She
called the child from the first her little country wild flower, and
allowed Primrose and Jasmine to select her name. They brought in
handfuls of field daisies, and begged to have the baby called after
them.
The three girls grew up in the little country cottage. Their father
was in India, in a very unhealthy part of the country. He wrote home
by every mail, and in each letter expressed a hope that the Government
under which he served would allow him to return to England and to his
wife and children. Death, however, came first to the gallant captain.
When Primrose was ten years old, and Daisy was little more than a
baby, Mrs. Mainwaring found herself in the humble position of an
officer's widow, with very little to live on besides her pension.
In the Devonshire village, however, things were cheap, rents were low,
and the manners of life deliciously fresh and primitive.
Primrose, Jasmine, and Daisy grew up something like the flowers,
taking no thought for the morrow, and happy in the grand facts that
they were alive, that they were perfectly healthy, and that the sun
shone and the sweet fresh breezes blew for them. They were as
primitive as the little place where they lived, and cared nothing at
all for fashionably-cut dresses; or for what people who think
themselves wiser would have called the necessary enjoyments of life.
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