It was insufferable. But it was fine. Who could deny that Auntie Clara
was not an extraordinary, an original, and a generous woman? What a
masterly reproof to both father and son! Perhaps not delicately
administered. Yet Auntie Clara had lavished all the delicacy of her
nature on the administering!
To Edwin, it seemed like an act of God in his favour. It seemed to set
a divine seal on his resolutions. It was the most astonishing and
apposite piece of luck that had ever happened to him. When he had
lamely thanked the benefactor, he slipped away as soon as he could.
Already he could feel the crinkling of the five-pound note in his hand.
Five pounds! He had never had a suit that cost more than fifty
shillings. He slipped away. A great resolve was upon him. Shillitoe
closed at four o'clock on Saturday afternoons. There was just time. He
hurried down Trafalgar Road in a dream. And when he had climbed Duck
Bank he turned to the left, and without stopping he burst into
Shillitoe's. Not from eagerness to enter Shillitoe's, but because if he
had hesitated he might never have entered at all: he might have slunk
away to the old undistinguished tailor in Saint Luke's Square.
Shillitoe was the stylish tailor. Shillitoe made no display of goods,
scorning such paltry devices. Shillitoe had wire blinds across the
lower part of his window, and on the blinds, in gold, "Gentlemen's
tailor and outfitter. Breeches-maker." Above the blind could be seen a
few green cardboard boxes. Shillitoe made breeches for men who hunted.
Shillitoe's lowest price for a suit was notoriously four guineas.
Shillitoe's was the resort of the fashionable youth of the town and
district. It was a terrific adventure for Edwin to enter Shillitoe's.
His nervousness was painful. He seemed to have a vague idea that
Shillitoe might sneer at him. However, he went in. The shop was empty.
He closed the door, as he might have closed the door of a dentist's.
He said to himself; "Well, I'm here!" He wondered what his father would
say on hearing that he had been to Shillitoe's. And what would Clara
have said, had she been at home? Then Shillitoe in person came forward
from the cutting-out room and Shillitoe's tone and demeanour reassured
him.