 different people and incidents, to make 
 sure that she had been attending properly. 
 Ah ! that attending was weary work some-
 
 8 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 times, especially as the parlour in which it 
 was done looked right out upon the very 
 sweetest old town-garden that ever was 
 seen — a garden where rooks cawed in the 
 elm-trees, and sparrows built their nests 
 in the ivy round the bow window, and 
 laburnums made golden sunshine in the 
 spring-time of the year, and humble-bees 
 bobbed their downy heads against the 
 panes of glass, almost asking her to come 
 out and play with them, instead of learn- 
 ing how Eve spread out a banquet for the 
 angels in Paradise, or the lovely young 
 Lavinia, who once had friends, lost them 
 and was obliged to establish herself in a 
 lower sphere of life. 
 
 Then, higher up — the way for them 
 perhaps prepared by the wholesome tedi- 
 ousness of these earlier readiness — came 
 the later loves of Nelly's intellectual life 
 — Mrs. Browning, Spenser's ^' Fairy-
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 9 
 
 Queen, " '' Morte d' Arthur, " Euskin's 
 '' Works," " Ancient Classics for English 
 Readers," and the like, most of which she 
 had not only read, but pages and pages 
 of them she had learned by heart; and 
 she used to say them over to herself as 
 she strolled up and down under the elm- 
 trees at the bottom of the old garden, the 
 grey west towers of the Minster looking at 
 her from behind the gables of Chorister's 
 Court, the dim sound of the organ at 
 morning and evening prayers making 
 music with the music of her thoughts. 
 
 There were flowers, too, in the little 
 room ; brown sycamore leaves and prim- 
 roses — for it was in May-time — arranged 
 with the skill of their true lovers, and 
 violets nestled in fresh green moss, and 
 pots of lily of the valley in the window- 
 seat. Nor were pictures wanting. Bea- 
 trice led her Dante over the plains of
 
 10 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 
 
 Paradise. Euth, low-browed, large-eyed, 
 stood with her gleanings in the golden 
 corn-fields. Poor little Mignon, lonely 
 and longing, like Nelly herself, for some- 
 thing, she knew not what, looked forth 
 wearily into the distance towards the land 
 where the citrons bloomed, the land where 
 she would fain have been, but to which 
 she never reached. And just above, so 
 placed that in summer evenings the 
 western sun gleamed broadly upon their 
 wondrous faces, Eaffael's Sistine Madonna 
 held the child Christ, questioning with 
 herself whereunto this little life should 
 grow. Not the things, these, that a fool- 
 ish girl would gather round her; yet, 
 knowing how to love and enjoy them all, 
 Nelly Willoughby wearied, and said to 
 herself — 
 
 ''Ah, me! If only something would 
 happen."
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 11 
 
 The Minster bells begau to chime for 
 afternoon service. It was a quarter past 
 four. Only that. Only an hour since 
 they finished their early dinner, and she 
 seemed to have been sitting there for days, 
 watching those stone saints with their 
 never changing smile. 
 
 Little knots of very quietly-dressed 
 ladies and clerical-looking men gathered 
 towards the west door from the old houses 
 in the Close. By-and-by a cheery voice, 
 her father's voice, called out from the foot 
 of the stairs, 
 
 " Going to prayers this afternoon, 
 Nelly ?'' 
 
 " No, papa, thank you, not this after- 
 noon." 
 
 ''All right." 
 
 Then she watched him cross over to the 
 Minster, a good, hearty, comfortable speci- 
 men of a clergyman, well-built, broad-
 
 12 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 shouldered, witli a few iron-grey curls 
 visible under the brim of his black felt 
 hat. As he went up the steps he turned 
 round to give her a parting nod, then he 
 disappeared under the great west doorway, 
 which always stood wide open when the 
 weather was fine. 
 
 Nelly could picture everything else 
 after that, just as if she had gone with 
 him herself. He would pick up the 
 resident canon, who was always strolling 
 up and down the nave a quarter of an 
 hour before service, and they would go 
 together into the south vestry, where 
 by-and-by the other clergymen would 
 come, and they would have a cosy little 
 chat whilst the verger helped them to put 
 on their canonicals. And then, with a 
 good deal of shuffling and scuffling, the 
 sixteen chorister boys, who had no verger 
 to help them, would get themselves into
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 1^ 
 
 tlieir surplices, and form into a row in the 
 south aisle, doing a little chattering the 
 while, after the fashion of their elders in 
 the vestry. And the song-men, who had 
 a vestry of their own further down, would 
 come dropping out one by one, fastening 
 their buttons and arranging their sleeves, 
 not without considerable trouble, for the 
 Dean had lately introduced new surplices 
 of the fashionable narrow cut, and to 
 thrust his arms into them at a moment's 
 notice was more than a poor man could 
 do, who had run across from his shop 
 just as the second bell was tolling out its 
 finishing strokes ; especially when the 
 Dean himself, who, though he never came 
 out into the aisle imtil the procession 
 was formed, always stood, full-robed and 
 dignified, at the open door of his own 
 special and particular vestry for full five 
 minutes before the half hour, looking
 
 14 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 almost as stonily as the very saints tliem- 
 selves on the west front, at any unfortunate 
 wight who had not allowed himself time 
 to put on his things properly. 
 
 That was outside. Then Nelly went in 
 imagination into the choir, where always 
 the same people sat, always in the same 
 stalls, the ladies on one side, the gentlemen 
 on the other. The bells chimed half-past 
 four, and, exactly as their last echo died 
 away, two vergers with silver pokers ap- 
 peared at the side-door, heralding the 
 procession ; first the sixteen little boys, 
 two and two; then the song-men, their 
 sleeves not even yet quite right, some- 
 times ; then the two vicars-choral ; then 
 the minor canons ; then the canon in 
 residence ; last of all the Dean himself, 
 with his scarlet silk hood and his square 
 college-cap. And as the long procession 
 wound its way down the choir, all the
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 15 
 
 people stood up, until the two highest 
 dignitaries had got into their places, and 
 had the crimson velvet curtains duly drawn 
 around them by the attendant vergers. 
 This being done, there was a rustling and 
 a bustling as everybody knelt down and 
 the service began. 
 
 Sitting there at her open window, Nelly 
 could hear the sweet bursts of chanted 
 music, broken by pauses of silence when 
 her father was reading the prayers. Then 
 there was a longer pause ; that was the first 
 Lesson. Then the joyous outbreak of the 
 Magnificat. Then another pause. 
 
 And, before that second pause was 
 ended, a much more secular sound smote 
 upon the silence of her little room, even 
 the ring of the afternoon postman.
 
 16 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "VTELLY ran downstairs. It was always 
 ^^ possible that the long-looked-for 
 "something" might happen in connection 
 with the postman's ring. That ring was 
 as the blossom to the fruit ; it might come 
 to nothing, as indeed it generally did, but 
 still one could not very well have the fruit 
 without it. And so every morning and 
 every afternoon she waited and hoped, just 
 as, year by year, people wait and hope 
 when they see their apricot-trees covered 
 with blossom, though nine times out of 
 ten the frost comes and sweeps it all 
 away.
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 17 
 
 It was frost this afternoon, as Nelly said 
 to herself with a sigh, when the postman 
 put into her hand just one sohtary letter, 
 addressed to her mother in the familiar 
 writing of Miss Heslington of Mannersby. 
 Miss Heslington herself was as good as 
 gold, but her letters were intensely unin- 
 teresting, never going beyond reports of 
 her mother's health and her own, and the 
 visits she had paid to sundry poor people 
 of the village. Unless, which happened 
 two or three times in the year, she had 
 come into possession of a new recipe for a 
 jDudding, and then she was sure to write it 
 out at full length on at least two pages, so 
 that there was not much space left for the 
 health reports. 
 
 Nelly gave it to her mother, and went 
 slowly upstairs again. Nothing could 
 possibly happen now until to-morrow 
 morning, and even then it might be only 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 frost on the apricot blossom, just as it had 
 been day after day, day after day, for ever 
 so long. 
 
 They had got to the anthem now. She 
 leaned her head on her hands and lis- 
 tened. 
 
 " Nelly." 
 
 That was her mother calling. 
 
 ^'Yes, mamma." 
 
 "Come down, will you?" 
 
 How tiresome ! And that chorus from 
 the Elijah just melting into one of its most 
 delightful harmonies. But Nelly went 
 without looking cross over it, either. 
 
 '*A letter from Grace Heslington, my 
 dear, and she asks if you will go and stay 
 there for a month. She thinks the change 
 will do you good this nice, pleasant sum- 
 mer time. What do you say ?" 
 
 " Oh ! just what you like, mamma. I 
 am sure she is very good. I don't care
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 19 
 
 very much about it ; and then you would 
 be all alone." 
 
 That was quite true. Nelly did not 
 care very much about it. Mannersby was 
 a pleasant, quiet little village about six 
 miles away, and Miss Heslingtou and her 
 mother lived in an old-fashioned house 
 amongst woods and green fields, just on 
 the borders of the Hall estate. Nelly had 
 made more than one happy enough visit 
 there in her childish days, for her mother 
 and Miss Heslington had been school- 
 fellows, and the families had kept up their 
 intimacy ever since. But that was when 
 she was in the hands of the almost for- 
 gotten nursemaids, ten or a dozen years 
 ago, and could amuse herself by the 
 hour together by roUing about upon the 
 heaps of wheat in Farmer Garstang's 
 granary, or burying herself amongst the 
 straw in the stackyard, or climbing up 
 
 c2
 
 20 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 tlie apple-trees in old Mrs. Heslington's 
 orchard to look for birds' nests — with 
 something besides eggs in them, Miss 
 Heslington used to suggest with a smile 
 sometimes as little Miss Nelly trotted back 
 to the house and put up a pair of apple- 
 juicy lips for the kiss which was always 
 ready. 
 
 But of course all that was changed now. 
 She had only visited Mannersby once 
 since, when she was about fifteen years 
 old, and, truth to tell, it had been a very 
 uninteresting time. There was no more 
 any burjang oneself in heaps of dusty 
 wheat, or rolliug down straw stacks, or 
 climbing up into apple-trees ; and, for any- 
 thing else, the cottage at Mannersby had 
 not in those days many attractions to 
 offer. Mrs. Heslington's sight, which was 
 quite gone now, was beginning seriously 
 to fail then, and, not being allowed to look
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 21 
 
 at a book herself, slie had to be read to 
 €very afternoon, either by Miss Heslington 
 or Nelly. If Miss Heslington read, Nelly 
 hemmed dusters ; if Nelly read, Miss 
 Heslington knitted babies' socks. The 
 book was either " Sturm's Reflections " or 
 " Hervey's Meditations," except on Sun- 
 days, when it was " Blunt on the Epistles 
 to the Seven Churches." 
 
 Then the parlour, where they always 
 sat to read, was as uninteresting as the 
 books they read in it. Mrs. Heslington 
 had inherited the furniture from her father 
 and mother, and, like a dutiful daughter 
 as she was, w^ould not part with stick or 
 straw of it in exchange for the gimcracks 
 of modern upholstery. Nelly used to sit 
 in a narrow, high-backed, cane-bottomed 
 chair, with spindly legs and rails ; and the 
 tables had spindly legs and rails too, but 
 all of solid mahogany, with little yellow
 
 22 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 lines and streaks of inlaying, not paint, 
 upon tliem. And there was a quaint old 
 side-table, or "buffet," Mrs. Heslington 
 called it, with a tall back of the brightest 
 and blackest and most polished oak, and 
 shelves across it full of little handleless 
 china cups, which, for the life of her, 
 Nelly dare not have touched, so unmatch- 
 able were they in their egg-shelliness and 
 beauty of blue and yellow and gold. 
 Ah ! the terror of good Mrs. Heslington, 
 when, in Nelly's childish days, she had 
 stood on tip-toe before that buffet, to ad- 
 mire, not the egg-shell china, but her own 
 white pinafore and blue ribbons reflect- 
 ed in the mirror-like polish of the black 
 oak. 
 
 And then the pictures. No Dante, with 
 pale face and hooded brow, bending before 
 his angelic love; no sweet little Mignon 
 longing for the citron-land ; no Madonna,
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 23 
 
 with time-piercing gaze, searching the 
 future of the child Christ upon her breast. 
 Only a couple of saroplers done by Mrs. 
 Heslington in her school-da3^s, with the 
 letters of the alphabet in all manner of 
 stitches, and her maiden name at the 
 bottom, and an apple-tree with painfully 
 symmetrical branches in each corner. And 
 an embroidered Scripture piece, represent- 
 ing little Samuel in tail coat and knee 
 breeches, toddling out of a four-post bed 
 to know why Eli, an old man in red and 
 blue dressing-gown, had kept on calling 
 him so. And in the corresponding recess, 
 on the other side of the fireplace, one to 
 match it, representing Hagar, in the 
 short waists and scanty garments of the 
 latter part of the eighteenth century, 
 laying down what looked like a Dutch doll 
 under an overgrown cabbage with a very 
 long stalk to it.
 
 24 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 So that, though Nelly liked both Mrs. 
 Heslington and her daughter Grace very 
 much, she did not greatly long after fre- 
 quent visits to the cottage, and she did 
 not brighten up to any noticeable extent 
 when Mrs. Willoughby told her of the in- 
 vitation. 
 
 " I wonder what papa will say about it," 
 she remarked at last, not without a lurking 
 hope that papa would look upon it in the 
 same light as she did herself. 
 
 " Ob, I am sure papa will like you to 
 go. He was only saying to me the other 
 day that he thought you would be the 
 better for a little change, because you 
 seemed to be losing your colour; he sug- 
 gested your going to Scarbro', only I 
 could not send you there alone, and I 
 could not leave him here all by himself, so 
 this seems to be just the very thing for 
 you. And you could be such a comfort to
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 25 
 
 Mrs. Heslington when Grace is out visit- 
 ing about amongst the poor people." 
 
 '' Very well," said Nelly, meekly. '' When 
 does Miss Heslington want me to go ?" 
 
 '* Any day next week ; she says her 
 brother is coming over to Hurchester next 
 Thursday, and he could drive you back 
 with him." 
 
 " Mr. Heslington ! What, is he there 
 too ? I thought he was in New Zealand 
 or somewhere." 
 
 " So he was, until two or three months 
 ago ; but he has come back now, and is 
 agent to Sir Charlton Mannersby. Well, 
 my child, how you do forget things ! Why, 
 papa and I were talking it all over when 
 Grace sent us word about it, and papa said 
 what a very nice thing it would be for him 
 if he got the appointment permanently. 
 Sir Charlton has only put him in for six 
 months as yet."
 
 26 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 ''I don't remember a bit about it, 
 mamma ; but it doesn't make any differ- 
 ence. It will be dull for you though, if I 
 go away." 
 
 '' Not a bit, my dear ; I shall send for 
 little Miss Primrose — she is always ready 
 to do anybody a kindness. I am sure she 
 will shut up house and come and stay with 
 me for a month." 
 
 "A month! Oh, mamma, does Miss 
 Heslington want me to stop all that time ?" 
 
 " Yes, that is what she says, and a world 
 of good it will do you. Miss Primrose 
 will take your class at the Sunday school, 
 so you need not trouble about that, and I 
 shall manage very well without you, so 
 long as I know the change is doing you 
 good. But we will wait till papa comes 
 home from prayers before we settle any- 
 thing. I am sure he will be delighted for 
 you to go."
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 27 
 
 Perhaps he might, but there was cer- 
 tainly no very great delight in Nelly's face 
 as she turned and went slowly back again 
 to her own room, with a vision before her 
 of spindly chairs, and attenuated Hagars 
 in scanty petticoats, and tail-coated little 
 Samuels, and afternoons of nothing but 
 " Sturm's Eeflections " and ^' Hervey's 
 Meditations."
 
 28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 "P)APA came liome and said that nothing 
 -*- would do Nelly so much good as a 
 month at Mannersby. 
 
 He did not know much about the ways 
 and wants and wishes of young girls, but 
 he had noticed that for some weeks past 
 Nelly had been " moping," as he called it, 
 and did not go about with her usual 
 activity. She had been sitting too much 
 in that little room of hers, alone with her 
 books and her flowers and her fancy-work, 
 instead of going out and getting good 
 long country walks. And then Hurches- 
 ter, at the best, was a stuffy place, and
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 29 
 
 Chorister's Court, tliougli quiet and pretty 
 enough, never got a sweep of real good 
 air through it ; and so, as there was no 
 chance of their going to the sea-side this 
 summer, nothing could have happened 
 more fortunately than Miss Heslington's 
 kind invitation. Indeed, he was so anxious 
 for her to go as soon as possible that he 
 said, if anything happened to prevent Mark 
 Heslington from coming over next Thurs- 
 day, he would borrow the canon's little 
 basket-carriage and drive Nelly to Man- 
 nersby himself. 
 
 Nelly rather hoped it would be the 
 basket-carriage. She had only seen this 
 Mr. Mark Heslington once, and that was 
 under rather embarrassing circumstances, 
 about six months before. She might have 
 remembered that when she was so sur- 
 prised to hear of his being in England at 
 all ; but it had quite slipped out of her
 
 80 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 mind just then, and only came back to 
 make lier feel awkward and uncomfortable 
 at the thought of seeing him again. 
 
 It was one Saturday morning, and she 
 was in the kitchen, making lemon-biscuits. 
 She was in the midst of her work, when 
 she found she had forgotten the little 
 biscuit-cutters, which were kept in the 
 parlour cupboard ; so to the cupboard she 
 went, not in the guise of old Mother 
 Hubbard, but in one which was almost as 
 quaint ; for her dress was pinned back 
 Tinder an apron with a great bib which 
 reached up to her chin, and her sleeves 
 were rolled ever so far past her elbows, 
 and she had a comical little three-cornered 
 muslin cap on, to keep the flour from 
 blowing into her hair. 
 
 It would have been great fun to have 
 acted charades in such a dress, when
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 31 
 
 everybody knew it was only acting ; but it 
 was no fun at all to come into the parlour 
 in it, and find a strange gentleman sitting 
 there alone, and trying very hard to look 
 as if he were not astonished at her ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 Fortunately she had sufficient self- 
 possession not to turn and rush away, but 
 with just a quiet movement of recognition 
 she went on her way to the cupboard, got 
 what she wanted, and disappeared, feeling 
 dreadfully conscious of floury fingers and 
 crimson cheeks. 
 
 The gentleman was Mr. Mark Hesling- 
 ton, who had called to see them on his 
 way down from London. Nelly did not 
 come into the parlour again whilst he was 
 there, and it was a long time before she 
 could recall the occurrence without a 
 dreadful feeling of uncomfortableness.
 
 32 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 Her hair had been tidj. however, that was 
 a consolation, and her pinned-up dress 
 showed a clean white petticoat underneath ; 
 that was pleasant too, as far as anything 
 could be pleasant under such circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Also the pinned-up dress showed — 
 though Nelly never thought about that — 
 the very prettiest little pair of feet and 
 ankles that anyone need wish to peep at. 
 And, as it happened, Mark Heslington had 
 not forgotten them, nor the face of the 
 young girl who, amidst all her confusion, 
 and spite of the apron and the bib and the 
 roUed-up sleeves and the floury finc^ers, 
 looked a little lady every inch of her. 
 And therefore, if he could help it, it would 
 not be the basket-carriage. But Nelly 
 knew nothing about that. She only knew 
 that she must have been ''a fright," and 
 now that the proposed visit to Mannersby
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 33 
 
 brought the whole thing back to her 
 recollection, she could not think of it with- 
 out feeling dreadfully vexed. 
 
 Then there was Miss Primrose to be 
 written to. 
 
 Little Miss Primrose was sixty-five, if 
 she was a day ; one of the trimmest, 
 daintiest, cleverest little women that might 
 be seen in a summer day's journey. Her 
 father had been Archdeacon of Hur- 
 chester, but that was so lons^ ago that 
 scarcely anybody remembered it ; and for 
 the last twenty years she had lived alone, 
 with two little maid-servants as trim and 
 dainty as herself, in a little house as trim 
 and dainty as all three of them jDut 
 together, on the country road between 
 Mannersby Chase and the Hall. 
 
 She must have been very pretty in her 
 young days, though scarcely prettier than 
 now at sixty-five, with the softest, silkiest 
 
 A^OL. I. D
 
 34 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 puffs of silver bair showing the sunlight 
 through them under films of white lace on 
 either side an unwrinkled brow, which 
 looked as if care and sorrow had never 
 had leave to cross it. And they never 
 might, either, for anything Miss Primrose 
 ever said about them. 
 
 In those young days she had been called 
 Dresden China, from a dress which she 
 wore when she came out at a fancy ball in 
 London. One could imagine still how 
 dainty she must have looked in flowered 
 petticoat, and blue bodice, and wide- 
 brimmed hat, with its wreaths of apple- 
 blossom. Not one of those famous dessert 
 plates which the old Queen Caroline was so 
 proud of, had half so fair a picture upon it. 
 No wonder that everyone was asking for 
 introductions to the pretty shepherdess, 
 and that Mrs. Cavendish, the wife of the 
 then Bishop of Hurchester, who was
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROBE. 35 
 
 chaperoning her, had scarcely anything to 
 do all the evening but answer questions 
 about her. 
 
 Of course such a success as that ought 
 to have been the prelude to a very 
 triumphant season for little Miss Prim- 
 rose ; yet somehow or other nothing came 
 of it. "Dresden China" was never seen 
 at any of the later fashionable London 
 entertainments, not at least in the person 
 of Miss Primrose, though the costume 
 afterwards became very popular for fancy 
 balls. Everyone wondered what could be 
 the reason of the little favourite's disap- 
 pearance, after so promising a commence- 
 ment. Mrs. Cavendish, who ought to have 
 known more about it than anyone else, 
 was taken ill early in the season, and had 
 to go to some German baths, leaving Miss 
 Primrose to come home under a suitable 
 escort to her widowed father, the Arch- 
 
 • 1)2
 
 36 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 deacon of Hurcbester, and there was an 
 end of everything. 
 
 Except that Miss Primrose kept, safely 
 wrapped up in silver paper and lavender at 
 the bottom of one of her travelling-trunks, 
 the Dresden China costume, and had kept 
 it ever since, and would keep it untouched 
 till her dying day. And now, as we have 
 said before, she lived by herself, with the 
 trim little servants, in a trim little house 
 on the Mannersby road, and was known 
 far and wide as the helper of all who 
 needed help, the brightest, cheerfullest, 
 most unselfish woman that ever was seen, 
 alwaj^s ready to do a kindness or fill up a 
 gap, or smooth things down for other 
 people, when they got into creases and 
 crumples, as they will do sometimes in the 
 best regulated families. 
 
 So Miss Primrose was asked to come 
 and keep Mrs. Willoughby company whilst
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMKOSE. 37 
 
 l^elly went to Mannersby. And slie 
 came. 
 
 She came a few days before Nelly went 
 away, to lielp her to choose one or two 
 new dresses, for a girl cannot go on even 
 the quietest visit to the quietest people 
 without a little preparation in the way of 
 clothes. Though the Heslingtons did not, 
 as the phrase is, go much into society, still 
 they called, as all the gentlepeople in the 
 village did, upon Lady Mannersby, and 
 Lady Mannersby, in return, asked them 
 to dinner once a year or so, besides send- 
 ing them a card for a garden-party now 
 and then. And Mrs. Heslingtons young- 
 est daughter was married to Mr. Coniston, 
 the vicar of Mannersby, and likely enough 
 there would be one or two little parties 
 there, because the vicarage people had 
 always taken a fancy to Nelly when she 
 was staying with the Heslingtons as a
 
 38 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 cliild. So there must be at least two new 
 dresses, one for evenings and one for 
 afternoons ; and little Miss Primrose, wlio 
 liad tlie best taste in tlie world in matters 
 of that sort, must help to choose them. 
 
 She decided upon a clear white muslin^ 
 with pale blue ribbons, for the dinner- 
 dress, and a stone-coloured batiste for 
 afternoons. 
 
 " Because, you know, Nelly," she said, 
 " stone is a colour you can wear anything 
 else with, so that you won't want a new 
 hat with it, and it is always quiet and 
 lady-like. A knob of olive ribbons at the 
 throat, w4th two or three flowers tucked 
 into it, will make it dress enough for an}^- 
 thing." 
 
 " And mind you take care of it, Nelly 
 dear," added her mother, "because, you 
 know, it will have to last vou all the rest 
 of the year for calls. You won't need to
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 39 
 
 make a toilette for dinner, as the Hesliug- 
 tons dine in the middle of the day, so your 
 cambrics will do until you have to dress 
 for afternoon calls and the seven o'clock 
 tea." 
 
 " Yery well, mamma," said Nelly, meek- 
 ly. She was not of those advanced young 
 people who manage their own affairs from 
 twelve years old and upwards. " And so 
 you think I shall really have to stay a 
 whole month ?" 
 
 *' It all depends, Nelly ; Miss Heslington 
 wants to keep you as long as that, and, if 
 it only does you good, I shall be very 
 thankful for you to stay. If you want 
 more things, you can easily have them 
 sent over, or perhaps you will come your- 
 self in a week or two, to let us see how 
 you are getting on. There is only one 
 thing, do take care of the wet grass. It 
 is so treacherous, and in the country one
 
 40 JilTTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 has SO much of it. Be sure and change 
 your shoes when you come in out of the 
 least damp." 
 
 ''Yes, mamma; and I don't think I 
 shall want any more clothes sending." 
 
 Then N'elly went out on her own 
 account and spent a shilling of her pocket- 
 money in buying a blank book to write 
 her own thoughts in, if she happened to 
 feel mopish and lonely, and a half-crown 
 more in blue ribbons to tie up her bonny 
 brown hair — the brown hair being her 
 pride, and the blue ribbons her one ex- 
 travagance, because the two colours went 
 so prettily together. And she put " Mrs. 
 Browning " and the '' Fairy Queen " into 
 her portmanteau, as Mrs. Heslington's 
 tastes and her own did not agree in the 
 matter of reading ; and then, when Thurs- 
 day came, there was nothing left but 
 to wait and see whether it would
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 41 
 
 be Mr. Heslington or the basket-carriage. 
 
 We know very well that it was Mr. 
 Heslington. He came much sooner than 
 he was expected, so as to spend quite a 
 long afternoon in Chorister's Court. At 
 seven o'clock he and Nelly started in the 
 dog-cart for Mannersby. 
 
 *'And mind you don't forget," he said 
 to little Miss Primrose, who stood on the 
 steps to see them off — " mind you don't 
 forget that, when we go for our pic-nic to 
 Beechy Hollow, you are to come over and 
 go with us. Grace said I was to be sure 
 and tell you. It is to be ia a fortnight, 
 when the bluebells are out." 
 
 "Yery well/' said Miss Primrose. 
 
 And then she went up into Nelly's room, 
 which was to be hers whilst Nelly was 
 away, and she watched them down the 
 High Street, and over the bridge, until 
 they were quite out of sight, a curious,
 
 42 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 half-wistful, half-pleasant look on her face 
 all the time. 
 
 For Miss Primroses, with their own little 
 romances long ago laid away in lavender, 
 but remembered so faithfully, often see 
 things which fathers and mothers never 
 dream of. And that was why the old lady 
 rubbed her eyes as she turned away from 
 the window at last, and came downstairs 
 to keep Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby company 
 in the parlour. 
 
 Meanwhile, JN^elly was not having such 
 a very bright time of it. She had never 
 spoken to Mr. Heslington before, and he 
 was not so brilliant in conversation as 
 many people. Now and then he asked 
 her if she was warm enough — for even 
 towards the end of May there was a sharp- 
 ness in the air sometimes blowing over 
 the Mannersby moorlands. Nelly was
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 43'- 
 
 warm enoiigh, thanks to her father's tra- 
 velling-rug. Then she asked him the 
 names of some of the trees as they passed 
 along, and that led him to speak of the 
 forests of New Zealand, on which subject 
 he was able to give her a great deal of 
 useful information, though, to a girl who 
 was never likely to go there herself, it 
 could scarcely be called interesting. And 
 with that they managed to pass the time 
 away until they reached the quiet old- 
 fashioned house where Mrs. Heslington 
 lived. 
 
 " Here we are," said Mark, as he lifted 
 her down from the dog-cart. 
 
 '' Yes," said N^elly, and in her own mind 
 she added, ^' at lastT 
 
 For, indeed, it was pleasant, after an 
 hour's drive with a gentleman who had 
 never seen her before, except with turned-
 
 44 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 up sleeves and floury fingers, and who 
 must therefore look upon her in the light 
 of a sort of domestic drudge, to meet 
 Grace Heslington, with whom she could 
 feel a little more at home, and the blind 
 old lady in the easy-chair. And such a 
 pleasant smell of cooking came in from 
 the kitchen, where Derry was baking 
 short-cakes for supper-tea. And it was 
 so nice to get out of the dog-cart and 
 shake ofE the wraps which Mr. Mark had 
 insisted on tucking round her every now 
 and then, and warm her toes at the fire in 
 the snug little parlour. And if her chair 
 was rather long and spindly in the legs, 
 and proportionately straight in the back, 
 it was a great deal more comfortable 
 having it all to herself than sitting up so 
 carefully as she had been doing for the 
 last hour, lest a pebble under the wheels, 
 or a sudden turn in the road, should
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 45 
 
 knock her up against Mr. Mark's shoulder. 
 
 Then came the supper-tea, just as she 
 remembered it used to be brought years 
 and years ago, Bennet, the housemaid, 
 coming in first with the queer little old- 
 fashioned tea-caddy and square teapot, 
 and, exactly ten minutes afterwards, the 
 toast, and the cake, and the rest of the 
 things. Only that now Mrs. Heslington 
 had to have her toast cut and buttered for 
 her, and, instead of sitting at the head of 
 the table to pour out tea, she sat at Grace's 
 left hand, where she was waited upon as 
 if she had been a queen. And then, of 
 course, Mr. Mark made a difference, as a 
 man always does. 
 
 "And did you get your letter?" Grace 
 said to him, when Mrs. Heslington was 
 comfortably settled down. 
 
 " Oh ! yes ; you don't suppose I should 
 forget that. I called for it at the post.
 
 46 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 before I went to Chorister's Court. I 
 thought it was such a pity to have to wait 
 until to-morrow morning." 
 
 " Of course. I was going to remind 
 you about calling for it, only I thought 
 you would be sure to remember. Is there 
 anything special in it this week ?" 
 
 "No, not very. But I have scarcely 
 had time to read it through yet." 
 
 Probably he found time after tea, for he 
 went out, and so did Grace, leaving Nelly 
 and Mrs. Heslington to a somewhat dull 
 colloquy in the parlour. Mark did not 
 come ba.ck for a long time. Grace was 
 only a few minutes away. 
 
 " Miss Edie is quite well and very com- 
 fortable at Veytaux," she said, when she 
 returned, " She says the air is doing her 
 a great deal of good already. I do hope 
 she will soon be all rio:ht asrain." 
 
 " Yes, indeed, for Mark's sake," said
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 47 
 
 the old lady. ^' She is so good to him." 
 And then — for they were both of them 
 too well-bred to continue talking about 
 anything which kept Nelly out of the con- 
 versation — tliey began to tell her about all 
 the little arrangements which had been 
 made for her visit ; how, a week next 
 Saturday, they were to have a little picnic 
 to Beechy Hollow, Miss Primrose driving 
 over in the canon's basket-carriage to join 
 them the night before ; and how Mrs. 
 Coniston, the married sister at the vicar- 
 age, was going to make up a walking 
 party to the moor, later on, when the gorse 
 would be in blossom. And then they were 
 to see the swannery at the Chase, Lady 
 Daresby had told them they could go 
 whenever they chose, and she had invited 
 them to go to the house and look over her 
 husband's collection of curiosities from 
 Italy, such lovely cameos, and gems, and
 
 48 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 mosaics, wliich he had been gathering for 
 the last twenty years. Grace hoped she 
 would not have a very dull visit, though 
 the cottage luas such a quiet place. 
 
 Nelly hoped not, too, but still a month 
 seemed a very long time, and Mr. Mark 
 being there made everything seem differ- 
 ent. Somehow she felt as if she should 
 not shake down so comfortably this time 
 as even five years ago, and that was not 
 such a very pleasant visit either, because 
 Mrs. Heslington had been so afraid about 
 the china. Sbe quite made up her mind — 
 though of course she did not say so then 
 — that she would go home at the end of a 
 fortnight; and when she sat down in her 
 bed-room that night, to write to her 
 mother, and tell her that she had arrived 
 safely at the end of her journey, she added 
 that she should only be away two Sundays, 
 or three at the most, because the barometer
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 49 
 
 was rising as fast as could be, and Mrs. 
 Heslington said slie believed they were 
 going to liave a rainy time. 
 
 Mrs. Heslington really had said that, 
 but she only meant that Nelly should stay 
 with them so much the longer, so as to 
 get the benefit of the fine weather when it 
 came. But it sounded to Kelly just a 
 little bit as if it was meant to tell her that 
 she need not expect too much from her 
 visit. 
 
 How surprised she would have been 
 could she have known that, as she wrote, 
 Mark Heslington was walking up and 
 down the garden, and saying to himself, 
 as he smoked his cigar — 
 
 '' That little girl shall be my wife." 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 50 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 rriHE very day after her arrival at the 
 -■- cottage, Nelly was taken by Miss 
 Heslington to call upon Lady Mannersby, 
 but they did not stay very long, her lady- 
 ship having a charming way of making 
 people understand when she wanted them 
 to go away. She had been busy discussing 
 domestic affairs with Sir Charlton in the 
 library, and returned to the conversation 
 as soon as she had disposed of her callers. 
 " Why not invite them all at once, 
 Bertha?" said the baronet, who hated 
 nothing so much as dinner-parties at his 
 own house.
 
 LITTLE xMISS PRIMROSE. 51 
 
 '' Simply because it cannot be done, 
 Charlton," replied his wife, looking up and 
 down the closely-written columns of her 
 visitine-book. " Here are dinners due to 
 at least five and thirty people, and we 
 can't mix up the Bishop and General 
 Parkham and the Dean and the Sutton- 
 Daresbys with all the rest who must be 
 got off the list before we go away in Sep- 
 tember. I was thinking of just giving 
 ourselves up to it for a week, and having 
 them at three times ; say Monday, Wednes- 
 day, and Saturday." 
 
 "Then, my dear, you shall simply do 
 nothing of the kind. If you cannot put 
 them in at twice, you shall not put them 
 in at all, so there is an end of it. We had 
 enough of that sort of thing up in town, 
 and 1 thought we left it just in the thick 
 of the season to come down here for the 
 sake of quiet." 
 
 E 2
 
 52 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 " So did I. But we did not know tliat 
 the Daresbys would be here at the same 
 time, having their dinner-parties once a 
 week. We must do something to keep up 
 our position in the count}^ I have never 
 forgotten, and I never shall forget, that 
 woman going in to dinner before me at 
 the bishop's palace, a month ago. I sup- 
 pose next thing a sub-lieutenant, or some- 
 thing of that sort, will be escorting me to 
 my soup and fish, and I shall be in the 
 rear of Mrs. Newbury's chignon as we 
 walk into the dining-room. No, Charlton, 
 we have been a great deal too quiet lately. 
 It does not do, as things are now, even if 
 we have to make an effort to keep 
 it up. 
 
 " Very well, Bertha. T daresay you are 
 right. I have not forgotten that dinner 
 either, and I shall take good care you 
 never go to the palace again until the
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 53 
 
 question of precedence is settled. We and 
 the Sutton-Daresbys come very near to- 
 gether, but you have a distinct right to go 
 in first, and the bishop's wife would never 
 have arranged it so if she had not wanted 
 the Daresby interest for her brother, who 
 has an idea of getting into Parliament. 
 But now about these people. Whom have 
 you got down on the list ? Mind " 
 
 And the old man shook his finger at his 
 wife, as if daring her to disobey an order 
 upon which her very life depended. 
 
 " Mind, I say they are all to be put in 
 at twice. If you spread them into three, 
 I'll shut up the house, and we'll go to some 
 of those cheap places on the Continent. 
 You know I hate company." 
 
 " Yes, my dear, I've been thiukiug it 
 over. I will manage to squeeze them all 
 into Monday and Thursday of the week 
 after next. Monday we will take the
 
 54 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 small fry. Let me see ; those young- 
 lieutenants in the th. You know the 
 
 regiment is under orders for Malta in a 
 fortnight, and we ought to do something 
 for them before they go. And Mrs. 
 Mendies and her daughter ; and then 
 there are the Conistons. I declare I have 
 not had the Conistons for an age." 
 
 '' That's just what I was thinking 
 myself, Bertha. And when first they 
 came to the vicarage you almost had Mrs, 
 Goniston living with you." 
 
 Lady Mannersby made no reply, only 
 tapped her teeth with the top of her little 
 pencil-case. 
 
 After a pause she said — 
 
 "The Decimers are remarkably pleasant 
 people." 
 
 ]N"ow she had got down to the Decimers' 
 name on her visiting list, but her mention 
 of them, after that little pause, and in
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 55 
 
 connection with tlie Oonistons, meant a 
 great deal. It meant that Lady Manners- 
 bj was very fond of fresh faces and fresh 
 friends, and that she always had a favourite 
 going. Mrs. Coniston had been the favour- 
 ite until lately, but now Mrs. Decimer was 
 rapidly usurping that position. Mr. 
 Decimer was the chaplain who had lately 
 been put in charge of the barracks. 
 
 '' I must have the Decimers too. In- 
 deed, in his position, I think we ought to 
 have them at both the parties. It is a 
 kind of farewell to the regiment, and, 
 being the chaplain, one ought to pay 
 him attention when one is inviting the 
 officers." 
 
 " He does not go away with the regi- 
 ment, does he ?" 
 
 " Oh, no. The military chaplaincy is 
 permanent. Still it would look nice to ask 
 them."
 
 06 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 " Yery well. Then you must ask tine 
 Hesliugtons. I wish them to be asked, as 
 you are having that class of people." 
 
 " The Heslingtons !" And Lady Man- 
 nersby gave a little shrug of displeasure. 
 *' Why, Charlton, I cleared Miss Hesliugton 
 off six months ago, before her brother 
 came, and thought she was done with 
 until next Christmas, at the very least. 
 And they have a visitor staying with 
 them, too." 
 
 *' Ask the visitor as well. Bertha " 
 
 And again the old gentleman shook 
 his finger, and twisted his head about as if 
 his neck-tie was uncomfortably tight ; in- 
 deed he had a tendency of blood to the 
 head which made it necessary for peo- 
 ple to take care how they roused his 
 temper. 
 
 " Bertha, the Heslingtons and their 
 visitor are to be asked to the first of
 
 LITTLE MISS PiUMROSE. 57 
 
 your dinner-parties. Do you understand 
 me?" 
 
 "Yes, dear, all riglit. I will take care 
 that their notes are sent amongst the very 
 first. I only thought, you know, that as 
 perhaps Mr. Heslington will not be in 
 your employment very much longer " 
 
 " You know nothing at all about 
 w^hether I intend to retain Heslington in 
 my employment or not, and it is no affair 
 of yours. When I have decided what I 
 mean to do, I shall tell him so myself, and 
 in the meantime all you have to do is 
 to carry out my wishes with respect to 
 inviting them for the Monday after next. 
 Am I the master in my own house, or am 
 I not. Bertha ?" 
 
 But it need not be inferred from this 
 little outbreak on the part of Sir Charlton 
 that he and Lady Mannersby were, as 
 people call it, " uncomfortable together."
 
 58 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 On the contrary, they had a very pleasant 
 time of it, except that the estate was not 
 in a prosperous condition, and money 
 matters were apt to be a little tight some- 
 times. Sir Charlton's temper was only on 
 the surface. He really loved his wife. He 
 could not have got on for a day without 
 her, and she was patience itself in meet- 
 ing all his whims and crotchets. She had 
 naturally, a very bright, sweet temper of 
 her own, and of late she had been com- 
 pelled to cultivate it more than usual, for, 
 about a couple of years before, Sir Charlton 
 had had an attack of apoplexy, and the 
 doctors said his life depended upon his 
 being kept as much as possible from all 
 worry and irritation. 
 
 He had managed his own estate of 
 Mannersby ever since he came to it, and 
 that was, perhaps, the reason why it was 
 paying so badly now. So badly that, three
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. b9' 
 
 or four months before this conversation, 
 lie bad engaged Mark Heslingtou as agent 
 and manager. Mark had looked up things 
 so well already that the property was in a 
 fair way of recovering itself, and in that 
 case Sir Charlton meant to let Mark go at 
 Christmas. But he was not going to tell 
 him that just yet, because he happened to 
 know that Sir Thomas Sutton-Daresby 
 was at that very time wanting a gentleman 
 to manage the Chase estate, and would 
 have been only too glad to get hold of Mr. 
 Heslingtou. And Sir Charlton hated Sir 
 Thomas so vigorously that he would rather 
 do Mark Heslingtou the wrong of keeping 
 him out of a good place than do Sir 
 Thomas the right of putting in his way 
 such a first-rate man for his property. 
 He w^as bound to give Mark three months' 
 notice before dismissing him, but, as he did 
 not in any case intend him to go before
 
 60 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 December, there was no need to give the 
 notice yet, and in the meantime Sir Thomas 
 would probably have engaged somebody 
 else not half so efficient. 
 
 Of course this was very wrong, and not 
 at all the thing for a magistrate and a 
 gentleman to do. And Sir Charlton knew 
 it was wrong, too, and that was why he 
 got into such a bad temper whenever Lady 
 Mannersby mentioned the subject. Also 
 that was why he insisted upon the Hes- 
 lingtons and their visitor being asked to 
 dinner, though he felt at the same time it 
 was something like sending your neigh- 
 bour a brace of grouse one day, and beat- 
 ing his preserves on your own account the 
 next. But to return to the party. 
 
 Lady Mannersby wrote down, like a 
 dutiful wife, the names of the Hesling- 
 tons and Miss Willoughby. Then the 
 Decimers.
 
 LITTLE MTSS PRIMROSE. 61 
 
 "And, oh, dear !" she said, " I had quite 
 forgotten, Mrs. Decimer told me she should 
 so like to meet Miss Primrose, and I have 
 not had her for such a long time. I would 
 not for the world neglect her, because she 
 is such a lady. That makes ten, and the 
 three lieutenants thirteen, and the Moorsby 
 rector fourteen, and ourselves sixteen. 
 That will just be a nice number. I may 
 as well make up the second dinner-party too, 
 and send out all the notes at the same 
 time, shall I, Charlie dear?" 
 
 Charlie, who was softened by his wife's 
 readiness to do what he wished, said she 
 might as well, and Lady Mannersby set to 
 work at once, for she was afraid, unless 
 she really did get the notes sent out that 
 day, the old gentleman would take a con- 
 trary fit, and forbid the festivities alto- 
 gether. Such festivities indeed ! As if 
 she would not ten times rather have saved?
 
 62 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 the money herself, except for keeping up 
 their position against the Sutton-Daresbjs. 
 who had a dinner-party of at least twenty 
 people once a week, besides pic-nics and 
 garden-parties, and all that sort of thing, 
 which made them so wonderfully popular, 
 both at Hurchester and Mannersby. True, 
 for every hundred that Sir Charlton had, 
 the Sutton-Daresbys were supposed to 
 have at least a thousand, for old Sir 
 Thomas, and his father, and his grand- 
 father before him, had been thrifty folk, 
 and had managed the estate so well that, 
 when the present Sir Thomas, an only 
 child, came into it, it was one of the best 
 properties in the country, whereas the 
 Hall lands were so mortgaged and en- 
 cumbered that, unless the next heir to the 
 title could marry money, things must abso- 
 lutely come to a standstill. And yet she 
 must go on smiling and entertaining, for
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 63 
 
 it would never do for people to say that 
 the Mannersbys could not hold their own 
 in the place where they had lived for five 
 hundred years. 
 
 " Well, then, Charlton, first of all there 
 are the Bishop and his wife, and the Dean 
 and Lady Mary, and old General and Mrs. 
 Pontifex, and Colonel and Mrs. Greathed, 
 and the Sutton-Daresbys, eight, and the 
 Newburys, ten — no, eleven, with Blanche." 
 " What, my dear ! the Newburys again !" 
 '' Yes, Charlton, by all means the New- 
 burys again. You know the Sutton- 
 Daresbys take next to no notice of them, 
 and it will be worth anything, under pres- 
 ent circumstances, to attach them to us. 
 We can introduce them into the best so- 
 ciety of the county, and you know very 
 well what a good thing it would be for us 
 if Percy and Blanche would take a fancy 
 to each other when he comes home. You
 
 64 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 know fhe Newburys are not really vulgar 
 people, only they are looked down upon a 
 little because tliey kave made tlieir money 
 lately. The}^ had quite a nice little posi- 
 tion of their own down in the south before 
 Mr. Kewbury bought those quarries, which 
 have turned out so splendidly, and I really 
 don't think that Blanche would disgrace a 
 title at all." 
 
 " Perhaps not," said Sir Charlton, and 
 said no more. But they both looked rather 
 sadly at the picture which hung over the 
 library fireplace. 
 
 It was the portrait of a young man of 
 about six and twenty, broad, handsome, 
 well-made, with his mother's bright, frank, 
 and somewhat superficial expression. Al- 
 togfether, there was more of his mother 
 about him than of his father, though there 
 was somethinof about the mouth and chin 
 which indicated that young Mr. Percy, his
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 65 
 
 parents' only cliild, had inherited, along 
 with the Mannersby poverty, a tolerably 
 fair share of the Mannersby self-will. 
 
 And, as they looked, they both of them, 
 sighed. Percy's goodness did not go much 
 deeper than his looks. He was first lieu- 
 tenant, though by courtesy generally called 
 captain, in an expensive regiment, now on 
 service in India, and it was to meet his 
 continual applications for more allowance, 
 as well as for frequent lump sums to settle 
 his gambling debts, that old Sir Charlton 
 was doing his best to economize the Man- 
 nersby estates under Mr. Heslington's 
 management just now. 
 
 The — th Eegiment, now in Hurchester 
 Barracks, was under orders for Malta, and 
 it was pretty well understood that Percy 
 Mannersby's, the — th, would shortly sup- 
 ply its place. Lady Mannersby was look- 
 ing forward to this change with great 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 delight, because, independently of the 
 advantage o£ having the young scapegrace 
 more immediately under their own care, 
 it was the one hope and desire of her 
 maternal heart to bring about a match 
 between him and Mr. Newbury's only 
 child, Blanche, thus at once settling him 
 down, by means of matrimony, to more 
 sober courses, and establishing the for- 
 tunes of Mannersby house by the hundred 
 thousand or so which the lady could briug 
 in return for the title. 
 
 Miss Newbury was a tolerably well- 
 educated girl, plain and pleasant, and with 
 an amount of common sense which her 
 would-be mother-in-law hoped would not 
 prevent her from appreciating Percy's ad- 
 vantages of birth and position. Not that 
 Lady Mannersby would sacrifice the poor 
 girl — not in the least ; she would not have 
 given it so harsh a name as that if her
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. ^7 
 
 boy had been fifty times the weakling that 
 he was. But a mother naturally likes to 
 see her son safely married, and when he 
 can ofive an old ancestral home and a 
 splendid position to a girl who is rather 
 nowhere in the social scale, in return for 
 a few paltry thousands with the taint of 
 successful speculation upon them, she is 
 rather apt to view the sacrifice as coming 
 from her own side, and the moral aspect 
 of the transaction falls into insignificance. 
 Lady Mannersby was supremely comfort- 
 able whenever she thought of the marriage. 
 " The Newburys eleven, and the Deci- 
 mers, if we have them again, thirteen ; no, 
 I have counted wrong, the Decimers make 
 fifteen, and Major Cromwell, we may as 
 well ask him too, as he belongs to the 
 regiment, that is sixteen, and ourselves 
 eighteen. There, that will just fill the 
 table nicely, and then we shall not need
 
 68 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 to do anything more until Christmas. ''^ 
 And Lady Mannersby went away to 
 write the notes.
 
 69 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 
 fTlO make the people intelligible, one must 
 -^ say something about the place. 
 
 A few old men and women could re- 
 member the time when between Hurchester 
 town end on its northern side, and the 
 southernmost parish boundary of Man- 
 nersby Moorside, there stretched a good 
 seven miles of country road, bordered 
 with blossoming hawthorn hedges, dotted 
 here and there with elm and oak-trees, 
 and seldom hearing other sound than the 
 song of the sparrows and linnets who built 
 their nests year by year undisturbed with- 
 in the leafy shade.
 
 70 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 That was before tlie canal was cleared 
 and the wharf built on Hurchester river 
 side. But even when that wharf had 
 made a convenient outlet for the corn and 
 grain which the Mannersby farmers 
 formerly sent by tedious turnpike road to 
 the nearest port of Saxmouth, to avoid the 
 heavy Hurchester dues, there was still not 
 so very much traffic between the pleasant 
 old hawthorn hedges ; and the opening 
 trade of Hurchester, caused by the 
 discovery of coal and iron a few miles to 
 the south, had not caused more than a 
 very few substantially built houses to 
 spring up around the quiet town. 
 
 Twice a week Crauford's waggon — 
 Crauford was the Mannersby miller — 
 lumbered along under the elm-trees to 
 deposit its mealy contents in the ware- 
 houses of the well-to-do corn merchants 
 on the river side. Once a week Faggot^
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 71 
 
 the carrier, had his tilted cart filled with 
 rosy-cheeked countrywomen going to do 
 their shopping in Hurchester town, and 
 on the same day some half-dozen old- 
 fashioned gigs carried the better-class 
 farmers and their wives, who were too 
 well-off to need Faggot's assistance, and 
 deposited them — the wives, at least — in 
 the various drapers' shops round the 
 market-place, whence they came out laden 
 with parcels and band-boxes, to seek their 
 spouses, who had meanwhile been driving 
 a bargain at the Corn Exchange. Then 
 after a comfortable dinner at the Bull, or 
 the Jack and Dragon^ they jogged back 
 again, and came out in all the colours of 
 the rainbow next Sunday at church, 
 greatly to the admiration of the less 
 fortunate folk who had to buy their things 
 at the village shop on the green. 
 
 It was a pretty sight in those times to
 
 72 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 see Mannersby high road ou a market day, 
 early in the morning, before the dew 
 was off the buttercups under the hedge- 
 rows. 
 
 Here was a country lass, with red lips 
 and saucy, laughing eyes, who might have 
 been Pomona herself for the wealth of 
 golden apples, juicy pears, purple ripe 
 damsons and rosy " wiuesops," over which 
 she kept guard, as she drove along in an 
 open cart, with her dinner tied up in 
 a pocket-handkerchief, for she was not 
 amongst the fortunate ones who could 
 afford to do it handsomely at the Jack and 
 Dragon. There came a sturdy house- 
 mother, half buried between two great 
 baskets of cabbages, and behind her Hebe 
 and Flora, in the persons of two strapping 
 young girls, carried armfuls of " polly- 
 ants," full blown dahlias, sweet-smelling 
 roses, or turn-cap lilies, with which for fun
 
 LITTLT] MISS PRIMROSE. 73 
 
 they would now and then tickle the ears 
 and noses of the country lads, actual or 
 possible admirers, who passed them on the 
 road, liugering for a little friendly chat 
 nnobserved by the matron of the cabbage- 
 baskets. Next came the gardener with 
 liis more pretentious hand-cart, filled with 
 pots of fuchsia, calceolaria, geranium, or 
 lemon plant, which he hoped to sell at a 
 shilling a piece ; and he too could afford a 
 joke with Hebe and Flora, though they 
 knew better than to tickle him with 
 powdery turn-cap lilies, a man that might 
 bring back his solid gold sovereigns from 
 the market that night, and who had been 
 known to take a prize at the Mannersby 
 flower-show for the best plant of garden 
 grown dusty miller. 
 
 After him the henwife, with her care- 
 fully covered baskets of eggs, and her 
 little boy trudgiug along at her side with
 
 74 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 an unruly company of clacking, full-fed 
 cbickens dangling by the feet from both 
 his hands. Poor little lad ! much trou- 
 bled when he wanted to use his pocket- 
 handkerchief, or when the flies would 
 settle on his shiny face ; but, nevertheless, 
 it was a fine treat for him to go to market 
 with his mother and look in at the shop 
 windows, and think that some day he 
 might go apprentice himself, for his father 
 was saving up money even now to make a 
 grocer of him, and then wouldn't it be 
 grand ? And mingled in the troop of 
 buyers and sellers were country bumpkins 
 dressed in their best, going to look after 
 situations in Hurchester town, with their 
 "carakters," the accent always carefully 
 placed on the penultimate syllable, neatly 
 wrapped up in a piece of newspaper and 
 pinned into their pockets. And how they 
 all — Pomona, Hebe, Flora, henwife, cab-
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 7d 
 
 bage woman, bumpkins, and chicken boys 
 • — had a kindly word and a laugh and a 
 jest and a greeting for each othei?, as they 
 trudged along in the early morning sun- 
 shine to try their day's luck in the 
 market. 
 
 But years had changed all this, and not 
 for the better, as some old-fashioned 
 people thought. 
 
 First of all the Commander-in-chief, 
 struck by the healthy situation of the 
 up-lying lands on the northern side of 
 the city, swept as they were by the 
 health-giving breezes of the Mannersby 
 moors, chartered a square mile of them 
 for barracks ; and now for five and twenty 
 years past, Hurchester had been the head- 
 quarters of a cavalry regiment, which 
 formed almost a little town in itself just 
 midway between the old city and Man- 
 nersby village, and which was a fine
 
 76 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 source of profit to the shopkeepers, though 
 female heads of families had quite a dif- 
 ferent story to tell about it. For, as they 
 said, it was more than you could do to 
 send your servant out on an errand after 
 dark, now that those idle red-coats were 
 always lounging about the streets and 
 tempting girls into the public-houses, to 
 say nothing of establishing themselves as 
 followers, until you could not get a decent 
 cook for love or money who had not a 
 cousin or something of that sort in the 
 barracks. 
 
 Hurchesler had scarce been singled out 
 for promotion by the Commander-in-chief, 
 when the Midland railway followed, threw 
 its iron lasso over the neck of the steady 
 old place, and drew it into the vortex of 
 commercial life, making it the centre of 
 communication between two great manu- 
 facturing towns, and building, besides the
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 77 
 
 grand passenger station on the south side 
 of the city, a goods siding in little Man- 
 nersby itself for the benefit of the bar- 
 racks and the grain traffic of that part of 
 the country. 
 
 Of course the railway brought no end of 
 business to the place, and the barracks no 
 end of popularity, and within fifteen years 
 of the time when the cavalry lines were 
 planned out and the first sod of the new 
 railway turned, villas, lodges, crescents, 
 terraces had supplanted the blossoming 
 hedgerows of the old country road ; the 
 road itself was lighted with gas right up 
 to Mannersby parish boundary, and instead 
 of the cawing of rooks in the old elm- 
 trees, and the chirping of sparrows in the 
 sweet-smelling hawthorn, there were smart 
 nursemaids gossiping with smarter sol- 
 diers, and drunken quarrels now and 
 then — for public-houses had not failed tO'
 
 78 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 appear with tlie other improvements — and 
 the fairest of all the meadows between 
 Hurchester and Manuersby had been 
 turned into a tea-gardeti, where, as the 
 country people very truly said, "a deal 
 went on." 
 
 Good-bye now to the troops of rosy- 
 faced country folk trudging with their 
 garden-stuff to Saturday market. Pomona 
 booked her apples and damsons by luggage- 
 train. Hebe and Flora took third-class 
 returns for elevenpence-halfpenny, the 
 ^' pollyants" and powdery turn-caps being 
 packed under the seats to spend their 
 sweetness there, instead of on the sun- 
 shiny fresh air outside. The carrier's cart 
 disappeared, no one knew where, whilst 
 Faggot " went into the railway " as porter, 
 and the clacking, full-fed chickens were 
 despatched in pens by goods-van, they 
 only being much benefited by the change,
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 79 
 
 unless Tommy miglit rejoice in sitting on 
 his mothers knee half-price, and being- 
 pushed into the egg-basket when the train 
 gave an unexpected jolt. 
 
 But beyond the village, on its northern 
 side, under the crest of the wide, purple 
 moorlands, things were not so much 
 altered. Three fine old estates, covering: 
 amongst them thirty thousand acres, 
 girded it on all but the Hurchester side, 
 one of them, the oldest, and that from 
 which the village took its name, having 
 belonged for five hundred years to the 
 Mannersby family. It stretched round 
 the eastern ridge of the moor to an almost 
 deserted little village, Moor Mannersby by 
 name, whose rectory was in the family 
 gift, that of Mannersby Moorside being in 
 the gift of the Lord Chancellor. 
 
 Moor Mannersby, or Moorby as it was 
 generally called for convenience, was
 
 80 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 almost entirely inhabited by quarrymen 
 who worked amongst the limestone on the 
 other side of the moor. No gentry lived 
 in the parish, only overlookers and 
 labourers, the latter comfortably off, for 
 they got good wages and plenty of work ; 
 and the rector had an easy time of it, too, 
 living in a snug house within walking 
 distance of the Hall, and drawing seven 
 hundred a year for doing almost nothing. 
 But then, as he said, that was not his 
 fault ; for, if the moorside was so healthy 
 that nobody either fell ill or died there, 
 what could he do? 
 
 The quarries did not, alas ! belong, like 
 the living, to Sir Charlton. If they had, 
 he would have been one of the richest 
 men in the neighbourhood, despite that 
 scapegrace Percy and his gambling debts. 
 But they did the next best thing, they 
 belonged to Mr. Newbury, of Moor Park,
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 81 
 
 SO that Lady Mannersbj, when she drove 
 that way for the sake of the fresh moor- 
 land air, looked upon them already as des- 
 tined, like Blanche, for the advancement 
 of the family interests. The rest of the 
 N'ewbury property, together with the New- 
 bury mansion, a trifle too modern-looking, 
 like its owner, lay to the west of the village, 
 and between it and the Mannersby Hall 
 lands stretched the fine old property of 
 Mannersby Chase, the home of the Sutton - 
 Daresbys, those destroyers of poor old Sir 
 Charlton's peace. 
 
 And of his wife's peace too. It was not 
 so much to her that the Daresbys had 
 always taken the opposite side to the 
 Mannersbys in politics, Sir Charlton being 
 a Tory of the oldest type, whilst the Chase 
 people were advanced Liberals, nor that 
 her husband had just been beaten in a 
 lawsuit respecting a right of road through 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 part of the Chase property, though that 
 was gall and wormwood to him ; but her 
 bitterness was this, that Lady Sutton- 
 Daresby was taking precedence of her in 
 society, and that she, in consequence of 
 the failing fortunes of the Mannersby 
 house, was not able any longer to exercise 
 that unlimited hospitality which would 
 have maintained her position in the 
 county. 
 
 This was especially humiliating, because 
 ever since her marriage, now nearly thirty 
 years ago, the Sutton-Daresb^^s had lived 
 abroad, in consequence of the feeble health 
 of old Sir Thomas, the present baronet's 
 father, thus leaving her the undisputed 
 headship of the county families in that 
 neighbourhood. So that she might draw 
 the purse-strings as tightly as she liked in 
 the matter of entertainments and dona- 
 tions, and Sir Charlton might shut up the
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 83 
 
 Hall as often as convenient, and economise 
 on the Continent, still she could hold her 
 own, and drive about Mannersby and 
 Hurchester with the lofty consciousness of 
 being the highest lady in that part of the 
 land. 
 
 But now, alas ! things were very different. 
 The Daresbys had come back, and for six 
 months past the Chase had been only an- 
 other word for open-handed entertainment. 
 Not only that, too, but the younger Sir 
 Thomas was a man of scientific attain- 
 ments, and his wife was a woman of 
 cultivation above the common type, and 
 their long residence abroad had given them 
 artistic tastes, and their house was a 
 gathering-place for distinguished people 
 from all parts, so that poor old Sir Charl- 
 ton, who was rather of the agricultural 
 type, never troubling his head about 
 science, except as it might provide him 
 
 g2
 
 84 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 with a better sort of manure for his fieldy 
 or for art, save as it could reproduce with 
 sufficient fidelity the forms of his favourite 
 hunters and prize cattle, as they had once 
 appeared in the flesh, now found himself 
 almost nowhere, and, as for my Lady Man- 
 nersby, she felt that fate had done its 
 worst for her, when she walked in to 
 dinner at the Bishop's Palace with the 
 back of Lady Daresby's well- shaped, intel- 
 lectual little head for a prospect. 
 
 And it was not Lady Daresby's fault 
 either, for she was a woman who cared 
 very little about precedence. Indeed, so 
 far from wanting to go in to dinner with 
 bishops, or anything of that sort, she 
 would far rather have had for an escort 
 the quiet vicar of Mannersby, Mr. Conis- 
 ton, between whom and her husband a 
 pleasant intimacy had already sprung up, 
 founded upon their similarity of taste in
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 85 
 
 matters of science and art. Many a cosy 
 chat they had had over Sn^ Thomas's 
 cameos, and mosaics, and photographs, 
 and many a time the vicar and the baronet 
 had been closeted for whole evenings in 
 the latter's study, correcting proof sheets, 
 or making experiments, while Lady Dares- 
 by and Mrs. Coniston chatted over their 
 work in the inner drawing-room. 
 
 But that Lady Daresby would rather 
 have gone in to dinner with Mr. Ooniston 
 than the bishop, and that she and Mrs. 
 Coniston had had those pleasant little 
 confabulations in the drawing-room, made 
 matters no better so far as Lady Manners- 
 by was concerned. Rather worse. For 
 hitherto she had considered Mrs. Coniston 
 as being under her own especial patronage, 
 bound to attend upon her pleasure when 
 convenient, and to be petted and paid 
 attention to, and advised and scolded, as
 
 86 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 seemed best to the feminine aristocratic 
 mind. And now Lady Daresby, forsooth, 
 was taking her up and treating her like 
 an equal. It was not to be endured. And 
 as Lady Mannersby, with that want of 
 logic which is rather attractive than other- 
 wise in a handsome, fascinating woman, 
 always extended her dislikes to those who 
 happened to be kindly treated by the 
 people she disliked, she was now begin- 
 ning to have a bitter feeling towards Mr. 
 and Mrs. Coniston for no other reason 
 than that they did not side with herself in 
 keeping as much as possible aloof from 
 the new-comers. 
 
 This was the state of affairs when Lady 
 Mannersby sent out the notes for her two 
 dinner-parties.
 
 87 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TT was early June, and Nelly had been 
 -^ just ten days at the cottage. 
 
 Given a man of thirty, simple, genuine, 
 honest, heart-free, who has been knocking 
 about for ten years in New Zealand and 
 elsewhere, without so much as the light of 
 a woman's face to shine upon him, and a 
 girl of twenty, shy, sensitive, unworldly, 
 full of brooding thoughts and fancies, 
 which have never found their way into 
 words, longing for that door to be opened 
 which hides from her she knows not what, 
 save that it is her native land, her true 
 home and rest — and what will happen ?
 
 88 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 The foolishest person might answer 
 that. The two will fall in love with each 
 other. 
 
 Which was just what Nelly Willoughby 
 and Mark Heslington were doing. 
 
 Though, as yet nothing had been said 
 about it. Mark knew his own mind well 
 enough, but he was not quite sure that 
 Nelly knew hers. He could not make her 
 out. Sometimes there was a look in her 
 eyes which made his very heart thrill with 
 delight ; then she would keep out of his 
 way, on purpose, as it seemed to him, 
 always avoiding meeting him, flying off if 
 he chanced to cross her path in the gar- 
 den. And whereas that first day or two 
 she had talked away to him quite brightly 
 and pleasantly, she would now shut up if 
 he came into the room, and most probably 
 make an excuse for getting away some- 
 where, instead of ever letting him see that
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 89 
 
 she at all appreciated liis efforts to enter- 
 tain her, and make the visit a pleasant 
 one. Clearly it was no use saying a word 
 yet. That might only spoil everything. 
 And then there were the temporalities. 
 
 For old Sir Charlton made no sign about 
 the agency, whether it was to be perma- 
 nent or not. The arrangement between 
 them had been that Mark was to take three 
 months' notice, and, of course, until that 
 three months' notice was given he felt 
 himself bound to his present work. Sir 
 Thomas Daresby was wanting an agent, 
 too, and that post would most likely be a 
 permanent one, as well as much more pro- 
 fitable than the Mannersby agency ; but 
 Mark was too honourable to apply for it 
 until he was sure that Sir Charlton had 
 done with him, and he was too proud to 
 ask Sir Charlton what his intentions were. 
 Nor did he think it would be rio*ht to take
 
 90 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 
 
 advantage of his own part of the agree- 
 ment, and give the old man three months' 
 notice, thus leaving him before the ac- 
 counts had been brought into proper 
 working order, and when it would be 
 almost impossible for another agent to do 
 anything with them. 
 
 It was clearly his duty to work on until 
 Sir Charlton had made up his mind what 
 to do. But if Sir Charlton did make up 
 his mind to do without an agent after 
 Christmas, and if in the meantime Sir 
 Thomas Daresby had found the man he 
 wanted, why then he himself would be 
 thrown out altogether, and have to begin 
 life afresh, and, with such a prospect as 
 that, had he any right to speak to Nelly, 
 or bind her down to wait for him months, 
 perhaps years, until he could get into 
 something which would provide a suitable 
 maintenance for her ?
 
 LITTLE MISS PKIMROSE. 91 
 
 Mark decided that he had no right to 
 do anythiog of the kind. But he could 
 not help unconsciously doing what meant 
 just the same thing for Nelly. Nay, even 
 more, for to Nelly the waiting would have 
 been so little. 
 
 But as yet she had not begun to ask 
 herself anything about that. She was 
 just absolutely and perfectly happy, Avith 
 that joy which never asks questions about 
 itself. Day by day some little fleeting 
 word, some glance that had a meaning 
 only for herself, some passing touch or 
 tone made sunshine in her heart. It was 
 so sweet to remember yesterday ; and 
 when the to-day had translated itself into 
 yesterday, to remember that was sweeter 
 stiU. And, however fair hope was, the 
 remembering was always best. 
 
 There is nothiug so beautiful as that 
 first dawnlight of love upon a girl's
 
 92 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 heart, when as yet nothing has been ask- 
 ed and nothing promised ; when every 
 touch is a surprise, every look a new 
 revelation, when the yet unrisen sun has 
 not shone upon the way to be travelled, 
 only upon the rosy and purple mists 
 which shroud it, and which seem too glori- 
 ous ever to pass away. Afterwards come 
 the milestones and turnpike-gates, in the 
 shape of friends who recommend the 
 most convenient warehouses for " furnish- 
 ing throughout;" who descant upon the 
 respective merits of Irish and Scotch 
 damask in the matter of table-cloths, 
 and suggest a Queen Anne dado for the 
 drawing-room, because it keeps the chairs 
 from making dirty marks upon the wall. 
 Most useful, only one wishes the rosy 
 clouds could have stayed a little longer ; 
 that Hebe and Aurora should not quite
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 93 
 
 SO soon have paled their vanishiDg sweet- 
 ness before the more substantial charms of 
 the London upholsterer. 
 
 Nelly had not come to the stage of 
 Queen Anne dados, or any other form of 
 mural decoration. Indeed, she was so 
 foolish a child that the dawnlight just 
 creeping so rosily over her life had no 
 connection with plate, linen, furniture, or 
 a possible establishment in the future. 
 It was dawnlight, and that was all it 
 was. 
 
 On this fine morning she sat in the 
 open bow-window of the best parlour, 
 which bow-window was exactly opposite 
 the black oak buffet, whose polished sur- 
 face had once reflected her own little 
 child face and white pinafore and blue 
 ribbons, too often soiled by the dusty 
 barley heaps or mossy apple-tree trunks
 
 94 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 whicli had to be climbed before tbe spar- 
 rows' nests could be reached. Everything 
 was the same in the quaint, old-fashioned 
 room, except that Nelly had made it 
 bright with flowers, roses, lilies, pinks, 
 lavender, wealth of grasses, and trailing 
 bramble leaves, and that she herself, there 
 in the window-seat, bright and fresh and 
 blossom-like, made one forget the spindly 
 chairs, and the scantily petticoated Hagars, 
 and the wooden baby under the cabbage- 
 tree, and the toddling Samuel in knee- 
 breeches, and the wonderful samplers 
 which blind old Mrs. Heslington had 
 worked in the days of her youth. 
 
 One could scarcely say now that Nelly 
 was not a pretty girl, though there might 
 have been some doubt about it ten days 
 before, as she took her last look of the 
 grey old minster towers of Hurchester.
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 95 
 
 As she sat there, the cluster roses bobbed 
 against her forehead, and the honeysuckle 
 tendrils played with her brown curls, 
 which were tied back with a band of 
 blue ribbon. Nelly was glad she had 
 brought plenty of that blue ribbon, be- 
 cause Mr. Heslington had once said how 
 well it suited the colour of her hair, and 
 since then she had always worn it. As 
 for her dress, it was only one of the 
 ''morning cambrics" which her mother 
 had bidden her wear, from motives of 
 economy, until it was time to pay after- 
 noon calls, or make a toilette for the seven 
 o'clock tea. You London ladies would 
 have scorned it, cut and make, and every- 
 thing ; but some of you would have given 
 half your diamonds to have a throat as 
 round and white as that which its crimped 
 muslin tucker clasped so closely ; and if
 
 96 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 your mirrors could have shown you a 
 cheek as smooth, and lips so rosily kiss- 
 able, and eyes with the shy brightness of 
 innoceuce all undimmed, you would gladly 
 have condoned for their sake a possible 
 want of style in the setting. 
 
 Kelly was hemmiug cap frills for old 
 Mrs. Heslington. If that excellent lady 
 wanted them done quickly, she, probably, 
 would not have what she wanted, for there 
 was no one else in the room, and Nelly 
 had let the work fall upon her lap, and, as 
 she leaned her head back against the stone 
 mullions amongst the roses and honey- 
 suckles, she was simply doing nothing but 
 living over again the past, and wondering 
 if the to-morrows could ever be half so 
 sweet as the yesterdays. 
 
 She had been engaged in that profitless 
 manner for nearly an hour when the sound 
 of footsteps, far off in the garden, made the
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 97 
 
 rose-red deepen on her cheeks, and the 
 idle little fingers tremble. 
 
 She took up her work, trying to appear 
 very busy, as the footsteps, Mark's strong, 
 heavy footsteps, came nearer and nearer. 
 She would not look up nor seem to see 
 him, though she had been wondering all 
 the morning whether he might, or might 
 not, pass that way. 
 
 Still less, when he did pass that way, 
 could she with a smile of conscious co- 
 quetry bid him to her side and keep him 
 there. For she loved him, and when love 
 first comes to a simple, true-hearted girl, 
 it may give her, if it will, the most 
 absolute joy upon earth, but it will never 
 give her the comfortable self-conscious- 
 ness which can invite attention, and then 
 reward it with pretty smiles and glances, 
 thinking all the while what a good thing 
 it is doing for itself, and wondering, in the 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 midst of its most carefully prepared fasci- 
 nations, how long it may probably be 
 before tlie object of them will be brought 
 to ** declare himself " in such a definite 
 manner that the plate and napery, and 
 other household furniture, may be ordered 
 forthwith. 
 
 Such love — the love that sits still and 
 will not stir from its guarded maidenliness 
 — is old-fashioned now, and much laughed 
 at by those who know better how to man- 
 ag:e their own affairs. But there are a 
 few men left, even in these advanced 
 times, who care for a girl none the less 
 because she is not always making the way 
 plain for them to come forward ; and one 
 of these men was Mark Heslington. So 
 that Nelly, if she had been the cleverest 
 woman in the world instead of just a 
 foolish little girl, could not have done any- 
 thing more charming in her lover's eyes
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 99 
 
 than pretend, for, after all, he knew it was 
 only pretence, to be so very busy over 
 that cap-frilling. 
 
 h2
 
 100 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 QTAISTDING there outside, in the broad 
 ^ June sunshine, he could not con- 
 veniently see into the room, to make sure 
 whether Nelly was alone or not, and so he 
 was obliged to content himself at first 
 with some very common-place remarks. 
 
 " I've found another bird's-nest for you, 
 Nelly." 
 
 It was always " Nelly," for that was the 
 name he had heard her called by ever 
 since she was a child, so that, unless 
 strangers were present, nothing was ever 
 said about Miss Willoughby. Indeed, as 
 he said to his sister Grace, who had her
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 101 
 
 own notions of propriety, and would liave 
 kept Mark at any rate to tlie " Miss," tliey 
 were almost the same as relations, having 
 known about each other ever since they 
 were children. It was as good as being 
 cousins, anyhow, and cousins were always 
 allowed to call each other by their Chris- 
 tian names. Whereupon Grace, who might 
 have lived close to a plate-glass window, 
 as regarded finding things out about other 
 people, and never known what was going 
 on on the other side of it, said of course it 
 was all right. 
 
 " Such a jolly nest, and only a very 
 little way up that first old elm-tree in the 
 plantation- walk. If you would let me lift 
 you up, I could put you on the bottom 
 branch quite easily, and then you could 
 look right in and touch the eggs. There 
 are five of them." 
 
 " Oh ! how pretty it must be !" said
 
 102 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 Nelly. But she did not propose, as a 
 cleverer girl would have done, that they 
 should go and look at it that very day. 
 She only went on turning down the hem of 
 the frilling, because she could do that 
 without letting the quiver of her fingers 
 be seen so much. 
 
 " Where's my sister Grace ?" 
 
 '' Gone out to see the old woman who 
 has the rheumatism." 
 
 " Why didn't you go too ?" 
 
 *' Because I wanted to get this frilling^ 
 done for Mrs. Heslington's caps." 
 
 '^ And where's my mother ?" 
 
 " She is sitting out in the back garden,, 
 crumbling up the mint to put it in bottles 
 for winter. It's been hanging up in the 
 kitchen drying for ever so long. I wanted 
 to help her to crumble it up myself, but 
 she said there were so few things she could
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 103 
 
 do now, and she wanted to spin it out as 
 long as ever she could." 
 
 Mark had no objection to her doing 
 that, so long as Nelly was sitting in the 
 bow-window, and his sister engaged in 
 comforting the old woman with the rheu- 
 matism. He came up a little more boldly 
 now, and stood close to the window, so 
 close that he was almost touching her 
 long brown curls as she leaned her head 
 against the other side of the stone frame 
 work. 
 
 '' I do think I ought to go and help her, 
 though," said Nelly, after a pause. It was 
 curious how she always found some excuse 
 for going away from Mark, and yet to be 
 with him was so pleasant. But she had a 
 sort of feeling that perhaps he might have 
 found out that she thought it was pleasant, 
 and that made all the pride in her heart
 
 104 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSB. 
 
 rise and bubble over, and she could have 
 got up and walked away, feeling just as 
 miserable as could be when she had gone 
 too far to come back. But Mark was not 
 going to be cheated this time. 
 
 " I don't think you ought to do anything 
 of the sort. Crumbling up sweet herbs 
 isn't at all troublesome. My mother likes 
 it very much, and she never cares to have 
 Grace help her when she is doing it, so she 
 won't care to have you, either. Just come 
 away, and I will show you where the nest 
 
 IS. 
 
 "No," said the perverse little maiden, 
 feeling as happy as possible all the time, 
 to think that Mr. Heslington should want 
 her to go. 
 
 And then there was another reason. 
 She had once before gone down that 
 plantation walk with him, and, as they 
 were coming back to the house, they had
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 105 
 
 met Mark's sister, not Grace, sbe never 
 took any notice of anything, unless it had 
 to do with housekeeping and poor women 
 in the parish, but Mrs. Coniston, who had 
 her eyes tolerably wide open like the rest 
 of the people. And there had been a sort 
 of look in her face, as she met them walking 
 along side by side, which bad made Nelly 
 feel horribly uncomfortable. It was not a 
 disao:reeable look at all, for Mrs. Coniston 
 was a pleasant little woman, but at the 
 same time it seemed to Kelly as if some- 
 thing had been found out about her, and she 
 would have rushed off there and then, only 
 that that would have made matters worse. 
 Not even for the delight of going with 
 Mark to see the nest would she risk meet- 
 ing his sister Miriam again. 
 
 However, she could not tell him that, 
 so she was obliged to find another 
 excuse.
 
 106 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 
 
 "No, I must not go just now; I want 
 to finisli this frilling for Mrs. Hesling- 
 ton." 
 
 ^' Nonsense !" said Mark, who had grown 
 still bolder now, and was twisting one 
 of Nelly's curls round a stem of cluster 
 roses. Nelly knew what he was doing, 
 because that old buffet was just opposite 
 the window, and its polished back was 
 exactly like a mirror, though Mark, stand- 
 ing outside in the bright sunshine, and 
 not able to see into the room at all, never 
 remembered that. 
 
 " My mother can't want it in such a 
 hurry. You will have heaps of time to 
 finish it. Come along." 
 
 '* No, I shan't have heaps of time ; I 
 shall have to go home soon." 
 
 " You will have to do nothing of the 
 sort. You came to stay a month, at the 
 very least, and you have only been ten
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 107' 
 
 days. It isn't time even to begin talking 
 about going home." 
 
 " It wasn't settled tliat I was to stay a 
 month." 
 
 " Yes, it was," said Mark, beginning to 
 be afraid — for he had had little experience 
 of a girl's heart— that Nelly did not really 
 care to be with them. " Grace said you 
 were to come for a month, and then if it 
 did you good you could stay longer. And 
 it is doing you good, it is doing you no 
 end of good, and my sister was only 
 saying the other day what a pity it was 
 you could not stay all the summer." 
 
 *' I am sure it was very good of Miss 
 Heslington," said Nelly, holding her head 
 very still, so as not to pull away the curl 
 which Mark was winding round the rose 
 stalk. 
 
 " It was not Grace who said it ; it was 
 my sister Miriam. She told Grace she
 
 108 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 hoped we should be able to persuade you 
 to stay longer, because it was so pleasant 
 for my mother to have you. I never saw 
 my mother take to anyone as she has 
 taken to you." 
 
 Nelly's heart gave a little bound. Then 
 Mrs. Coniston had not been thinking any- 
 thing disagreeable about her. All the 
 same, however, she did not want to meet 
 her again in that plantation walk. She 
 would not for the world that anyone 
 should have talked about her as she had 
 heard other young girls talked about by 
 lady-like and even well-bred women, who 
 did not scruple to speculate on the state 
 of their affections, and theh^ chances of 
 producing a favourable impression on men 
 whom they would no doubt be very thank- 
 ful to marry. If the best friend she had 
 in the world had put her name and Mr. 
 Heslington's together in that way, she
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMliOSE. 109 
 
 would have hated the ''friend" for ever 
 afterwards. 
 
 And perhaps not have been so very far 
 wrong, either. 
 
 She might have said something more 
 about the imperative necessity of getting 
 that frilling finished, but then a strange 
 thing happened. 
 
 Mark untwisted the curl from amongst 
 the roses, and then, still thinking that 
 Nelly, busy over her work, did not know 
 what he was doing, laid it quietly to his 
 lips. 
 
 Nelly saw him do it. For the room, so 
 full of shadow to him, out there in the 
 sunshine, was not a bit dark to her, who 
 had been sitting there for full two hours. 
 And that picture of herself in the bow- 
 window, and the roses and the honeysuckle 
 outside, and Mark standing behind her, 
 playing with her hair, and then kissing it.
 
 110 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 
 
 was reflected as plainly as possible in the 
 old black oak buffet. 
 
 If he had only known the joy that 
 thrilled in her simple little girlish soul, 
 and how hard she tried to go steadily on 
 with old Mrs. Heslington's cap frills just 
 as if nothing had happened. But, of 
 course, he did not know anything about 
 that. He only knew that he wanted her 
 very much to stay, and that she did not 
 seem to care half so much about it as he 
 would have liked. 
 
 *' Do you really want to go ?" he said, 
 very earnestly, at last, swinging himself 
 round to the empty place on the window- 
 seat, just opposite to her, and taking hold 
 of the frilling, and a little bit of her 
 fingers too, on pretence of making her 
 give over. ''Do you really want to go ? 
 Are you not comfortable here ?" 
 
 '' Oh ! yes;' said Nelly. ^'I like it very
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. Ill 
 
 much, and everybody is very kind. Only I 
 daresay mamma will miss me a good deal 
 at home. You see there are no more 
 of us." 
 
 And Nelly, so happy, but just as shy 
 and quiet as ever, took both her work and 
 her fingers back again, and stitched away 
 more industriously than ever, because now 
 she could not so much as look up with- 
 out seeing Mr. Heslington watching her. 
 
 Such a stupid child, as you experienced 
 flirts and coquettes might say. Why, i£ 
 you had brought a lover to that point, you 
 would have considered the thing as good as 
 settled. With a little judicious by-play 
 and a few effective glances from under 
 your half-dropped eyelids, you would have 
 pinned your victim on the spot, secured a 
 proposal from him, stayed just a few days 
 longer to make quite sure of him, and then 
 gone home, and set the dressmaker to
 
 112 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 work at once upon your trousseau. And 
 here was tliis girl, close upon twenty, old 
 enough any time during the last four 
 years to have known perfectly well what 
 she was about, just stitching away at an 
 old woman's cap frills as if nothing had 
 happened. A goose, simply a goose, look- 
 ed at in the light of the most ordinary 
 common sense. And he was behaving so 
 nicely too. She had him at her very feet, 
 if she had only known it. 
 
 '* You know you did really come for a 
 month, Nelly ?" 
 
 *' No, I didn't. And you know I wrote 
 to mamma to say I should go back at the 
 end of a fortnight." 
 
 Nelly was very sorry for that now. 
 Only it was done. 
 
 '^Well, then, will you promise me just 
 one thing?" 
 
 ^'Whatisthat?"
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 113 
 
 " That you will write to Mrs. Willougli- 
 by, and ask if she will not let you stay a 
 fortnight longer. You know we have 
 really not done anything yet of what we 
 meant to do at first. There is Beechy 
 Hollow on Saturday, that's to-morrow, and 
 the dinner-party at Lady Mannersby's on 
 Monday, and you will want at least a day 
 to rest after that, which brings you to 
 Wednesday, and you have never seen the 
 swannery, or Sir Thomas Daresby's pretty 
 things, and we have not had the walking- 
 party, and I meant one day for us to have 
 driven out to Scarcliffe, just for the sake 
 of seeing the sea. It is only fifteen miles 
 away, and there is a fisherman's place 
 where we could have had dinner, and come 
 back in the evening. There is just nothing 
 else for it, Nelly. You must write home 
 and ask your mother to let you stay." 
 
 That was all very nice, but Nelly was 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 not going to write simply for Mr. Mark's 
 asking. Mrs. Heslington must want her 
 to stay too, or, at any rate, Grace, and it 
 was rather awkward to tell Mr. Mark 
 that. 
 
 -Will yon, Nelly?" 
 
 Nelly looked away down the garden. 
 
 " There is Mrs. Decimer at the gate," 
 she said. 
 
 And true enough a tall, fair, elegantly 
 dressed woman was just in the act of 
 opening it. 
 
 " Confound Mrs. Decimer !" said Mark, 
 wdth unnecessary emphasis. 
 
 Nelly was just a little bit vexed too, for 
 Mrs. Decimer had met them once, out 
 walking, Grace and Mrs. Heslington first, 
 she and Mr. Mark a good way behind ; he 
 generally did contrive to make her walk a 
 good way behind. Mrs. Decimer had 
 smiled very brightly, and looked very
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 115 
 
 meaningly at them both, though she had 
 said little beyond wishing them a good 
 evening. Still the look was enough to 
 make Nelly want never to see her again. 
 
 She doubled up her work now in a 
 hurry. 
 
 " Mrs. Decimer won't want to see me, so 
 I needn't stay. That is a good thing." 
 
 Away went Nelly, flying straight off — 
 but not before Mrs. Decimer had seen her 
 — to warn Mrs. Heslington of the ap- 
 proach of the visitor. Away went Mark, 
 too, but only to loiter amongst the lilac- 
 trees in the back garden, where his mother 
 was crumbling the mint. Because, if 
 Nelly was not required to make her ap- 
 pearance in the parlour, there was no 
 ■earthly reason why she should not go with 
 him to see the bird's nest. 
 
 And he had his way, too; for within 
 five minutes they were both strolling along 
 
 i2
 
 116 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 the plantation- walk. And so pleasant did 
 they find it out tliere amongst the blossom- 
 ing limes and the ragged old elm-trees 
 that they neither of them found their way 
 back to the house for a full hour, when 
 JSTelly crept quietly away to her own little 
 room over the porch. 
 
 And as she remembered it all, and as she 
 nestled her head upon the honeysuckle 
 that strayed in through the open window, 
 and as she looked away over the green 
 wheat-fields towards the distant grey 
 towers of Hurchester Minster, there was a 
 shy, happy light in her eyes, and she said 
 no more to herself — 
 
 '' Ah, me ! If only something would 
 happen."
 
 117 
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RS. DECIMER might deserve con- 
 foimdiDg, or she might not. Most 
 probably, seeing that her coming had 
 secured to Mark a whole happy hour with 
 Nelly in the plantation walk, he might be 
 disposed to deal more leniently with her. 
 But anyhow she must be accounted for. 
 
 Her husband then, the Rev. Fabian 
 Decimer, was chaplain to the troops quar- 
 tered in Hurchester Barracks. 
 
 Now for a long time the Church of 
 England soldiers in Hurchester had had 
 what was stigmatized by the bishop and 
 the archdeacon, and all the rest of the
 
 118 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 clergy, as " most disgraceful accommoda- 
 tion for public worship." Indeed, without 
 any exaggeration, they might almost have 
 been said to have had no accommodation 
 at all, when compared with those of other 
 denominations, seeing that, when the men 
 who had written themselves down Wes- 
 leyans had been marched to the pretty 
 little chapel in the High Street, and the 
 Independents to Ebenezer in the market- 
 place, and the Baptists to Salem at the 
 next corner, and the Eoman Catholics to 
 St. Wilfrid's, such warriors of the rank 
 and file as were still faithful to the church 
 of their fathers had the bread of life dis- 
 pensed to them in a room which, during 
 the rest of the week, was used for the 
 distribution of dry stores, and which was, 
 even on the Sabbath Day, pervaded by an 
 unholy odour of eatables. 
 
 It was chiefly owing to the late bishop's
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 119 
 
 efforts that things were now done more 
 respectably. He had represented the 
 matter to the authorities at the Horse 
 Guards, and the authorities at the Horse 
 Guards had granted a piece of ground just 
 within the barrack property to build a 
 church upon. They gave, moreover, a 
 liberal sum towards the erection of the 
 church, and it was to be served by the 
 regimental chaplain, who would receive 
 the usual government pay. 
 
 But something much more useful than 
 an exclusively military church was in the 
 bishop's thoughts when he plied the Horse 
 Guards so successfully. 
 
 A large population, spiritually unpro- 
 vided for by the Church of England, had 
 sprung up along the once uninhabited 
 country road between Hurchester and 
 Mannersby Moorside, and he desired 
 these to be included in the proposed
 
 120 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 
 
 accommodation. So he raised subscrip- 
 tions right and left, contributed liberally 
 himself, got donations from the great 
 ecclesiastical societies, saw the building 
 started, lived long enough to choose the 
 designs for the stained glass windows, and 
 then died, leaving one of them to be put 
 up as a memorial to himself. Almost the 
 first act of his successor was to open the 
 pretty new Gothic church, which was 
 capable of accommodating at least three 
 hundred people, besides the troops for 
 which it was originally intended. These, 
 of course, had their sittings free. For the 
 outsiders there was an offertory weekly, 
 and this went, after church expenses had 
 been paid, towards increasing the pay of 
 the chaplain. 
 
 To do other people justice, the excellent 
 bishop, now reposing so quietly under his 
 canopy in Hurchester Cathedral, had not
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 121 
 
 been the only one to take thouglit for the 
 spiritual welfare of the masses which the 
 new barracks had drawn together on the 
 Mannersby Moorside road. The Inde- 
 pendents had built a new little chapel, and 
 were managing to get it well filled, too, 
 owing to the active ministrations of a 
 clever young man from Hoxton, who had 
 lately received a call to its pulpit. And 
 the Eoman Catholic edifice of St. Wilfrid 
 was most conveniently situated both for 
 the soldiers and for the general inhabit- 
 ants, so that it behoved the Church of 
 England to look to its own interests, or 
 there would soon be no congregation left 
 to build a place for. 
 
 Also it must take care that whoever 
 was placed over the new district church of 
 St. Martin, should be a man who could 
 hold his own, or at any rate make the 
 services attractive enouo^h to secure a
 
 122 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 good attendance, and, in consequence, 
 good offertories. The first chaplain had 
 done this very well for a time, novelty, 
 doubtless, having helped to fill the seats 
 not set apart for the troops. But the 
 people were already beginning to drop 
 away, some to St. Wilfrid's, where the 
 music was very good, and the decorations 
 exquisite, some to the Independent chapel, 
 where a spice of heterodoxy in the minister 
 was more piquant than either music or 
 decoration, and some to Ebenezer in the 
 market-place, where the doctrine was of 
 the safest and most moderate, when, after 
 the first chaplain incumbent had held the 
 living about three years, he was promoted 
 to a vicarage elsewhere, and the Rev. 
 Fabian Decimer came to St. Martin's. 
 
 Mr. Decimer had been junior of the 
 numerous clergy belonging to one of the
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 123 
 
 most advanced ritualistic Loudon cliurcheSy 
 and, therefore, came to liis new post with 
 a reputation for devotedness and hard 
 work which, from the beginning, he fully 
 justified. Indeed, the only complaint 
 which the churchwardens ever made, was 
 that he worked too hard, and that the 
 bells of the church, which were not of the 
 thickest or most expensive metal, would 
 be likely to want replacing at no very 
 distant interval, in consequence of the in- 
 cessant ringing to which they were now 
 subjected. 
 
 The Hurchester and Mannersby people 
 soon found out all about him, as they 
 somehow or other managed to do about 
 everyone who came into their midst. He 
 was of moderately good family, had uncles, 
 cousins, and a brother in the church, had 
 taken his degree — not a poor one either —
 
 124 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 at Magdalen, was possessed of no private 
 means, and had been married for the last 
 six months to a lady fair and fascinating 
 enough to have captivated St. Anthony 
 himself. 
 
 So much for Mr. Decimer. Concerning 
 the lady, neither Hurchester nor Manners- 
 by had been able to discover anything quite 
 so definite ; and when she had been living 
 amongst them for nearly half a year they 
 were about as wise as ever. Beautiful she 
 was, without a doubt, and of a beauty 
 which could hold its own even amongst 
 the aristocracy of city and county. Some 
 of the officers said that such a pretty 
 woman had made a mistake in becoming 
 Mrs. Decimer. Others, chiefly steady- 
 going, elderly dowagers, gave it as their 
 opinion that a devoted, self-denying, and 
 scholarly man like the new chaplain had
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 125 
 
 made a far greater mistake in givino- his 
 heart to a mere fashionable doll. Others 
 said they were an odd pair, but then odd 
 pairs often fitted into each other very 
 comfortably, and that appeared to be the 
 case with Mr. Decimer and his wife. And 
 others, perhaps the most far-seeiug of all, 
 said they thought the new incumbent of 
 St. Martin's was just that sort of man 
 that a clever, designing, and pleasant- 
 mannered woman could come round over 
 and marry whenever she chose. 
 
 However, they " got on " very nicely 
 together. True, Mrs. Decimer never 
 visited about amongst the soldiers' wives, 
 took no interest in Sunday schools, sewing- 
 classes, mothers' meetings, or the like ; 
 and as for setting foot inside the hospital, 
 would never have thought of doing such a 
 thing, although when Mr. Decimer first
 
 126 LITTLE .MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 made her acquaintance she had been one 
 of the most promising lay members of the 
 sisterhood which worked so well under his 
 management. Still she was useful in her 
 way. She decorated the church with ex- 
 quisite taste, smiled upon the soldiers and 
 barrack-women so sweetly that they could 
 almost have mistaken her for an angel of 
 light, and made herself so agreeable 
 generally to the upper class people of the 
 neighbourhood that the congregations, 
 looih of the Independent and Roman 
 Catholic churches, were perceptibly les- 
 sened, whilst the offertories of St. Martin's 
 as perceptibly increased. So, on the 
 whole, she might be said to be, viewed 
 practically, a very efficient clergyman's 
 wife, though a few old-fashioned folks 
 insisted upon it that they should like to 
 .know a little more about who she was,
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 127 
 
 and where she came from, before they 
 
 admitted that she was everything that 
 could be desired.
 
 128 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 T)UT Lady Mannersby, who was always 
 -'-^ kind and courteous to strangers, 
 gave it as her opinion that Mrs. Decimer 
 was a thoroughly well-bred woman. After 
 that, what could anybody require more ? 
 
 Mr. Decimer did not go much into 
 company. He was too much absorbed in 
 the duties of his profession, as his wife 
 said, with the sweetest of smiles, when 
 apologizing for his absence from one and 
 another of the cosy little social gatherings 
 which she enjoyed so keenly. 
 
 He made great changes in St. Martin's ; 
 introduced daily morning and evening
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 129 
 
 prayers ; had all the fasts, festivals, and 
 saints' days observed, until, as one of the 
 ringers quaintly complained, following in 
 the churchwardens' track, '' them there 
 poor bells never had no rest," was constant 
 in visiting the soldiers, and gathering 
 them for religious instruction — in short, 
 devoted himself to his work like a man 
 who has no other interest in life. Such a 
 contrast, everyone said, to his predecessor, 
 Mr. Brajbrook, who was always strolling 
 about with young ladies, or going to 
 badminton and croquet-parties, and trjang 
 how pleasant a thing, instead of how use- 
 ful a thing, he could make of barrack 
 life. 
 
 Such a contrast, as Lady Mannersby 
 once remarked to Sir Charlton, even to 
 their own vicar, Mr. Coniston, who, though 
 kind-hearted enough, and clever and hard- 
 working, and all that sort of thing, never 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 opened liis churcli from one Sunday even- 
 ing to the next Sunday morning except 
 for a little service on Wednesdays, and 
 •who took no more heed of festivals and 
 saints' days than if they had never been 
 invented. 
 
 '' I thought you didn't go in for that 
 sort of thing yourself, my dear," said Sir 
 Charlton, when his wife thus remarked 
 the vicarial shortcomings. " I remember 
 very well you were quite annoyed when 
 you first heard of the changes that were 
 being made at St. Martin's." 
 
 '* I don't go in for it, my dear, you know 
 that well enough, and so I am more likely 
 to be impartial. But still, you know, when 
 one comes to think about it, it is a pity 
 not to give a little more attention to things 
 which, after all, do have an effect upon 
 one's devotional feelings. And with a
 
 LITTLE MISS PKIMEOSE. 131 
 
 €"hurcli SO adapted as ours is to an effec- 
 tive Catholic ritual." 
 
 ''Nonsense, my dear. Don't you go 
 troubling yourself about our churcb. It 
 does very well indeed as it is. And you 
 wouldn't like to change your nice comfort- 
 able pew for one of those stiff-backed 
 chairs, with perhaps a tallow-chandler's 
 wife sitting next you, for that is one 
 of the things they go in for at St. 
 Martin's, all free and equal in public 
 worship." 
 
 "Oh! no, Charlton, not that! Mrs. 
 Decimer was so sweet about it when she 
 first saw me in the church. I went, you 
 remember, that night you were ill and did 
 not care to go out, and I just sat down 
 anywhere, only, of course, keeping well 
 towards the top, amongst the better sort 
 of people, because I knew you wouldn't 
 
 k2
 
 132 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 have liked me to clo any thing else, my 
 dear, now would you ?" 
 
 " Of course not, Bertha. I should hate 
 to know that your dresses had ever 
 been trodden upon by any feet less- 
 clean than Snap's and Dido's. And the 
 way those people don't wash themselves^ 
 too." 
 
 " Yes, I knew you wouldn't like it. And 
 the very next morning Mrs. Decimer called 
 upon me, on purpose to say how concerned 
 she had been to see me sitting there, and 
 to^tell me that whenever we liked to go 
 again there should be seats reserved for us 
 in the first row of the officers' side. So 
 kind and thoughtful of her, was it not ? 
 And she said, too, that she would have 
 cushions put in, and everything made as 
 comfortable as possible, because, you know, 
 as I said to her, it was not likely that a 
 man in your position would like to go and
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 133 
 
 take his place down amongst all sorts of 
 people." 
 
 " Yery kind indeed of her, Bertlia, very 
 kind," said the old baronet, who was ac- 
 customed to have his own prayer-book 
 mounted upon a huge crimson velvet 
 cushion in the family pew of Mannersby 
 church, and would have thought the 
 world was coming to an end if any of the 
 smaller fry of the parish had presumed to 
 leave the sacred edifice before he and his 
 lady had disappeared, preceded by a 
 powdered footman, through their own 
 private door into the Hall grounds. 
 " Pray tell Mrs. Decimer that I think she 
 has behaved very nicely, and I hope yon 
 gave her to understand that I quite ap- 
 preciate the attention. Not, however, that 
 I should ever leave my own parish church 
 to become a regular attendant at St. 
 Martin's."
 
 134 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 *' Oil I no, Charltoi], of course noty 
 nothing of the sort, and I am sure Mrs. 
 Decimer quite understands that, in our 
 position, certain duties are expected from 
 ■us, whatever our own private feelings may 
 be. But still, you know, one can't help 
 feeling the contrast when one sjoes to a 
 really artistic church. Such, lovely altar 
 furniture as they have at St. Martin's. 
 Do you know, Charlton, some ladies in one 
 of those London sisterhoods have sent Mr. 
 Decimer a complete set of frontals for the 
 different festivals. Mrs. Decimer took me 
 across into the vestry on purpose to see 
 them last time I called, and she says she 
 means to get the ladies of the congregation 
 interested about it, and have all the rest 
 of the things to match, markers, and alms- 
 bags, and pede-mats, and fald-stools, and 
 everything. It did make me wish Mrs.
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 135 
 
 Coniston would get something of the kind 
 in our church. If she had the least bit of 
 proper spirit, she would go round amongst 
 the people and interest them in the 
 matter." 
 
 " Nonsense, Bertha," said Sir Charlton, 
 who foresaw subscriptions in the distance, 
 if this sort of thing went on. " Mrs. 
 Coniston is much better employed in teach- 
 ing the poor women of the parish how to 
 clothe themselves and their children de- 
 cently, and no one can say she does not 
 give herself trouble enough about that. 
 We don't want alms-bags, and frontals, 
 and vestments. I have enough to do as 
 it is, every Christmas, with covering my 
 labourers' backs, without having the vicar's 
 to cover too." 
 
 *' Of course, Charlie. I wasn't meaning 
 that you should do anything, especially as
 
 136 LITTLE MISS PRIMUOSE. 
 
 tlie living is not in our gift. I was only 
 thinking how much more satisfactory it is 
 to worship in a church where all these 
 things are properly attended to. I am 
 sure it puts me quite out of patience 
 sometimes now, to see in what a slovenly 
 way Mr. Coniston conducts the service. 
 And then Mrs. Coniston always managing 
 as she does to pick up with the Daresbys 
 as they come out of church. It is such 
 toadying." 
 
 " Why, my dear, you never used to call 
 it toadying if she happened to pick up 
 with you when first they came to the 
 parish, and I am sure in those days you 
 used to beckon her up to you for some- 
 thing or other nearly every Sunday. To 
 my mind Mrs. Coniston is not at all a 
 toadying woman." 
 
 '*Wait until you see, Charlton. Mrs. 
 Decimer tells me that neither Mr. nor
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 137 
 
 Mrs. Coniston ever takes a thing iu Laud 
 now without cousultiug the Sutton-Dares- 
 bys first, and what do you call that but 
 toadying ? And Sir Thomas a man who 
 will sit in his library of a Sunday morning 
 reading scientific books for hours together, 
 instead of being in his place at church ; 
 and, as for family prayers, it is much if 
 they have them at all." 
 
 And Lady Manuersby, who never failed 
 to gather all the house-servants together 
 before breakfast, from the butler himself 
 down to the little girl who had just been 
 taken on to feed the poultry, and used to 
 read most of the church prayers and the 
 psalms for the day to them, looked as a 
 woman has a right to look under such 
 circumstances. 
 
 From this conversation it may be in- 
 ferred that mj lady was not unprepared to 
 go over to the enemy, and that the enemy,
 
 138 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 in the person of Mrs. Decimer, was not 
 unprepared to give lier a welcome. 
 
 And, in truth, Mrs. Decimer, with all 
 her apparent simplicity and gracefulness, 
 was as clever a woman as ever found her- 
 self thrown upon the world, to make her 
 way through it as comfortably and success- 
 fully as possible. 
 
 Her mother, a Frenchwoman and a 
 widow, had died some three or four years 
 before, leaving her and her younger sister, 
 Petsie, in the care of a respectable old 
 body, Madame Clermont by name, who 
 boarded, lodged, clothed, and generally 
 ^' did for them," in consideration of a hun- 
 dred a year, which was all their mother 
 had been able to leave for the mainten- 
 ance of both. When Celia, the elder girl, 
 was old enough to be able to do something 
 for herself, old Madame came to London
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 139 
 
 with her charge, — Mr. Lavendale, their 
 father, having been an Englishman, — and 
 settled in a conple of rooms in Gower Street, 
 intending Celia to take pupils for French, 
 and so make a little extra money for Miss 
 Petsie's education. 
 
 But Miss Lavendale, after due considera- 
 tion, determined to launch herself upon 
 quite a different career, and one which at 
 first sight might have appeared somewhat 
 unpromising for the end she had in 
 view, a comfortable marriage. She adopt- 
 ed the religious style of dress, went in for 
 crosses, rosaries, and severe garments, 
 entered herself as lay member of a sister- 
 hood connected with one of the most 
 advanced ritualistic churches in London, 
 and took upon herself, not the visiting of 
 the sick, but the decoration of the church 
 for the various festivals of the Christian
 
 140 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 year, that being, as she said, the work for 
 which she felt within herself an especial 
 vocation. 
 
 She was so sweet, so jo^entle ; she 
 attended all the services so regularly, she 
 -arranged the flowers so exquisitely, and 
 she was so submissive to all the directions 
 given to her by her spiritual superiors, 
 that she soon won the heart of Fabian 
 Decimer, the junior curate of the clergy 
 house, weaned him from his purpose of 
 devotion to a celibate life, and, within a 
 year of her entrance upon the lay member- 
 ship, she bade good-bye to the little lodg- 
 ing in Gower Street, and settled down, 
 with the junior curate as her husband, in 
 a Brighton parish, having first generously 
 promised to do what she could for her 
 younger sister, Petsie. 
 
 For a while she was not able to do very 
 much towards redeeming this promise, her
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 141 
 
 husband's new curacy, together with her 
 own fifty pounds a year, not providing 
 them with quite so much as they needed 
 themselves. But before they had been 
 married six months, Mr. Decimer received 
 and accepted the offer of the military 
 chaplaincy at Hurchester barracks, an 
 appointment which just doubled his in- 
 come, not to speak of '' increments," as the 
 churchwardens grandly called them, which 
 would undoubtedly arise from the offer- 
 tories, as the congregation improved. 
 
 Petsie, a blonde maiden of sweet nine- 
 teen, and with almost as fine a talent for 
 self-advancement as her sister's, was now 
 told that as soon as the house was fur- 
 nished, and a few likely acquaintances 
 gathered together, she should come and 
 pay a long visit to Hurchester. And as 
 the young lady said to herself when she 
 read Celia's letter, and heard what a great
 
 142 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 -deal of nice society there was in the 
 neighbourhood of the barracks, it would 
 be hard if something did not come of 
 it.
 
 143 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 OUCH were tlie circumstances under 
 ^^ which the He v. Fabian and Mrs. 
 Decimer came to Hurchester. 
 
 Fabian, undeceived within a month or 
 two of his marriage, and grieved at heart 
 to find that his wife had no real love for the 
 church of which she had at first appeared 
 so obedient a daughter, devoted himself 
 with more energy than ever to his work. 
 In his own way, and according to his own 
 lights, he soon began to do noble service 
 amongst the soldiers under his care, win- 
 ning them not less by his sympathy than 
 by that self-denying life which gave itself
 
 144 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 neither rest nor indulgence wliilst souls 
 were perishing. To bring men into the 
 only fold which he himself acknowledged — 
 that of the English church, and to pre- 
 serve them in that fold by the sacraments 
 which he possessed the solemn right of 
 dispensing; this was his work, and he 
 did it with a strength and a courage and 
 an earnestness only possible to a man 
 who has heart and interest in nothing 
 else. 
 
 Mrs. Decimer made no trouble of the 
 diligence which left her husband little time 
 for domestic companionship. She had not 
 married for domestic companionship. In- 
 deed, it would have been rather a trouble 
 to her than otherwise to have had a 
 terribly earnest man like Fabian always 
 talking to her about his work, or suggest- 
 ing ways by which she might help him in 
 it. But she had her own plans, which
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 145 
 
 she followed steadily and not without 
 success. 
 
 She knew that her husband's income 
 could be increased by the offertories, and 
 that the offertories depended upon the 
 congregation, and that the congregation 
 depended upon getting certain families of 
 distinction to attend the church ; and 
 therefore she set herself to become 
 popular with the upper class people of the 
 place. 
 
 With the keen common -sense of a 
 thorough-going woman of the world, she 
 saw how things were going in Mannersby 
 society. There was the Hall scarcely on 
 speaking terms with the Chase, though 
 obliged to keep up an outward appearance 
 of the smoothest cordiality. Then there 
 was the Park, with its dangerously thin 
 coat of electro-plate, anxious above all 
 things to look well beside the solid silver 
 
 A'-OL. I. L
 
 ]46 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 of the aristocracy, to have its carriages 
 built, its rooms furnished, its clothes made, 
 and its religion performed just like theirs. 
 The vicarage was leaning towards the 
 Chase in consequence of similar literary 
 and scientific tastes. The Hall, which 
 had no literary or scientific tastes, was 
 quite ready to drop the vicarage, not 
 because the vicarage had done anything 
 wrong, but only because the Cbase had 
 manifested a disposition to be kind to 
 it. 
 
 Now, if this little rift between the Hall 
 and the vicarage could be widened ; if Sir 
 Charlton, who, above all things, prided 
 himself upon being a churchman of the 
 good old-fashioned high-and-dry type, 
 could be made to feel a little shaky 
 about Mr. Coniston's doctrines, and if 
 Lady Mannersby, who dearly loved to be 
 first with those upon whom she shed the
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 147 
 
 lip'ht of her countenance, could be roused 
 to jealousy by learning bow very intimate 
 the vicar s wife was becoming with Lady 
 Sutton-Daresby, whom she disliked as 
 much as a consistent churchwoman can 
 be supposed to dislike anyone — and that 
 is a great deal — and then if, in conse- 
 quence of these doubts and jealousies, the 
 Hall could be brought over to even an 
 irregular attendance upon the services of 
 St. Martin's church, why, then the con- 
 gregation and the offertories, and her hus- 
 band's income would be safe, and Mrs. 
 Decimer would be a successful woman. 
 
 Already the Newburys, who, having no 
 old family traditions to fall back upon, 
 were very particular about the style of 
 everything that they patronized, had been 
 frequently to the military church, Mrs. 
 Decimer having won them entirely by 
 her sweetness and affability, and then 
 
 l2
 
 148 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 assured tliem that no one witli the least 
 pretensions to good taste and breeding 
 ever identified himself with any but that 
 party in the church to which her husband 
 belonged. 
 
 "Indeed, my dear Mrs. Newbury," said 
 the new chaplain's wife, in one of her 
 earliest calls upon the Park people, ** I 
 felt sure from the very first that you and 
 Miss Newbury had the real artistic feel- 
 ing in matters of this kind, and, there- 
 fore, I fully expected that you would soon 
 join us at St. Martin's, simply because it 
 is utterly impossible that you could find 
 anything to meet your wishes in that 
 wretched little hole of a church at Man- 
 nersby, where everything is so old-fashion- 
 ed and common." 
 
 That pleased Mrs. Newbury very much, 
 for, though a sensible woman in many 
 things, she would have said her prayers
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 149 
 
 on tlie top of Hurchester Minster towers 
 every Sunday morning of her life, if by 
 doing so she could have gained a reputa- 
 tion, not for sanctity, but for '^ superior 
 -artistic taste." 
 
 '* And," Mrs. Decimer continued, "Lady 
 Mannersby would give anything to be able 
 to come regularly to St. Martin's, because 
 she enjoys a well-conducted Catholic 
 ritual so thoroughly ; only, you know, 
 poor dear old Sir Charlton is so odd, 
 and thinks they ought to keep to the 
 Conistons, because of the family pew, and 
 that sort of thing, as if a family pew 
 ought to go against one's conscience ; but 
 Lady Mannersby wouldn't for the world 
 contradict her husband, and so she only 
 comes to us now and then, though, as 
 she tells me, if she could have her own 
 way, she would nevei' set foot in the parish 
 church again, because it has seemed to
 
 150 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 her almost as common as dissent, now that 
 she has once seen what real artistic feeling^ 
 is in worship." 
 
 That was enough. Down came the 
 Newbury barouche and pair to St. Mar- 
 tin's the very next Sunday morning, and 
 the colour-sergeant, who acted as clerk, 
 and between whom and Mrs. Decimer a 
 telegraphic system of signs had been es- 
 tablished, put its occupants into the chairs 
 adjoining Lady Mannersby's, so that Mrs. 
 Newbury felt her godliness was more pro- 
 fitable than ever — at least, so far as it had 
 the promise of the life that now is. 
 
 With Mrs. Coniston, a quiet, simple, 
 hard-working woman, like her brother 
 Mark, somewhat independent and straight- 
 forward, Mrs. Decimer was always scru- 
 pulously polite ; for, as she said confiden- 
 tially to Lady Mannersby, when the Hall 
 had been brought over tentatively to the
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 15 J 
 
 side of the enemy, there was nothing she 
 considered so underbred as jealousy be- 
 tween clergymen's wives living in the same 
 neighbourhood. And besides, it made no 
 difference to Mr. Coniston whether he had 
 a few people more or less in his church, 
 for the pay was there all the same, and 
 really St. Chad's was such a stuffy, ill- 
 ventilated little place that, the smaller the 
 congregation was, the more chance those 
 had who did go of listening to the service 
 in comfort. She really could not under- 
 stand why Mrs. Goniston felt so bitter 
 about one or two people in her husband's 
 parish going to St. Martin's now and then. 
 It showed such a mean, small spirit, so 
 unworthy of a clergyman's wife. 
 
 Lady Mannersby rather liked that. Mrs. 
 Decimer knew she would, aud Mrs. Deci- 
 mer had a fine appreciation of human 
 nature. When a lady who has been ac-
 
 152 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 customed to consider herself as the ac- 
 knowledged head of society in a small 
 country place, has reason to suspect that 
 she is being supplanted by a new-comer 
 who can exercise a wider, more generous 
 hospitality, and when the wife of her own 
 vicar, whom she has hitherto considered a 
 simple convenience for being talked to, 
 lectured, petted, and patronized, begins to 
 feel the superior sweetness of intercourse 
 with a large-hearted woman who does 
 none of these things, the large-hearted 
 woman being none other than the new- 
 comer herself, the injured one naturally 
 seeks to revenge herself upon the vicar's 
 wife by letting her see that there are other 
 churches besides the vicar's at which her 
 presence is courted and w^elcomed. Ac- 
 cordingly, she goes to them, or it, as the 
 case may be. But this going would be of 
 very little account unless the vicar's wife
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 153 
 
 were vexed by it, and the worst of Mrs. 
 Coniston's offences so far had been that 
 she showed no symptoms of being vexed 
 — just went on her way as calmly and 
 quietly and good-temperedly as ever, was 
 perfectly pleasant and courteous whenever 
 they met, and never, either by word or 
 look, took any notice of the fact that the 
 big crimson-cushioned pew in the chancel 
 of St. Chad's was not occupied so regularly 
 as of yore. 
 
 That was gall and bitterness to Lady 
 Mannersby, who had expected that at the 
 very least the vicar's wife would be torn 
 by the pangs of jealousy, especially as her 
 ladyship always took care to mention, at 
 the earliest opportunity, how it was that 
 the pew had been empty. Therefore, 
 when Mrs. Decimer, who knew how to 
 please her patroness, told her that Mrs. 
 Coniston really was jealous, and when she
 
 154 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 had invented for the occasion a few little 
 snappish remarks, which she alleged had 
 been uttered by the vicar's wife relative 
 to the emptiness of the Hall pew. Lady 
 Mannersby was conscious of a secret 
 triumph, quite different, of course, but not 
 entirely foreign to the satisfaction which 
 an Abyssinian potentate, for instance, 
 might be supposed to experience when the 
 slave he was chastising gave an unmistak- 
 able wince ; and as probably the potentate, 
 under such circumstances, would order an 
 additional blow for the satisfaction of be- 
 holding a second demonstration of pain, 
 so — still, of course, making every allow- 
 ance for the difference of circumstances 
 in a Christian country — Lady Mannersby, 
 after havino^ been assured that Mrs. Conis- 
 ton really did feel the pangs of jealousy, 
 went to St. Martin's regularly for the two 
 next Sunday mornings, and after both of
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 155 
 
 them met the vicar's wife with the blandest 
 of smiles and told her where she had 
 been. 
 
 The strangest thing of al-l was that it 
 did not affect Mrs. Coniston in the least ; 
 but, as Lady Mannersby thought it did, 
 she had her enjoyment out of it all the 
 same. 
 
 But, however, the end of it was that, 
 six months after the new chaplain came to 
 St. Martin's, the offertories had looked up 
 so considerably that Mrs. Decimer was 
 able to have her spare bed-room, which 
 had hitherto been unfurnished, neatly 
 fitted up, and then she wrote to her sister 
 Petsie to say that she should be glad to 
 see her for a long visit whenever she liked 
 to come. 
 
 Petsie wrote to say that she would come 
 on the Friday before Lady Mannersby's 
 first dinner-party ; and Mrs. Decimer, who
 
 156 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 could do almost anything she liked with 
 the Hall people now, got her an invitation 
 for it. 
 
 Accordingly, Miss Lavendale arrived at 
 Hurchester by the train from London at 
 five o'clock on Friday afternoon, changing 
 carriages there for the Manner sby station. 
 And it so happened that little Miss Prim- 
 rose, who was coming over-night to be 
 ready for the Beechy Hollow pic-nic, had 
 not been able to get the canon's basket- 
 carriage, and so had to come by rail 
 instead, and got into the same compart- 
 ment with Mrs. Decimer's sister.
 
 157 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 T3EECHY HOLLOW was a sort of rift 
 -■-^ between the high lands of the Chase 
 and Mannersby Park. A stream ran 
 through it which divided the two estates, 
 and on the Chase side were the grand old 
 beeches which gave their name to the 
 Hollow. 
 
 Tough, hoary monarchs of the wood 
 they were, yet lovely in the early summer- 
 time with such a wealth of tenderest 
 green. Through the long arching glades 
 of them you might look and look in all 
 directions, and still see nothing but the 
 big smooth stems and stooping boughs^
 
 158 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 crossed witli alternate light and sbado^, 
 and glistening as tlie sun filtered down in 
 golden sparkles from leaf to leaf. In May 
 and June the soft grey blue of the wild 
 hyacinths made, as it were, a mist beneath 
 them. In autumn-time they stood knee- 
 deep in tall brackens, through which the 
 dragon-flies darted and the bees hummed, 
 and there was scarce one of them that had 
 not listened, in sunlight, twilight, or moon- 
 light, to the old, old story of a love which 
 thought it could never die. 
 
 And if it had not been for old Sir Charl- 
 ton, who kept his affairs so very much to 
 himself, and would not tell anyone, Mark 
 Heslington least of all, what he meant to 
 do about the agency, for fear Sir Thomas 
 Sutton-Daresby should better himself by 
 the knowledge, Beechy Hollow might 
 have listened to that story again, as Mark 
 and Nelly sauntered about in its shadow,
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 1^9 
 
 through the hours of that sweet June 
 moming, whilst Grace and little Miss 
 Primrose went to gather hyacinths nearer 
 down by the stream. 
 
 As it was, however, they only got a 
 little farther, nay, perhaps a good deal 
 farther, along the wildwood path which 
 leads through the Gate Beautiful into the 
 paradise of actual betrothal. And perhaps 
 there is nothing so sweet in life as going 
 along that path, knowing, and yet seeming 
 not to know, where it will end, though all 
 the while the Gate stands wide open, and 
 no angel with drawn sword bars entrance. 
 There, within, are the proud queen roses 
 and lilies of the love that has told itself 
 out and need not fear, and there, beyond 
 them, is the marriage temple, the crown 
 and completion of all, the holy of holies, 
 from which those who enter in should go 
 out no more. And yet, somehow, wdien
 
 160 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 tlie Gate Beautiful is passed, one looks 
 back with a sort of regret to the wild 
 wood-path which led to it, to the sweet 
 little hidden blossoms which no other eye 
 had seen, and the mossy paths which were 
 for ourselves alone, and the leafy shadow, 
 and rest, and stillness, where all was 
 wonder and delight, and, as yet, no 
 admiring public had been admitted to 
 share the happiness, and give its ad- 
 vice as to the best way of reaching the 
 temple. 
 
 Because, once inside that gate, one may 
 gather queen lilies and roses, but one 
 must, at the same time, think of table- 
 linen, and how many servants one can 
 afford to keep, to say nothing of Queen 
 Anne dados, and the pattern of the dinner- 
 plates. Outside, these things have no 
 place. 
 
 Mark Heslington, treading the wild
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 161 
 
 ■w'ood-patli that day, oulj thought how 
 fair it was ; and Nelly, entering more and 
 more into the sweet consciousness of 
 loving and being loved, never stayed to 
 ask herself how much she should probably 
 have to spend over her trousseau, or how 
 soon this eligible gentleman at her side, 
 who was evidently quite able to settle in 
 life, would come to the point and in a 
 straightforward business-like way ask her 
 to be his wife. 
 
 To add to the pleasantness of it, too, 
 they felt that they had the path all to 
 themselves. 
 
 Even the violets and wind-flowers are 
 not so fair if, as we stoop to gather them, 
 fondly thinking ourselves alone, we catch 
 sight through the nearer bushes of a jDair 
 of peeping, curious eyes, which seem to 
 know so much, and would like to know 
 more. One might as well find a snake in 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 the grass, for any pleasure the wild wood- 
 path has after that. 
 
 But Grace Heslington was one of those 
 deHghtful people who never, find out 
 things. Her brother and Nelly might 
 have been engaged to each other, and she 
 would never have seen the difference. 
 Indeed, as she told her mother at the time, 
 it came upon her just like a thunder-clap 
 when she knew that her sister Miriam and 
 Mr. Coniston were going to be married, 
 though people outside had said for weeks 
 and weeks that nothins^ but that could 
 be the end of it, for it was plain to see 
 that he worshipped the very ground she 
 trod upon. It was the simple duty and 
 delight of Grace's life to make other people 
 comfortable. Any home of which she had 
 the management would be sure to become, 
 sooner or later, full of peace and good
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMBOSE. 163 
 
 will. But the little details of household 
 management, and the care of her blind 
 mother, and her visits to the sick and 
 poor in the village, took up all her 
 thoughts, and made her one of the most 
 convenient people in the world for a pair 
 of young lovers to live with. They might 
 always be stealing away together into 
 plantation walks, she Avould think nothing 
 about it so long as they did not keep the 
 meals waiting. They might loiter under 
 the oak-trees in the big meadows, and she 
 would never think they were looking for 
 anything but possible mushrooms. They 
 might come iu, shy and half conscious, 
 through the little gate which led into the 
 back-garden through the poultry yard, 
 after a couple of hours of sweetest 
 communion in the Mannersby woods, and 
 she would ask them, with the most in- 
 
 m2
 
 164 LITTLE MISS PRIxMROSE. 
 
 nocent practicality, whether tbej had 
 found any eggs in the hens' nests, and 
 ask them nothing more than that. 
 
 There is only one thing better than not 
 being a woman of observation, and that is 
 to be a woman of observation, and at the 
 same time be able to keep silence about 
 what has been observed. 
 
 This was what little Miss Primrose was 
 able to do. And it made her even more 
 valuable than Miss Heslington. 
 
 There are some women to whom life 
 affords no delight equal to that of unearth- 
 ing a " love-affair," holding it up for the 
 inspection of their friends and neighbours, 
 finding out all that can be found out about 
 it, if not a great deal more, and making 
 it one of the classics of their conversation. 
 Should this amiable process issue, as it not 
 unfrequently does, in the destruction of 
 the happiness of the two people most
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 165 
 
 nearly concerned, that is not of the slight- 
 est consequence ; nay, it adds a fresh 
 feather to the cap of the discoverer, for 
 has not the event proved that she was 
 really a woman of discernment, and that 
 there was "something in it/' or it would 
 not have come to a standstill ? It is so 
 satisfying to such people to creep along 
 like spies in the mossy woodland paths 
 which lead to the Gate Beautiful, and peep 
 out upon the unwary youth and maiden 
 who are gathering flowers there, and then 
 slink noiselessly away, and come back, 
 bringing others as unclean as themselves, 
 and then, with a shout, and a rush, and a 
 yell of feminine triumph, they spring out 
 upon their prey ; and the shade, and the 
 sweetness, and the wonder, and the mys- 
 tery of the wild wood path are all gone, 
 and if the lover and the maiden are scared 
 out into the wilderness, hunted back again
 
 1.66 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 into the dreary wastes of common-place- 
 from which they had wandered into that 
 enchanted land, so much the better. It 
 is a fine thing to have had so much dis- 
 cernment, to have done the thing so 
 cleverly. 
 
 Of this sort was not little Miss Prim- 
 rose. She had not been in Beechy Hollow 
 long on that pleasant June morning before 
 she knew more about the state of affairs 
 between Mark and Nelly than Grace Hes- 
 lington would probably know until her 
 brother was an engaged man. And her 
 heart brimmed over with good- will to them 
 both, though she spoke no word about it. 
 
 She did what was far more to the |)ur- 
 pose. She proposed to Miss Heslington,. 
 who was for the whole four of them keep- 
 ing together in a bundle all day, that they 
 two should rest under the beeches, whilst 
 Mark took Nelly higher up the bed of the-
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 167 
 
 stream, to show her a pretty little water- 
 fall which came chattering down amongst 
 ferns and mosses about a quarter of a mile 
 away. She herself had often seen it before, 
 she said, and so no doubt had Grace, and 
 it would do them more good to sit under 
 the beeches, and have a quiet talk whilst 
 the young people amused themselves by 
 finding out the beauties of the neighbour- 
 hood. 
 
 To which proposal Miss Heslington 
 readily assented, seeing in it nothing but 
 that practical common-sense for which 
 Miss Primrose was so remarkable. She 
 did not care for scenery very much herself, 
 and the stones near the waterfall were 
 dreadfully trying for one's shoes ; and so, 
 bidding Mark and Nellj^, whatever else 
 they did, not fail to be back to the beeches 
 by two o'clock, for cold chicken and goose- 
 berry tart, she settled herself down by the
 
 168 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 side of Miss Primrose, and was soon giving 
 that lady a most detailed account of old 
 Bessy Turnaby's rheumatism, how it had 
 stood out against flannel, rubbing with oil, 
 embrocations, fomentations, and decoctions, 
 but had finally given in to a most curious 
 remedy, namely, covering the parts affected 
 with brown paper, and ironing them for a 
 quarter of an hour with a moderately hot 
 flat iron. 
 
 Little Miss Primrose listened, but her 
 thoughts were far away all the time, and 
 it was a relief when Miss Heslington went 
 to sleep, having previously asked to be 
 awakened at half-past one, that she might 
 get the cold chicken ready. And Miss 
 Primrose was left to her own meditations. 
 
 She knew every tree of Beechy Hollow, 
 and she could almost have shut her eyes 
 and w^alked straight away to one on which 
 had been written, more than five and forty
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 169 
 
 years before, lier own name and that of 
 Martin Cavendish, the only son of the 
 then Bishop of Hurchester. She could 
 see the tree now, half-way down the glade 
 along which Mark and Nelly had a while 
 ago disappeared. It was a fine old tree, 
 the best and bravest in all Beechy Hollow, 
 and in those days there were not so many 
 names carved upon it, for Sir Lionel 
 Sutton-Daresby lived upon his own pro- 
 perty at that time, and the Chase was only 
 open to his personal friends, instead of 
 being free, as it became in his son's time, 
 for everybody who chose to go. 
 
 More than five and forty years ago, and 
 it was in the early April time, and perhaps 
 the violets and primroses with which he 
 wreathed her gipsy bonnet made Martin 
 Cavendish think of suggesting that she 
 should appear as Dresden China at the 
 fancy ball to which she was going next
 
 170 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 month, under the chaperonage of his mo- 
 ther. Anyhow, she did go in that cos- 
 tume, and, as we know already, achieved 
 a great success, the last of that kind she 
 Avas ever destined to achieve. 
 
 Within two months of the fancy ball, 
 Martin Cavendish was on his way to India, 
 having exchanged into a regiment which 
 was under orders for foreign service. 
 Why he went, nobody could ever quite 
 make out. His mother could have thrown 
 a good deal of light upon the subject if 
 she had chosen, but she never did choose. 
 Indeed, she was taken ill soon after that 
 ball, and was never really herself again. 
 
 Perhaps she thought she had done all 
 that a mother ought to do in nipping in 
 the bud an attachment which could never 
 have issued in a prosperous marriage for 
 her only son, especially when that rich old 
 General May by had a daughter whom he
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 171 
 
 would willingly have married into the 
 bishop's family, and who would have her 
 ten thousand a year, at the very least. 
 But it never came to that either. Martin's 
 ship touched at the Cape in going to India, 
 and Martin caught fever and died, and 
 was buried at sea, and Mrs. Cavendish 
 never looked up again. She knew then 
 that she had murdered two lives, and she 
 was glad when her own ended. 
 
 That was why the pretty Miss Primrose 
 never went to any more balls. And that 
 was why she would keep the Dresden 
 China costume until the day of her death. 
 Inside it, at the bottom of that now very 
 old-fashioned trunk, lay what looked like 
 a bit of dried-up leather, but it was really 
 that square of beech-tree bark in which 
 Martin Cavendish had carved his own 
 name and hers. Little Miss Primrose had 
 gone to the Chase soon after her return
 
 172 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 from London, and cut it out, and carried 
 it carefully away. It did not seem to have 
 hurt the tree at all, just a little wound, 
 covered with fresh bark as the years went 
 on. And spring after spring the fresh 
 young leaves came out just the same as 
 ever, and the beech mast grew and ripened 
 and fell, and now one could not even tell 
 the place where once the wound had 
 been. 
 
 So, if Mrs. Cavendish had been alive, 
 she might almost have said of that wound 
 in Miss Primrose's life. Only she did not 
 know all about it. 
 
 However, there was no cloud on the 
 dear little woman's face when, punctually 
 at half-past one, she roused Miss Hesling- 
 ton, and they spread the cloth and got the 
 cold chicken ready. And then, seeing 
 Mark and Nelly in the distance, she 
 trotted off and began to busy herself with
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 173 
 
 gathering wild flowers, so tliat they raight 
 not have the awkwardness of feeling that 
 they were being watched all the way up 
 the long glade. She had once known 
 what it was herself, and she knew what 
 Nelly would feel about it. When she got 
 back dinner was ready, and Grace was 
 asking questions about the state of Nelly's 
 shoes, and everything was as comfortable 
 as could be, no peeping eyes behind 
 the bushes in the woodland path as 
 yet.
 
 174 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 rnHEY were to leave tbe Hollow at four 
 -■- o'clock and walk over to the cottage 
 and have early tea, and then Mark was to 
 drive Miss Primrose back to Hurchester 
 in the dog-cart. Miss Primrose had a 
 little plan in her mind about that drive, 
 but she was not going to say anything 
 yet. 
 
 They had just left the Hollow, Nelly 
 feeling very conscious and happy in the 
 remembrance of having had her name 
 carved by Mark just above his own on one 
 of the beech-tree stems ; and they had 
 reached a private drive leading to the
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 175 
 
 Hall, wlien they met Mrs. Newbury's 
 pretty little park phaeton, driven, not by 
 Mrs. Newbury, but by Mrs. Decimer, at 
 whose side sat a young lady, a stranger, 
 with a definite style of London about her, 
 whilst behind them the Newbury page, 
 with a cockade in his hat and any quantity 
 of buttons on the breast of him, folded his 
 arms with an air of importance edifying to 
 behold. 
 
 Mrs. Decimer smiled one of her sweetest 
 smiles to the four pedestrians. Somehow 
 it is very easy to smile sweetly from a 
 carriage upon anyone who is walking — at 
 least, Mrs. Decimer found it so. The 
 younger lady did not smile, she only made 
 use of her wide-open blue eyes in a com- 
 prehensive gaze, chiefly directly towards 
 Mark and Nelly, who were walking behind. 
 She looked as long as she could, and she 
 even turned round a little to look as tho
 
 176 LITTLE MISS PRIMliOSE. 
 
 carriage passed. But then, spite of lier 
 London style of dress, she had an air of 
 innocent abandon about her which made 
 the turning back not quite so ill-bred as 
 it would have appeared if even Mrs. 
 Decimer had done it. 
 
 " That is surely a stranger," said 
 Mark. 
 
 ''Yes," replied his sister; ''I suppose it 
 is Miss Lavendale. Mrs. Decimer was 
 calling yesterday, you know, and she said 
 she was expecting her sister by train from 
 London that afternoon." 
 
 *' Then she came in the same carriage 
 with me from Hurchester," said Miss 
 Primrose. " Mr. Decimer was at the 
 Mannersby station to meet her. I sup- 
 pose it is nearer to the barracks than the 
 big station at Hurchester. Is she going 
 to stay a long time ?" 
 
 "I think so. Mrs. Decimer said she
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 177 
 
 Lad been wanting to have her ever since 
 they came, only they had not been able to 
 get the house nice and comfortable. She 
 said she should bring her over to call very 
 soon, because it would be so pleasant for 
 her to have some quiet friends in the 
 country. She says her sister has a perfect 
 passion for the country." 
 
 Miss Primrose said no more. She did 
 not like the appearance of Miss Petsie 
 Lavendale, nor the way in which she had 
 returned the evident glance of admiration 
 which a young oflBcer in the same carriage 
 with them had cast upon her. It might be 
 girlish innocence, or it might not; for 
 electro-plate enters into so many manu- 
 factures now, besides tea and breakfast 
 services. 
 
 Then there was the cosy little meal when 
 they got back to the cottage, and Nelly 
 sat by old Mrs. Heslington, and cut the 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 ] 78 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 toast for her, and buttered it, and prepared 
 little cress sandwiches so daintily, and 
 seemed to find out everything that the old 
 lady wanted. She was evidently quite at 
 home, and how home-like her fresh young 
 face and pleasant ways made that quaint 
 parlour appear ! They had so much to say 
 about Beechy Hollow, and Grace was so 
 anxious to know how her mother had got 
 on all day alone, and Mrs. Heslington, on 
 her part, must have a circumstantial de- 
 scription of Miss Lavendale, how she looked 
 and what she wore, because Mrs. Decimer 
 had said only the day before that her 
 sister was one of the loveliest little crea- 
 tures, so pretty and innocent and affec- 
 tionate, she was quite sure Mrs. Hesling- 
 ton would fall in love with her, and she 
 meant to bring her to call very soon, so 
 that they might have time to become really 
 intimate with each other.
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 179 
 
 "Not that I shall ever want anyone else 
 ■whilst you are here," said the old lady, 
 reaching out her hand to feel for Nelly's, 
 " and I told Mrs. Decimer I hoped I should 
 keep you for a long time yet. But it was 
 Tery kind of her, all the same." 
 
 Then Miss Primrose said it was time for 
 her to start back to Hurchester, if Mr. 
 Heslington would fulfil his promise of 
 ■driving her there in the dog-cart. And 
 here the kind little lady, who could con- 
 trive for the happiness of other people far 
 better than she had ever contrived for her 
 own, suggested the plan which had come 
 into her mind at Beechy Hollow. 
 
 ''And don't you think, Mrs. Heslington, 
 it would be very nice for Nelly to go with 
 us ? And Mr. Mark could drive her back 
 as easily as not, because it will not be at 
 all too late for her to be out. It will be 
 a treat for her father and mother to have 
 
 n2
 
 180 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 a peep at her for just half an hour, you 
 know. What do you think about it, Mr. 
 Mark ?" 
 
 '' I think it will be the very best thing 
 in the world," said Mark, with a grateful 
 look at his benefactress. What else but 
 the very best thing in the world could any 
 proposal be which would give him a seven 
 miles' drive in the summer twilight all 
 alone with the girl whom he meant one 
 day to make his wife ? *' Go away directly, 
 and get on your hat, Nelly, and we will start 
 so as to be back before it is too damp. 
 Won't it be the very thing for her, 
 Grace ?" 
 
 " Yes," said that eminently practical 
 person, '' only be sure, Nelly, that you take 
 plenty of wraps, because you meet the 
 wind coming back, and it does blow so 
 cold sometimes over the moors after dark. 
 And then, you know, you can get some
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 181 
 
 more of that blue ribbon for your hair. 
 You were saying only yesterday you had 
 scarcely any of it left, you had used so 
 much of it since you came here, because 
 Mark liked it." 
 
 If Miss Heslington only had not said 
 that, thought Nelly, her cheeks growing 
 very rosy red, because Mark had turned 
 and was looking straight at her with that 
 look which always made her feel happy 
 and uncomfortable at the same time, unless 
 they were alone, and then there was no 
 nncomfortableness at all. 
 
 But Grace, quite unconscious that 
 she had touched on delicate ground, con- 
 tinued — 
 
 " And perhaps the shops won't all be 
 shut up when you get into the city, and 
 so you might buy me a pair of double- 
 button gloves, a nice delicate lavender or 
 lemon colour, to wear with my black silk.
 
 182 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 for the dinner-party, and a flower or a 
 bow to match, just which you like, for my 
 hair." 
 
 " And," put in Mrs. Heslington, " don't 
 forget to ask your father to let you stay 
 at the very least a fortnight longer." 
 
 And so they started, Nelly sitting in the 
 back-seat of the dog-cart, as happy as a 
 little princess. Perhaps half the happi- 
 ness was because she knew she should 
 not sit there during the ride home. And 
 Mark, talking away to Miss Primrose in 
 front, kept turning round to see that Nelly 
 was comfortable, and she would give him 
 a shy look of thanks in return, which 
 made him, too, think how pleasant that 
 ride back would be, when he should have 
 her all to himself. 
 
 '' Ah ! we thought we would give you a 
 pleasant little surprise," said Miss Prim-
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 183 
 
 rose, as the dog-cart stopped in front of 
 the old red brick house in Choristers' Court, 
 and Mrs. Willoughby started to see a 
 bright, rosy face — her daughter's face — 
 peeping out behind the little lady's Pais- 
 ley shawl. '' But you need not think she 
 is coming to stay, no such gook luck for 
 you, just yet. Miss Heslington wanted 
 some little bits of finery for the dinner- 
 party on Monday, so Nelly came to choose 
 them for her, and see that they were 
 brought safely back. I wouldn't trust 
 the carefullest man in the world to bring 
 back a rose, or a bow, without sitting 
 upon it half the way. Now, doesn't 
 she look ever so much better for the 
 change ? " 
 
 Good Mr. Willoughby and his wife 
 could not but say that she did, though 
 their parental common sense never sug-
 
 184 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 gested to them that the rosy cheeks and 
 the happy smile had been produced by 
 anything less material than country air 
 with an unlimited diet of new milk, and 
 that sort of thing. However, they were 
 quite ready to agree to Miss Heslington's 
 proposal that Nelly should stay a fortnight 
 longer at the cottage. 
 
 "Unless your cousin Alice should come," 
 said her mother. ''I have had a letter 
 from her this morning, to say that she 
 may be passing through on her way to 
 Edinburgh, some day next week, and I 
 think you ought to come home if she 
 does." 
 
 Confound Cousin Alice, thought Mark 
 Heslington. He always disposed of people 
 in that way when their plans did not ex- 
 actly agree with his own. Miss Primrose 
 felt the same thing in rather a different
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 185 
 
 way. Someliow, slie was very anxious, 
 ■under present circumstances, that Nelly 
 should stay a little longer at Mannersby. 
 
 However, so far, Cousin Alice's visit was 
 •only a chance, and, even if the worst came 
 to the worst, Nelly could come down just 
 for a day or two, and return to Manners- 
 by. It was really a pity, as she said to 
 Mrs Willoughby, that the child should 
 not finish out her mouth in the country, 
 when every day was evidently doing her 
 a world of good. 
 
 So Nelly ran up into her little room and 
 fetched the blue ribbon, and one or two 
 other odds and ends of prettiness which 
 had more interest for her now than they 
 had a fortnight ago ; and then, after a 
 saunter round the garden to see how the 
 flowers were getting on, she kissed her 
 father and mother and Miss Primrose, and
 
 186 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 set off with Mark, this time on the front 
 seat of the dog-cart, of course, for that 
 seven miles' drive to the cottage. 
 
 Who shall say how pleasant it was ? 
 Perhaps no one guessed so well as little 
 Miss Primrose, who watched them again 
 from her room window until they were 
 out of sight behind a bend in the High 
 Street. And as she turned into the gar- 
 den after that, and sauntered alone for a 
 quarter of an hour under the old elm- 
 trees, she prayed that no such unkindly 
 influence as had smitten her own girlish 
 life might separate these two, whose hearts 
 were so sweetly feeling for each other in 
 the dimness and mystery of the wild wood- 
 path. 
 
 For now between Mark and Nelly, and 
 the happy future she pictured for them, 
 there had begun to flit, she knew not
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 187 
 
 wliy, a third figure, wbicli wore the 
 London-cut clothes, and smiled with the 
 wide-open, blue-eyed smile of Miss Petsie 
 Lavendale.
 
 188 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TT was the night of the first of the Hall 
 -*- dinner-parties, and Mrs. Decimer and 
 her sister were preparing for it, or, rather, 
 it might be said that they had prepared 
 for it, both ladies being fully equipped 
 for the banquet, except in the matter of 
 flowers, and these they were selecting out 
 of a basketful which Mrs. Newbury had 
 kindly sent from the Park hot-houses. 
 
 '* I think, you know, Petsie, it was very 
 clever of me to get you the invitation," 
 said the military chaplain's wife, as she 
 drew out a spray of variegated ivy for her 
 dress. " I answered the note just accept-
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 189 
 
 ing for myself and Fabian, and then, when 
 I found you were coming, I made an ex- 
 cuse to call over about some flowers for 
 the altar, and mentioned, in the course of 
 conversation, that I was expecting you. 
 Lady Mannersby was so very nice about 
 it, and said at once she would make room 
 for you. Of course I hesitated a little at 
 first, lest she might think I had gone on 
 purpose to get you asked, but she really 
 quite insisted on my bringing you. So 
 kind of her, was it not ?" 
 
 " Yes, and it gives me a sort of style to 
 be able to talk about it," said Petsie, wha 
 had never touched the hand of a real 
 baronet's wife until the other day, when 
 she called with her sister at the HalL 
 Unless, indeed, having bought a sixpenny 
 pen-wiper at a fancy fair, and having re- 
 ceived it from the fingers of Lady Alicia 
 Barramount, daughter of the Duke of
 
 190 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 Whitelands, might be supposed to consti- 
 tute such a privilege. " It will be such 
 fun to write to old Madame and tell her I 
 have been dining at Mannersby Hall on 
 my own account." 
 
 " I don't call it your own account," said 
 Mrs. Decimer. ^' You are going as my 
 visitor. It is only because you happen to 
 be staying with me. You don't suppose 
 Lady Mannersby would have taken any 
 notice of you under any other circum- 
 stances." 
 
 ''Well, never mind. I'm going, that's 
 enough, and don't begin to be disagree- 
 able, Celia. You always promised you 
 would help me to make my way when you 
 had a chance." 
 
 ** And so I will, Petsie, only I like you 
 to know that I am making an effort for 
 you. I wouldn't have asked Lady Man- 
 nersby for such a favour for anybody else,
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 191 
 
 for slie is sure to make me feel it some 
 time or other. And now help me to drape 
 this skirt with the ivy leaves." 
 
 Petsie Lavendale was very unlike her 
 sister, and yet there was a curious sort of 
 resemblance between them ; less in actual 
 features than in the character which those 
 features expressed. Mrs. Decimer was tall 
 and fair and slender. Petsie was short 
 and fair and plump. Mrs. Decimer was 
 sparkling and graceful and self-possessed. 
 Petsie was saucy and impulsive and art- 
 less ; that is to say, she cultivated these 
 qualities as becoming to her style, just as 
 her sister's seemed to accord with her face 
 and figure. Mrs. Decimer had a soft 
 complexion of mingled lilies and roses. 
 Petsie had an equally soft complexion of 
 blonde creaminess without the roses. Mrs. 
 Decimer delighted in coils of braided 
 golden hair, with just one long straying
 
 192 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 curl to outline her gracefully-moulded 
 neck. Petsie was " tousled," with a loose 
 irregular fringe over a white forehead, and 
 no long curl at all, only a bit of ribbon 
 knotted in among the "tousle" to carry 
 out the innocent childishness which she 
 adopted as her role, Mrs. Decimer had 
 the careless elegance of a woman who is 
 supposed to be accustomed to society, and 
 is never surprised at anything. Petsie 
 w^ent in for starts and exclamations, and 
 had the air of just being out of the school- 
 room — a pretty, playful, unsuspicious little 
 thing who would look at you with open- 
 eyed inexperience, and take for granted 
 everything that you said, a sort of style 
 that exactly suited her plumpness and 
 general softness and irregularity of out- 
 line. 
 
 But where the likeness of the two 
 sisters came out unmistakably was in a
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 193 
 
 certain length and flexibility of the corners 
 of the moutb, which gave a want of truth- 
 fulness to the expression of the face, and also 
 in a curious play of the eyes, which seemed 
 to dart aside now and then and look with- 
 out appearing to observe. There were some 
 people who thought this play of the mouth 
 and eyes very pretty in Mrs. Decimer. 
 They said it added wonderful piquancy to 
 her face, and probably they would think 
 the same of her sister. It was this very 
 peculiarity which had repelled Miss Prim- 
 rose so when she sat opposite to Petsie 
 for that few minutes' run between Hur- 
 chester and Mannersby ; and she saw it in 
 Mrs. Decimer, too, as they met the New- 
 bury phaeton coming out of the Hall drive 
 on the day of the pic-nic. 
 
 But still any unprejudiced person, see- 
 ing them as they stooped over the basket 
 of flowers, would have said that they were 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 394 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 very pretty women. Mrs. Decimer wore 
 lier wedding-dress of white silk, which she 
 was looping with ivy sprays. Petsie was a 
 diaphanous mass of ivory-coloured musliu, 
 with little suggestions of pink here and 
 there, in the shape of a knot or a bow of 
 ribbon. 
 
 "Do you think it is cut too low for the 
 country, Celia?" 
 
 This was said in reference to her dress, 
 and, as she asked the question, Petsie 
 poked up one plump, white shoulder from 
 a quarter of an inch of sleeve, and then 
 cushioned an equally plump round cheek 
 upon it, a child-like attitude which she was 
 very fond of assuming whenever she pre- 
 tended to be in doubt about anything. 
 
 "Not in the least," said Mrs. Decimer, 
 " when I have arranged the tulle for you 
 above the bodice, and fastened it down 
 with little bunches of fern leaves. One
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 195 
 
 ■can go jusfc as far in the country now as 
 one can in town. If I could have afforded 
 s, couple of bodies to my wedding-dress, I 
 would have had one of them quite as low 
 as that for evenings, but you can wear 
 white silk anywhere by just having it open 
 more or less in the front. Now just put 
 this spray of ivy into my hair behind, will 
 you ? There ; rather low down, so as to 
 fall over the neck, and arrange it so that 
 it will be seen in front too. There is no- 
 thing like the least little bit of green 
 amongst the hair, for bringing out the 
 tone of one's complexion." 
 Petsie did as she was bidden. 
 " I do wish," she said, as she stepped 
 back to consider the effect of her handi- 
 work, " that I had been made more like 
 you, Celia. I don't see why J shouldn't 
 have had a little bit of colour, instead of 
 being nothing but Devonshire cream." 
 
 o2
 
 196 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 " You're very nice as you are, Petsie ; 
 don't be jealous. Devonshire cream is a 
 very good thing to be like. Your style is 
 just as taking as mine, only in a different 
 way, and I don't doubt that you will do 
 very well for yourself, now that I am 
 giving you a really good chance." 
 
 Petsie pouted her upper lip. It had a 
 natural pout of its own, which gave the 
 lower part of her face that cliild-like, 
 school-girl look whicli some people thought 
 was almost bewitching. 
 
 *' I think, though, you might have asked 
 me before, Celia. What on earth is the 
 use of my coming when the regiment is 
 going away in ten days, and to Gibraltar, 
 too ? You never told me that." 
 
 " My dear Petsie ! Now I appeal to 
 you as a sensible girl, how could 1 ask you 
 when there were not even chairs and tables 
 in the house, to say nothing of a bed for
 
 LITTLE MLSS PRIMROSE. 197 
 
 jou to sleep on ? I'm sure 1 wrote for 
 jou as soon as we were anything like com- 
 fortably settled. And as for the regiment 
 being under orders for Gibraltar, why, if 
 they had been staying for a twelvemonth, 
 it would not have made a bit of difference, 
 for the officers are married down to the 
 youngest captain, and a subaltern cant 
 marry unless he finds some one with 
 money." 
 
 " In which case he certainly need not 
 look for me," said Petsie, pawing about 
 amongst the flowers for something that 
 would suit her ivory muslin cloudiness. 
 '' I think this stephanotis will be the very 
 thing — there is such a lot of it. Just 
 fancy, Celia, having hot-houses where you 
 can gather as much as you like every day ! 
 Oh, why can't I marry somebody rich ? — 
 onl}?" you would be jealous then, Celia. 
 But a few knots of this, nicely backed up
 
 198 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 with, green leaves, will make my dress 
 perfect. And now, as the subalterns are 
 no use, tell me who else there will be at 
 the party. Was the young man I came 
 down with in the carriage a subaltern, do 
 you think ? He got out at the barrack 
 station." 
 
 *' Yes. Fabian said it was Mr. Hurst,, 
 the youngest and poorest of them all. He 
 
 will be there to-night, but, of course, you 
 
 must not waste your time upon him. Mr. 
 
 Heslington will be there. Sir Charlton 
 
 Mannersby's agent, you know." 
 
 "Yes, I know; the gentleman we met 
 
 on Friday as we were coming from the 
 
 Hall — very big and nice-looking, and that 
 
 comical little old-fashioned girl with him. 
 
 They might be engaged, she looked so 
 
 conscious." 
 
 " I should think they might too, if she 
 
 were only a little cleverer than she looks.
 
 LITTLE MISS PKIMROSE. 199 
 
 And staying in the house, too, which gives 
 her such an advantage. But she is a girl 
 who will never be able to do anything for 
 herself. She is so utterly without man- 
 ners. I have secured Mr; Heslington for 
 you to-night." 
 
 " Poor little country girl !" said Petsie, 
 picking out another bit of stephanotis — 
 " how disappointed she will be ! But 
 how ever did you manage it, Celia ?" 
 
 "As I manage everything else, when I 
 give my mind to it. You know, when I 
 called to get you the invitation, Lady 
 Mannersby was writing out a list of the 
 people, and how they were to walk in to 
 dinner, and who was to sit with who else, 
 and she asked me to help her about it, 
 because she said so much depended upon 
 getting jDeople to sit together who would 
 be agreeable. So I did them all for her, 
 and I put you with Mr. Heslington. I
 
 200 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 daresay Miss Willoughby would not bless 
 me, if she knew ; but then, as she is stay- 
 ins^ in the house with him and his sister, 
 she could not expect him to take her in. 
 I put her with Mr. Hurst. I believe they 
 have a slight sort of acquaintance already ; 
 at any rate, I know he admires her very 
 much." 
 
 " No accounting for tastes," said Petsie. 
 ^' She is the very last sort of girl in the 
 world I should expect a man to fall in love 
 with. Whom have you put next to Mr. 
 Heslington on the other side ?" 
 
 *' Oh ! Mrs. Gallersby, wife of Captain 
 Gallersby. Lady Mannersby did not mean 
 to have had them, she told me, only Sir 
 Charlton insisted upon it. She is the 
 heaviest person you can possibly imagine, 
 and, so long as her plate is moder- 
 ately well supplied, she will never speak 
 a word to an j one. So you will have Mr.
 
 LITTLE MISS PrvIMEOSE. 201 
 
 Heslington all to yourself, and tlie Hall 
 dinner-parties are tremendously long. On 
 your riglit I have put a young lieutenant, 
 who can't talk about anything but the 
 weather, and shooting, and that sort of 
 thing, and I have given him Miss Mendies 
 to take in, who is the biggest chatterbox 
 in the place; so you see everything is man- 
 aged as nicely as possible." 
 
 " How much has Mr. Heslington a 
 year ?" asked Petsie, who was not alto- 
 gether so innocent as she looked. 
 
 "Well, I should say between three and 
 four hundred, and a house rent free, I be- 
 lieve, and any quantity of pickings, though 
 they do say Sir Charlton is a very close 
 man. Still, you know, an agent can al- 
 ways make as much as he likes, within 
 bounds, of course. At any rate, he is a 
 great deal better off than Fabian, even if the 
 offertories were twice as good as they are."
 
 202 LITTLE MISS PKIMROSE. 
 
 '' Is Miss Willougby rich, too ?" 
 
 *' Nothing of the sort. Those Cathedral 
 underlings never are, and Mrs. "Willoughby 
 has the air of a woman who might have 
 been a dairymaid. I should think Mr. 
 Willoughby has not a penny of his own. 
 Do you think his daughter would pay calls 
 in grey gingham if he had ? No, my dear 
 Petsie, there is nothing to fear in that 
 direction. And such a stupid little thing 
 she is, too, not able to do anything for her- 
 self, except look meek and shy, and that 
 sort of nonsense." 
 
 " And staying in the house, too," said 
 Petsie, in a tone of supreme contempt at 
 the inability of poor Nelly to do " any- 
 thing for herself." "Why, if a sensible 
 girl had her chances " 
 
 " Yes, indeed. And all of them so fond 
 of her, too, both the old lady and Miss 
 Heslington, and Mrs. Coniston."
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 20S 
 
 "Who is Mrs. Coniston ?" 
 
 " Why, my dear, I have told you about 
 her over and over again, in my letters. 
 She is the wife of Mr. Coniston, the vicar 
 of Lady Mannersby's parish church, and 
 one of the very stupidest women in the 
 world. Why, she might know, if she had 
 a bit of sense about her, what an important 
 thing it is to keep right with the head 
 people in one's parish, and especially when 
 the Mannersbys have the Moorsby living 
 in their gift, and the present rector is 
 tumbling to pieces with heart complaint, 
 which may carry him off at any moment, 
 and the place worth seven hundred a year ; 
 and yet she flies in Lady Mannersby's face 
 by going and being intimate with the 
 Sutton-Daresbys, just as if everybody did 
 not know that Lady Mannersby hates Lady 
 Sutton-Daresby like poison. And the 
 Daresbys without a single living in their
 
 204 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 gift either. I never knew sucli madness." 
 " Well, never mind. It is all the better 
 for you, Celia. Didn't you say the Man- 
 nersbys nearly always come to Fabian's 
 church now?" 
 
 " Of course, yes. It is all the better 
 for us, but, at the same time, did anyone 
 ever see such wrong-headedness. Why, 
 if Mrs. Coniston had half the brains 
 that I have myself, do you think she 
 would have let me o^et hold of Lady Man- 
 nersby as I have done ? She would have 
 held to her like a limpet, and, as soon as 
 she found out that she was on bad terms 
 with the Daresbys, she would never have 
 let herself be seen walking with Lady 
 Daresby, instead of flaunting it in the 
 face of everybody as she does." 
 
 "But it is very awkward to keep on 
 with two people," said Petsie, who had 
 tried it herself.
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 205 
 
 "Not in the least, if you only manage 
 it properl3\ I could be as intimate with 
 Lady Daresby as I liked, and yet not vex 
 Lady Mannersby a bit. It is all fcact, 
 nothing but tact. But let me go and 
 look Fabian up. He is always saying his 
 prayers until the very last moment, and 
 then he has no time to put himself 
 decently into his evening clothes." 
 
 And Mrs. Decimer threw the curl into 
 position over her shoulder, and gathered 
 up her gloves and ber laced pocket-hand- 
 kerchief, and her fan and her smelling- 
 bottle, and all the rest of her things, and^ 
 with a parting glance into the mirror,, 
 left Petsie to arrange the stephanotis, 
 whilst she went into her husband's room 
 to see that his collar was safely buttoned, 
 and his things properly brushed. It had 
 been such a worry to get him to go to 
 this dinner at all, and she would gladly
 
 206 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 have gone without him, only people were 
 beginning to talk about their never being 
 ,:seen together, and, whatever else people 
 did, they must not be allowed to talk in 
 that way.
 
 207 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 4 GLEAM of coloured lamps amongst 
 -^-^ the aloes and evergreens of the 
 terrace-garden ; crimson carpeting up the 
 broad white steps above it ; a glow of 
 warm light in the old hall, with its stags' 
 antlers, and hunting equipments, and fish- 
 ing tackle, and suits of armour, and 
 pyramids of flowers. More lights and 
 brighter further on, and buzz of talk, 
 and flutter of lace, and wafts of scent, 
 and sparkle of pearls here and there, and 
 glitter of uniforms, and a tall, noble- 
 looking woman in velvet, with a face as
 
 208 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 bright as summer sunshine, and a smile 
 which fell on all alike, as she welcomed 
 her guests, standing there queen-like in 
 the big old drawing-room, with its faded 
 blue satin hangings, and its quaint family 
 portraits, and general aspect of Sevres, 
 and buhl, and ormolu, and ivory, and 
 aristocracy. 
 
 Ah ! but how much pleasanter it would 
 have been amongst the roses and honey- 
 suckle in the bow-window, with the moon- 
 light gliding down through their stems^ 
 and making lights and shadows on the 
 old buffet, whose polished surface had once 
 told such a pleasant story. N^elly, in her 
 new white-muslin dress trimmed with the 
 blue ribbons, and some wild leaves which 
 Mark Heslington had gathered for her 
 from the plantation walk, shut her eyes 
 in the midst of the glare and the hum 
 and the scent, and thought about all the
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 209 
 
 happy times she had had in the shelter 
 of that bow- window. 
 
 She was sitting well out of sight, close 
 to a tall stand of foliage-plants, sheltered 
 on the other side by Mrs. Coniston, who 
 was trying to draw her out into conver- 
 sation during the quarter of an hour 
 preceding the announcement of dinner, 
 which is supposed to be such an ordeal, 
 both to the hostess and her guests. Judg- 
 ing, however, from the chattering and 
 laughter which were going on all over the 
 drawing-room, Lady Mannersby's guests 
 did not find the time hang too heavily on 
 their hands. 
 
 It was a warm, windless, moonlight 
 night, and as there was only the length of 
 the plantation path and a single meadow 
 between the cottage and the Hall terrace, 
 the Heslingtons and JSTelly had walked 
 over. What a pleasant walk it had been, 
 
 A^OL. I. P
 
 210 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 SO pleasant that one could have wished it 
 to last for hours and hours, instead of 
 ending so soon in a blue satin drawing- 
 room full of flowers and scents and 
 feathers and muslins. Mark had said that 
 they would walk much more comfortably 
 if they all kept step together, and Grace 
 could manage it very well, because she 
 was accustomed to it ; but Nelly had kept 
 dropping out, and that made Mr. Hesling- 
 ton insist that she should take his arm, 
 after which she got on quite cleverly, the 
 only pity, as he said, being that the walk 
 came to an end so soon. 
 
 She had never been to a big dinner 
 before, and the whole thing seemed 
 strange and uncomfortable. Miss Prim- 
 rose, in black velvet and sumptuous old 
 family lace, looked almost unapproachable 
 to the shy little girl who had never seen 
 her before except in the quiet domesticity
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 211 
 
 of grey caslimere, with a simple wliite cap 
 softening the lustre of her beautiful silver 
 hair. And Mrs. Decimer in her white silk 
 and ivy leaves, with that long curl repos- 
 ing so gracefully upon her sloping shoul- 
 ders, might have been a princess, so 
 surrounded was she by courtiers in the 
 shape of young lieutenants and captains, 
 all anxious to win a smile or a pretty word 
 from her. Even Mrs. Coniston seemed 
 unfamiliar, in her lovely mulberry silk and 
 Honiton lace. It was so very rich and 
 good, and Nelly wondered she had ever 
 been able to talk away so comfortably to 
 the pretty little lady who was wearing it. 
 And then the uniforms of the oflBcers, and 
 the bows and smiles and flatteries and 
 compliments that seemed to be going on 
 all around. Oh, dear ! If she could only 
 have crept out of sight under that big 
 stand of foliage plants, and been safely 
 
 p2
 
 212 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 forgotten until everything was over, how 
 thankful she could have felt ! 
 
 But Mrs. Coniston was very kind. 
 
 ** I was so glad, Nelly dear," she said, 
 *'to hear that you are really going to stay 
 a fortnight longer ; it will be so pleasant 
 for my mother and sister, and I am sure 
 the little change is doing you a world of 
 good. You know we get a splendid air 
 here from the moors. It is quite different 
 from Hurchester." 
 
 Quite different? Nelly rather thought 
 so. 
 
 " If I could have my own way," contin- 
 ued Mrs. Coniston, " you should not go 
 back to Hurchester until the autumn 
 damps were all over. I am sure it must 
 be bad for you in that stuffy old court. 
 I should like to keep you here all the 
 summer." 
 
 Mrs. Coniston mig^ht have said ^' alto-
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMUOSE. 213 
 
 getber," for that was in lier heart. ISTelly 
 had been a pet with her for many a year, 
 and she knew her now for the truest little 
 jewel of a girl that ever stepped, strong at 
 heart, and steady and duty-loving and 
 self-denying, for all the funny, half shy, 
 half awkward ways that had grown upon 
 her during her quiet life with her father 
 and mother, away from other girls who 
 might most likely have taught her, along 
 with society manners, society affectation 
 too. 
 
 Nelly could only smile a happy smile, 
 and think how good everyone was ; and 
 then somebody else came up and began to 
 talk to Mrs. Coniston. 
 
 Meanwhile, Miss Lavendale was making 
 use of her opportunities on the other side 
 of the big drawing-room. Good or evil 
 fortune had planted her for a time by the 
 side of Mrs. Mendies, and Mrs. Mendies,
 
 214 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 
 
 like her daughter, was one of the biggest 
 gossips in Mannersby, not to say the most 
 ill-natured ; so that, if Petsie wanted to 
 know all about everybody, she could not 
 have been better placed. 
 
 " Such a lovely room, isn't it, Mrs. 
 Mendies ? I do think Lady Mannersby 
 has the most exquisite taste in the world. 
 It quite reminds one of those delightful 
 London reception-rooms." 
 
 As if Petsie knew very much about 
 them ; but, of course, it would do well 
 enough for Mrs. Mendies, who assented 
 readily, saying that she did not suppose 
 there were many drawing-rooms out of 
 London much prettier than this one at 
 Mannersby Hall. 
 
 " No. But then, you know, I say that 
 everything at Mannersby is perfect. I 
 only came down from town two days ago, 
 and I have seen more of Lady Mannersby
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 215 
 
 than anyone else. She has been quite too 
 charmingly kind to me, would insist on 
 my coming here, jusfc as if I had known 
 her for ever so long. And now tell me 
 something about the people, will you ? 
 Who is that very elegant-looking girl in 
 the sea-green grenadine ?" 
 
 Mrs. Mendies looked in the given direc- 
 tion, and her face brightened up. 
 
 "Oh, that is Matilda, my daughter — my 
 only child, Miss Lavendale — such a dear, 
 bright girl, and, as you say, very elegant. 
 Everybody says the same." 
 
 Miss Lavendale had not said the same 
 ten minutes before. She knew perfectly 
 well who Miss Mendies was, for the mother 
 and daughter had preceded Mrs. Decimer 
 and herself into the drawing-room, and 
 Petsie had asked her sister who those 
 " two scranny, washed-out-looking people 
 were." But of course one can see things
 
 216 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 in different lights at different times. 
 
 '^ Your daughter ! — you don't say so ! 
 I should never have thought you had a 
 daughter so old. But I might have known 
 if I had not been so stupid, for you are 
 so wonderfully alike, in figure and every" 
 thing jy 
 
 Mrs. Mendies thought Petsie Lavendale 
 was one of the pleasantest girls she had 
 ever seen. 
 
 '' And who is the gentleman standing 
 by the piano ?" 
 
 Petsie knew him too. He was the gen- 
 tleman wisely selected by Mrs. Decimer 
 to take her in to dinner. But it was easier 
 to ask questions when she was supposed 
 not to know anything about anyone. 
 
 " Oh, that is Mr. Heslington, Sir Charl- 
 ton Mannersby's agent, you know — a very 
 clever, business-like man, they say, lately 
 come from abroad."
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 217 
 
 " Indeed ! And that is liis wife, I sup- 
 pose, tlie quiet-looking lady in black silk, 
 sitting near him." 
 
 ''His wife? Oh, dear, no. Mr. Hes- 
 lington is not married — that is his 
 sister." 
 
 " Not married ! You don't say so ! 
 Why, he looks quite a middle-aged man. 
 I should think he must be nearly forty, at 
 the very least." 
 
 " No, not so much as that, though I 
 daresay he is pretty well over thirty. You 
 know they do say — but perhaps it may be 
 only gossip — that he has been attached for 
 many years to a lady somewhere abroad. 
 It began when they were both very young, 
 and then her health failed, and she could 
 not stand the English climate, so she had 
 to go on the Continent — Italy or Swit- 
 zerland, I believe. And she is there 
 still."
 
 21S LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 " Dear me ! how very romantic ! And 
 is the attachment going on still ?" 
 
 "Well, you know, I cannot take upon 
 me to say that it was ever what you call . 
 a regular attachment, and, now I come to 
 think about it, I believe I have somehow 
 got it mixed up with something else, but 
 anyhow he is not married, and there is 
 some lady abroad with whom he is very 
 intimate. But then, you know, it may not 
 be that sort of thing at all." 
 
 " Of course not ; one never can tell." 
 
 " Exactly. And then, you know," con- 
 tinued Mrs. Mendies, who began to feel 
 sure now that she had mixed it up with 
 something else, and was therefore anxious 
 to dispose of Mr. Heslington in another 
 direction, 'Hhere really is no need why he 
 should not settle now, because the Man- 
 nersby agency is a very nice thing, and I
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 219 
 
 sliould say that he need not look far either 
 for a wife." 
 
 Petsie said nothing, but gave her eye- 
 brows a little inquiring lift. Mrs. Men- 
 dies was evidently a woman who might be 
 trusted to go on when she had begun. 
 
 " There is a little girl staying with them 
 now, she is sitting yonder, near the mirror,, 
 close to that stand of plants. I should say 
 he could not have a more suitable wife. 
 Miss Willoughby's father is vicar- choral at 
 Hurchester, and they are a very good 
 family, though they do not go in for style." 
 
 ''Evidently not, if Miss Willoughby is a^ 
 specimen. But I fancy I have heard him 
 mentioned before, now that I come to 
 think about it, and somebody said he lived 
 with his mother and sister, and had to 
 keep them. I should think he could 
 scarcely afford to marry at all, if that is 
 the case."
 
 220 LITTLE MISS PKIMROSB. 
 
 " Oh ! but it is not the case. They have 
 a nice little property amongst them, and 
 they could go away somewhere else i£ he 
 married. Or he could go away. I believe 
 there is a house set apart for the agent. 
 But, I declare, there is old Sir Charlton 
 bringing him up this way, to introduce 
 him, so I suppose he is going to take you 
 in to dinner ; how very funny !" 
 
 Very funny indeed. Petsie, with artless 
 innocence, pushed up one plump white 
 shoulder, and made pretty play with her 
 soft blue eyes, as Sir Charlton said — 
 
 '' Miss Lavendale, allow me to introduce 
 to you Mr. Heslington." 
 
 And, at the same time, Mr. Coniston, 
 who was to have the pleasure of taking 
 Mrs. Mendies in, made his appearance, to 
 be ready for action. 
 
 A minute or two later dinner was an- 
 nounced. Sir Charlton took in Mrs. Conis-
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 221 
 
 ton, not that Lady Mannersby would liave 
 had it so, but precedence is precedence, 
 whatever private sentiment may be, and 
 Mr. Decimer being only an incumbent, his 
 wife, of course, could not go in before Mrs. 
 Coniston, whose husband had already 
 achieved the distinction of vicar. Lady 
 Mannersby brought up the rear with old 
 Mr. Mayfield, the Eector of Moorsby, who 
 looked dreadfully shaky, so much so that 
 his final falling to pieces might almost be 
 looked for at any time, as Mrs. Decimer 
 perceived with satisfaction. The rest of 
 the company filed out in the order previ- 
 ously arranged. 
 
 " So sorry for you, my dear," said Mrs. 
 Mendies, with a nasty smile, tapping 
 Nelly's cheek with her fan, and then tilting 
 it in the direction of Miss Petsie Lavendale, 
 who was edging up her plump shoulder 
 needlessly close to Mr. Heslington's
 
 222 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 coat-sleeve. "And slie is such a flirt." 
 Nelly turned away with creepy disgust. 
 Mrs. Mendies always took the opportunity 
 of saying something disagreeable to her, 
 just as if she were trying to make an im- 
 pression, as they called it, on Mr. Hes- 
 lington. If she talked in that way to 
 him — and why should she not ? — how 
 horrible it would be ! The poor child 
 almost began to feel as if she could never 
 look him in the face again. And it had 
 been so pleasant before. Oh ! when 
 would this dinner-party be over ?
 
 223 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 fTlHERE was a pleasant little flutterino^ 
 -^ of silks and muslins as the guests 
 filed round the table, looking for their 
 respective names on the cards which were 
 placed in front of each seat. Thanks to 
 Mrs. Decimer's contrivance, there were no 
 special attractions on Mr. Heslington's 
 left, to divert him from uninterrupted 
 admiration of the creamy mass of muslin 
 and stephanotis which was gradually sub- 
 siding and arranging itself at his right 
 hand. Mrs. Gallersby was a large, flabby 
 woman, with an unlimited capacity for 
 food and silence ; and when she had made
 
 224 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 tlie few remarks whicli were absolutely 
 necessary to tlie gentleman in charge of 
 lier creature comforts, site devoted herself 
 entirely to the business for which she had 
 come there. 
 
 Presently a piquant, saucy little face 
 was upturned to Mr. Heslington, a pretty 
 upper lip was pouted, a white shoulder 
 was pushed still farther out of its already 
 quite sufficiently retrogressive drapery^ 
 and a charmingly simple voice said, 
 
 "Z)6> tell me something about somebody. 
 I don't know a single creature here,, 
 except my own sister, and she is Mrs. 
 Decimer, sitting ever so far up there, in 
 the white silk and ivy-leaves, don't you 
 see ? Of course I know you are Mr.. 
 Heslington, and — let me look " 
 
 Petsie peeped, with a funny, half-fright- 
 ened little gesture, towards the card on 
 her right.
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 225 
 
 ''Mr. Eaymond. Ob, well, then, let us 
 begin with Mr. Eaymond. Please tell me 
 who he is." 
 
 '*He is lieutenant in the regiment that 
 is just going to Gibraltar. He is to get 
 his company next month." 
 
 '' Is he ? You don't say so. I should 
 not have thought he was nearly so far on 
 as that. He does look such a boy, and I 
 think boys are so stupid. No, you needn't 
 look frightened. I am speaking very low. 
 Tm sure he can't hear me, and, besides, 
 he is talking to his own lady. Boys are 
 stupid, and they always look so ugly, too. 
 I think men are never at all nice until 
 they are past thirty." 
 
 This was intended to be rather an 
 effective speech, but Mark was so dull of 
 comprehension that it failed to stir within 
 him the least spark of gratitude. Besides, 
 another question was just then being asked. 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 " Clear soup or white, miss ?" 
 
 " Clear," said the little maiden, with a 
 wonderfully quick change of tone, to the 
 footman behind her. 
 
 And then — 
 
 *' No sherry, thank you." 
 
 This was to a second footman. 
 
 " Do you know ?" she said, relapsing 
 into her pretty, confidential manner, *' I 
 never touch sherry. Can you think 
 why ?" 
 
 "Perhaps because you think it is always 
 adulterated." 
 
 " Oh, no ! I don't know anything 
 about that, but it goes into my head 
 so, and Celia, that is my sister, Mrs. 
 Decimer, says I am quite scatterbrained 
 enough already. However, I tell her 
 that we are all as we were made, and 
 we cannot help ourselves. If I were to 
 go on trying all my life, I couldn't be
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 227 
 
 as quiet and graceful, and all that sort 
 of thing, as she is, so what is the use ?" 
 
 This would have been a very suitable op- 
 portunity for Mr. Heslington to say that 
 there was no need for improvement, but 
 unfortunately the remark did not suggest 
 itself to him, and he only replied that of 
 course people v^ere very different, which 
 was not at all the thing that Miss Laven- 
 dale meant him to reply. 
 
 Then there was a little pause. Miss 
 Petsie bent down to study the card on 
 which her name was written. It was as 
 pretty as a Christmas card, with a wreath 
 of flowers round it, and a scroll in the 
 middle, and two little nicks cut, through 
 which a loose piece of paper, containing 
 the name, could be inserted. Petsie slip- 
 ped it into her pocket. It might save her 
 a few pence next Christmas, though pro- 
 bably Lady Mannersby did not intend them 
 
 q2
 
 228 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 to be taken away, as different names could 
 be slipped in, and then the cards would 
 do for another party. However, that was 
 of no consequence to Petsie. 
 
 Then she glanced round the table. 
 Then she gave herself a little impatient 
 shake. Then she looked saucily up into 
 Mr. Heslington's face. 
 
 " Please, have you finished your soup 
 yet? I have been looking at your plate 
 so often, because it is so dreadfully dull 
 not being able to talk. You know I want 
 to ask you about the people, and my sister 
 Celia says gentlemen cannot bear to be 
 interrupted whilst they are eating their 
 soup." 
 
 " Indeed," said Mark. '' I never knew 
 that." 
 
 "Didn't you? Oh ! what a pity ! Be- 
 cause I needn't have been so still, after 
 all. And really it did seem a curious idea,
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 229 
 
 because soup is one of the most uninterest- 
 iug things you ever get at a dinner. I 
 can't think why they have it at all, except 
 for you to amuse yourself by looking at 
 the funny little shapes of the vermicelli 
 paste. Well, there now, you have done. 
 I am sure there is not more than a spoon- 
 ful left, so you can tell me about the 
 people. It is so stupid being where you 
 don't know anybody." 
 
 " I am quite at your service," said Mark. 
 He had already found out one thing about 
 his fair companion. She was able to do 
 her own share of the talking, and his too. 
 And this, for a man who has certain pleas- 
 ant plans and prospects of his own to 
 dwell upon, is an advantage. 
 
 " Well, then, please tell me who is that 
 nice-looking lady in the black silk dress, 
 with little bits of lemon-colour and lace in 
 her hair?"
 
 230 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 Petsie knew as well as could be, and had 
 privately confided to her sister, on entering^ 
 the drawing-room, that the lady in ques- 
 tion was '*a perfect frump." But, of 
 course, one does not always say what one 
 thinks. 
 
 ^' Do you mean that one who is sitting 
 third from the top, next to the officer with 
 light hair ? That is my sister." 
 
 ''Dear me! How comical! What a 
 good thing T did not say anything dis- 
 agreeable about her, because, you know, I 
 always say exactly what I mean about 
 everybody. I can't keep things in, like 
 some people. I should like to know her 
 so much, but perhaps I shall now, because- 
 I am going to stay ever such a long time 
 with my sister. You know my sister, 
 don't you ?" 
 
 " Only by sight. I have never spoken 
 to her."
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 231 
 
 " Dear me ! I am so sorry. But, any- 
 how, I mean to know Miss Heslington, 
 because she looks so nice and ladylike. 
 Now tell me who is the next gentleman to 
 her." 
 
 " That is Mr. Hurst, a lieutenant too." 
 
 " Dear me ! The men all seem to be 
 lieutenants, and such boys ! I don't think 
 they ought to go out to dinner until they 
 are captains. And who is the girl he has 
 taken in ?" 
 
 " That is Miss Willoughby," said Mark, 
 trying to speak the name as quietly as 
 though it had belonged to anybody else. 
 He did not know how sharply Petsie was 
 listening for the change in his voice. 
 
 "Miss Willoughby. It is a pretty 
 name. Is she nice ?" 
 
 "Yes, very. She is staying with us 
 now." 
 
 Here the fish was brought round to
 
 232 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 them, and Petsie was quiet for awhile, 
 except to remark that she always liked to 
 take a very great spoonful of oyster sauce 
 with it. 
 
 '* Because oyster sauce is so nice. I 
 like it quite as much as gentlemen like 
 their soup, and so you need not talk to 
 me until I have finished." 
 
 '* Thank you," said Mark, with real 
 gratitude, for he was beginning to envy 
 the gentleman who had taken the absorb- 
 ent Mrs. Gallersby in, and to whom that 
 lady had as yet spoken scarcely a word. 
 But Petsie soon began again, notwith- 
 standing the large supply of oyster sauce 
 which she had appropriated. 
 
 " She is not like me in one respect, at 
 any rate." 
 
 Mark looked puzzled. 
 
 " Oh ! I see, you have forgotten what 
 we were talking about ; I mean Miss Wil-
 
 LITTLE MISS PrvDIROSE. 233 
 
 loughby. You kuow I told you I didn't 
 care a bit for boys, and she seems to think 
 they are so very entertaining." 
 
 " Does she ?" said Mark, feeling for the 
 first time a real interest, though scarcely a 
 pleasant one, in Miss Lavendale's opinions 
 and inferences. 
 
 " AYell really, anyone might see that. 
 She has not spoken a single word all 
 dinner-time to the poor gentleman on her 
 left, and Mr. Hurst has not spoken to 
 anyone else, either. I think that ought to 
 show that they are very much pleased with 
 each other." 
 
 " But you have said nothing to Mr. 
 Eaymond, and I have said nothing to Mrs. 
 Gallersby," remarked Mr. Heslington, " so 
 people might draw inferences about us." 
 
 '' Well, so they might," said Miss Petsie, 
 pouting her lip and poking out her white 
 shoulder. " And if they thought I was
 
 234 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 enjoying myself very much, they would 
 be quite right. Only one sees a difference 
 
 sometimes, and perhaps you know 
 
 Oh ! but here is the champagne coming at 
 last. Please don't let them miss me, Mr. 
 Heslington. Do you know, I did have 
 such a disappointment once. I was at a 
 dinner-party, and I went in with a boy 
 like one of those lieutenants, and he didn't 
 half know how to take care of me, and — 
 would you believe it ? — he let the man go 
 past me, and I never had any at all. Now 
 wasn't that just a little too bad ?" 
 
 *' A great deal too bad, I should say." 
 And Mark, smiling, took care that such 
 a catastrophe should not happen this time. 
 He even directed the man to pour the 
 champagne out slowly, so that his voluble 
 companion might get her full share. 
 
 '' Thank you," said Petsie, who quite 
 appreciated this latter attention. " How
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 235 
 
 nice it is to have aDjone who knows how 
 to take care of you !" 
 
 Then she looked across to Nelly, and 
 remarked in a pretty, confidential wayy 
 carrying on the subject she had just 
 dropped, 
 
 " But, you know, perhaps they are en- 
 gaged, and, of course, that would make a 
 difference. I remember some one saying 
 that Mr. Hurst admired a Miss Willoughby 
 very much, and perhaps that is why Lady 
 Mannersby has put them together. You 
 know, at the barracks, we are always see- 
 ing the officers when we go to play cro- 
 quet or lawn-tennis, and we hear a great 
 deal of gossip, which I daresay other people 
 don't know anything about." 
 
 And Petsie, under cover of watching 
 the foaming bubbles on her champagne^ 
 leaned a little forward towards her com- 
 panion, that she might note whether there
 
 236 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 was the least change in his voice or 
 manner. 
 
 There was. Mark had not felt such a 
 twinge for many a day, and he had almost 
 turned sharply round upon his companion 
 before he remembered where he was. 
 
 " I really don't know," he said, after a 
 moment, which had seemed very, very 
 long to him, bringing, as it did, before 
 him possibilities which might make such a 
 difference to all his life. Strange that 
 until now it had never occurred to him to 
 wonder whether Nelly's sweet face and 
 winning, simple ways might not find their 
 way to other hearts as well as to his own. 
 And of course, now that the thought had 
 occurred, it seemed impossible that, of all 
 the people she had met, he should be the 
 only one to make a favourable impression 
 upon her. Why should not Mr. Hurst, 
 young, good-looking, with the frank, sol-
 
 LITTLE MTSS PHIMROSE. 237 
 
 dierly air wliich girls like, to say nothing 
 of the start in love's race which a red coat 
 and a military bearing give to their pos- 
 sessor, go in for Nelly's preference, and 
 win it, too ? And what was that gossip 
 which Miss Lavendale had heard about 
 his being so devoted to her ? Of course 
 there must be something in it, or it could 
 never have become common talk on the 
 lawn-tennis ground. Fool that he had 
 been to think that a girl so fair was only 
 fair for himself, or that her eyes had never 
 met any looks of admiration but those 
 which he had given. There was more 
 gloom than Mark Heslington was aware 
 of, in both his face and his voice, as he 
 said, in reply to Petsie's poisonous sugges- 
 tion, and said it very curtly, 
 
 '' I don't know." 
 
 Petsie shrugged her shoulders, and 
 laughed that innocent little laugh.
 
 ■238 LITTLE ]\1ISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 '' I daresay you don't. But lue find 
 these things out a great deal sooner than 
 you do, and it seems to me that they 
 understand each other quite well. I must 
 say I think they have both of them shown 
 very good taste. He is a great favourite 
 in his regiment, too — so straightforward 
 and gentlemanly, and all that sort of thing 
 — and that goes a very long way with a 
 girl, you know. What a pity it seems 
 that he is going away so soon ! And who 
 is the gentleman who is sitting on Miss 
 "Willoughby's other side ? He looks like a 
 clergyman." 
 
 " Yes ; he is Mr. Coniston, my brother- 
 in-law, the vicar of Mannersby." 
 
 ** You don't say so ! How curious ! 
 Really everyone in the room appears to 
 belong to you in some way or other. But 
 I suppose, in a little village like this, people 
 do get mixed up with each other very
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 239 
 
 mucli. I think I know them nearly all 
 now, so I won't trouble you any more. 
 Isn't it a pity they haven't given us any 
 menus ? I always like to know what is 
 coming next. If you don't, perhaps you 
 take things you really don't care for, and 
 then, when the best of all comes, you can't 
 enjoy it. I mean to have just one entree 
 to-night, and then I shall reserve myself 
 for the sweets. I am so fond of sweets. 
 Are you ?" 
 
 Mr. Heslington, absorbed in studying 
 the design of his name card, did not 
 answer immediately. It was even prettier 
 than Petsie's, being in the fashion of a 
 Sevres plate, with a blue border, and a 
 shepherdess in the middle, holding a 
 ribbon, upon which the name was written. 
 There was a pouting sauciness about her 
 face which reminded him of Miss Laveu- 
 dale, and she seemed to be saying to him,
 
 240 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 as she peeped over the floating ribbon, 
 
 " We find out these things a great deal 
 sooner than you do." 
 
 ^' I beg your pardon," he said, waking 
 up from a meditation on the possibility 
 which these words might involve. 
 
 *' Oh ! never mind," said Petsie. '' I 
 had really quite forgotten what we were 
 talking about. One gets almost stupefied 
 with the heat and the lights and the noise. 
 I think it is such a mistake having such 
 a quantity of light at a dinner-party." 
 
 So Petsie did not ask the question 
 again. A curious expression played about 
 the corners of her mouth. She turned 
 with a little shrug to Mr. Raymond, and 
 was at once a different person, quite the 
 easy, somewhat ennuyee lady of society. 
 
 " This is a lovely part of the country, 
 Mr. Eaymond; you must be sorry to 
 leave it."
 
 LITTLE MISS PETMEOSE. 241 
 
 "Yes," said tlie young man, dellglited 
 to be taken notice of at last, and with 
 an appreciative glance towards the creamy 
 shoulders, arms, cheeks, and throat which 
 looked so pretty in juxtaposition with the 
 pink ribbons and stephanotis. " We have 
 had an awfully jolly time here, and such a 
 splendid hunting country, too. Do you 
 hunt ?" 
 
 '' No," said Petsie, languidly. *' We live 
 in London, and unfortunately we are not 
 rich enough to have a place in the 
 country, or I have no doubt I should 
 enjoy it immensely." 
 
 '' Ah ! you would. But London is very 
 jolly when you are there at the right time. 
 One gets such fun at Hurlingham." 
 
 Petsie inclined her head. Champagne 
 did not make her communicative with a 
 young lieutenant who was under orders 
 for Gibraltar in a month or so. She was 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 LITTLE .MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 noticing, too, that Mr. Heslington, though 
 at liberty now to address a few courteous 
 remarks to Mrs. Gallersby, was doing no- 
 thing of the sort. Instead, his eyes were 
 fixed upon Nelly and Mr. Hurst, on the 
 other side of the table, and he was 
 mechanically twirling the little Sevres 
 plate about, or playing with the battalion 
 of wine glasses at his right hand. That 
 was just as it should be. And he was 
 passing the dishes one after another, 
 trufiied chicken, sweet-breads, cutlets, 
 game, with a careless shake of the head 
 which showed that the cooking was entire- 
 ly lost upon him. That was a pity, every- 
 thing being of the best and choicest ; still 
 at the same time it was just as it should 
 be, too, under the circumstances. 
 
 '' Mr. Heslington," she said at last, 
 with pretty petulance, *'you are taking no 
 notice of me at all. For the last quarter
 
 LITTLE MISS PEfllROSE. 243 
 
 of an hour I have been trying to catch 
 that man's eye and make him see my 
 empty glass, but it is not the least bit of 
 use. Do take pity upon me, for I am so 
 thirsty, and I will promise not to trouble 
 you any more when once the sweets have 
 €ome." 
 
 Thus rallied, Mark recovered himself, 
 and struggled bravely on for the rest of 
 the evening. 
 
 k2
 
 244 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 "' T AM quite happy now. I don't want 
 -■- you to talk to me any more, thank 
 you," said Miss Petsie, ten minutes later^ 
 as she deposited upon her plate a delici- 
 ously frothy mass of whipped cream, 
 with macaroons and bits of preserved 
 giuger peeping out amongst it, ''I never 
 want anyone to say a word to me when 
 once the sweets have begun to come. 
 Only," she continued, poking out that 
 pretty shoulder again, " isn't it a pity they 
 don't give you a bigger spoon to help 
 yourself with, and such a magnificent 
 dairy as they must have here ? It really
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 245 
 
 can't make a bit of difference to them how 
 much cream they use. I haven't been 
 able to take half as much as I want, and 
 people look at you so if you put out a 
 second spoonful." 
 
 '* Perhaps they will bring it round 
 again, or something else as good," said Mr. 
 Heslington, consolingly. 
 
 '^Ah! I see you are laughing at me. 
 You think 1 am very foolish, but I really 
 can't help it. Sweets always have been 
 my weak point, and in London we don't 
 get them half so nice, because the cream 
 isn't good. But, you know, I said you 
 need not talk to me any more, so please be 
 quiet." 
 
 For Petsie felt she had done enough now 
 for one evening. The first movements 
 towards the conquest of new territory are 
 often not so much aggressive as strategic. 
 No perceptible advance is made ; nay, often
 
 246 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 the invading forces appear in a more un- 
 favourable position than before, but at the 
 same time the ground is being covered, 
 and desirable points are being taken pos- 
 session of, and, though nothing brilliant is 
 achieved, the way is slowly being made 
 plain into the very heart of the enemy's 
 country. 
 
 Of course Petsie knew well enough that, 
 so far, she had done nothing towards 
 establishing herself in Mr. Hesliugton's 
 good graces. On the contrary, he must 
 look upon her as men do look upon those 
 who have suggested to them unpleasant 
 possibilities. But that was only the be- 
 ginning. Petsie knew what she was 
 about. The thing to be done now was to 
 let that unpleasant possibility sink into his 
 mind, and settle itself there until it came 
 to be looked upon as a probability, or even 
 a fact already accomplished.
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 247 
 
 So she turned to Mr. Eaymond again, 
 and allowed him to talk to her about lawn- 
 tennis and field sports, and the jolly times 
 they had had the previous winter in the 
 huniing-field, still, however, keeping a 
 judicious watch over her left hand neigh- 
 bour, and noting his silence and the mani- 
 fest want of interest with which he refused 
 dainty after dainty, not even allowing the 
 servants to replenish his glasses with Sir 
 Charlton's fine old Hock and sparkling 
 Moselle. It was a pity, truly, that such a 
 good dinner should be spoiled for him, but 
 then what could she do ? 
 
 At last a signal from the hostess caused 
 a general flutter amongst the ladies. 
 There was a hasty gathering up of fans 
 and gloves and pocket-handkerchiefs, and, 
 with a second diet of rustling and bustling, 
 and certain gloomy looks on the part of 
 Mrs. Mendies, who thought that she ought
 
 248 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 to have gone out before Mrs. ConistoD, 
 the drawing-room was reached. 
 
 Here Petsie recommenced her little 
 performances. As thej sauntered about, 
 scarcely knowing where and how to -dis- 
 pose of themselves, she came smilingly 
 np to Kelly, who was moving towards a 
 stand of engravings not far from the 
 door. 
 
 " I don't want an introduction," she 
 said, in her pretty, child-like way, " be- 
 cause I seem to know you as well as can 
 be already. You know I am Mrs. Deci- 
 mer's sister, and I have come to pay her a 
 very long visit. It is so nice, because I 
 like the country so, and Hurchester is 
 just like the country after London. My 
 sister says she is going to bring me to call 
 upon Miss Heslington very soon, and then 
 I hope we shall be very good friends. 
 She says you are staying there now."
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 249 
 
 " Yes/' said Nelly, tliinking how kind it 
 was of tliis pretty Miss Lavendale to come 
 and pick her out, and talk to her in this 
 way, when nobody else was taking any 
 notice of her. Lady Mannersby had got 
 hold of Miss Primrose, and Mrs. Coniston 
 was talking to the reticent Mrs. Gallers- 
 by, and Mrs. Mendies and her daughter 
 had carried Miss Heslington off to look 
 at a new flower in the conservatory, and, 
 if Miss Lavendale had not come up and 
 spoken to her so nicely, she might have 
 gone wandering about by herself any- 
 where. 
 
 " I remember your face so well," Petsie 
 said. '' You know we met you, two or 
 three days ago, as we were coming out 
 of the Hall drive, and I felt from the 
 very first I should like to know more 
 about you. Isn't it funny how w^e feel 
 that we should like to be intimate with
 
 250 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 some people, and others we don't care the 
 least bit about ? Let us go somewhere 
 out of the way, where we can have a nice 
 talk." 
 
 And Petsie moved towards that stand 
 of foliage-plants behind which Nelly had 
 been sitting before dinner. She contrived 
 it so that Nelly should take the same seat 
 again now, and then she placed herself 
 close to her, a little way in front, so that 
 Nelly was completely hemmed in, and 
 out of the way of the rest of the 
 people. 
 
 *' This is so nice and cosy. I am so 
 glad I have found you. All the people 
 here are so dreadfully grown up. You 
 and I are the only girls." 
 
 " Except Miss Mendies," suggested 
 Nelly. 
 
 " Miss Mendies, indeed ! Why, she is 
 thirty, if she is a day. I am very clever
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 251 
 
 at guessing people's ages. Do you enjoj 
 a dinner-party ? I think it is sucli a 
 stupid thing." 
 
 " I don't know much about it," said 
 Nelly. " I have never been to a big one 
 like this before. It is very nice to see 
 all the people so prettily dressed." 
 
 '' Yes ; and to have anyone so attentive 
 to you," added Petsie, with a playful little 
 laugh. "I do believe poor Mr. Hurst 
 thought himself in the seventh heaven all 
 the time. You have made quite a con- 
 quest of him, poor man. I wish I had 
 had half as good a time with Mr. Hesling- 
 ton, but I could scarcely get a word out 
 of him. If his sister is anything like him, 
 it must be dreadfully dull for you, staying 
 there." 
 
 '^ Oh, no ; indeed it isn't !" said Nelly, 
 quite brightening up. '' It is as pleasant 
 as ever it can be. You know I go about
 
 252 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 amongst the poultry, and we have such 
 dehghtful walks all about, and I find 
 birds' nests, and soruetimes I feed the 
 little birds with bread crumbs." 
 
 " How delightful !" said Petsie, clasping 
 her hands enthusiastically. '' Do you 
 know, all my life I have had such a 
 longing to see a birds' nest, a real one. 
 I mean, with little live birds in it, and 
 to give them something to eat. When I 
 come to see you, will you show me your 
 nest, and let me put my hands into it, 
 and feel the little birds and everything ?" 
 
 ''Oh, yes," said Nelly, in the simpleness 
 of her heart, not thinking how stealthily 
 this pretty London lady was coming, step 
 by step, to that other nest over which all 
 her thoughts and hopes were brooding now, 
 nor how soon those soft white hands 
 would be stretched out to claw it down 
 and tear it to pieces, and scatter it on the
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 2bS 
 
 ground. " Yes ; I will show you it, and 
 you shall see tlie ducklings, too, such dear, 
 fluffy little things, just like powder-puffs. 
 We give them bread crumbs, soaked in 
 milk, and sometimes rice, and all sorts 
 of things, and we have some kittens, too, 
 in the granaiy, and I go and feed them, 
 and then there is another nest up in an 
 elm-tree, and I can climb up and peep 
 into it. There are five blue eggs there." 
 
 " Oh ! why did I never come into the 
 country before ?" said Petsie, with another 
 burst of enthusiasm. ^' But I shall come 
 and see you as soon as ever I can, and 
 then, whilst the grown-up people talk 
 about their own affairs, you will take mo- 
 to see all the pretty things." 
 
 " Only," and Petsie gave that childlike 
 little shrug of hers, and peeped round as 
 if she were half afraid of some one over- 
 hearing her — ''only I hope Mr. Heslingtom
 
 254 LITTLE MISS PSIMROSE. 
 
 will be out. He is so very stiff and quiet, 
 you know, and he does make me so dread- 
 fully afraid of him. I am sure, if I were 
 you, I should want him to be out of the 
 way always. Were you not very sorry for 
 me when you saw him take me in to dinner? 
 And were you not very glad for yourself 
 when that delio^itful Mr. Hurst took you? 
 'But then, you know, I am so tired of 
 dinner-parties." 
 
 And Petsie yawned. Just then there 
 was a sudden awakening amongst the 
 ladies. 
 
 "Why, 1 declare," she said, ''here are 
 the gentlemen coming in ! They have 
 scarcely left us to ourselves five minutes. 
 N'ow I do call that too bad, for it is such 
 a rest to have a nice comfortable time, and 
 be able to do as one likes without them. 
 Mr. Hurst is looking all round the room, 
 wondering where you are. I will speak to
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 255 
 
 him, and tell him. You know I know him 
 quite well, because he comes in to see my 
 sister sometimes." 
 
 Miss Lavendale soon succeeded in at- 
 tracting the young lieutenant's attention, 
 and bringing him over to the flower-stand, 
 where she made room for him between 
 herself and Nelly, so that the latter was 
 hemmed in more completely than ever, and 
 would evidently be a fixture for the rest 
 of the evening, unless some one came to 
 dislodge her by force. 
 
 Having accomplished that part of her 
 scheme, Petsie soon found an excuse for 
 slipping away, and seeing that Sir Charl- 
 ton had detaiued Mr. HeslinQ:ton in the 
 conservatory, on his way from the dining- 
 room, she placed herself at a table close to 
 the conservatory door, so that she might 
 be ready for action when the gentlemen 
 had finished their conversation.
 
 256 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 Five minutes later Mr. Heslington 
 strolled in — alone. 
 
 "Oh! Mr. Heslington," she exclaimed, 
 " do take pity on me for a little while, and 
 tell me about these pictures. I suppose 
 they are views of the Hall, or somethino^ 
 of that sort, but there is not a bit of 
 writing underneath to say anything about 
 them, and it is so stupid." 
 
 Mr. Heslington came, as in duty bound,, 
 and began to explain the pictures to her. 
 Perhaps it was not the very thing of all 
 others he would have wished to do just 
 then, and Petsie knew it. 
 
 " I am really very sorry to trouble 3^ou," 
 she said, " because I know men never care 
 to come and speak to the ladies they have 
 had to talk to all dinner time, and I don't 
 wonder either, because they must have got 
 so dreadfully tired of them, unless they 
 really like them yerj much indeed. Don't
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 257 
 
 you think so? But please just tell me 
 one or two, and tlien I shall be able to 
 guess the others from them." 
 
 Mark glanced round the room, and very 
 soon discovered that Mr. Hurst and Nelly 
 were amongst the few who had not become 
 tired of each other's company. Petsie did 
 not miss the glance. Indeed, she never 
 missed anything, but she did not say any- 
 thing until she had had a few of the 
 pictures explained to her. Then she push- 
 ed the book away with a pettish little ges- 
 ture, and, looking towards the stand of 
 foliage plants, remarked, as if the thought 
 had just struck her — 
 
 " I do think some people are very self- 
 ish. Mr. Hurst evidently means to keep 
 poor Miss Willoughby there all the even- 
 ing. She can no more get away from 
 him than if he had set her on the top of 
 one of the pedestals. However, she looks 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 2£^8 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 
 
 very happy about it, and so I suppose it 
 is all riglit. And then, of course, if the 
 regiment is going away so soon, he wishes 
 to make the most of his opportunities. 
 She is really a very pretty, taking little 
 creature, is she not? So simple, you 
 know, and countrified, and all that sort of 
 thing." 
 
 Mark assented, rather gloomily, seeing 
 that he was expected to say something. 
 
 " She has been telling me how nice it is 
 to be staying with you. She says you 
 show her the birds' nests, and help her to 
 climb up to put bits of bread and things 
 in, and that you have such delightful walks 
 together; and she says, if I come over 
 some morning, she will show me the nests 
 too. Isn't it good of her?" 
 
 ** Yery good indeed," replied Mark, with 
 internal beginnings of something like dis- 
 pleasure towards JSTelly. He would not
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 259 
 
 have told anybody about those pleasant 
 walks. Still less did he like the idea of 
 her describing them to a stranger, least 
 of all a stranger like Miss Lavendale. 
 And then she certainly appeared to be 
 very comfortably settled down there with 
 Mr. Hurst, talking away to him in what 
 might be called almost a lively manner for 
 such a quiet little girl. Evidently they 
 had some interests in common. 
 
 "Thank you," said Petsie ; "don't 
 trouble to show me any more. I am sure 
 it must be a dreadful plague to you. And 
 there is Miss Heslington sitting all by 
 herself on the other side of the room. I 
 will go over and have a chat with her. 
 You know I mean us to be such good 
 friends. I am sure we shall get on de- 
 lightfully together." 
 
 And the amiable young lady, having 
 done all that she thought necessary for 
 
 s2
 
 260 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 the present with Mr. Heslington, weot 
 over to practise upon his sisfcer. 
 
 Here, however, she was not quite so 
 successful, Grace Heslington being one of 
 those finely unimaginative w^omen who 
 never pick up hints and piece them to- 
 gether either to the destruction of their 
 own comfort or that of other people. In 
 vain Petsie suggested that Nelly seemed 
 to be making quite a conquest of the 
 young lieutenant. What a pity he wa& 
 going away so soon, or there was no tell- 
 ing what might come of it. Had they 
 known each other very long, and was there 
 really any understanding between them ? 
 Miss Heslington could not see it. In vain, 
 too, Petsie asked, in her pretty rallying 
 way, if Mr. Heslington was always so very 
 quiet and reserved, or was he, perhaps, 
 to-night the least little bit jealous of the 
 attention which some one else was paying
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 261 
 
 to Miss Willougliby ? Miss Heslington 
 could not see that either. Evidently she 
 was not prepared to enter upon her bro- 
 ther's state of mind, or even to be aware 
 that in such matters he had a state of 
 mind to be entered upon. Petsie had to 
 fall back upon generalities, and after 
 awhile, gathering from a chance remark 
 that her companion took an interest in 
 visiting poor people, she developed a sud- 
 den acquaintance with the subject, and 
 ended by making Miss Heslington promise 
 that she would take her to see the unfor- 
 tunate woman whose rheumatism had stood 
 out against everything but brown paper 
 and ironing. 
 
 So now Petsie saw her way to a conve- 
 nient intimacy, in case anything could be 
 made of it. 
 
 Not long after that the party broke up. 
 YouDg Raymond took Mr. Decimer back
 
 262 LITTLE MISS PKIMROSE. 
 
 to the barracks in his trap, there being 
 one or two sick soldiers to visit in the 
 hospital, so Mrs. Decimer and her sister 
 had a comfortable little chat in the 
 brougham which Lady Mannersby had 
 kindly lent them for the drive home. Lady 
 Mannersby would do almost anything now 
 for dear Mrs. Decimer. And both the 
 ladies agreed that on the whole it had 
 been a very successful evening.
 
 263 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 rpiHAT was more than Mark Heslington 
 -*- could say of it. From the dinner- 
 party he had never expected very much. 
 It was, at the best, only an unwelcome 
 break in the happy, quiet life which, since 
 Nelly came to the cottage, had begun to 
 count by other than days and moments. 
 Nelly was to stay now for another fort- 
 night. Mark had almost made up his 
 mind that before she went away he would 
 speak out, and tell her all that was in his 
 heart, whether that tiresome old Sir 
 Charlton had said all that was in his or 
 not.
 
 264 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 But there was one thing about Lady 
 Mannersby's dinner-party to which he had 
 looked forward with unmixed satisfaction, 
 and that was the walk home after it. For 
 Miss Primrose had promised to drive 
 Grace home with her as far as the cottage, 
 leaving him to take Nelly by the meadow 
 and the plantation walk in the moonlight. 
 And what a pleasant ending that would 
 be, pleasant enough to be waited for very 
 patiently through even the longest and 
 stiffest of entertainments. 
 
 What had made it not so pleasant 
 now? 
 
 Mark asked himself that question after 
 Miss Lavendale had left him to go and 
 have a chat with his sister. 
 
 Miss Lavendale was the sort of girl that 
 he could never care for in the least, but 
 truth is the same whether you find it in a 
 fashionable drawine-room or at the bottom
 
 LITTLE MISS PlilMEOSE. 265 
 
 of a well, and certainly there seemed a 
 great deal of truth in Miss Lavendale's 
 suggestion that Mr. Hurst and Miss Wil- 
 louglaby were getting on remarkably well 
 together. 
 
 Mrs. Decimer had just been prevailed 
 upon to give the company one of her 
 charming little French songs. There was 
 a general buzz and flutter of conversation 
 all over the room, except in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the piano. Mark felt 
 that nobody wanted him, so he went off 
 into the deserted conservatory, and 
 stretclied himself out on one of the rustic 
 benches, from which he had a full view of 
 Nelly and Mr. Hurst chatting together as 
 if they had known each other for years. 
 Only one thing comforted him ; that she 
 looked very bright and straightforward 
 about it, not quite as a girl generally may 
 be supposed to look when the inferences
 
 266 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 which Miss Lavendale had drawn about 
 Nelly are correct. 
 
 Now Miss Lavendale was a very clever 
 girl in her way. Ever since she was out 
 of short frocks and pinafores, she had been 
 trying to do the best she could for herself, 
 and she had come to visit her sister Mrs. 
 Decimer, with a firm deter miuation not to 
 go away until she had engaged herself to 
 some one who was able to give her a good 
 position, along with a tolerably comfort- 
 able home. So far no one seemed more 
 likely to do this than Mr. Mark Hesling- 
 ton, and towards Mr. Mark Heslington, 
 therefore, she directed her operations, the 
 first of them of course being aimed at the 
 discomfiture of poor little Nelly, who either 
 might or might not be a serious obstacle 
 in the way of success. 
 
 Of course Miss Lavendale was far too 
 much of a lady to say disagreeable thiugs
 
 LITTLE M]SS PEIMROSK. 267 
 
 about people. It would have done not the 
 least good in the world to hiut that Miss 
 Willoughby was gauche^ countrified, en- 
 tirely wanting in polish, or anything of 
 that kind. Such hints could only wound 
 Mr. Heslington's self-love, and also make 
 herself appear spiteful, the very last thing 
 that a girl who wishes to make a favour- 
 able impression ought to appear. Far 
 better than anything of that sort was it to 
 suggest that Miss Willoughby's attractions 
 were such as to make it a matter of sur- 
 prise that many others did not acknow- 
 ledge them ; nay, even that they were 
 already acknowledged by one who, per- 
 chance, was more favourably looked upon 
 than himself. 
 
 So far, so good. And therefore Miss 
 Petsie Lavendale, pouting out that short, 
 pretty upper lip, and looking up so inno- 
 cently into Mark Heslington's face, let fall
 
 268 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 that drop of lemon-juice into the clear 
 waters of his trust. 
 
 She had made several lemon-juice ex- 
 periments before, all more or less success- 
 ful, though they had been on a smaller 
 scale. But she did not yet know all that 
 may be done by the judicious application 
 of acid. She knew, for instance, that if 
 you drop it on purple dye an ugly yellow 
 stain is produced, and that if you squeeze 
 it into milk it will curdle it just in pro- 
 portion to the richness and purity of the 
 milk. But she did not know that, if into 
 apparently clear water which has been 
 previously impregnated with certain 
 chemical agents, you drop this same 
 lemon-juice, it will neither stain nor 
 curdle. It will produce at first a good 
 deal of effervescence and cloudiness which, 
 slowly passing away, results in an entirely 
 new condition of the water. And if, after
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 269 
 
 that, you drop in certain other chemical 
 
 agents, you produce a beautiful rosy 
 
 purple, like to 
 
 " The blood of the wine divine, 
 That flames so red in Sansovigne." 
 
 Of course this result was the very last 
 that Miss Petsie Lavendale would have 
 wished for. Her catechism of the chemis- 
 try of human nature had only instructed 
 her as to the effects of lemon-juice upon 
 plum-coloured dye or innocent dairy milk. 
 She was not quite sure which of these Mr. 
 Heslington would prove to be, but she 
 had no doubt that the acid would do its 
 work successfully enough. 
 
 And so it did, though not at all accord- 
 ing to Petsie's wishes, as he sat there in 
 the conservatory watching Nelly and the 
 young lieutenant. 
 
 At first there was a great bubbling and 
 commotion in the hitherto quiet waters of
 
 270 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 Ills love. This bj-and-by cleared away, 
 and then, a drop of common sense happen- 
 ing to fall ioto them, there slowly followed 
 a fresh combination which chang^ed them 
 into tlie rosy red of a love and trust which 
 had cast out fear. In other words, Mark 
 Heslington, after fretting and fuming for 
 half an hour amongst Lady Mannersby's 
 geraniums, suddenly made up his mind 
 that he was a fool to believe anything that 
 was not good of Nelly Willoughby, and he 
 determined that, as they walked home that 
 night, he would have it all out with her, 
 and know whether she cared a pin for 
 young Mr. Hurst or not. 
 
 Of course, if Petsie had had the least 
 idea of such a result, she would have kept 
 anything like lemon- juice carefully out of 
 the way. She would have used instead 
 the alkali of flattery, which, falling into 
 the clear wine of love, would have fouled
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 271 
 
 and thickened and spoiled it. She would 
 have done about the most unworthy thing 
 that a woman can do. She would have 
 planned things quite differently, arranged 
 her tactics so as to make it appear that 
 Mr. Heslington had made an easy conquest 
 of Nelly's affections, and so have hurt his 
 pride by showing him how cheaply what 
 he sought had been won. Of course then 
 he would not care for it so much, for a 
 man very naturally despises what he has 
 spent no pains to gain. 
 
 And Petsie would not have troubled 
 herself much, either, as to the opinion 
 which might truthfully have been passed 
 upon any of these little performances. 
 The top of her head, where conscientious- 
 ness and all the rest of the moral facul- 
 ties ought to have been, was decidedly 
 flat, indeed, scarcely worth mentioning at 
 all, and the hollow was onl^^ hidden from
 
 272 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 observation by the ingenious way in which 
 she "tousled" her hair over it. So long' 
 as Petsie could get what she wanted, the 
 ways and means by which the getting was 
 accomplished were of quite secondary im- 
 portance. 
 
 However, she had made a mistake this 
 time. As she and her sister were con- 
 gratulating themselves, in Lady Manners- 
 by's brougham, on the success of the even- 
 ing, Mark and Nelly were just setting off 
 in the moonlight across the meadow to 
 the plantation path, where nothing would 
 hinder him from asking for the explana- 
 tion which mif]fht set thino^s all ris^ht
 
 273 
 
 A 
 
 CHAPTER XYIII. 
 
 H ! and what a pleasant walk it was^ 
 home ID the moonlight all by them- 
 
 selves. Even though that disagreeable 
 Mrs. Mendies, who always seemed to see 
 everything that she ought not to have 
 seen, was getting into her carriage just as 
 Mark and Nelly started, and looked at 
 them both, but especially at Nelly, with 
 such a jealously complacent smile, as 
 much as to say — 
 
 '* Oh, yes, I know all about everything. 
 But pray don't mind me. Make yourselves 
 as comfortable as you can." 
 
 And then she nodded, and flirted her 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 LITTLE MISS PRIMHOSE. 
 
 fan, and said quite loudly, so tliat all the 
 people who were waiting for their carriages 
 might have heard — 
 
 ''A pleasant evening for a walk, Miss 
 Willoughbj, very pleasant indeed. Only 
 a pity you cannot make it a little longer." 
 
 But at that moment Miss Heslington, 
 who was just starting with Miss Prim- 
 rose, turned and spoke to her brother, 
 bidding him be sure, whatever else he did, 
 not to take Nelly off the beaten foot-path 
 through the meadow, or she would get her 
 feet wet, so Nelly hoped he did not hear 
 what Mrs. Mendies said. And then they 
 set out. 
 
 First of all among the laurels and 
 cypresses of the terrace walk, with here 
 and there a lamp glimmering still through 
 the leaves, and then past the Italian 
 garden, its ribbon borders and quaint sym- 
 metrical flower-patterns showing like a
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 275 
 
 big old-fashioned piece of patcliwork in the 
 moonlight, and then behind the hothouses, 
 and across a bit of waste ground to the 
 stile which led into the meadow. Here 
 Nelly tore her white muslin dress, because 
 she would jump down from the top bar, 
 instead of letting Mark lift her, as, of 
 course, he wanted to do. But even that 
 was pleasant too, for thej had to stay 
 ever so long to get it pinned up, and Mark 
 insisted upon helping, and then he stepped 
 back a little way, and made her stand still 
 for him to look at her, for he said she 
 would just do for the figure of a banshee 
 which he wanted to paint in a picture of 
 the old house at the Chase. There was 
 a proper banshee belonging to the house, 
 but nobody had ever seen it, and if Nelly 
 would only stop a little while, just as 
 she was, there, with her floating white 
 draperies outlined upon the rugged back- 
 
 T 2
 
 276 LITTLE MISS PHIMEOSE. 
 
 ground of some old thorn bushes by the 
 stile, she would be just the very thing he 
 wanted. 
 
 " And there is not the least bit of need 
 for us to hurry, Nelly. Grace won't be at 
 the house for twenty minutes yet. The 
 road is ever so far round, close up to 
 Beechy Hollow, you know, and what i& 
 the use of our getting home before her ? 
 Tell me how you enjoyed the dinner- 
 party." 
 
 *'As much as I expected," said Nellj^,. 
 gathering up her dress, and looking about 
 carefully for the beaten footpath through 
 the meadow. 
 
 And, from the tone of her voice, Mark 
 could gather that the expectation had not 
 been much. That was quite satisfactory^ 
 because Nelly was not a girl who ever said 
 anything just for the sake of saying it. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I did not care very
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 277 
 
 much for it myself. I knew the coming 
 home would be the best part of it. Who 
 took you in to dinner ?" 
 
 " Mr. Hurst, one of the lieutenants in 
 the regiment that is just going away." 
 
 " Oh ! then," Mark replied, rather guile- 
 fully, " that would be all right for you, 
 because you know him, and you would 
 have plenty to talk about." 
 
 " No, I don't know him. I never saw 
 him even before. We scarcely ever go to 
 parties at Hurchester, and, when we do, we 
 generally only meet the Cathedral people. 
 This is the first time I have ever dined 
 with any of the officers." 
 
 "Is it really?" said Mark, feeling both 
 relieved and puzzled. "You were both of 
 you talking away as if you had known 
 each other all your lives. I made sure 
 you were old friends." 
 
 " No, not a bit, but I found out such a.
 
 278 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 curious thino^. When Mr. Hurst first 
 joined the regiment, it was going to 
 Canada, and for ever so long they were 
 quartered close to where my uncle is set- 
 tled there. He knows them all quite well, 
 and he knows my cousin, Janet Willoughby. 
 He says I am exactly like her, so I suppose 
 that made him feel almost as if we were 
 old acquaintances. Was it not curious 
 that we should just happen to hit upon 
 each other in that way, and when I had 
 never seen anybody in all my life before 
 who knew anything at all about my Uncle 
 Willoughby and Janet ?" 
 
 " It was delightful r said Mark. And he 
 said it with an emphasis which Nelly put 
 down to the fact that he had been abroad 
 himself, and knew what it was to come 
 upon pleasant English people in what 
 might almost be called the uninhabited 
 parts of the earth. But Mark guessed
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 279 
 
 that this Canadian, Miss Willonghby, was 
 the one to whom regimental gossip had 
 assigned Mr. Hurst's preference, and that 
 cleared away at once a whole cloud of 
 uucomfortableness, whilst at the same time 
 ifc left the newly-awakened consciousness 
 that somebody else might have found this 
 Hurchester Miss Willoughb}^ pleasant too. 
 And that determined him to do the very 
 last thing in the world which Miss Petsie 
 Lavendale would have wished him to do, 
 namely, find out, if possible, Sir Charlton's 
 intentions, and then make known his own 
 to Nelly. 
 
 But now they had come to the stile 
 which led into the plantation walk, and 
 Mark would not let Nelly climb that, or 
 jump it, but insisted on lifting her down 
 himself. 
 
 "And there isn't the least need for us 
 to go on in such a hurry," he said, as Nelly,
 
 280 LITTLE MISS PEIMEOSE. 
 
 very liappj, but with that unconscious 
 contrariness which some girls have, went 
 stepping along as though the only thing in 
 life was to get back to the cottage as soon 
 as possible. For she thought, if she lin- 
 gered ever so little on the way, Mark might 
 fancy it was because she liked being out 
 there alone with him, and it hurt her pride 
 that he should be able to fancy that. 
 With all her shyness, she was a touchy 
 little woman in matters of that sort, and 
 would have suffered the loss of anything 
 rather than that Mark Heslington should 
 have had the chance of thinking that she 
 was managing to get a little more of his 
 company, or that, having it, she cared for 
 it more than he cared for hers. 
 
 '' Suppose we stop here and rest a bit," 
 he said, as they came to the old elm-tree 
 where the bird's nest was. '' Grace can't 
 possibly get home for another quarter of
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 281 
 
 an hour, and then I daresay she will have 
 ever so much to say to Miss Primrose, and 
 mother will have been fast asleep since 
 eight o'clock, so she will not want us. 
 Unless you are ]jarticularly wishful to get 
 away from me." 
 
 Nelly answered that by coming to a 
 standstill under the old elm-tree, and 
 presently seating herself on a knobby bit 
 of root which stuck out on one side. 
 
 " You mustn't do that ; it's ever so 
 damp at this time of night," said Mark, 
 " and, besides, it will make your frock 
 all green. Let me put my coat down 
 first." 
 
 So he arranged his overcoat so as to 
 make a comfortable seat for her, and then 
 he took out a cigar and lighted it. Evi- 
 dently he intended to have the full benefit 
 of the quarter of an hour before his sister 
 could possibly get home.
 
 282 LITTLE MISS PRIMEOSE. 
 
 "And now tell me," he said, ^'how you 
 like Miss Lavendale." 
 
 " About as well as I liked the dinner- 
 party," said Nelly, with entire truthful- 
 ness, and with as much satisfaction to 
 Mark. 
 
 "Because, you know," he said, ''she 
 gave me to understand that you had 
 struck up a regular friendship with each 
 other." 
 
 " I haven't done anything of the sort," 
 replied Nelly, rather indignantly. " I 
 don't make friendships all of a sudden 
 like that. And, if I did, they would not 
 be with people like Miss Lavendale. She 
 only said she was coming to call, and 
 she asked me to show her things. You 
 know she has never been in the country 
 before." 
 
 " So she said, but you need not have 
 gone and told her all about everyihing.
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 2S3 
 
 We shall have lier now coming and poking 
 after this pretty little bird's nest over our 
 heads, for she says you have told her 
 about it, and how I found it out for you, 
 and that I lifted you up to look at the 
 eggs." 
 
 *' I didnt^'' said Nelly, flushing red, and 
 starting to her feet. But Mark drew her 
 back again. 
 
 '' And that we come here every day, 
 and that we go into the poultry-yard to 
 look for the eggs, and that we have the 
 most delightful Avalks everywhere." 
 
 ''1 didn't! I didn't!" 
 
 And Nelly would have been on her 
 feet again, only that Mark w^as holding 
 her dress. 
 
 '' I never told her anything of the sort, 
 and she has no business to tell you such 
 stories about me. She only asked me if 
 it was very nice being in the country, and
 
 284 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 I said it was ; and then she said she 
 should like to come and see everything, 
 too. As if I should have gone and told 
 her all that. It was too bad." 
 
 "No, it wasn't, because I like to see 
 jou get so vexed about it. But you know 
 I shouldn't have liked it a bit if you had 
 told her. Don't you understand ?" 
 
 Perhaps Nelly did. Perhaps she did 
 not. But there fell a lonof, sweet silence 
 between them, and in that silence they 
 both went, whether they knew it or not, 
 much nearer the Gate Beautiful, so near 
 that Mark would have gone straight in, 
 only for that stupid bar old Sir Charlton 
 had put across it, by not saying what he 
 meant to do about things. 
 
 '' But we ought to go," said Nelly. " I 
 am sure Miss Heslington will be at home 
 ever so long before us. And, you know, 
 .she said it wasn't a good thing to sit out 
 in the damp."
 
 LITTLE IkllSS PEIMROSE. 285 
 
 " Bother the clamp," said Mark. '' We 
 don't have any damp, such nights as 
 these. But if you must go, you must." 
 
 And, wondering much why Nelly always 
 would spoil everything by making it end 
 so much sooner than it need have done, 
 he let her start again, first, however, 
 insisting upon putting his overcoat round 
 her, that Grace might see he had taken 
 proper precautions about the damp. And, 
 lest she should get out of the beaten track 
 this time, which his sister had said was 
 a dangerous thing to do, he made her 
 take his arm, and, because her hand would 
 keep slipping away, he took that too, and 
 then she was quite safe. 
 
 And so on throuo^h the moonlig^ht, which 
 made such soft flickering lights and 
 shadows upon her face and her white 
 dress and the bright curls which fell over 
 it. They neither of them said anything.
 
 '286 ]JTTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 There was onlv one ihing^ Mark wanted to 
 say, and lie could not say that yet. And 
 as for Nelly, she was happy, and that was 
 all, so happy that she did not even say it 
 to herself. 
 
 Thus they came into the garden path 
 •close to the cottage. 
 
 " Do you like being with us, Nelly r" 
 
 " Yes, I do" said the girl, quietly. 
 And Mark stooped down over her and 
 kissed her forehead. 
 
 He might have told her all, and let Sir 
 Charlton's intentions go to the winds, but 
 just then the noise of carriage wheels was 
 heard beyond the elm-trees by the road 
 side. His sister and Miss Primrose were 
 coming. 
 
 Nelly darted away from him, and into 
 the cottage, and up to her own little room 
 over the porch ; and there for hour after 
 hour, until the yellow moon had sunk be-
 
 LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 257 
 
 hind the great purple banks o£ the Man- 
 nersby moors, and one could almost see 
 the first faint streak of dawn in the east, 
 she sat by the open window with a happy, 
 happy smile upon her face, remembering it 
 all.
 
 288 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 TTTHILST Mark and Nelly were loiter- 
 * ing in the plantation walk, Miss 
 Petsie Lavendale was smoothing out her 
 somewhat tumbled cream-coloured muslin, 
 and picking the faded stephanotis blossoms 
 from it, and arranging her plan of action 
 as regarded the operations which she now 
 intended to carry more vigorously into the 
 enemy's country. 
 
 She would call the very next day at the 
 cottage, and, under pretext of a quiet 
 conversation with Nelly whilst Mrs. Deci- 
 mer took the elder ladies in hand, give 
 that entirely simple-minded young person 
 the benefit of the information she had
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 289 
 
 gathered from Mrs. Mendies, relative to 
 Mr. Heslington's loDg and faithfully 
 cherished attachment to some hypothetical 
 lady on the Continent. True, Mrs. Men- 
 dies had tried to edge out of it afterwards, 
 by saying that she might, after all, be 
 mistaken ; and so probably she was ; but 
 the foundation was just as good to go 
 npon for all Miss Petsie's purposes. The 
 information had been given to her, and, so 
 long as she only repeated what other 
 people had said, nobody could accuse her 
 of telling stories. Besides, Miss Willough- 
 by was one of those innocent little crea- 
 tures who could be made to believe almost 
 anything by jDutting it cleverly, and there 
 w^as a shy sensitiveness about her, too, 
 which would make her the very one to be 
 acted upon by a report of that kind, when 
 she was once convinced that there was 
 anything in it. 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 So Petsie arranged it all, sitting there 
 in her sister's spare bed-room, and throw- 
 ing away the bits of faded stephanotis 
 before she folded her dress up. She had 
 to be very careful not to leave a single 
 leaf or stalk in, because it stained so, aud 
 that cream muslin would have to last her 
 for dinner-parties all through her visit. 
 She had had one dress completely spoiled 
 in London, by wrapping it up and putting 
 it away with some half-faded flowers left 
 in it, and she had had to stay at home 
 from all the rest of the parties that 
 season in consequence. That sort of 
 thing must not happen again, unless she 
 could contrive to get herself launched into 
 a position in which an evening costume or 
 two, more or less, would not signify. 
 
 And Petsie had hopes of that now, 
 especially if this second squeeze of lemon- 
 juice worked favourably.
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 291 
 
 Not that poor Nelly Willoiiglibjr had 
 ever done her any harm, that she should 
 be planning such wrong to the child. 
 P^evenge, spite, malice, jealousy, and envy 
 had not the least foothold in Petsie's heart, 
 as she sat there making her arrangements 
 so cleverly. She had never known any- 
 thing about them, except in books. She 
 could not understand why people got into 
 such frightful tempers, and did such 
 terrible things, and bit their lips, and 
 went pale with anger, and clenched their 
 taper fingers, and all that sort of nonsense. 
 It was such utter waste of time. It never 
 €nded in anything except mischief. One 
 must take care of oneself, to be sure, and 
 look after one's own interests, but it could 
 be done quietly and without letting angry 
 passions rise, as the hymn says, and that 
 was just what she had come to visit her 
 sister for, now. 
 
 u2
 
 292 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 Because it really was so dull in those 
 stupid little lodgings in Gower Street. 
 And old Madame was so prosy. When she 
 was not sponging and cleaning her worn- 
 out dresses, she was adding up the 
 tradesmen's books, comparing the prices 
 of mutton and potatoes at different shops^ 
 and contriving how she might do up a 
 savoury dinner out of yesterday's scraps. 
 Now Petsie felt she was not made for that 
 sort of thiuo^. She wanted to be comfort- 
 able, and to keep at least two servants and 
 a boy, as they did at the cottage, and to 
 marry somebody who had about four 
 hundred a year, with more in prospect, 
 so that she need never be troubled about 
 getting kid gloves to match her different 
 dresses, or a pleasant variety of bonnets to 
 set off her undeniably delicate, creamy 
 complexion. Everything would be per- 
 fectly easy and straightforward if she
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 293 
 
 married somebody nice, Mr. Heslington, for 
 instance. 
 
 And then if slie did not do sometbing 
 •of the sort — this was in reference to the 
 Mendies' bit of gossip, out of which so much 
 ■capital was to be made — just consider how 
 she was handicapped in the race with Nelly 
 Willoughby. There was the girl actually 
 staying in the house, day in and day out, 
 with no end of cosy little tete-a-tetes, one 
 of which Mrs. Decimer had interrupted 
 only the other morning, and half hours 
 out in the moonlight, and strolls amongst 
 the poultry and the birds' nests, and nobody 
 to disturb them but an amiable blind old 
 lady who would no doubt be very well 
 pleased to hear of their being husband and 
 wife, and almost equally blind Miss 
 Heslington who was just about as wide 
 awake as a bat in the daytime. What 
 would not she have done under such
 
 294 LITTLE MISS PHIMEOSE. 
 
 circumstances, if only Providence bad been 
 kind enough to reverse the position ? 
 
 But an ounce of tacb is worth a pound 
 of opportunity, as Miss Petsie said to her- 
 self ; and armed with this valuable maxim 
 she set out with Mrs. Decimer to make- 
 her call upon Mrs. Heslington, the day^ 
 after the dinner-party. 
 
 It was about four o'clock in the after- 
 noon, generally a lazy time at the cottage, 
 so far as they ever had any lazy times there, 
 and particularly so to-day, as the dinner- 
 party the night before had shortened their 
 hours of rest. Old Mrs. Heslington, who 
 could never sleep comfortably when her 
 daughter was not in the house, was re- 
 pairing the wakefulness of the previous 
 evening by a peaceful doze in her arm- 
 chair by the parlour window. Grace, who 
 had been ironing old Mrs. Bellamy's shoul- 
 der for a good half-hour that very morn-
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 295 
 
 ing, was dozing too, opposite her mother, 
 ■with " Sturm's Reflections " open on her 
 lap, that being the book out of which the 
 old lady was generally read to sleep of an 
 afternoon. 
 
 Mark was busy on the estate — rather 
 unusually busy, for old Sir Charlton 
 had suddenly found that he had a lot 
 of sheep which must be sold at the Bran- 
 thorpe market next day, and nothing 
 would serve him but that his agent must 
 go over that night to see that he was not 
 cheated in the sellino^ of them. Mark had 
 only heard of it that morning, and was 
 hurrying through his daily work on the 
 estate now, to have everything ready for 
 his evening journey, and half an hour over, 
 for a chat or a walk with Nelly. Not, 
 however, that it would make much differ- 
 ence, for he was only to be away a day or 
 two, and it was settled now that she was
 
 296 LITTLE MLSS PEBrROSE. 
 
 to stay at the cottage for another fortnight 
 at the very least. 
 
 l^elly, having seen both the ladies safely 
 off to sleep, and knowing that Mark was 
 not likely to make his appearance for some 
 time, had stolen away to the plantation 
 walk to have a quiet time of castle-build- 
 ing there. 
 
 She had her books with her and her 
 work, but the sweet thoughts that came 
 unbidden as soon as she reached the leafy 
 shade were better company than either. 
 Nelly wisely left the books and the work 
 alone, and began to think over all the pleas- 
 ant things that had happened here since, 
 less than two little wrecks as^o, Mark had 
 brought her through the path for the first 
 time to show her the heaths and ferns in 
 the Mannersby hot-houses, just across the 
 meadow beyond the plantation. 
 
 Then they had been almost strangers.
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 297 
 
 She had only come the night before. She 
 had not learned to think of him as any- 
 thing else but an inconvenient grown-up 
 man, who would want dressing for, and 
 talking to, and waiting upon, and in vari- 
 ous ways would spoil the unceremonious- 
 ness of her visit. She could remember it 
 all — how stiff she had felt with him thr^t 
 morning, how glad she had been when 
 they came to the last of Lady Manners- 
 by's wonderful New Zealand ferns and 
 the African heaths. Then he wanted her 
 to go and see the orchid-house, but she 
 had made an excuse about wanting to get 
 back to Miss Heslington, as they had ar- 
 ranged to go together to see some one in 
 the village. It had all been so stiff, and 
 proper, and formal, except when, in coming- 
 back again through rather a rough part of 
 the plantation, she happened to strike her 
 foot against the mossy root of a tree, and
 
 298 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 nearly fell down, letting slip all the beau- 
 tiful fern-leaves wliicli lie bad gathered so 
 carefully for her to press. 
 
 Somehow that stumble had been the 
 beginning of everything. For she really 
 had hurt herself a little, and he was so 
 good and kind, and took such care of her 
 afterwards, and was so patient in gather- 
 ing up all the ferns again. It was some- 
 thing quite new to Nelly, who had never 
 been accustomed to have anyone pay so 
 much attention to her, and she had felt a 
 little bit confused by it at first ; but some- 
 how afterwards it was very pleasant, and 
 she had not been so wonderfully glad, 
 after all, to get back to Miss Heslington, 
 and the walk into the village, and gossip- 
 ping Mrs. Mendies, and the rest of the old 
 women. 
 
 I^ot two weeks ago, and now how much 
 there was to remember. Nelly stood there
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 299 
 
 for a little while under the old elm-tree, 
 wrapped in bappy thoughts and memories. 
 Then, to make everything seem more real 
 to her, she did what she had often done 
 before when she had been there alone ; she 
 went to the farthest end of the plantation,, 
 stopping at each place which had its own 
 pleasant association. Only the pleasantest 
 thing of all was that each time there was 
 something fresh to remember, some new 
 step taken towards the Gate Beautiful, 
 some hope translated into sweeter remem- 
 brance, some possibly fair to-morrow made 
 real in the golden light of to-day, only for 
 another, fairer still, to dawn beyond it and 
 become real too. 
 
 So away she tripped with the bright girl 
 smile upon her face, and, staying at that 
 gate from which Mark had lifted her down 
 the night before, she began slowly to 
 retrace her steps, lingering here and there
 
 "300 LITTLE MISS PlilMROSE. 
 
 as some fancy or remembrance stayed 
 her. 
 
 Here was the drooping hazel branch 
 ■which he had held aside for her to go 
 beneath it. Here was the little bed of 
 wild hyacinths from which he had gath- 
 ered handfuls and wreathed them in her 
 hat with briony and bramble leaves. Here 
 was the old crab-tree stump with the 
 sparrow's nest hidden up amongst a lot of 
 moss and lichen on one of its bare 
 branches, just within reach for her to peep 
 into when Mark had put some stones for 
 her to stand on. Here, farther on, was 
 the hollow oak-tree from which, with a 
 shriek and a flutter and a whirr, a big 
 fluffy owl had flown out just as they were 
 passing it, startling Nelly so that Mr. 
 Heslington had made her walk close by 
 him all the rest of the way, sister Grace, 
 whom no owls could startle, so well was
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 301 
 
 sbe accustomed to their ways, trudgiiif^ 
 steadily on in front, oblivious, as was her 
 wont, of everything in that plantation path 
 but its tendency to give people damp feet. 
 Here was the mossy trunk on which he 
 made her rest the night before. There 
 was the grass, even yet bent aside, where 
 they had sat, and there, as she had thrown 
 them aside, were some stalks of wild oat 
 which she had been carelessly braiding 
 together as he talked to her in the moon- 
 light. There, too, the broken stalk of a 
 tall crimson foxglove, which she had 
 snatched at in her indignation, when Mark 
 told her of what Miss Lavendale had said. 
 The red rose came to Nelly's cheek again 
 this morninor as she thouo^ht of all that. 
 As if she could chatter to a strano:er of 
 the sweet and pleasant life which day by 
 day was unfolding before her, and to a 
 stransfer like Petsie Lavendale.
 
 302 LITTLE IVIISS PRIMROSE. 
 
 And then tlie long pause. And then 
 the walk to the little gate which led into 
 the cottage garden. And Mark had kissed 
 her there, and she had stolen aAvay from 
 him, as in a dream, and gone to her own 
 little room, and sat at the open window in 
 the moonlight, and remembered it all. She 
 had not seen him since, for he was up and 
 away early in the morning, and he had 
 said they were not to wait dinner for him, 
 because he was going to have a busy day. 
 And, as Nelly stood there by the gate, she 
 wondered what their next meeting would 
 be, with the memory of a kiss between 
 them. 
 
 Foolish girl ; to be wondering about 
 that, only that, and nothing more than 
 that. And when she had been staying for 
 two whole weeks in the same house with a 
 man who worshipped her, as this Mark 
 Heslington did, and who could have
 
 LITTLE MISS PRIMROSE. 303 
 
 kissed, ay, and who had kissed, the very 
 flowers on which she trod. To be moon- 
 ing about up and down a plantation walk, 
 simply living over again a look here and a 
 touch there, and a flower given somewhere 
 €lse, and then a silence and a kiss last of 
 all. Such unpractical nonsense ! Miss 
 Petsie Lavendale would have had better 
 food for thought under the circumstances. 
 She would have brought things to a much 
 more tangible issue during those two 
 weeks which Nelly had spent in mooning 
 and dreaming^ and remembering. She 
 would have reckoned up the expense of 
 her trousseau, and calculated the probable 
 number and value of her wedding presents, 
 and she would have decided upon sweeping 
 away all the spindly, old-fashioned furni- 
 ture out of the parlour, and turning it 
 into a pretty, stylish little drawing-room, 
 dainty enough to receive Lady Mannersby
 
 304^ LITTLE MISS PEIMROSE. 
 
 in, and the Daresbjs, and the Newburys^ 
 who would be sure to call upon her when 
 she was Mrs. Mark Heslington. 
 
 And yet, perhaps, when she had settled 
 it all, she would not have been so happy 
 as little Kelly Willoughby, standiug there- 
 amoDg the bushes, in the June afternoon 
 sunshine, with fingers pressed on dreamy 
 eyelids, and thoughts which brooded, like 
 bird upon its nest, over that happy past 
 whose brightness was for herself and her 
 lover alone. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY DUNCAN MACDONALD, BLENHEIM HOUSE.