Once she had left, Ernest stood for a few minutes, puffing at his pipe as he cogitated the peculiarities of life. There was that lass, as bonny as ever he’d seen, but with no man to look after her. Nor did she seem to want one. What had happened to that fancy gent who’d been around when he’d first met her he didn’t know, but as he’d said to his wife at the time, that could only end one way and to his mind the lass was lucky she hadn’t been left with a bellyful. But no, she was doing all right. More than all right, and whilst he didn’t begrudge her the success, where would the world be if girls, women, thought they could behave like men rather than being content looking after their own hearths? It wasn’t right. Whatever way you looked at it, it wasn’t right and no good would come of it. Women weren’t as bright as men, never had been and never would be, everyone knew that. He nodded to the thought and then as one of his sons came in, muttering something about having dropped a hammer on his foot for the second time in as many days, George sighed. There were some blokes who weren’t much cop up top an’ all, mind.

The new premises were completed at the end of January and within three days Cissy, Olive and Alice had moved into their home which, as Cissy herself said, was a cut above anything she could have imagined. Mr McArthur and his sons had done a fine job in the flat; not only was it bright and modern with its own bathroom and a new gas stove and freshly painted cupboards in the kitchen, but the living room and the three bedrooms had wall-to-wall carpeting and the curtains at the windows were thick and luxurious. Once the removal men had brought the furniture that Cissy and Olive between them had decided to keep, selling the excess, the flat became home, and by the time Ruby opened the second shop just weeks later, the strained, haunted look had lifted from Olive’s face.

Although Ruby had constantly assured Olive that she would be a great success as manageress she knew it had been something of a gamble on her part, but within a short while it was clear Olive had taken to the job like a duck to water. She proved to be an excellent saleswoman, and the two seamstresses that Ruby had taken on were in awe of her sister. Indeed, as Ruby remarked to Olive one day in the spring, she had been right about her sister being somewhat scary but in the best possible way, for the business at least.