Then he proceeded to make his toilet,--an operation rarely
graceful or picturesque in our sex, and an insult to the spectator when
obesity is superadded. When he had put on a clean shirt, of which there
was grossly too much, and added a white waistcoat, that seemed to accent
his rotundity, he completed his attire with a black frock coat of the
latest style, and surveyed himself complacently before a mirror. It is
to be recorded that, however satisfactory the result might have been to
Mr. Gashwiler, it was not so to the disinterested spectator. There are
some men on whom "that deformed thief, Fashion," avenges himself by
making their clothes appear perennially new. The gloss of the tailor's
iron never disappears; the creases of the shelf perpetually rise in
judgment against the wearer. Novelty was the general suggestion of Mr.
Gashwiler's full-dress,--it was never his HABITUDE;--and "Our own
Make," "Nobby," and the "Latest Style, only $15," was as patent on the
legislator's broad back as if it still retained the shop-man's ticket.
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