It was another of Caroline's troubles to be condemned to learn this foreign style of darning, which was done stitch by stitch, so as exactly to imitate the fabric of the stocking itself--a wearifu' process, but considered by Hortense Grard, and by her ancestresses before her for long generations back, as one of the first "duties of a woman." 
Caroline was condemned to learn this style of darning, which had to imitate exactly the fabric of the stocking - a wearisome process, but considered by Hortense as one of the first duties of a woman. 