"Would you?"

"Yes, or jump into the river. Do any thing, in fact, before I'd
marry a tailor."

"Perhaps you would not object to a merchant tailor?"

"Perhaps I would, though! A tailor's a tailor, and that is all you
can make of him. 'Merchant tailor!' Why not say merchant shoemaker,
or merchant boot-black? Isn't it ridiculous?"

"Ah well, Kate," said Aunt Prudence, "you may be thankful if you get
an honest, industrious, kind-hearted man for a husband, be he a
tailor or a shoemaker. I've seen many a heart-broken wife in my day
whose husband was not a tailor. It isn't in the calling, child, that
you must look for honour or excellence, but in the man. As Burns
says--'The man's the goud for a' that.'"

"But a _man_ wouldn't stoop to be a tailor."

"You talk like a thoughtless, silly girl, as you are, Kate. But time
will take all this nonsense out of you, or I am very much mistaken.
I could tell you a story about marrying a tailor, that would
surprise you a little."

"I should like, above all things in the world, to hear a story of
any interest, in which a tailor was introduced."

"I think I could tell you one."