The shop close to me, at which I usually deal, would be shut up, I knew, before I could get to it; so I determined to go into the first place I passed where candles were sold.
This turned out to be a small shop with two counters, which did business on one side in the general grocery way, and on the other in the rag and bottle and old iron line.
There were several customers on the grocery side when I went in, so I waited on the empty rag side till I could be served.

Glancing about me here at the worthless-looking things by which I was surrounded, my eye was caught by a bundle of rags lying on the counter, as if they had just been brought in and left there.

From mere idle curiosity, I looked close at the rags, and saw among them something like an old cravat.

I took it up directly and held it under a gaslight.

The pattern was blurred lilac lines running across and across the dingy black ground in a trellis-work form.