"Why do you wear these ugly gloves ?" he said to another, "never let me see you in gloves of that colour again." She was a very grand lady, but she slipped off her gloves, and put them in her pocket with a guilty look.

When there was going to be a ball at Court, ladies used to go down on their knees to him to make them beautiful.

For some time he declined to dress any longer the wife of a great Imperial dignitary who had not been sufficiently humble towards him; she came to him in tears, but he was obdurate, and he only consented at last to make a gown for her on condition that she would put it on for the first time in his shop.

The Empress, who dealt with him, sent to tell him that if he did not abate his prices she would leave him.

"You cannot," he replied, and in fact she could not, for she stood by him to the last.