ys had passed.

Mr. Neefit was a stout little man, with a bald head and somewhat
protrusive eyes, whose manners to his customers contained a
combination of dictatorial assurance and subservience, which he had
found to be efficacious in his peculiar business. On general subjects
he would rub his hands, and bow his head, and agree most humbly with
every word that was uttered. In the same day he would be a Radical
and a Conservative, devoted to the Church and a scoffer at parsons,
animated on behalf of staghounds and a loud censurer of aught in the
way of hunting other than the orthodox fox. On all trivial outside
subjects he considered it to be his duty as a tradesman simply to
ingratiate himself; but in a matter of breeches he gave way to no
man, let his custom be what it might. He knew his business, and was
not going to be told by any man whether the garments which he made
did or did not fit. It was the duty of a gentleman to come and
allow him to see them on while still in a half-embryo condition. If
gentlemen did their duty, he was sure that he could do his. He would
take back anything that was not approved without a murmur;--but after
that he must decline further transactions. It was, moreover, quite
understood that to complain of his materials was so to insult him
that he would condescend to make no civil reply. An elderly gentleman
from Essex once told him that his buttons were given to breaking.
"If you have your breeches,--washed,--by an old woman,--in the
country,"--said Mr. Neefit, very slowly, looking into the elderly
gentleman's face, "and then run through the mangle,--the buttons will
break." The elderly gentleman never dared even to enter the shop
again.

Mr. Neefit was perhaps somewhat over-imperious in matters relating to
his own business; but, in excuse for him, it must be stated that he
was, in truth, an honest tradesman;--he was honest at least so far,
that he did make his breeches as well as he knew how. He had made up
his mind that the best way to make his fortune was to send out good
articles,--and he did his best. Whether or no he was honest in adding
on that additional half guinea to the price because he found that
the men with whom he dealt were fools enough to be attracted by a
high price, shall be left to advanced moralists to decide. In that
universal agreement with diverse opinions there must, we fear, have
been something of dishonesty. But he made the best of breeches, put
no shoddy or ch