"Poor Magdalene has been very sadly for days, and I have got it into my stupid old head--that is always fancying things--that she has been watching for folks who have been too proud to come, though she would die sooner than tell me so; but that is her way, poor dear!
"It is ill to wake at nights with nothing but sad thoughts for company, and it is ill wearing out the long days with only a silly old body to cheer one up; and when there is nothing fresh to say, and nothing to expect, and not a footstep or a voice to break the silence, then it seems to me that a young voice--that is, a kind voice--would be welcome. Take this hint, my dear, and keep my counsel, for I am only a silly old woman, as she often says.
"Oh, I must go now!" observed Phillis, in an embarrassed voice, as she laid this singular note before Nan.
"Yes, dear; and you had better put on your hat at once, and Dulce and I will walk with you as far as the gate. It is sad for you to miss the scramble on the shore; but, when other people really want us, I feel as though it were a direct call," finished Nan, solemnly.
"I am afraid there is a storm coming up," replied Phillis, who had been oppressed all day by the heavy thundery atmosphere: she had looked so heated and weary that Nan had proposed a walk by the shore. Work was pouring upon them from all sides: the townspeople, envious of Mrs. Trimmings's stylish new dress, were besieging the Friary with orders, and the young dressmakers would have been literally overwhelmed with their labors, only that Nan, with admirable foresight, insisted on taking in no more work than they felt themselves able to complete.
"No," she would say to some disappointed customer, "our hands are full just now, and we cannot undertake any more orders at present: we will not promise more than we can perform. Come to me again in a fortnight's time, and we will willingly make your dress, but now it is impossible." And in most cases the dress was brought punctually at the time appointed.
Phillis used to grumble a little at this.
"You ought not to refuse orders, Nan," she said, rather fretfully, once. "Any other dressmaker would sit up half the night rather than disappoint a customer."
"My dear," Nan returned, in her elder-sisterly voice, which had always a great effect on Phillis, "I wonder what use Dulce and you would be if you sat up sewing half the night, and drinking strong tea to keep yourselves awake? No, there shall be no burning the candles at both ends in this fashion; please God we will keep our health, and our customers; and no one in their senses could call us idle. Why, we are quite the fashion! Mrs. Squails told me yesterday that every one in Hadleigh was wild to have a gown made by the 'lady dressmakers.'"