Ordering new clothes

- Good morning. I should like to order a lounge-suit. What have you got in the way of materials? I want something for the autumn, not too heavy and not too light.

- How do you like this pattern, sir?

- It's much too light in colour for the autumn I’d rather have something darker, and a bit heavier.

- What about this then?

- Yes, that's better. How much is it?

- This is an exceptionally good quality cloth, very soft and guaranteed pure wool. A suit of this will cost you twenty-five guineas.

- I'm afraid that's really more than I wanted to pay. I should have liked something cheaper, but still, I expect it's worth it.

- Very good, sir. If you take off your coat, I'll take your measurements... That's all, thank you. Can you call in fortnight for a fitting?

- That'll be a Wednesday, won't it?

- Yes, that'll suit me. I'll call in between two or three.

At the dress shop

- I should like to try on one of these dresses.

- Please come with me to the fitting-room. This is a model gown and quite the latest style.

- I like the style but I don't care for the colour, & it's a bit large too.

- What about this one? We have this model in several sizes & colours, pale green, dark brown, black...

- Let me see the black one in my size. Yes, that's better, but isn't the skirt rather long?

- Yes, we'll shorten that for you an inch or two, & the waist will have to be taken in a little as well, but you can leave all that to us.

Lesson 37

AT THE TOBACCONIST'S

If anybody were to ask me which shop windows I found the most interesting, I should find it very hard to answer. My wife, I know, would be all in favour of the draper's, the milliner's and the jeweller's. My eldest son would be all for the sports shops, with their golf clubs, tennis rackets, cricket bats and footballs.

The children would vote for the toyshops, and as for me, well, I must confess to a weakness for the tobacconist's window.

It's not that I smoke a lot, but there's something fascinating about the nest little piles of different coloured tobaccos, the beautifully polished briar pipes, the attractive boxes of cigars and cigarettes. If you smoke a pipe, you have the choice of dozens of excellent brands of pipe-tobacco; if you like cigars, then you can get them at any price you care to pay; and if you prefer cigarettes, you can buy Virginia, Turkish, or Egyptian, whichever you like. Virginia cigarettes are, of course, those made of American tobacco.

Matches are good and cheap, but people nowadays use a lighter. In the tobacconist's window you'll also find tobacco-pouches and cigarette-cases, holders and all that sort or thing. Many tobacconists are at the same time newsagents, stationers, and booksellers, so that you can buy books, magazines, newspapers, picture postcards, and other stationary, such as writing-pads, notepaper, blotting-paper, envelopes, ink, fountain-pens, pencils and so on. Very often you can buy sweets and chocolates there as well.

Lesson 38