The Palace Beautiful | Page 3

as the sweetest music. She had been
rich in her early married life, but Captain Mainwaring had lost his
money, had lost all his large private means, through a bank failure, and
before Daisy came into the world Mrs. Mainwaring knew that she was
a very poor woman indeed. Before the captain went to India he insured
his life for £1000, and after his death Mrs. Mainwaring lived very
placidly on her small pension, and for any wants which she required
over and above what the pension could supply she drew upon the
£1000. She did not care, as a more sensible woman would have done,
to invest this little sum as so much capital; no, she preferred to let it lie
in the bank, and to draw upon it from time to time, as necessity arose.
She had no business friends to advise her, for the few acquaintances she
made at Rosebury knew nothing whatever of the value of money. Like

many another woman who has been brought up in affluence, neither
had Mrs. Mainwaring the faintest idea of how fast a small sum like
£1,000 can dwindle. She felt comfortable during the latter years of her
life at the knowledge that she had a good balance in the bank. It never
occurred to her as a possibility that she who was still fairly young could
die suddenly and without warning. This event, however, took place,
and the girls were practically unprovided for.
Mrs. Mainwaring had never really worked for her children, but a
mother who had worked hard for them, and toiled, and exerted all her
strength to provide adequately for their future, might not perhaps have
been loved so well. She died and her children were broken-hearted.
They mourned for her each after her own fashion, and each according
to her individual character. Primrose retained her calmness and her
common sense in the midst of all her grief; Jasmine was tempestuous
and hysterical, bursting into laughter one minute and sobbing wildly
the next. Little Daisy felt frightened in Jasmine's presence--she did not
quite believe that mother would never come back, and she clung to
Primrose, who protected and soothed her; in short, took a mother's
place to her, and felt herself several years older on the spot.
For a month the girls grieved and shut themselves away from their
neighbors, and refused to go out, or to be in any measure comforted. A
month in the ordinary reckoning is really a very short period of time,
but to these girls, in their grief and misery, it seemed almost endless.
One night Jasmine lay awake from the time she laid her head on the
pillow till the first sun had dawned; then Primrose took fright, and
began to resume her old gentle, but still firm authority.
"Jasmine," she said, "we have got our black dresses--they are made
very neatly, and we have done them all ourselves. Staying in the house
this lovely weather won't bring dear mamma back again; we will have
tea a little earlier than usual, and go for a walk this evening."
Jasmine, whenever she could stop crying, had been longing for a walk,
but had crushed down the desire as something unnatural, and
disrespectful to dear mamma, but of course if Primrose suggested it it
was all right. Her face brightened visibly, and as to Daisy, she sat down
and began to play with the kitten on the spot.
That evening the three desolate young creatures put on their new black
dresses, and went down a long, rambling, charming country lane. The

air was delicious--Jasmine refused to cover her hot little face with a
crape veil--they came back after their ramble soothed and refreshed. As
they were walking up the village street a girl of the name of Poppy,
their laundress's child, stepped out of a little cottage, dropped a
courtesy, and said, in a tone of delight--
"Oh, Miss Mainwaring, I'm glad to see you out; and Miss Jasmine,
darling, the little canary is all reared and ready for you. I took a sight of
pains with him, and he'll sing beautiful before long. Shall I bring him
round in the morning, Miss Jasmine?"
"Yes, of course, Poppy; and I'm greatly obliged to you," answered
Jasmine, in her old bright tones. Then she colored high, felt a good deal
ashamed of herself, and hurried after Primrose, who had pulled down
her crape veil, and was holding Daisy's hand tightly.
That night the sisters all slept well; they were the better for the fresh air,
and also for the thought of seeing Poppy and the canary which she had
reared for Jasmine in the morning.
Sharp to the hour Poppy arrived with her gift; she was a pretty little
village girl, who adored the Misses Mainwaring.