“Will you go as high as forty-five dollars for the suit and sixty-five for the coat, a hundred and ten dollars in all, Captain?”
“Yes, and a hundred and forty-five and a hundred and sixty-five and three hundred and ten in all, if need be. The best of cloth I want, mind, and double-ought in the big coat—no less. It’s to be a weddin’, maybe.”
“Best man?” said the tailor.
“I dunno,” said Patsie, “whether ’twill be best man or second-best man, but that’s the way of it now. Maybe I’ll know more about it afore we put out. But if I don’t call for it next trip, you c’n wear it yourself. Here’s your money. Come along, Martin.”
Down the street he stopped at a jeweller’s shop. “A diamond ring I want, and I don’t know much about them.”
He looked over an envelopeful that the salesman emptied on to the glass case. “But I don’t want any red or yellow or fancy colors—a good white one I want. Now here’s one. A hundred dollars? Something better than that. This one now? A hundred and fifty? And this one? A hundred and seventy-five, is it? And here’s a two hundred one, you say? But here’s a better one, isn’t it? It’s a bigger one, anyway. Only a hundred and eighty? Like men, aren’t they—the biggest not always the best? Like men, yes—and like women, too—the showiest not always the best. I’ll take this one, the two hundred and fifty dollar lad. Martin, how do you like that? Would a young woman be pleased with that, d’y’ think?”
“The woman, skipper, that wouldn’t be pleased with that ought to be hove over the rail.”
“Well, I hope we won’t have to heave nobody over the rail. But pick out a little somethin’ for yourself, Martin-boy. There’s somethin’ there’d go fine in your necktie when you’re ashore. Hush, hush, boy—take it, and don’t talk. And now”—to the man behind the case—“how much all told? This little pin for myself, too.”
“Two hundred and fifty, and twenty for your friend’s pin, and the little thing for yourself, five dollars— I’ll throw that in Captain—two hundred and seventy. And if you have a mind to change that diamond any time, we’ll be willing to give you something else for it.”
Patsie looked down at the floor and then up at the salesman. “I don’t think I’ll want to change it. I mayn’t have any use for it, but whether I do or not, you won’t see it back here any more. Let’s be movin’, Martin.”