ched for by
another commercial house. They won't take your personal friends, no
matter how wealthy, no matter if they are titled. Your bank's opinion of
you is no good. Neither does it avail you how well and favourably you
are known at your hotel for paying your bill promptly. This, and the
custom in several large department stores of never returning your money
if you take back goods, but making you spend it, not in the store, but
in the department in which you have bought, makes shopping for dry goods
excessively annoying to Americans.

I took back two silk blouses out of five that I bought at a large shop
in Regent Street much frequented by Americans, which carries on a store
near by under the same name, exclusively for mourning goods. To my
astonishment, I discovered that I must buy three more blouses, or else
lose all the money I paid for them. In my thirst for information, I
asked the reason for this. In America, a lady would consider the reason
they gave an insult. The shopwoman told me that ladies' maids are so
expert at copying that many ladies have six or eight garments sent home,
kept a few days, copied by their maids and returned, and that this
became so much the custom that they were finally forced to make that
obnoxious rule.

I have heard complaints made in America by proprietors of large
importing houses that women who keep accounts frequently order a
handsome gown, wrap, or hat sent home on approval, wear it, and return
it the next day. If this is the custom among decent self-respecting
American women, who masquerade in society in the guise of women of
refinement and culture, no wonder that shopkeepers are obliged to
protect themselves. There is nowhere that the saying, "the innocent must
suffer with the guilty," obtains with so much force as in shopping,
particularly in London.

It is a characteristic difference between the clever American and the
insular British shopkeeper that in America, when a thing such as I have
mentioned is suspected, the saleswoman or a private detective is sent to
shadow the suspect, and ascertain if she really wore the garment in
question. In such cases, the garment is returned to her with a note,
saying that she was seen wearing it, when it is generally paid for
without a word. If not, the shop is in danger of losing one otherwise
valuable customer, as she is placed on what is known as the "blacklist,"
which means that a double scrutiny is placed on all her purchases, as