Bennington in plotting Jack's chest with a stethoscope.
"Yes, sir, we will have that dinner-jacket ready to-night, sir, depend
upon it--and couldn't I show you something in cheviots?"
Jack broke another precedent. A Wingfield, he decided to patronize
the Wingfield store, because he saw how supremely happy every order
made Burleigh.
"You can do it as well as Thompson's?" he asked.
"With you, yes, sir--though Thompson is a great expert on round
shoulders. But with you, yes, sir!"
When the business of measuring was over, while Burleigh peered triumphant
over the pile of cloths from which the masterpieces were to be fashioned,
Jack said that he had a ripping appetite and he did not see why he and
Burleigh should not appease their hunger in company. Burleigh gasped;
then he grinned in abandoned delight and slipped off his shiny coat and
little tailor's apron that bristled with pins.
They went to a restaurant of reputation, which Jack said was in keeping
with the occasion when a man changed his habits from Arizona simplicity
to urban multiplicity of courses. And what did Burleigh like? Burleigh
admitted that if he were a plutocrat he would have caviar at least once a
day; and caviar appeared in a little glass cup set in the midst of
cracked ice, flanked by crisp toast. After caviar came other things to
Burleigh's taste. He was having such an awesomely grand feast that he
was tongue-tied; but Jack could never eat in silence until he had
forgotten how to tell stories. So he told Burleigh stories of the trail
and of life in Little Rivers in a way that reflected the desert sunshine
in Burleigh's eyes. Burleigh thought that he would like to live in Little
Rivers. Almost anyone might after hearing Jack's description, in the joy
of its call to himself.
"Now, if you would trust me," said Burleigh, when they left the
restaurant, "I should like to send out for some cloths not in stock for a
couple of suits. And couldn't I make you up three or four fancy
waistcoats, with a little color in them--the right color to go with the
cloth? You can carry a little color--decidedly, yes."
"Yes, I rather like color," said Jack, succumbing to temptation, though
he felt that the heir to great responsibilities ought to dress in the
most neutral of tones.
"And I should like to select the ties to go with the suits and a few
shirts, just to carry out my scheme--a kind of professional triumph for
me, you see. May I?"
"Go ahead!" said
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