My young salesman, Danny Kon, assured me that both their men's and ladies' tailors (about 20 of the former and 25 of the latter) did fine work.

"Drive this baby," the salesman assures them, "and most of the rules of the road won't apply to you."

"The salesman assured me they would stop a charging rhino... a very large animal," she added, seeing his look of puzzlement.

"Not at all," the salesman assured them.

"You'll like them better than the silver ones once you see them," the salesman in Central Valley, N.Y., assured me.

The salesman assured him that I.B.M. could devise a computerized solution, and Smith committed $40 million to develop the system.

"The salesman assures me that this will drop the charging rhino," she said.

He wore a pale blue suit, a pink-and-blue plaid shirt with silver-rimmed snaps, and high-heeled boots that the salesman had assured him looked exactly like real leather.

The salesman, she said, assured her that she could try the device at no charge by writing a check for it that would not be cashed for two weeks.

The expert and encouraging salesman assured me that I, too, could fish tiny flies with success.