Her sister was busy in the dining-room, which was also the sitting-room, sewing.
She worked, after dressing, to arrange a little breakfast for herself, and then advised with Minnie as to which way to look.

The latter had changed considerably since Carrie had seen her.

She was now a thin, though rugged, woman of twenty-seven, with ideas of life coloured by her husband's, and fast hardening into narrower conceptions of pleasure and duty than had ever been hers in a thoroughly circumscribed youth.

She had invited Carrie, not because she longed for her presence, but because the latter was dissatisfied at home, and could probably get work and pay her board here.

She was pleased to see her in a way but reflected her husband's point of view in the matter of work.