the same pursuit, though not till much time had been consumed in going
in and out, and up and down, in search of the materials. All were found
at last; the party worked, and I, as usual, listened. "I think this
trimming," said one, "will repay me for my trouble, though it has cost
me three months' work already, and it will be three months more before
it is finished." "Indeed!" rejoined her friend; "I wish I were half as
industrious; but I have been working six weeks at this handkerchief, and
have not had time to finish it: now the fashion is passed, and I shall
not go on." "How beautifully you are weaving that necklace! Is it not
very tedious?" "Yes, almost endless; but I delight in the work,
otherwise I should not do it, for the beads cost almost as much as I
could buy it for." "I should like to begin one this morning," interposed
a fourth, "but the milliner has sent home my bonnet so ill-trimmed, it
will take me all the day to alter it: the bow is on the wrong side, and
the trimming on the edge is too broad. It is very tiresome to spend all
one's life in altering things we pay so much for." "I wish," said a
little girl at the end of the table, "that I might work some trimmings
for my frock, but I am obliged to do this plain work first. The poor
lame girl in the village, who is almost starving, would do it for me for
a shilling, but I must save my allowance this week to buy a French
trinket I have taken a fancy to." "Poor thing! she is much to be
pitied," said the lady of the trimming; "if I had time, I would make her
some clothes."

And so they worked, and so they talked, till I and the time-piece had
counted many an hour which they took no account of, when one of them
yawned, and said, "How tedious are these wet days; it is really
impossible to spin out one's time without a walk." "I am surprised you
find it so," rejoined the lady of the beads; "I can rarely take time
for walking, though keeping the house makes me miserably languid."