I know 'em all, but I never counted
'em. About seventy or eighty, I should say, not counting extra
trousers."
Craig looked astounded. "And how many shirts, Walter?"
"Oh, several hundred of them, sir. Mr. Grant's most particular
about his linen."
"And here are boots and shoes and pumps and gaiters and Lord knows
what and what not--enough to stock a shoe-store. And umbrellas and
canes--Good God, man! How do you carry all that stuff round on
your mind?"
Grant laughed like a tickled infant. All this was as gratifying to
his vanity as applause to Craig's. "Walter looks after it," said
he.
Craig lapsed into silence, stared moodily out of the window. The
idea of his thinking of marrying a girl of Grant's class! What a
ridiculous, loutish figure he would cut in her eyes! Why, not only
did he not have the articles necessary to a gentleman's wardrobe,
he did not even know the names of them, nor their uses! It was all
very well to pretend that these matters were petty. In a sense
they were. But that sort of trifles played a most important part
in life as it was led by Margaret Severence. She'd not think them
trifles. She was probably assuming that, while he was not quite up
to the fashionable standard, still he had a gentleman's equipment
of knowledge and of toilet articles.
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