Sloppy was already out and on the driver's seat. And almost as quickly as I have told it, the pretty coach and the span of dark gray horses—which behaved as if they had been told all about it—were flying away toward London.
In the coach were Mr. Riah, who hardly knew how he came to be there, and the little dressmaker, who sat between the handsome gentleman and Lizzie—her own dear, kind Lizzie; but, oh, how different and how much more beautiful! Jenny thought.
When they had been riding into the city for a little while, the horses stopped in front of a beautiful house, and Lizzie's "him" carried Jenny up the wide stairs, by tall stands of lovely flowers, to a little room. And oh, what a little room it was! The paper on the walls was a tea-rose color; there was a pretty moss-rose carpet, and a little inlaid working bench with little scissors, and a dainty basket with silks and ribbons and velvets pouring out of it, all fit for a dressmaker to the fairies; and a low chair, cushioned to be as soft as a bunch of clover; and a beautiful book of pretty patterns, in which was written: "For my darling Jenny Wren, from her Lizzie-Mizzie-Wizzie."
Such a change—so great and so delightful that any real fairy godmother might have been proud to have made it with her fairy wand—almost took away the little dolls' dressmaker's breath.
But while she sat in the soft low chair, and Lizzie told her how Mr. Wrayburn had been very ill, and how when he got better he had asked to keep his nurse always, and how she had said yes, if she might have her Jenny Wren, and how he had said he couldn't do without Jenny Wren either, the little dressmaker's eyes filled with tears, almost the first happy tears that had ever come into them.
She took Mr. Wrayburn's hand and kissed it, and wound some of her beautiful hair around it, and then twisted some of Lizzie's dark hair around that, and said, "It's a bargain."
Then Lizzie told her that Mr. Riah was going to live in the little house in Church Street, because he liked it best, and he was going to do some nice work for Mr. Wrayburn, and be well paid for it. "And we are going to take tea with him sometimes," said Lizzie, "and he is going to take tea with us very often, my dear, and Sloppy is going to make you the prettiest things, and go on your errands, Jenny love, and you are going to live with us, and be as happy as the day is long, till 'he' comes."
"Oh, he! He can stay away now," said Jenny, with the merriest little laugh. "If he couldn't come when a person was alone, and had trouble, and lots of work to do, he can stay away now as long as he likes."
"And serve him right, miss," said Sloppy, who stood in the doorway, and laughed as merrily as Jenny.
"And, Jenny dear," said Lizzie, after the little dolls' dressmaker had gone to bed under the pretty lace curtains, and both were looking through the window into the pleasant evening sky, "now you can see your long bright slanting rows of children?"