"You've a pretty waistcoat, that cost you nothing; is that what you want to say ?" Dutocq.

"Nothing, indeed! I never paid so dear for anything in my life.
That stuff cost six francs a yard in the best shop in the rue de la Paix,--a fine dead stuff, the very thing for deep mourning." Bixiou.

"You know about engravings and such things, my dear fellow, but you are totally ignorant of the laws of etiquette.

Well, no man can be a universal genius! Silk is positively not admissible in deep mourning.
Don't you see I am wearing woollen?
Monsieur Rabourdin, Monsieur Baudoyer, and the minister are all in woollen; so is the faubourg Saint-Germain.

There's no one here but Minard who doesn't wear woollen; he's afraid of being taken for a sheep.