"Is that what you said when you got yours raised?" asked Fanny.
"Something like it," answered Miriam. "Of course I am older, and do nearly all the cooking at my place, and that makes a difference. But still you ought to have nine pounds a year now, and I should tell the lady so, and that you can't stay unless she raises your wages to that."
By this time they had reached Mrs. Scott's, and were very soon looking over the patterns she had obtained for them.
"There, this is the one I like," said Miriam, drawing forward a piece of material, soft, and fine, with a small satin flower of the same colour—a rather dark cinnamon-brown.
"Oh, I do like that!" said Fanny, as soon as she saw it. "My mother would like it too, I am sure," she added.
"It is neat enough for any one to like it," said Mrs. Scott. "But the question you girls have to consider is whether you can afford it."
"You said the stuff was very cheap, Lizzie," said Miriam, quickly.
"So it is, very cheap indeed, considering how good it is; but I could not make either of you a dress for less than a pound, and I should want half the money when you had the dress, and the other half within two months."
Fanny looked at Miriam in blank dismay, it seemed an enormous sum to her.
"Suppose we wanted four months to pay it, what would you charge then?"