Page:An Old Fashioned Girl.djvu/233

Rh despair, and shall have to take hold myself, I'm afraid."

"There's a chance for Jane," thought Polly, but hadn'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 doesn't mean scrimping in one place to make a show in another. If every one would follow the Davenports' example, workwomen wouldn'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 shouldn'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