"There is work." Her mother laughed scornfully.
"You have chosen your way," she said, "let me choose mine.

Turn round, Hester." The girl obeyed her languidly.

Her mother eyed her with an attention she seldom vouchsafed to anything.

Her plain black frock was ill-fitting and worn.

She wore no ribbon or jewellery or adornment of any sort.
Negatively her face was not ill-pleasing, but her figure was angular, and her complexion almost anaemic.