CHAPTER I.
EARLY DAYS.
The three girls were called after flowers.

This is how it came about: When Primrose opened her eyes on the world she brought back a little bit of spring to her mother's heart.
Mrs.Mainwaring had gone through a terrible trouble--a trouble so dark and mysterious, so impossible to feel reconciled to, that her health had been almost shattered, and she had almost said good-bye to hope.
The baby came in the spring-time, and the soft, velvety touch of the little face, and the sight of the round baby limbs, had made Mrs.
Mainwaring smile: had caused her to pluck up heart, and to determine resolutely to take this new blessing, and to begin to live again.
The baby came in the month of March, just when the primroses were beginning to open their pale and yet bright blossoms.

Mrs.Mainwaring said that the child was a symbol of spring to her, and she called her Primrose.
The next girl was born in Italy, in the middle of a rich and brilliant summer.

Flowers were everywhere, and the baby, a black-haired, dark-eyed little mite, had a starry look about her.

She was called Jasmine, and the name from the very first suited her exactly.
The third and youngest of the sisters also came in the summer, but she was born in an English cottage.