Not _a la_ Mrs.Perowne.Not in that milliner's handbook style dear to "Promenades" and places of public resort; but more daintily, and with more attention to the prettiest and most convenient of the prevailing fashions than Eleanor's and my costumes displayed.
The toilettes of one young lady in particular won our admiration; and when we learned that her pretty things were made by herself, an overwhelming ambition seized upon us to learn to do the same.
"Women ought to know about all house matters," said Eleanor, puckering her brow to a gloomy extent.

"Dressmaking, cookery, and all that sort of thing; and we know nothing about any of them.

I was thinking only last night, in bed, that if I were cast away on a desert island, and had to make a dress out of an old sail, I shouldn't have the ghost of an idea where to begin." "I should," said I."I should sew it up like a sack, make three holes for my head and arms, and tie it round my waist with ship's rope.

I could manage Robinson Crusoe dresses; it's the civilized ones that will be too much for me, I'm afraid." "I believe the sail would go twice as far if we could gore it," said Eleanor, laughing.

"But there's no waste like the wastefulness of ignorance; and oh, Margery, it's the _gores_ I'm afraid of! If skirts were only made the old-fashioned way, like a flannel petticoat! So many pieces all alike--run them together--hem the bottom--gather the top--and there you are, with everything straightforward but the pocket." To our surprise we found that our new fad was a sore subject with Mrs.
Arkwright.