He never, by any chance, quite kept his word, though there was a moment in every case when he seemed to imagine doing what he said, and he took with mute patience the rakings which the ladies gave him when he disappointed them.
 
Disappointed is not just the word, for the ladies did not really expect him to do what he said. They pretended to believe him when he promised, but at the bottom of their hearts they never did or could. He was gentle-mannered and soft-spoken, and when he set his head on one side, and said that a coat would be ready on Wednesday, or a dress on Saturday, and repeated his promise upon the same lady's expressed doubt, she would catch her breath and say that now she absolutely must have it on the day named, for otherwise she would not have a thing to put on. Then he would become very grave, and his soft tenor¹ would deepen to a bass² of unimpeachable³ [Pg 82]veracity, and he would say, "Sure, lady, you have it."
 
The lady would depart still doubting and slightly sighing, and he would turn to the customer who was waiting to have a button sewed on, or something like that, and ask him softly what it was he could do for him. If the customer offered him his appreciation⁴ of the case in hand, he would let his head droop⁵ lower, and in a yet deeper bass deplore⁶ the doubt of the ladies as an idiosyncrasy of their sex. He would make the customer feel that he was a favorite customer whose rights to a perfect fidelity⁷ of word and deed must by no means be tampered⁸ with, and he would have the button sewed on or the rip sewed up at once, and refuse to charge anything, while the customer waited in his shirt-sleeves in the small, stuffy⁹ shop opening directly from the street. When he tolerantly discussed the peculiarities¹⁰ of ladies as a sex, he would endure to be laughed at, "for sufferance was the badge of all his tribe," and possibly he rather liked it.
 
The favorite customer enjoyed being there when some lady came back on the appointed Wednesday or Saturday, and the tailor came soothingly¹¹ forward and showed her into the curtained alcove¹² where she was to try on the garments, and then called into the inner shop for them. The [Pg 83]shirt-sleeved journeyman, with his unbuttoned waistcoat-front all pins and threaded needles, would appear in his slippers¹³ with the things barely basted¹⁴ together, and the tailor would take them, with an airy courage, as if they were perfectly¹⁵ finished, and go in behind the curtain where the lady was waiting in a dishabille which the favorite customer, out of reverence¹⁶ for the sex, forbore to picture to himself. Then sounds of volcanic¹⁷ fury would issue from the alcove. "Now, Mr. Morrison, you have lied to me again, deliberately¹⁸ lied. Didn't I tell you I must have the things perfectly ready to-day? You see yourself that it will be another week before I can have my things."
 
"A week? Oh, madam! But I assure you—"
 
"Don't talk to me any more! It's the last time I shall ever come to you, but I suppose I can't take the work away from you as it is. When shall I have it?"
 
"To-morrow. Yes, to-morrow noon. Sure!"
 
"Now you know you are always out at noon. I should think you would be ashamed."
 
"If it hadn't been for sickness in the family I would have finished your dress with my own hands. Sure I would. If you come here to-morrow noon you find your dress all ready for you."
 
"I know I won't, but I will come, and you'd better have it ready."
 
[Pg 84]"Oh, sure."
 
The lady then added some generalities of opprobrium¹⁹ with some particular criticisms of the garments. Her voice sank into dispassionate murmurs²⁰ in these, but it rose again in her renewed sense of the wrong done her, and when she came from the alcove she went out of the street door purple. She reopened it to say, "Now, remember!" before she definitely disappeared.
 
"Rather a stormy session, Mr. Morrison," the customer said.
 
"Something fierce," Mr. Morrison sighed. But he did not seem much troubled, and he had one way with all his victims, no matter what mood they came or went in.
 
One day the customer was by when a kind creature timidly upbraided²¹ him. "This is the third time you've disappointed me, Mr. Morrison. I really wish you wouldn't promise me unless you mean to do it. I don't think it's right for you."
 
"Oh, but sure, madam! The things will be done, sure. We had a strike on us."
 
"Well, I will trust you once more," the kind creature said.
 
"You can depend on me, madam, sure."
 
When she was gone the customer said: "I [Pg 85]wonder you do that sort of thing, Mr. Morrison. You can't be surprised at their behaving rustily²² with you if you never keep your word."
 
"Why, I assure you there are times when I don't know where to look, the way they go on. It is something awful. You ought to hear them once. And now they want the wote." He rearranged some pieces of tumbled goods at the table where the customer............