The maker was delighted to be able to suit me, and smiled most graciously when I paid him my five shillings and walked out of the shop with my junior exhibitioner's "boiler" on my head.
I set down to envy or ignorance the jeers of the village youths who encountered me on my way home.

Some people will laugh at anything they do not understand.

My mother's protests, when she saw me, however, were not so easy to dispose of.
"Why, Tommy, it makes you look like a common cheap-jack," said she.
"It's not a gentleman's hat at all.

I'm sure they would not tolerate it at Low Heath." "On the contrary," said I, "it's the form there.

You might say the same of mortar boards or blue-coat dresses.