One thing, however, he must have, and that was clothes, for in his haste he had come away with a gripsack and nothing more.

Sir Tancred suggested that Tinker, who knew his Nice, should take him over there, and put him in the hands of the right tailor, hatter, hosier, and bootmaker; and Septimus Rainer accepted the offer gratefully.
Accordingly the two of them caught a train early in the afternoon, and went to Nice.

Septimus Rainer had supposed the getting of clothes to be a simple and tiresome affair of a few minutes; you went to a tailor and said, "Make me suits of clothes," or to a bootmaker and said, "Make me pairs of boots." He was vastly mistaken.

He found himself embarked upon a serious business.
He awoke to the seriousness of it in the train, when he found Tinker, who had taken his commission to heart, regarding him with a cold, calculating air, very disquieting.

He endured it as long as he could, then he said cautiously, "You aren't measuring me for my coffin; are you, sonny ?" "Oh, no!" said Tinker with a reassuring smile of a seraphic sweetness.
"I was only thinking how you ought to be dressed." "Oh, anything will do for me," said Septimus Rainer carelessly.
"I'm afraid not; you see I'm responsible," said Tinker seriously.