ura Chopkins,' who was the daughter of the
ambitious neighbour, 'and tell her what you're going to wear tomorrow,
I know you would. You've no proper pride in yourself, and are not to be
trusted out of sight for an instant.'

Deploring the evil-mindedness of her eldest daughter in these terms, Mrs
Kenwigs distilled fresh drops of vexation from her eyes, and declared
that she did believe there never was anybody so tried as she was.
Thereupon, Morleena Kenwigs wept afresh, and they bemoaned themselves
together.

Matters were at this point, as Newman Noggs was heard to limp past the
door on his way upstairs; when Mrs Kenwigs, gaining new hope from the
sound of his footsteps, hastily removed from her countenance as many
traces of her late emotion as were effaceable on so short a notice: and
presenting herself before him, and representing their dilemma, entreated
that he would escort Morleena to the hairdresser's shop.

'I wouldn't ask you, Mr Noggs,' said Mrs Kenwigs, 'if I didn't know what
a good, kind-hearted creature you are; no, not for worlds. I am a weak
constitution, Mr Noggs, but my spirit would no more let me ask a favour
where I thought there was a chance of its being refused, than it would
let me submit to see my children trampled down and trod upon, by envy
and lowness!'

Newman was too good-natured not to have consented, even without this
avowal of confidence on the part of Mrs Kenwigs. Accordingly, a very few
minutes had elapsed, when he and Miss Morleena were on their way to the
hairdresser's.

It was not exactly a hairdresser's; that is to say, people of a coarse
and vulgar turn of mind might have called it a barber's; for they not
only cut and curled ladies elegantly, and children carefully, but shaved
gentlemen easily. Still, it was a highly genteel establishment--quite
first-rate in fact--and there were displayed in the window, besides
other elegancies, waxen busts of a light lady and a dark gentleman which
were the admiration of the whole neighbourhood. Indeed, some ladies
had gone so far as to assert, that the dark gentleman was actually
a portrait of the spirted young proprietor; and the great similarity
between their head-dresses--both wore very glossy hair, with a narrow
walk straight down the middle, and a profusion of flat circular curls
on both sides--encouraged the idea. The better informed among the sex,
however, made light of this assertion, for however willing they were
(and they were ver