“I’ll show you everything, and take you everywhere,” responded Mrs. Ellsworthy, stooping down to kiss Jasmine’s upturned face.  “You’ll bring your sisters to-morrow, Miss Mainwaring,” she continued, turning to the grave Primrose.

“Thank you—­yes.  It is kind of you to ask us,” answered Primrose.

Mrs. Ellsworthy drove away in state, and the sisters saw her off from their door-steps.  They made a pretty group as they stood together—­Daisy’s arms clasped her elder sister’s waist, and Jasmine shaded her dark eyes from the full blaze of the sun with her little white dimpled hand.

As the great lady drove away Jasmine had actually the audacity to blow a kiss to her.

The neighbors at the opposite side of the street felt quite scandalized, and said to themselves that surely the poor young ladies had seen the last of Mrs. Ellsworthy, after such a piece of impertinence.  But the lady of Shortlands was really delighted.

“To think of my being here all these years, and never knowing those charming creatures,” she soliloquized.  Just then she saw Miss Martineau crossing the street, and she ordered her coachman to draw up.

“I have been with them, dear Miss Martineau—­they are delightful—­so fresh—­and so—­so pretty!  They are coming to Shortlands to-morrow.  Good-bye—­warm morning, is it not?  Home, Tomlinson.”

The girls had entered the little house, cheered by Mrs. Ellsworthy’s visit.  Primrose, it is true, did not share her younger sisters’ enthusiasm, but even she was pleased, and owned to herself that Mrs. Ellsworthy was a very different neighbor from the village folk.

Primrose’s mind, however, was a good deal absorbed by what she had discovered in her mother’s little old-fashioned cabinet.  A letter directed to herself lay there unopened.  She longed to break the seal, and to acquaint herself with the contents of this message from the dead.  She longed to read the letter, but she knew she could only do so at some quiet moment.  She must peruse those beloved words when she was alone and quite sure of being undisturbed.  She thought she might slip away into a little glade at the back of the house that afternoon, and there read her letter, and ponder over its contents.

Events, however, were to occur which would prevent Primrose carrying out this scheme.

Immediately after dinner Miss Martineau’s well-known knock was heard at the hall-door, and Miss Martineau herself, bristling with excitement and curiosity, invaded the girls in their drawing-room.

“Now, my dears, tell me all about her.  Is she not fascinating?  She is greatly pleased with you three—­you have made a most proper impression; and you are to go to spend the day at Shortlands to-morrow.  Now, my loves, tell me what arrangements she has come to—­I am so deeply interested, my poor darlings.”

Miss Martineau, as she spoke, kept her eyes fixed on Primrose; but that young lady only gave her a puzzled look, and, after a short pause, said quietly—­