"
"Stuff! Nothing is too bad to _sell._"
"I really think you might," said Mrs. Dodd, "and I will help you."
"No, no, mamma, I want you for something better than the fine arts. You
must go in one of the great grooves: Female vanity: you must be a
dressmaker; you are a genius at it."
"My mamma a dressmaker," cried Julia; "oh Edward, how can you. How dare
you. Poor, poor mamma!"
"Do not be so impetuous, dear. I think he is right: yes, it is all I am
fit for. If ever there was a Heaven-born dressmaker, it's me."
"As for myself," said Edward, "I shall look out for some business in
which physical strength goes further than intellectual attainments.
Luckily there are plenty such. Breaking stones is one. But I shall try a
few others first."
It is easy to settle on a business, hard to get a footing in one. Edward
convinced that the dressmaking was their best card, searched that mine of
various knowledge, the _'Tiser,_ for an opening: but none came. At last
one of those great miscellaneous houses in the City advertised for a lady
to cut cloaks. He proposed to his mother to go with him.
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