"Well," said Jessie, "you know we should have to work awfully hard if she took it in hand."
"I suppose she would have paid you for extra hours," said Grace sharply.
"Miss Rose said it was the way to ruin a girl's health to set her to do such a lot of work," said Jessie.
"And quite right too," put in her mother. "I knew a girl who was apprenticed to a dressmaker, and sat up five nights when they had two black jobs one after the other, and that girl's eyes never was the same again!"
"Besides," added Jessie, "there's so much in hand."
"Well, it might not do to offend Mrs. or Miss Manners, but—"
"O, it is not that! The children's things were sent home yesterday. I wish you could have seen them, they were loves; and Miss Manners has got a new dress from London. She let Miss Lee see it, and take the pattern of the trimming. No, but Mrs. Drew has sent her Swiss cambric to be made up for Miss Alice, and Miss Pemberton has a new carmelite to be finished, and there are some dresses for the maids at the hall, all promised by Midsummer day."
"Pooh! Customers like that can wait."
"I don't see that it is a bit more right to disappoint them than any one else," said Jessie sturdily.
"Old Miss Pemberton, to be compared with a lady like that!" exclaimed Grace.