The Incomplete Amorist

Richard Reynolds and Justus Miles Forman
Faire naitre un désir, le nourrir, le développer, le grandir, le satisfaire, c'est un poeme tout entier.
— Balzac .

CHAPTER I.
THE INEVITABLE.
No. The chemises aren't cut out. I haven't had time. There are enough shirts to go on with, aren't there, Mrs. James? said Betty.
We can make do for this afternoon, Miss, but the men they're getting blowed out with shirts. It's the children's shifts as we can't make shift without much longer. Mrs. James, habitually doleful, punctuated her speech with sniffs.
That's a joke, Mrs. James, said Betty. How clever you are!
I try to be what's fitting, said Mrs. James, complacently.
Talk of fitting, said Betty, If you like I'll fit on that black bodice for you, Mrs. Symes. If the other ladies don't mind waiting for the reading a little bit.
I'd as lief talk as read, myself, said a red-faced sandy-haired woman; books ain't what they was in my young days.