my physique.

He was so quiet and confidential, and took such pains to suggest the
various articles I should require, that I felt bound to place myself in
his hands, and to a certain extent he won my confidence sufficiently to
make me ask a _few_ questions, to set myself a little at my ease.

"Don't often have any one so thin and young as I am to measure for a
uniform, do you?" I said.

He looked at me with astonishment--real or assumed.

"Thin as you, sir! Oh, you are nothing to some gentlemen--I mean," he
added hastily, "as to being slender. Why, some officers who come here
are little better than schoolboys."

"But I am thin," I said.

"Slight, sir," he said reprovingly--"slight. I should hardly call you
thin. You'd look a little thin in evening-dress, but in uniform only
slight. You see, we are obliged to pad a little in the chest, and to
square the shoulders a little, and, one way and another, sir, when we
have finished you, you will be surprised."

I was. But just then I only coughed, and felt glad that I was not the
youngest and thinnest officer the tailor had fitted out. "Oh, by the
way," I said as indifferently as I could, "what about swords?"

I felt proud of my nonchalantly easy way of dealing so familiarly with
the _arme blanche_, as the French call it, in the plural number.

"Oh, we shall supply your sword, sir; everything, if you entrust us with
your commands. There are some gentlemen who advise that you should not
go to a military tailor, but to a sword-cutler; and, of course, every
gentleman has a right to go where he pleases, but if you will trust me,
sir, you shall have a proved blade, of which you will be proud."

"Oh, of course I shall trust you," I said hurriedly. "But about size.
I think I should like, er--a light, rather smaller-sized sword."

"Oh no; excuse me, sir," said the tailor apologetically. "Speaking from
experience, sir, no. There was Lieutenant Verney, sir, younger and
lighter than you sir, and not so big-boned--Major Verney he is now, a
regular customer--said just the same as you did, sir, and we gave way.
Consequently he was greatly dissatisfied. He grew, but the sword did
not, and he soon had to have another. Now, if I might advise, I should
say have a full-size regulation weapon, well balanced with a good heavy
hilt. You'll be surprised, big-boned as you are, sir, how soon you will
put on muscle and spread out."

Of course I gave way, being naturally proud