"I must sit up, too, for the matter of that," rejoined the elder sister. "The worst is, after no bed, one is so languid the next day; one can't get through half the work."
Martha Ann rose from her seat, and came to the table.
"I wish you would let me try to help you, Sophia. I'm sure I could do seams, and such-like straightforward work."
"You'd pucker them, child. No; we are not going to let your eyes be tried over close sewing."
"I'll tell you what you can do, Martha Ann," said the younger of the two. "You can go in the kitchen, and make me a cup of coffee. I feel dead tired, and it will waken me up."
"There now, Mary!" cried the young girl. "I knew you were not in bed last night, and you are talking of sitting up this! I shall tell Edward."
"Yes, I was in bed. I went to bed at three, and slept till six. Go and make the coffee, child."
Martha Ann quitted the room. Mary Hughes watched the door close, and then turned to her sister, and began to speak eagerly, dropping her voice to a half whisper.
"I say, Sophia, I met Mrs. Pycroft to-day, and she began upon me like anything. What do you think she said?"
"How do I know what she said?" returned Miss Sophia, indifferently, and speaking with her mouth full of pins, for she was deep in the intricacies of fitting one pattern to another. "Where did you meet her?"