Skinner's Dress Suit

by Henry Irving Dodge

"We just looked in en passant," Skinner observed to the reporters, using his French to the limit. "It's a kind of belated honeymoon. We've seen Mr. Hill's residence and we ran over and looked at those wonderful flour mills in Minneapolis, your neighbor"— He paused.

A frozen atmosphere seemed suddenly to enshroud the reporters. Their pencils ceased to record.

"Oh, yes, let's get back to St. Paul."

Instantly the temperature rose about a hundred degrees, and the reporters' pencils began to move again.

When the newspaper men were gone, Skinner jotted down:—

Dress-Suit Account
Debit	Credit
	Useful hint! When you're in St. Paul, talk about St. Paul!

And when he read his interview in the evening paper, Skinner made this entry:—

Dress-Suit Account
Debit	Credit
	A certain remarkable authority in discussing social matters which I never thought I possessed. In fact, which I never did possess until I got the dress suit.

The Skinners devoted the days between Wednesday and Saturday to loafing or sight-seeing, principally the former. They drove over to Minneapolis again and took in the wonderful flour mills, for anything that pertained to machinery fascinated Skinner. Then they went out to the Lake and had a trout dinner and all the rest of it. But after a time, this unaccountably useless routine got on Honey's nerves.

"Dearie," she protested, "this is our honeymoon, to be sure, but don't you think you ought to get after business?"