Stretton by Henry Kingsley

Roland, assisted by Eddy, rather enjoyed himself for the next a days; nay, I suspect, enjoyed himself very much indeed. C-'s people had the dressing of him; and loving their art, as artists should, gave up their souls to the decoration of the handsomest young officer they had had in hand for a long time. Their trade is one which rises into an art; and they carefully decorated Roland for the feast of vultures.

Nature directed them, I suppose. Game cocks only fight in their grandest plumage. War and marriage must be done in fine clothes, by all accounts. And Roland, kept posturing about before cheval glasses, as his fripperies were tried on, rather wished once or twice that Ethel could have seen him. Thus, one thing suggests the other, and vice versa. One can go no further in one's simile.