"there are limits to all things," said mrs. mortlock; "there's a time, as the blessed bible says, to sorrow, and a time to rejoice, and what i say too is, that there is a time when a woman's patience may be exhausted. yes, mrs. dredge, you may look at me with as round eyes as you please—i know they are round though i can't see them, but i will say, if it's my last dying breath, that the moment for my 'continual reader' to return has arrived. miss slowcum, no doubt you'll corroborate what i say, ma'am."
"it's hot weather for young bright flowers to shed their fragrance on the london streets," replied miss slowcum; "it's the kind of weather when flowers fade. i should imagine, mrs. mortlock, that your 'continual reader' was doing better for herself in the country."
mrs. mortlock's face became very red.
"better for herself, is she?" she said, "and is that all the thanks i get for keeping my post vacant, and living through days the weariness of which none may know. if miss primrose mainwaring is doing better for herself in the country she is welcome to stay there. the post is a good one, a light and an easy one, and i can get many another lass to fill it."
"i think, ma'am," said mrs. dredge, whose face had grown wonderfully smooth and pleasant of late, "that the dear girls will all be in town this week, and most likely miss primrose will come to pay you a visit. oh, they are nice girls, pretty, elegant girls, just the kind of girls my good man would like to have been papa to. i can't help shivering, even now when i think of that wicked man dove, and what a state he put dear little daisy into."
"if praises of the mainwarings is to begin," answered mrs. mortlock in her tartest voice, "what i say is, let me retire. it's all very well for them as has right to talk well of the absent, but when one of the absent ones is neglecting her duty the lady who has weak eyes feels it. miss slowcum, ma'am, have you any objection to moving with me into the drawing-room? i can lend you that pattern you admired so much for tatting if you read me the latest gossip from the evening papers, ma'am."
mrs. mortlock rose from her chair, and, accompanied by miss slowcum, left the room. miss slowcum took a ladylike interest in all kinds of needlework, and the desire to possess the tatting pattern overcame her great reluctance to read aloud to the very tart old lady.
mrs. mortlock placed herself in the most comfortable arm-chair the room afforded, and having secured her victim, began instantly to tyrannize over her.
"now, miss slowcum, read up chirrupy and cheerful please. none of your drawling, by way of genteel voice, for me—i like my gossip crisp. i will say this of that dear girl primrose mainwaring, that she did her gossip crisp."
"you really are a very unaccountable person, mrs. mortlock," replied miss slowcum. "you begin by abusing primrose mainwaring, and then you praise her in the most absurd manner. i hope the refined reading of a cultivated lady is not to be compared to the immature utterances of a school-girl. if that is so, mrs. mortlock, even for the sake of the tatting pattern, i cannot consent to waste my words on you."
"oh, my good creature," said mrs. mortlock, who by no means wished to be left to solitude and herself, "you read in a very pretty style of your own—obsolete it may be—h'm—i suppose we must expect that—mature it certainly is; yes, my dear, quite mature. if i praise primrose mainwaring, and a good girl she was when she was with me—yes, a good, painstaking girl, thankful for her mercies—it's no disparagement to you, miss slowcum. you're mellow, my dear, and you can't help being mellow, and primrose mainwaring is crisp, and she can't help being crisp. oh, goodness gracious me! what sound is that falls on my ear?"
"an old friend's voice, i hope, mrs. mortlock," said a pleasant girlish tone, and primrose mainwaring herself bent down over the old lady and kissed her.
notwithstanding all her grumbling mrs. mortlock had taken an immense fancy to primrose. she returned her embrace warmly, and even took her hand and squeezed it.
"i'd like to see you, dear," she said, "but i'm getting blinder and blinder. have you come back to your continual reading, dear? i hope so, for you do the gossip in a very chirruping style."
while mrs. mortlock was speaking to primrose miss slowcum had taken daisy in her arms, and covered her sweet little face with kisses, for miss slowcum was not all sour and affected, and she had shed some bitter tears in secret over the child's unaccountable disappearance. mrs. dredge and mrs. flint had both surrounded jasmine, who, in a white summer frock, was looking extremely pretty, and was entertaining them with some animated conversation.
"yes," said primrose to mrs. mortlock, "i will come to read to you as often as ever i can. i shall know my plans better after to-morrow. we three girls returned to london a couple of days ago, and we received a letter from our kind friend mrs. ellsworthy. you don't know her, perhaps, but she is a very kind friend of ours. she is making some plans for us, but we don't quite know what they are. she has written us a letter, however, and it is on account of that letter that we have all come to you to-night. she has invited us to come to her to-morrow, and she wants all the friends who were kind to us, and who helped us in every way during our year in london, to come in the evening to hear what the plans are. even if you can't see, mrs. mortlock, it will amuse you to come, and i hope so much you will do so. i will try to stay close to you myself when you do come, so you need not feel lonely."
"my dear, you are very kind," said mrs. mortlock, and the other ladies also said the mainwarings were kind, and they sent their dutiful respects to mrs. ellsworthy and were pleased to accept. accordingly, primrose gave them full directions with regard to the right address, and the hour at which they were to be present; and finally the girls left mrs. flint and her three lady boarders in a state of considerable excitement and so deeply interested in what was about to occur that they forgot to grumble at each other.
