“‘Ah, indeed! I am very glad to have customers from Tarry-town; I have made dresses to be sent there several times.’ We could not help looking at each other, for we had known every dress in Tarry-town for years, and not one of them had ever touched her hands. ‘I make dresses for ladies in all parts of the country,’ she kept on; ‘my establishment is very popular with strangers, because it is known that I make it a point to accommodate them even at the risk of making sacrifices among my city customers. Of course, you ought to have your dresses in two or three days, and I’ll try what can be done. The silk is for you, ma’am, I perceive,’ and she tore open the bundles; ‘very appropriate, indeed, for an elderly lady, and the balzarines will make up quite dressy for your daughters. Look at the plates, ladies—this will suit you, ma’am, quite plain, but very genteel; the sleeve is particularly proper for a stout lady; and you, ma’am,’ to Easter Ann, ‘would look best in this, with flounces pretty high up, as you are tall and not fleshy. You, miss,’ to Jane Louyza, ‘ought to have front trimming, as you are rather low;’ and she actually slipped a tape measure round my waist. I was on thorns, for she hadn’t given us a word of satisfaction about her prices, and I told her we hadn’t made up our minds yet how we would have them made, ‘and, beside,’ says I, ‘we must first know what they are to cost.’ “‘Certainly, ma’am, that’s all very reasonable,’ says she; ‘and I know you wont find fault with my charges—I can perceive at a glance that you are a lady of property; are you certain that you have enough of the material?—ladies of your size require a very full skirt;’ and before I could have said ‘no,’ she had actually gathered up my silk and clipped a nick in it for a breadth of the skirt. “‘I don’t think, ma’am, we have time to wait for the dresses to be cut out,’ says I, ‘we haven’t, neither, got the linings nor the sewing-silk, nor the other trimmings.’ “‘It will take me but a few minutes,’ says she, making another nick in the silk, ‘for I cut by a patent measure; and I always find the trimmings myself—I can then have them to suit me, and, you know, it all amounts to the same thing in the end;’ and she snatched up a piece of Holland from the table, and began measuring off a pair of backs. ‘Stop, if you please, ma’am,’ says I, ‘we’ve made no bargain yet, and it’s nothing but what I have a right to expect, to know what you are to charge me.’ “‘It will be difficult to tell,’ says she, ‘before the dresses are finished—it is not our custom to settle the prices until we have seen how the work is done.’ “‘But, ma’am,’ says I, ‘I insist upon a rough guess.’ “‘Then let me see,’ says she, ‘supposing we say something like five or six dollars each, trimmings included, for the young ladies’ dresses, and four for yours.’