"Dear Primrose,
"I am, yours affectionately,
"AGNES EGERTON."
There was much in this letter to pain Primrose, and a year before she
might have torn it up and determined in no way to be guided by it; but
a year had brought her some very strange and some very sad
experiences. She was troubled and shocked to think that Jasmine should
have taken poor Poppy's hard earnings. She was deeply distressed at
owing herself so much to Miss Egerton, and now also so large a debt to
Arthur Noel. She had worked hard, and had done wonderfully well
considering, but nevertheless at the present moment, owing to adverse
circumstances, she was plunged in debt in many directions, and saw
little hope of repaying what she owed. Life seemed very difficult to
Primrose just then, and hot tears rose to her eyes.
Should she go still farther in debt, and give up the great struggle to
be independent? Oh, no, she could not--she could not. Her pride rose
up in rebellion; her passionate longing to be free and her own
mistress, to be beholden to no one for the necessaries of life, was
too strong to be easily crushed. Better the dullest life, better be a
"continual reader" all her days than take the money of strangers.
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