At dejeuner Septimus Rainer told them that now he was in Europe he
proposed to stay in Europe, and enjoy a little of his daughter's society.
He could carry on all of his business he wanted to by cablegram and
letter. One thing, however, he must have, and that was clothes, for in
his haste he had come away with a gripsack and nothing more. Sir Tancred
suggested that Tinker, who knew his Nice, should take him over there, and
put him in the hands of the right tailor, hatter, hosier, and bootmaker;
and Septimus Rainer accepted the offer gratefully.
Accordingly the two of them caught a train early in the afternoon, and
went to Nice. Septimus Rainer had supposed the getting of clothes to be
a simple and tiresome affair of a few minutes; you went to a tailor and
said, "Make me suits of clothes," or to a bootmaker and said, "Make me
pairs of boots." He was vastly mistaken. He found himself embarked upon
a serious business.
He awoke to the seriousness of it in the train, when he found Tinker, who
had taken his commission to heart, regarding him with a cold, calculating
air, very disquieting. He endured it as long as he could, then he said
cautiously, "You aren't measuring me for my coffin; are you, sonny?"
"Oh, no!" said Tinker with a reassuring smile of a seraphic sweetness.
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