Customer: You made this dress tighter than my skin.

She had become so gray, gray like her old companion; she was covered in ash-there was ash in the folds of her dress, in her hair, in all the wrinkles of her old skin.

Her skin was a rich black that would have peeled like a plum if snagged, but then no one would have thought of getting close enough to Mrs. Flowers to ruffle her dress, let alone snag her skin.