Presently came back with a brown silk which he hung in the
place of the velvet one, and a blue cloth, which replaced the
black silk. Every whit as costly, and almost as pretty, both
of them.
"No," said the doctor, — "you mistook me. We want to look at
some goods fitted for persons who have not long purses."
"Something inferior to these —" said the man. He was not
uncivil; he just stated the fact. In accordance with which he
replaced the last two coats with a little grey dreadnought,
and a black cloth; the first neat and rough, the last not to
be looked at. It was not in good taste, and a sort of thing
that I neither had worn nor could wear. But the grey
dreadnought was simple and warm and neat, and would offend
nobody. I looked from it to the pretty black cloth which still
hung opposed to it, the one of the first two. Certainly, in
style and elegance _this_ looked like my mother's child, and the
other did not. But this was forty dollars. The dreadnought was
exactly half that sum. I had a little debate with myself — I
remember it, for it was my first experience of that kind of
thing — and all my mother's training had refined in me the
sense of what was elegant and fitting, in dress as well as in
other matters.
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