"James White - Custom Fitting" - читать интересную книгу автора (White James)

professional challenge, as you can see."

"Yes, indeed," said the interviewer.

"No doubt there will be other challenges," Scrennagle went on, turning his face directly into camera, but
Hewlitt knew that he was not speaking solely to the interviewer. "My race was chosen to make first
contact with Earth-humans simply because my people most closely resembled yoursтАФdespite what you
must think are major physiological differences. Other races in the Federation have much more varied and
interestingly arranged limbs and appendages; and to the uninitiated they may even appear to be quite
horrendous. But ambassadors from all these species in time will visit Earth to present their credentials and
their good wishes. And they will all require to be suitably attired for the occasion. They will be very
pleased and reassured to know," he ended, "that there is an Earth-human tailor in whom they can place
their complete trust...

The intense feelings of pride and excitement which should have kept him awake that night, but did not,
were with him in undiminished intensity when he opened the shop next morning. His reflection in the store
window opposite looked the same as always, but something different about the reflected picture made
him turn around quickly.

The new door pane was not quite the same as the old one. It now read GEORGE L. HEWLITT,
TAILOR, centered above a beautifully executed copy of the design which appeared on Scrennagle's
translatorтАФthe symbol which represented all the worlds of the Galactic FederationтАФfollowed by the
words BY APPOINTMENT.