Page:The Lark - E Nesbit, 1922.djvu/76

Rh you, miss, I should like a few vilets for a buttonhole if it's not troubling you too much."

So Lucilla gathered them and Jane pinned them in and Mr. Simmons went on his way.

"What a nice world it is,"said Lucilla; "how nice everybody is!"

"Not everybody," said Jane sternly. "But I do think Mr. Simmons is a dear. Fancy his knowing that old rhyme. What a lot of friends we're making—Mr. Simmons, old Mr. Rochester, Mrs. Doveton . . . and all the men who buy flowers of us that we don't know the names of. We'll open our shop on Saturday, Luce. What do you think we'd better wear?"

"Whatever does it matter?"

"It's most important," said Jane, "to produce a good impression. We want something that looks at once attractive and businesslike. Come indoors now, this minute, and let us go through our things and see if we can't find frocks that will be at once elegant and sensible. Yes—I know it's not usual."

They went in; in the hall Lucilla stopped to say solemnly, "Jane, we ought to have overalls. Something different from any overalls that anyone has ever had before. Do you think it would be wrong to cut up those dark Indian cotton bedspreads in the servant's bedroom? They're very lovely—rich and rare and crimson and blue. And there are two of them."

"Angel!" said Jane. "Let's cut out the overalls now, and make them ourselves."

"But we don't know how."

"We'll cut them like those blue Chinese coats our kind guardian sent us—make them a bit longer. They'll be all right, you'll see. What a lark it will be to sell flowers in radiant Eastern garments! Your aunt's little sewing-machine. We can use that and do the hems and necks by hand. Do you think we ought to wear caps? Or coloured handkerchiefs knotted round our heads?"