It was necessary that the heat of the apartment should be kept at _one hundred and twenty_ degrees! There was a large number of women and girls, and a few men and boys working under this melting ordeal.

And one of the proprietors was at their head, in a rather summer dress, and with a seethed and crimson face beaded with hot perspiration.

It was a very delicate and important operation which he had not only to watch with his own eyes, but to work at with his own hands.

I was glad to learn that he was a staunch Protestant, and did not believe in _purgatory_; but those poor girls!--could they be expected to hold to the same belief under such a test?
I was told that they could get up lace so cheap that the people of the town frequently cover their gooseberry bushes with it to keep off the insects.

Spider-webbing is a scarcely more gossamer-like fabric.