A circular printed in London was received on
that spring day in 1839 by all the respectable ladies in the town
stating that a Mrs. Fairfax was about to begin business in Ferry Street
as a dressmaker. She had taken the only house to be let in Ferry
Street. It was a cottage with a front and back sitting-room, and
belonged to an old lady in Lincoln, who inherited it from her brother,
who once lived in it but had been dead forty years. Before a week had
gone by four-fifths of the population of Langborough had re-inspected
it. The front room was the shop, and in the window was a lay-figure
attired in an evening robe of rose-coloured silk, the like of which for
style and fit no native lady had ever seen. Underneath it was a card--
"Mrs. Fairfax, Milliner and Dressmaker." The circular stated that Mrs.
Fairfax could provide materials or would make up those brought to her by
her customers.
Great was the debate which followed this unexpected apparition. Who
Mrs. Fairfax was could not be discovered. Her furniture and the lay-
figure had come by the waggon, and the only information the driver could
give was that he was directed at the "George and Blue Boar" in Holborn
to fetch them from Great Ormond Street.
Pages:
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205