She jumped out of bed and examined herself critically in the
toilet-glass; tried to picture the effect of fairness. It would be a
change, anyhow it would be something to vary the monotony of existence.
It would be interesting to learn if her new appearance provoked
admiration greater than ever. It would be interesting to see if the
change impressed the authorities of the Orient. Best of all, perhaps,
would be the exclamations of surprise when the dressing-room first
beheld the alteration.

Having conceived the plan, she began to hate her present appearance, to
ascribe to her present shade all the boredom that was clinging round her
like a fog. Her own hair, paradoxically enough, came to be considered an
unnatural color. After all, she was really fair, and had been cheated of
her natural hue merely by the freak of time. It was not as if she were
truly dark. She could herself remember the glories of her complexion
before they paled in the gloomy airs of the Orient. For a moment,
however, the birth of artifice dismayed her. She wondered if, in
addition to going fair, she would also go magenta, like some of the
girls who always made up. Again the phantom of age laughed over her
shoulder; but the contemplation of futurity was fleeting, and she
decided that if she was going fair, the sooner she went the better it
would be; if she waited till thirty the world might laugh with reason.
She would chance it. Jenny appropriated a bottle of the management's
peroxide that very night, and excited by the prospect of entertainment,
came home immediately after the performance, alarming Mrs. Raeburn so
much by her arrival that the latter exclaimed:

"You _are_ early. Is anything the matter?"

"Anything the matter? Whatever should be the matter?"

"Well, it's only a quarter to twelve."

"Who cares?"

"Don't say that to me."

"I shall say _what_ I like, and I'm going to bed."

May, however, was wide awake when Jenny reached their room; so the deed
had to be postponed. May, elated by her sister's unaccustomed earliness,
chattered profusely, and it was two o'clock in the morning before she
fell asleep. Then Jenny crept out of bed and by the faintest glimmer of
gaslight achieved the transformation.

She woke up in the morning to May's cries of disgust.

"Oh, you sight! Whatever have you done?"

"_Don't_ make such a shocking noise. I've gone fair."

"Gone fair!" exclaimed her sister. "Gone white, you mean. Get up and
look at you