"Oh, Miss Primrose!" said poor Poppy, as she showed her out, "I am more than thankful that you are coming here, miss--that's for my sake, miss, though I'm dreadful afraid you'll suffer yourself. I'm awful afraid you'll get muddled in your head, miss, for as to mine, it has swam away long ago. I begin not to know in the least who I am, miss. Poppy, why it ain't nowhere! only I'm Sarah, with all the other words in the dictionary tacked on to it. I don't mind it now; they say folks can get accustomed to anything, so I don't mind being Sarah, and everything else too, only it has a very swimming effect on the head, Miss Primrose. Oh, my darling young lady! do ask Miss Jasmine and Miss Daisy to let me come and see them." "Yes, Poppy, you shall come and see us all again, if you will only keep our little secret, for just at present we don't want the people at home to know where we are; and remember, Poppy dear, that you are always Poppy to us three girls." "I'll hold on to that," said poor Poppy, "when my head's fairly reeling. I'll clutch on to it, and hold firm. Poppy, which means a tare, I am, to my own dear young ladies. Oh dear! oh dear! they're calling me--it's Sarah Matilda this time. Good-bye until to-morrow, dear Miss Primrose." CHAPTER XXXII. JASMINE BEGINS TO SOAR. When Primrose went home and told her sisters and Miss Egerton what she had done, Jasmine's eyes had grown first bright, and then misty. "To be continual reader to Mrs. Mortlock!" she exclaimed. "Oh, Primrose, it is an act of self-denial to you--it is, isn't it? Own at once that you were very brave to do it, darling." "I don't think so," said Primrose; "there may be a certain little amount of drudgery in it, and perhaps I would rather have orders to paint beautiful roses and lilies on china plates, but you see, Jasmine, this work has been sent to me--I think God sent it, and I must not refuse it because perhaps I would like something else better." "That's bravely spoken, Primrose," said Miss Egerton who was sitting by, for she often spent odd half-hours with the girls. "Look at everything in the same spirit, my love; try to see God's hand in all the little events, and you will have a brave life and a happy one." "And a successful, I hope," added Jasmine. "Miss Egerton, how awful it would be if we girls were to fail!" "My Prince says," here interrupted Daisy, "that whenever we do a good thing and a right thing, we bring something fresh and lovely into our Palace Beautiful. Isn't it nice to think that dear old Primrose has done this?" "The money, too, will be of great help," added Primrose. "Why, Jasmine, we may even be able to save a little." Thus encouraged, Primrose commenced her duties, and though her throat ached--and she certainly found the continual reading of politics, interspersed with very sharp discussions on the part of Mrs. Mortlock, anything but agreeable--she did not give way.