suit of clothes," said Robert.
"If that young man hadn't treated me so rudely, I should have asked him
to show me some."

"Look here, Mr. Turner," said the gentleman sternly, "If you have no
more sense than to insult our customers, we can dispense with your
services. Mr. Conway, will you wait on this young man?"

Turner was mortified and slunk away, beginning to understand that it is
not always safe to judge a man or boy by the clothes he wears.

Mr. Conway was more of a gentleman and civilly asked Robert to follow
him.

"What kind of a suit would you like?" he added.

"A pretty good one," answered Robert.

He was shown several suits and finally selected one of gray mixed cloth
of excellent quality.

"That is one of our most expensive suits," said Conway doubtfully.

"Will it wear well?"

"It will wear like iron."

"Then I will take it. How much will it cost?"

Conway named the price. Robert would have hesitated about paying so
much, but that he was acting under instructions from the hermit.

"Shall we send it to you anywhere?" asked Mr. Conway, a little surprised
at Robert's readiness to pay so high a price.

"No, I should like to put it on here."

"You can do so--that is, after paying for it."

Robert drew out a wallet and from his roll of bills took out sufficient
to pay for the new suit.

Mr. Conway went to the cashier's desk. The two had a conversation
together. Then the stout gentleman was called to the desk. Robert saw
them open a copy of a morning paper and read a paragraph, looking at him
after reading it. He wondered what it all meant.

Presently Conway came back and asked him to walk up to the desk.

Robert did so, wonderingly.

"You seem to have a good deal of money with you," commenced the stout
gentleman.

"Yes, sir," answered Robert composedly.

"A great deal of money for a boy dressed as you are," continued the
speaker pointedly.

Robert began to understand now, and he replied proudly:

"Do you generally ask your customers how much money they have?"

"No, but yours is a peculiar case."

"The money is mine--that is, I have a right to spend it. I am acting
under orders from the gentleman who employs me."

"Who is that?"

"No one that you would know. He lives at Cook's Harbor. But I didn't
come in here to answer questions. If you don't want to sell me a suit of
clothes, I will go somewhere else."

"To be plain with you, my boy," said the stout gentleman, not unkindly,