In point of fact, they had not done so: since any lady who was particular as to cut and style would certainly not go to them, unless for some very simple piece of work. Most ladies thereabout had procured all better dresses from London; really good dressmakers in Maxham being unknown.
It was surely unreasonable that Mildred Pattison, who had both the will and the power to work, should be expected not to exercise that power.
And if she did not set up in the place, somebody else would do so before long. Not only might many dresses now made in London be made in Maxham, but the two sisters found it increasingly difficult to get through even such work as fell to their share; and where a plain opening exists, it is likely before long to be filled. The Misses Coxen had long been aware of a growing need for another good workwoman in the village, and they reluctantly arrived at the sage conclusion that, on the whole, their wiser policy would be not to attempt to stand in Mildred's light, but rather to endeavour to use her—perhaps even to put her under obligation to themselves. This was not a lofty view of the question, though a good deal better than an opposite view would have been. At present, it must be confessed, the matter of obligation seemed to lie the other way.
An interview with Miss Gilbert ended in the dress material being handed over to Mildred.
"I'm only too delighted," Miss Gilbert confessed in an under tone. "I see that you know what you are about, and I was beginning to regret having tried the other quarter. My dress would have been an utter failure, of course, but I did not know that when I rashly went to them. Please follow your own devices in making this. I particularly want the dress to look nice, and I am not afraid about it—now."
The emphasis with which Miss Gilbert spoke showed that she had been very much afraid.
Four days of hard toil followed—hard at all events in Mildred's still weakly condition. Perhaps a little for her own sake, and certainly also for the Misses Coxen's sake, as well as under the pressure of a strong sense of duty which never allowed her to do less than her best, Mildred threw her whole energy into the task which she had undertaken, and the dress when completed proved to be, in its owner's eyes, "the very prettiest she had ever had in all her life."
"It is simply perfect," Miss Gilbert exclaimed, in her girlish manner, to Mildred. "I have never seen anything better done. You ought to set up in London, or in some large town. Positively you are thrown away in this little out of the way place."
"I don't think I should care to live in London, Miss," Mildred answered. "If I can get work to do in Old Maxham, I shall be quite content."
"You will not have to wait long for that. I shall take care to let my friends know at once that it has become possible to get a dress made in Maxham fit to be worn."