“That is a two-cent stamp, madame. Please stand aside and let the gentleman behind you come up.”
“Haven’t you got them in any other color?” she asked, wholly oblivious to the “gentleman behind.”
The clerk began to act cross.
“I never did like that shade of red,” she added.
“There is only one color,” he replied, curtly.
“That is strange,” she mused. “I’d think you’d keep them in different shades, so that there’d be some choice.”
The clerk said nothing, but he kept getting crosser every
minute, and murmurs of disapprobation began to rise from the ever-lengthening line of people who would have been thankful to get their stamps without criticizing their hue.
“You are sure you have none in a brighter red, or even in a different color—Nile green, or seal brown, or jubilee blue, for instance?”
“You can put two one-cent stamps on your letter if you like,” said the clerk, who began to see that the customer could not be frowned away from the window.