Lucia. Two sewing machines were in the rear
drawing room and Giovanna and Lina, in pretty
caps and aprons were ready for work.

This arrangement was a surprise to Miss
Street and Miss Hogarth, who thanked the
countess warmly and remarked that they might
have planned to have something beside clothes
for dolls sewed that afternoon if they had
realized what an opportunity it was. To this
Countess Coletti replied that she would be glad
to furnish machines and maids and house room
some other time if the girls were sewing for
the poor. She left the room with pleasant re-
grets and presently Betty heard the car starting
to take her to some engagement or a shopping
tour.

It was a petty scene, with the girls, their
bright expressions and young figures, their
thimbles and sewing bags or boxes, the little
heaps of bright materials or filmy white or laces,
wide or narrow, and dolls of all sorts, either in
the girls' laps or upon the tables. On the walls
above them were several fine reproductions of
famous paintings and an etching or two. Ob-
jects of art had largely been removed from this
room to make place for chairs and folding tables
and the machines. It seemed a pity to drop any

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