two o'clock on
Sunday
They had begun by getting their stage-costumes at Lynn 's , and he had induced many of them to get their other clothes there as well . `` As good as Paquin and half the price , '' he said . He had a persuasive , hail-fellow well-met air with him which appealed to customers of this sort , and they said to one another : `` What 's the good of throwing money away when you can get a coat and skirt at Lynn 's that nobody knows do n't come from Paris ? '' Mr. Sampson was very proud of his friendship with the popular favourites whose frocks he made , and when he went out to dinner at two o'clock on Sunday with Miss Victoria Virgo -- `` she was wearing that powder blue we made her and I lay she did n't let on it come from us , I ` ad to tell her meself that if I ` ad n't designed it with my own ` ands I 'd have said it must come from Paquin '' -- at her beautiful house in Tulse Hill , he regaled the department next day with abundant details . Philip had never paid much attention to women 's clothes , but in course of time he began , a little amused at himself , to take a technical interest in them . He had an eye for colour which was more highly trained than that of anyone in the department , and he had kept from his student days in Paris some knowledge of line . Mr. Sampson , an ignorant man conscious of his incompetence , but with a shrewdness that enabled him to combine other people 's suggestions , constantly asked the opinion of the assistants in his department in making up new designs ; and he had the quickness to see that Philip 's criticisms were valuable .