"But you didn't seem to mind it."
"I didn't mind it for a good while. Then I couldn't stand it. So I sold."
He shook his head sadly; but the customer had no comfort to offer him. He asked when his clothes would be done, and the tailor told him when, and then they were not. The new proprietor tried them on, but he would not say just when they would be finished.
"We have a good deal of work already for some ladies that been disappointed. Now we try a new way. We tell people exactly what we do."
"Well, that's right," the customer said, but in his heart he was not sure he liked the new way.
The day before his clothes were promised he dropped in. From the curtained alcove he heard low murmurs, the voice of the new proprietor and the voice of some lady trying on, and being severely bidden not to expect her things at a time she suggested. "No, madam. We got too much work on hand already. These things, they will not be done before next week."
"I told you to-morrow," the same voice said to another lady, and the new proprietor came out with an unfinished coat in his hand.
"I know you did, but I thought you would be better than your word, and so I came to-day. Well, then, to-morrow."
"Yes, to-morrow," the new proprietor said, but he did not seem to have liked the lady's joke. He did not look happy.
A few weeks after that the customer came for some little alterations in his new suit.