CHAPTER XXI. HOW TO PAINT CHINA AND HOW TO FORM STYLE.

Mrs. Dove had a great many lodgers²—she let rooms on each of her floors, and she called her lodgers by the name of the floor they occupied—first floor, second floor, third floor came and went to 10, Eden Street. The girls were known as "the attics⁴," and Jasmine felt very indignant at the name.

"It's almost as bad as being a tare," she said to Primrose⁵. "Dear, dear! I never thought I should turn into an attic³! What an unpleasant place London is! I begin to think Poppy is quite right in what she says of it."

"I begin to suspect," said Primrose, "that London, like all places, has its shady side and its bright side. We are in the shady side at present, dear Jasmine—that is all."

Mrs. Dove had not only lodgers who seemed to worry her from morning to night—for, unlike her name, she was always fretting⁶ or scolding somebody—but she also had a husband, and this husband made his presence felt by every lodger¹ in the house. He was often away for a whole week at a time, and then comparative peace reigned⁷ in No. 10; but he would come back at unexpected moments—he would enter the house, singing out, in a loud rasping voice—

"Mrs. Dove,
My only love!"

And then poor Mrs. Dove would get flushed and uncomfortable and lose what little self-possession she ever had, and would own in confidence to the first floor, or the second floor, or the attics, just as they happened to be present, that Mr. Dove's honeyed phrases were only words after all, and meant quite the contrary.

The girls were not a week at No. 10, Eden Street, before it became very apparent to them that there was little of the real Eden to be found in the place. They kept themselves, however, quite apart from the other lodgers; they began to get out their books and their employments, and what with housekeeping, and what with cleaning their rooms, and going out for long rambling⁸ walks in all directions, they were busy from morning to night. Primrose said they would spend a fortnight in the attics, and then the education which was by-and-by to lead to bread-winning must commence. Never did three more ignorant girls gird themselves for the fray⁹. Primrose had a natural love for painting. She had none of the knowledge, none of the grounding, which is essential for real success in all departments of art in the present day; but she had a quick and correct eye for color, and all that Miss Martineau knew she had imparted to her. Primrose looked in at the shop windows, and saw the lovely painted china, and resolved to take lessons in this art. After some little difficulty, and after questioning first Mrs. Dove, and finally the much-dreaded Mr. Dove, she was directed to a teacher, who promised to instruct her at the rate of three pounds three shillings for twelve lessons. Primrose did not know whether her teacher was good or bad, or whether she was paying too much or too little—she resolved to take the lessons and to spend some of her little capital in buying the necessary materials.

"After I've had my twelve lessons Mr. Jones thinks I may begin to offer some of my plates and things for sale; he says he will be very glad to put them up in his own shop window. He thinks," continued Primrose with her sweet, grave smile, "that I may be able to recoup myself for the expense of learning at the end of a few months."

"And now," said Jasmine, "what am I to do? It's all settled for you, Primrose—you will be an artist—and you shall paint a breakfast set for our nest in your odd moments, and I'll buy it from you when my ship comes home. Oh! and we are both going to be very successful, are we not, darling? and we won't have any trouble at all in supporting our pet Daisy and her kitty-cat. You know, Primrose, my gifts lie in the poetic¹⁰ and novelistic line. I have really thought of a glowing plot for a story since I came to London, and Mr. Dove is to be the ruffian of the piece. I'll introduce Mrs. Dredge and poor Miss Slowcum too, and, of course, you'll be the heroine, my beautiful sister. I mean to buy some paper, and work away at my novel in the evenings next week; but as we have come up to London expressly to have our education perfected, and our gifts developed, don't you think I ought to be having some lessons in English style? After all, Primrose, I do not think Mrs. Flint's way of speaking was correct. Arthur Noel did not talk in the least like her, nor did dear Mrs. Ellsworthy; and after all, they are a real lady and gentleman. I wonder, Primrose, who would teach me proper style. I wish I could meet Arthur Noel again, that he might tell me!"

"Oh, Jasmine, it is dreadful of you to speak of a perfect stranger by his Christian¹¹ name! Don't do it, dear—I know it is not right."

"He did not seem the least like a stranger," said Jasmine, pushing back her curling locks. "Well, Rose, who is to teach me style?—you see, if I am to earn money by my pen I must be polished up. I have got a poem now in the back of my head which would exactly suit the —— Review. It's almost exactly on the lines of one they published not long ago by Tennyson; but I'd rather not send it until I've had a lesson or two from some gifted person here—who shall I go to, Primrose?"

"You must go to a school, of course," answered Primrose. "There is a seminary for young ladies just round the corner—we will call there this afternoon, and find out if the lady can give you lessons."

Miss Egerton, the principal of the seminary in question, opened her eyes a good deal at Jasmine's modest request.

"I don't want French, nor German, nor music," quoth the young lady, "but I do want to be helped to make very smooth and flowing verses, and I want to have the plots of my novels cut up and criticised—for I don't mind telling you," continued Jasmine, looking full into Miss Egerton's deeply-lined and anxious face, "that I mean to live by my pen. My sister is to be an artist, and I am to be a novelist and poet."

Miss Egerton owned to herself afterwards that she had never met such extraordinary girls; but then they were so pretty, and so fresh, and the times were hard, and the High Schools were carrying off all her pupils, so though she knew little or nothing of making up verses or developing plots, she promised to receive Jasmine as a pupil, to direct her reading, and to help her to the best of her ability. She was a good and kind-hearted woman, and she made a further suggestion.

"What is to become of your little sister while you are both so busy, young ladies?" she said.

"Oh, Daisy promises to be very good," said Primrose with a tender smile at the little one. "Daisy will stay at home, and take care of the Pink, and she is learning to sew very nicely. When Daisy is good and stays quietly at home she helps our plan, and does as much for our cause as any of us."

Miss Egerton looked straight into Daisy's eyes. Long ago this dry and hard-looking old maid had a little sister like Daisy—a pretty little lass, who went away to play in the heavenly gardens many and many a year ago. For the sake of little Constance Miss Egerton felt a great kindness welling up in her heart towards Daisy Mainwaring.

"Your little sister must not stay at home by herself," she said. "She shall come to me. While I am teaching Miss Jasmine, Daisy can play or work as she pleases, only not by herself in your lodgings¹², young ladies, but in the room with her sister."

So it was arranged, and the three girls might fairly have been said to commence their work.

When Primrose had gone to Mr. Danesfield and asked him to allow her to draw their little capital out of his bank, he had made wonderfully few objections. Of all their friends, he was the one who had opposed Primrose's scheme the least, and perhaps for that reason she was more willing to take his advice, and to be guided by him, than by either Mrs. Ellsworthy or Miss Martineau. Mr. Danesfield had said to her: "My dear, you and your sisters are in some particulars in a very unique and unfortunate position. You are all three very young, yet you are absolutely your own mistresses. No one in all the world has any real control over you. If you ask me for your money, I cannot refuse you—I have absolutely no choice in the matter; the money is yours, and when you want it you must have it. Now I tell you plainly that Mrs. Ellsworthy and Miss Martineau are dreadfully shocked with your scheme. I may be wrong, but I confess I am not shocked. I fancy that you are the kind of girls who will come out victorious¹³, and that though you will have rather a hard struggle, you will not be beaten; but there is one thing I am most anxious to do for you, and that is to keep part of your money. You have exactly two hundred pounds. How much of this little capital do you propose to spend a year?"

"As little as ever we can," answered Primrose.

"Yes, my dear young lady, but you must have some sort of idea with regard to your expenses. I would counsel you on no account to spend more of your capital than seventy pounds a year; by restricting yourselves to this sum you will have a very tiny but certain, income for two years, and will have something to fall back on even in the third year, if you are not then earning enough. Suppose I divide your seventy pounds into four quarterly instalments, and send it to you as you require it. You know nothing of keeping a banking¹⁴ account yourself, and it will absolutely not be safe for you to live in London lodgings, and have a large sum of money with you. Take my advice in this particular, Miss Primrose, and allow me still to be your banker."

"There is one little difficulty," said Primrose; "we really want to be independent, and as we know that there will be difficulties and discouragements in the career we are marking out for ourselves, and that we may often grow faint-hearted and lonely, Jasmine and I feel that we had better put ourselves quite out of the way of temptation. We have, therefore, made up our minds not to give our address to any one in Rosebury for at least two years. How can you send us the money, Mr. Danesfield, if you don't know where to send it?"

"My dear young lady, I fear you are a little bit too headstrong, and though I admire your spirit, I cannot quite approve of your cutting yourselves off from all communications with your friends. However, it is not for me to interfere¹⁵. Will this satisfy you, Miss Primrose?—shall I give you my solemn promise only to use the address with which you favor me to forward your money each quarter, and never to divulge¹⁶ your secret to anybody else?"

Finally this plan was adopted, and Primrose received her small quarterly allowance with great regularity¹⁷.

1 lodger   

n.寄宿人，房客

参考例句：

• My friend is a lodger in my uncle's house.我朋友是我叔叔家的房客。
• Jill and Sue are at variance over their lodger.吉尔和休在对待房客的问题上意见不和。

2 lodgers   

n.房客，租住者( lodger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He takes in lodgers. 他招收房客。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A good proportion of my lodgers is connected with the theaters. 住客里面有不少人是跟戏院子有往来的。 来自辞典例句

3 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

4 attics   

n. 阁楼

参考例句：

• They leave unwanted objects in drawers, cupboards and attics. 他们把暂时不需要的东西放在抽屉里、壁橱中和搁楼上。
• He rummaged busily in the attics of European literature, bringing to light much of interest. 他在欧洲文学的阁楼里忙着翻箱倒笼，找到了不少有趣的东西。

5 primrose   

n.樱草，最佳部分，

参考例句：

• She is in the primrose of her life.她正处在她一生的最盛期。
• The primrose is set off by its nest of green.一窝绿叶衬托着一朵樱草花。

6 fretting   

n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的

参考例句：

• Fretting about it won't help. 苦恼于事无补。
• The old lady is always fretting over something unimportant. 那位老妇人总是为一些小事焦虑不安。

7 reigned   

vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式）

参考例句：

• Silence reigned in the hall. 全场肃静。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Night was deep and dead silence reigned everywhere. 夜深人静，一片死寂。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 rambling   

adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的

参考例句：

• We spent the summer rambling in Ireland. 我们花了一个夏天漫游爱尔兰。
• It was easy to get lost in the rambling house. 在布局凌乱的大房子里容易迷路。

9 fray   

v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗

参考例句：

• Why should you get involved in their fray?你为什么要介入他们的争吵呢？
• Tempers began to fray in the hot weather.大热天脾气烦燥。

10 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

11 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

12 lodgings   

n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍

参考例句：

• When he reached his lodgings the sun had set. 他到达公寓房间时，太阳已下山了。
• I'm on the hunt for lodgings. 我正在寻找住所。

13 victorious   

adj.胜利的，得胜的

参考例句：

• We are certain to be victorious.我们定会胜利。
• The victorious army returned in triumph.获胜的部队凯旋而归。

14 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

15 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

16 divulge   

v.泄漏(秘密等)；宣布，公布

参考例句：

• They refused to divulge where they had hidden the money.他们拒绝说出他们把钱藏在什么地方。
• He swore never to divulge the secret.他立誓决不泄露秘密。

17 regularity   

n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐

参考例句：

• The idea is to maintain the regularity of the heartbeat.问题就是要维持心跳的规律性。
• He exercised with a regularity that amazed us.他锻炼的规律程度令我们非常惊讶。