"Of course, child; but there are the evenings, and I can sit to it while mother minds the shop."
"Don"t undertake more than you can manage, Grace," said Mrs. Hollis.
"Trust me for that, mother. You can wash up, Jessie; I can get there before they go to dress for dinner. It is a capital thing! It will just make up for that bad debt of Long"s, and help us to get in a real genteel stock of summer goods."
Grace managed the house, and her mother, who durst not say a word when she was set on a thing; and as to Jessie, her sister always treated her as a rather naughty, idle child.
The girl had struggled hotly against this, but it had always ended in getting into such a temper, and saying such fierce and violent things, that she had been much grieved and ashamed of herself, and now felt it better to let Grace have her way than to get into a dispute which was sure to make her do wrong.
But when Grace, as neat as a new pin, had tripped out of the house, Mrs.
Hollis and Jessie looked at one another, as if they had a pretty severe task set them.
"Well, I think we could have managed without," said Mrs. Hollis, "but to be sure it is as well to be on the safe side; though I"d rather be without the money than be at all the trouble and hurry this work will be!"
"I am sure I had," said Jessie. "I wish I had said nothing about it.
Grace can"t bear to hear of anything going that she has not got."
"Any way," said Mrs. Hollis, "you shall not be put upon, Jessie, after all your work at Miss Lee"s. You shall not be made to sit at your needle all the evening. It is not good for your health, and so I shall tell Grace."
Jessie thanked her mother, but had little hope that she would be able to hold out against one so determined as her sister. Neither mother nor daughter would have broken her heart if Grace"s application had come too late, but no such thing! It had been dark about an hour when she was driven up to the door in a dog-cart, out of which huge rolls of linen were lifted, enough, as it seemed, to stock the shop. Grace shook hands with the smart groom who had driven her, thanked him, and came in in high spirits.
Mrs. Robson had been most gracious! She said she had feared being obliged to put up with mere warehouse work, and that she could not bear; but country people were so lazy and disobliging. It was not what she was used to.
Grace had been taken up into the young lady"s own room, and oh! what she had to tell about tall cheval gla.s.ses, and ivory-backed brushes, and rose-coloured curtains, and marble-topped washhand-stands, and a bed and wardrobe of inlaid wood, with beautiful birds and flowers, and gold-topped bottles and boxes, and downy chairs! The description was enough to last a week, and indeed it did, for fresh details came out continually. It almost made Jessie jealous for Miss Manners. Once when she had been caught in a sudden shower and arrived wet through she had been taken up to Miss Manners"s bed-room to take off her boots and put on slippers.
And there was only a plain little iron bed, uncurtained, and the floor was bare except for rugs at the hearth and bed-side, and the furniture was nothing but white dimity. The chimney ornaments and the washhand-stand looked like those in a nursery--as indeed they well might, for they had belonged to Miss Dora nearly all her life; they all had stories belonging to them, were keepsakes from dear friends, and she would not have given one, no, not the sh.e.l.l cat with an ear off, nor the little picture made of coloured sand, for Miss Robson"s finest gilded box, unless indeed that had come in the same way.
And there were two prints on the walls, very grave and beautiful, which made one feel like being in Church, and so did the illuminated texts, though all were not equally well done, some being painted by her little nieces. Jessie had a feeling in her mind that there was something finer and n.o.bler in not making one"s own nest so very splendid and luxurious, but she knew Grace would laugh at the notion, so she said nothing of the difference, while her mother said, "Dear, dear!" and "Think of that!" at each new bit of magnificence she heard of.
Grace had her patterns and materials, and the fineness of them, and beauty of the lace provided for the tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, were quite delightful to look at.
The payment was to be very handsome, and Grace felt secure of carrying through the work in time, with the help of her mother and sister.
"You shall have your share, Jessie," she said. "See, here are some sweet French cambric handkerchiefs to be marked in embroidery. "I have a sister who can embroider beautifully," says I, and they just jumped at it. "Nina" is the name to be worked in the corners."
"Oh, I like embroidery," cried Jessie. "Thank you, Grace."
"There"s six dozen," said Grace, "and you"ll be able to do one a day.
Four pence a letter. Why it will be quite a little fortune to you," said Grace, overpowered with her own generosity; and Jessie on her side thought of the many things 4_l._ 16_s._ would do for her.
CHAPTER VI.
St.i.tCH, St.i.tCH, St.i.tCH.
IT must be confessed that Mrs. Hollis and Jessie had a hard time of it while those wedding clothes were being made!
There was no time for anything, certainly not for cooking. They ate the cold Sunday joint as long as it lasted, and lived the rest of the week on bread and cheese, and Australian meat now and then.
Grace got up before four every morning, and there was not much peace in bed for any one after that.
Of course the shop had to be minded, and that Mrs. Hollis did, but she was expected to be at her needle at every spare moment; and for the needful cleaning and rougher work, Grace got a woman for a couple of hours who came cheap, because she did not bear a very good character.
Mrs. Hollis did not much like having her about, but, as Grace said, one or other of them always had an eye upon her, and she was only there for a couple of hours in the morning.
It was lucky kettles could boil themselves, or there might not even have been tea, and as to going to Mrs. Somers"s working parties, Grace declared it to be impossible.
"I"ve got something else to do," she said, decidedly. "The lady can"t expect me to stand in my own light."
And when she saw Jessie on Friday evening put away her work and fetch her hat and books, she cried out against such idling, and said it must be given up.
"No," said Jessie. "I can"t give up my Church and my preparation with Miss Manners."
"Nonsense! You see I"ve given up my working party."
"Yes; but I can"t give up mine," said Jessie. "Oh, Grace, we thought so much about trying to do what we could."
"And so I am!" said Grace. "No one can say I am not doing my duty to my family, and that"s better than throwing away my time on a lot of beggarly folk that don"t deserve nothing. And you ought to know better, Jessie."
"I must have my lesson prepared," said she in return.
"As if you couldn"t teach that there Bell girl without going to read with Miss Manners first! You"ll never have those handkerchiefs done!"
"I did two letters extra this morning," said Jessie.
"Ah, that"s very fine, but if you get one of your headaches----"
The sound of that word alarmed Mrs. Hollis. Jessie had had a bad illness about a year ago, and the mother could not part with her anxiety about her. In she came, with the tea-cup she was washing in her hand.
"Has Jessie got a headache?" she inquired.
"Oh no, mother, thank you. Grace is only putting a case."
"Yes; I am asking her what she thinks will become of the work if she is to go and take her pleasure whenever she likes. She talks of working extra; but supposing she had a headache, she"d be sorry she had thrown away her time."
"Dear, dear," said Mrs. Hollis; ""tis the very way to make her have a headache to keep her poor nose to the grindstone. The doctor, he says to me, "She"ve had a shock, and she"ll require care, and not to be overstrained." And I tell you, Grace, I won"t have Jessie put upon, and kept muzzing over her needle like a blackamoor slave, without a taste of fresh air. So run away, Jessie, and get your walk."
"Thank you, mother."
And Jessie, who did not feel bound to obey her sister, ran lightly off, hoping poor mother would not be very fiercely talked at by Grace. She herself was clear that work undertaken for G.o.d"s sake should not be dropped when one"s own gain began to clash with it; while Grace, who had always been held up as the model, helpful good daughter, plainly thought, "working for one"s family," and securing something extra, was such a reason as to make it a sort of duty to throw over all she had taken up under the spur of that sermon in the spring. Jessie had no headache, but she was weary, vexed, and teased, and
"St.i.tch, st.i.tch, st.i.tch, Seam and gusset and band,"
rang in her ears, so that she specially felt rested and soothed by the calm and quiet of Miss Manners"s pretty room, with the open windows and the scent of flowers coming in from the garden.
The subject was next Sunday"s Gospel, about the Great Supper and the excuse-making guests. Miss Manners read out part of Archbishop Trench"s comment on the Parable before she talked to the teachers about what they were to say to their cla.s.ses; and Jessie felt deeply that to let herself be engrossed by this undertaking, so as to allow no time for her religious duties, would be only too like the guests who went "one to his farm, and another to his merchandise." She was advised to make it a lesson to her cla.s.s against false or insufficient excuses, such as saying they were late at school because mother wanted them to take a message, when they had dawdled all the way instead of hastening to school. Miss Manners lent the volume of Miss Edgeworth"s _Rosamond_ to Jessie, to read the chapter on Excuses to her girls, so as to bring home the lesson, though she was to carry it higher, and put them in mind that if they put their duties aside for these little things now, they would be learning to forget their Heavenly Master for earthly matters, and would never taste of His supper.