"How are you getting on, Fan?" she asked. "Do you like your place and your mistress as much as ever?"
"No, I don't. She's a nasty cross old thing now, and if she don't get better soon, I shall leave and go somewhere else."
"Oh, Fanny!" exclaimed her sister.
"There, you need not be a telltale, and let mother know what I said," exclaimed Fanny. "You're all right. You are going to the seaside just to play on the sands, so my troubles need not worry you."
"Troubles!" repeated Jessie, with a loud laugh. "It's come to trouble, has it? Well, I was thinking of going to service again myself; but if you find trouble in it, I am afraid I should too, and so I had better stick to my blacking factory, although they are a long time before they begin business."
"I shall see how you like the blacking, and if you get on, I may try it," said Fanny.
Jessie looked serious. "Your mother won't like that," she said, "nor will Governess either. I had a talk with her the other day, and she almost persuaded me to go to service again," concluded Jessie.
Fanny was anxious not to displease her mother just now, so she would not stay long talking to Jessie, for fear she should be seen, and so went indoors to try and have a talk about the new dress.
"Mother, me and Eliza have agreed to have the new frock between us," she said, going to have another look at the box which her mother was packing.
"What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Brown, rather sharply.