"Are we always to live with you, Arthur?" asked Jasmine. "It seems better than a dream. Oh, Arthur," she continued, not waiting for her brother's reply, "don't you remember how we made friends the very first moment we met? we must have always known, deep down in our hearts, that we were brother and sister."
"And this is to be our new Palace Beautiful," said Daisy, "and Poppy is to live here too. Oh, Primrose, do you not feel almost too happy?"
"I've given up my independence," said Primrose, "and yet I never felt more happy or more thankful."
The party that evening was a success. The astonishment of the good ladies from Penelope Mansion when they heard the wonderful news passed all bounds. Mrs. Dredge sat plump down on a chair, placed her fat hands on her lap, and fairly cried.
"Oh, if only my poor dear husband had lived to see this beautiful day," she said. "Young man, I have liked you from the first; you're the kind of young man whom my good husband would have rejoiced to be papa to."
Miss Slowcum sighed most deeply when she heard the news. "It's a touching romance," she said, "quite worthy of the olden times. I could imagine Mr. Noel—Mr. Mainwaring, I suppose we must call him now—as belonging to the old knights of chivalry. Yes, I am a person of discernment, and I long ago saw that the dear girls belonged to the upper ten."
"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," said Mrs. Mortlock. "In this case, ladies and gentlemen, I beg to reverse the familiar words, for amid all your joy I have lost my 'continual reader.' She had her faults—no, I'm not going to deny that being young she had her faults—but she was ever good-natured, and she did her gossip chirrupy."
Of course the girls' future was now assured, for Arthur was a very rich man. Miss Egerton, at his earnest request, came to live with them, and they are now known to possess one of the happiest and brightest homes in London—in short, they live in a "Palace Beautiful."