"You have your jewels left; they will carry you along till you have time to bethink yourselves what to do next."
"Oh!" groaned Miss Grosgrain, "our jewels are gone too. Our seamstress, Jane, whom we trusted as we did each other, disappeared at the same time with—with that wretch, whose name I never will speak as long as I live—and took almost all our valuables with her. No doubt she was his accomplice, and has left the country with him."
"It will be necessary, then, to seek remunerative employment," Mrs. Grey said, as cheerfully as she could; "now let me see what gifts you have."
"Employment!" shrieked the girls. "What a disgrace!"
"Why call it disgrace, when thousands of women are engaged in it? Refined and well-educated women, too."
"So I tell the girls," said Mrs. Grosgrain. "If we set still and do nothing, we shall starve."
The quartette was too full of dismay to correct the maternal grammar, and listened in gloomy silence.
"We never had to work for our living," pursued Mrs. Grosgrain, "but the girls' marmer had to, and she was a master-hand at tailoring. And they've all took after her. Mary can make as handsome a bonnet as any milliner, and so can Flora; and the others can cut and fit beautifully."
"But there was a deal of money spent on your education," said Mrs. Grey, turning to the young ladies; "could you not open a school?"
She knew they could not, but thought it best to make them face the situation for themselves.