snapped his fingers, and exclaimed to the tailor, who, with the valet, was standing beside him, "Curse me if I like this thing at all!" "Not like it, sir!" exclaimed Mr. Clipclose, with astonishment. "No, I don't, demme! Is _this_ a court dress? It's a quaker's made into a footman's! 'Pon my soul, I look the exact image of a footman; and a devilish vulgar one too!" The two individuals beside him turned suddenly away--looking in different directions--and from their noses there issued the sounds of ill-suppressed laughter. "Oh, sir--I beg a thousand pardons!"--quickly exclaimed Mr. Clipclose, "what can I have been thinking about? There's the sword--we've quite forgot it!" "Ah--'pon my life, I thought there was _something_ wrong!" quoth Titmouse, as Mr. Clipclose, having brought the sword from the table at the other end of the room, where he had laid it upon entering, buckled it upon his distinguished customer. "I flatter myself that _now_, sir"--commenced he. "Ya--as--Quite the correct thing! 'Pon my soul--must say--most uncommon striking!"--exclaimed Titmouse, glancing at his figure in the glass, with a triumphant smile. "Isn't it odd, now, that this sword should make all the difference between me and a footman, by Jove?" Here his two companions were seized with a simultaneous fit of coughing. "Ah, ha--it's _so_, a'n't it?" continued Titmouse, his eyes glued to the glass. "Certainly, sir," replied Mr. Clipclose, "it undoubtedly gives--what shall I call it? a grace--a finish--a sort of commanding appearance--especially to a figure that becomes it"--he continued with cool assurance, observing that the valet understood him. "But--may I, sir, take so great a liberty? If you are not accustomed to wear a sword--as I think you said you had not been at court before--I beg to remind you that it will require particular care to manage it, and prevent it from getting between"---- "Demme, sir!" exclaimed Titmouse, turning round with an offended air--"d'ye think I don't know how to manage a sword? By all that's tremendous"--and plucking the taper weapon out of its scabbard, he waved it over his head; and throwing himself into the first position--he had latterly paid a good deal of attention to fencing--with rather an excited air, he went through several of the preliminary movements. 'Twas a subject for a painter, and exhibited a very striking spectacle--as an instance of power silently concentrated, and ready to be put forth upon an adequate occasion. The tailor and the valet, who stood separate from each other, and at a safe and respectful distance from Mr. Titmouse, gazed at him with silent admiration.