Primrose Hall

“ But Prim asked no questions; only hovered about her with all sorts of affectionate words and ways, till Rollo came in. He sat down and began to make himself generally useful, in his wonted manner.
'Duke,' said Primrose, 'Miss Kennedy has been asking me if we ever make mistakes in this house!'
'What did you tell her?'
'Why you know what I told her. I am not sure about papa; but the rest of us don't boast of infallible wisdom.'
'Do you mean that he does?' said Duke, drily. At which
Primrose laughed. 'Have you been asleep, Miss Hazel?'
'Beyond reach of all earthly things. ”

“ But it was in a good hour that Primrose did as his mother had taught him.
He took the plate and ate of the red berries; and as he ate, the mist cleared before his eyes, his head and his heart stopped aching, and the ground no longer rocked beneath his feet.
The red poison killed the black in Primrose’s veins. He merrily clapped his hands and went on his way as sound as a bell and as happy as a grig.
And now he could see the top of the Mountain ahead of him, and Primrose thought:
“This is the end of the world. There is nothing beyond the top. There I shall find Lavender.” ”

“ He has scientific tastes, and writing in this way gives interest to his life; but his eyes are not very strong, and he has for some time been wishing for some nice girl to whom he can dictate his thoughts. It seems to him, and to me too, that Primrose is just the sort of girl he wants, and if she will come and live with us at Shortlands, he will pay her something for giving him a couple of her hours daily—thus, you see, she will be earning her living and will be quite independent. ”

“ Faith knew in her heart there were many things she [Pg 146] would be glad to have, and that she hated to sit in the house and spin and sew, when Primrose was roaming around with Penn and Andrew, and riding on the hay cart amid the fragrant dried grass.
"Andrew, wilt thou always be a Quaker?" Primrose asked one evening when she found him sitting under the tree where poor old grandmother had spent so many of her days.
"Always? Why, I suppose so. Children generally follow in the footsteps of their fathers." ”

“ It is no question of forgetting—our mother will never be forgotten—it is just that we would rather not. You must allow us to judge for ourselves on this point," concluded Primrose, with that dignity that suited her so well. Primrose, for all her extreme quietness and simplicity of manner and bearing, could look like a young princess when she chose, and Miss Martineau, who would have quarrelled fiercely with Jasmine, submitted. ”

“ Ellsworthy, but I know Primrose will never consent to that."
"I don't think you are sorry for me, Arthur," answered the pretty little lady. "In your heart of hearts you quite agree with that naughty, bad Primrose. You had rather the girls lived in their attic, and encountered another dreadful Mr. Dove, and fell into the hands of another designing publisher, than have them safe and happy at Shortlands. Oh, it is a plot between you all to deprive me of my great pleasure. Oh, why will girls, and young men, too, be so perverse?" ”

“ Somebody has been frightening the bit of a thing, Miss Primrose, and it's for you to find out who that somebody is. As to where she's gone? Why, she has gone back to where she was born, of course, and you and me will follow her by the first train in the morning, my dear."
"She was taking care of a cheque of mine for seventeen pounds ten shillings," exclaimed Primrose, "and in her little note she speaks of the money being lost. I think nothing of the loss of the money beside Daisy, but, Mrs. Dredge, Jasmine and I cannot afford even a third-class ticket to Rosebury just at present." ”

“ The doors of the houses always stood open, so that people could go in and out without knocking. Very few of them could afford to pay enough rent to have two rooms all to themselves, so that a whole family was generally huddled into one room, in which they had to live during the day and sleep at night. But most of the daytime was spent by the inhabitants of Primrose Place out of doors, lounging about on the pavement, or sitting on the doorsteps. ”

“ There is nothing whatever before you, Primrose, but to face the inevitable. The inevitable means that you must break up your home—that you obtain, through the kind patronage of the Ellsworthys, a situation as governess, or companion, or something of that sort—and that the little girls, Jasmine and Daisy, are put into a good school for the orphan daughters of military men. The Ellsworthys will use their influence toward this end. They are very kind—they have taken up your cause warmly. Primrose, my dear, it sounds hard, but plain speaking is best. You must be parted from your sisters. ”

“ Well, what a small world we live in; it was only to-day I heard talk of you. When Miss Primrose and I were down at Rosebury we came across a gentleman of the name of Danesfield, and he came straight up to Miss Primrose and said he had had a letter from you which he had not been able to answer, because he was away. He said a lot to Miss Primrose about the letter you wrote him; it seems that somebody must have stolen three five-pound notes, which Mr. Danesfield put into a closed envelope, and gave Miss Primrose for a kind of emergency fund when she left her home. ”

“ Primrose's life was very busy at this time. Certainly nothing could be more irksome than the daily task of reading to poor Mrs. Mortlock, but the fifteen shillings a week which she now earned regularly was a wonderful help to the household purse, and Primrose performed her irksome duties with a cheerful, and even thankful heart. Her anxieties about Daisy were almost laid to rest. Since the child had been moved to Miss Egerton's house she seemed quite a changed creature. ”

“ The hope of the young ladies, that nothing would be said about Miss Primrose because nothing had been said about her for several days, was disappointed on the very morning that Mr Primrose sent his answer to Robert Darnley, explaining the cause of the suspension of the correspondence. The note from Mr Primrose was brought to Neverden by the trusty servant and universal genius who performed at Smatterton rectory the various duties of foot [266] man, groom, gardener, butler, stable-boy, and porter. ”

“ Here Primrose flushed a very rosy pink, and Mrs. Ellsworthy saw a displeased look fill her eyes.
"You must not be angry with Miss Martineau, Primrose. She loves you three girls very much. She is most anxious about you. She—my dear, she told me of your poverty."
Here Primrose rose from her seat and said, in the quietest tone—
"We are certainly poor, but I don't think that is anybody's concern. We don't mind it ourselves—at least, not much. You see, we have never known riches, and we cannot miss what we have never had. It would be a great pity for people to try to make us discontented. ”

“ Poor Poppy! it is very wrong of her aunt not to let her go out to see the sights, and you see, Primrose, she really knows no part of London yet, except Penelope Mansion. Poor Poppy! how she did long to go to see the wonderful city; but she was a little frivolous, and seemed only to want to look at the shop windows and to examine the newest fashions. We go to this grand, great London in a different spirit—we go determined to conquer, don't we, Queen Rose?"
"We go to do what seems to be our duty," answered Primrose, solemnly. "Oh, Jasmine! ”

“ As Sir Henry spoke his hands clasped mine with a grip of iron. We flew over the frozen water. I gasped for breath.
"Let me go, you frighten me!" I cried.
"Frighten you? I? Impossible! You do not realise what you are saying, Primrose. In a week's time you and I will be husband and wife. In the presence of God you will have vowed to love, honour, and obey me. It will be pretty to hear the words as they drop from my darling's lips. My old ears will be attentive for them. As the elixir of youth, they will come to gladden me; the love of my angel girl will make the balance between us even. ”

“ The moment the door closed behind my host, the good lady turned to me.
“Will you come at once to Primrose Seafield?” she said. “We both knew that this would happen. He takes more wine than he can stand, and always goes away for his nap, as he expresses it. Dr. Cato, I know that you have been good to Primrose, and that she has in part confided her story to you. If you can help her, do, in the name of Heaven; no girl ever wanted someone to guide her more than she does at present. She is very unhappy and, unless matters can be quickly put right, will have a miserable life in the future.” ”

“ Danesfield knit his brows. "Child," he said, "you ask me a puzzler. I have no children of my own, and I know very little about young folk. Of one thing, however, I am quite certain; Daisy can earn no money, nor can Jasmine. You, Primrose, might with some difficulty get a little place as a nursery governess; you are a nice, presentable-looking girl, my dear."
Primrose flushed, and the tears, wrung from great pain, came into her eyes.
"There is just one thing," she said, in a tremulous voice; "whatever happens, we three girls won't be parted. ”

“ Primrose had decided that the three should have one week's holiday, and it was during this week that they began to make a certain first acquaintance with London. "It is the heart of the world," Jasmine was heard to say. "Primrose, it is what we pictured it; in many ways it is even greater than what we pictured it. Oh, don't your cheeks glow, and don't you feel that your eyes are shining when you look down Oxford Street? Yes, it is lovely and grand, and I think we ought to show poor dear Poppy some more of its delights." ”

“ She had walked from Lennox; she had not money enough to pay her fare in the coach which ran between the two villages. It rattled past her on the road; the passengers thrust out their heads and stared at her. "I declare, I believe that's Maria Primrose," said one woman to another. Maria Primrose, to call her as her old neighbors did by her maiden name, toiled slowly up Primrose Hill. She was a middle-aged woman, with a slender figure like a girl's; but her face, which had been handsome, had not kept its youth so well ”

“ Now what do you say to my plan? You will not be cheated, you will be cared for, and you will be in the house of a friend—for I want to be your friend, my dear girl."
"Oh, how kind you are!" said Primrose, her eyes glistening. "Yes, you know how to give real help—the kind of help we girls want. I should love your plan, but I must try and find out if we really have the money. How much money will it take to put in very simple furniture—just enough for us to go on with, Miss Egerton?"
"You might manage it for ten pounds, dear, perhaps even for less, if you have that sum by you ”

“ I!—I have fallen in love with the dearest, the prettiest, the best girl in the world. I want her answer, I want to know if there is a ghost of hope for me. Primrose, I thought I read something in your face to-day. I would give my life for you. Answer me, darling, answer me. Never mind the shortness of our acquaintance; we have known each other in some other state, we are not strangers. Do not our hearts each respond to the other? Primrose, say it is true. ”

“ There had been no open rupture on the little girl's account. In a way James Henry resigned some of his powers, though he kept the trusteeship, and was sharp to see to the accounting of money matters. Madam Wetherill and Primrose made journeys to the Quaker farmhouse, and the Henrys were cordially invited to the city to test the Wetherill hospitality.
Primrose had listened to Andrew's persuasion, and in the summer gone for several days. How queer it [Pg 144] all seemed to her! ”

“ But why for their instrument of torture did they choose primroses? Oh, I can invent a reason! It was Moses Primrose, cheated of his horse with a gross of green spectacles cased in shagreen. But that was not the reason. For then came new insight, and a fresh humiliation. As I looked more intently I saw that I was not being mocked; I was being worshipped, adulated, flattered; I had become a god—for party purposes perhaps—and this was my day, given in my honour, for national celebration. ”

“ PRIMROSE, JAMES (d. 1641) , clerk of the privy council of Scotland, was the second son of Archibald Primrose of Culross and of Burnbrae, Perthshire, by Margaret Bleau of Castlehill, Perthshire. He belonged to a family of officials specially connected with the revenue department during the seventeenth century. ”

“ I had sore worries myself in the money line until poor Dredge made his fortune in the chandlery business. My dear, I was almost forgetting to tell you that we've had an affliction at the Mansion."
"I'm very sorry," began Primrose.
"Yes, dear, and it's an affliction which is likely to continue, and to grow heavier. It's poor Mrs. Mortlock, dear—I'm afraid she's losing her sight, and very troublesome she'll be, and a worry to us all when it's gone, for poor woman, she has a passion for politics that's almost past bearing. ”

“ She was hurt for Rollo; she was grieved for Wych Hazel; was there anything personal and private to herself in her vexation at the needlessness of the trouble which was affecting them? If there were, Primrose did not look at it much. But it seemed very strange in her eyes that any one should rebel against what was, to her, the honey sweetness of Dane's authority. Strange that anything he disliked, should be liked by anybody that had the happiness of his care. And strange beyond strangeness, that this girl should slight such words and looks as he bestowed upon her. ”