Peggy from Kerry by L.T. Meade

There is an old saying that when a person begins to hesitate that person is lost. Certainly such was the case with Miss Weston-Miss Clarissa Weston, of the High Street, Gable End, called thus, doubtless, on account of its proximity to The Red Gables. The town was pretty and bright, and very nice people lived in the neighbourhood; and in consequence Clarissa Weston had quite a nice little business. She and a certain Miss King vied with each other in supplying the young ladies at The Red Gables with their dresses. Miss King was a much cheaper dressmaker than Miss Weston; and, in consequence, it was to her that several of the girls went for their odds and ends of clothing. The Wyndhams were supplied entirely from home; but Alison Maude employed Miss Weston, and so did Bridget O'Donnell; whereas Priscilla, Rufa, and Hannah got what small things they required at Miss King's. But of all the young ladies who bought smart frocks at Gable End there were none to compare with the Misses Dodd-the Misses Dodd and Miss Kitty Merrydew.

Whatever the school suspected, none of them knew that Kitty's smart clothes were put down to the Dodds' account. Kitty showed off her finery to such great advantage-whereas the Dodds, however expensively they were clothed, did not show it off at all-that Miss Weston would almost have dressed her for nothing. Had she not-by means of Kitty's charming appearance in church, in her crimson frock and squirrel-fur jacket and cap-obtained the custom of two ladies of title who lived not far from Gable End; and did not the blue velvet, with its shady hat and long, long ostrich feather secure for Miss Weston the custom of another large family who lived about a mile away from Gable End at the other side? They were _nouveaux riches_, just the people Miss Weston delighted in; and when they saw Kitty at a bazaar in her blue costume they managed to find out who had dressed her, and went straight to Miss Weston to order four velvet frocks and four velvet hats for their own commonplace girls, to be made up exactly like Miss Kitty Merrydew's. Yes, yes, Clarissa could not lose Miss Merrydew.