resh
my dresses," answered Belle.

"I think if we meet once a week, it is all that should be expected of
us, with our other engagements. Poor people always complain that the
winter is a hard one, and never are satisfied," remarked Miss Perkins,
making her diamonds sparkle as she sewed buttons on the wrong side of a
pink calico apron, which would hardly survive one washing.

"Nobody can ask me to do any more, if they remember all I 've got to
attend to before summer," said Trix, with an important air. "I 've got
three women hard at work, and want another, but everyone is so busy, and
ask such abominable prices, that I 'm in despair, and shall have to take
hold myself, I 'm afraid."

"There 's a chance for Jane," thought Polly, but had n't courage "to
speak out loud in meeting," just then, and resolved to ask Trix for
work, in private.

"Prices are high, but you forget how much more it costs to live now than
it used to do. Mamma never allows us to beat down workwomen, but wishes
us to pay them well, and economize in some other way, if we must," said
Emma Davenport, a quiet, bright-eyed girl, who was called "odd" among
the young ladies, because she dressed simply, when her father was a
millionaire.

"Just hear that girl talk about economy! I beg your pardon, she 's some
relation of yours, I believe!" said Belle, in a low tone.

"Very distant; but I 'm proud of it; for with her, economy does n't mean
scrimping in one place to make a show in another. If every one would
follow the Davenports' example, workwomen would n't starve, or servants
be such a trouble. Emma is the plainest dressed girl in the room, next
to me, yet any one can see she is a true gentlewoman," said Polly,
warmly.

"And you are another," answered Belle, who had always loved Polly, in
her scatter-brained way.

"Hush! Trix has the floor."

"If they spent their wages properly, I should n't mind so much, but they
think they must be as fine as anybody, and dress so well that it is hard
to tell mistress from maid. Why our cook got a bonnet just like mine
(the materials were cheaper, but the effect was the same), and had the
impertinence to wear it before my face. I forbid it, and she left, of
course, which made papa so cross he would n't give me the camel's hair
shawl he promised this year."

"It 's perfectly shameful!" said Miss Perkins, as Trix paused out of
breath. "Servants ought to be made to dress like servants, as they do
abroad; then we sho