e
more to attempt the arrangement, which repeated failures had declared
to be an impossibility. He looked up, however, as he did so, and
seemed to read the expression of her features, for a comic mixture of
astonishment and dismay immediately overspread his own.

'Fifteen years,' he exclaimed, 'I have had the honour of daily
attending mademoiselle, and she never was angry with me before! What
can I have done to offend her?'

'Oh, nothing very serious,' replied the young girl, good-naturedly;
'but really I wish you would not dally so long. It is of very little
consequence, I think, how one's hair is worn.'

'Why, certainly every style is equally becoming to mademoiselle,' was
the old man's polite reply. 'Nevertheless, I had set my heart upon
arranging it to-day according to the last fashion: it would suit
mademoiselle _a ravir_.' Adelaide laughed.

'But you see it is impossible,' she said. 'I have so very little hair;
and I am sure it is not my fault--nor,' she added archly, 'the fault
of all those infallible pomades and essences recommended to me by
somebody I know.' M. Lagnier looked embarrassed.

'Mademoiselle is so gay, she finds amusement in everything,' he
replied. '_I_ cannot laugh upon so serious a subject.' Adelaide
laughed again more heartily than before, and M. Lagnier continued,
indignantly: 'Mademoiselle does not care for the loss of her beauty,
then?'

'Oh, I did not know there was any question of that!' and the young
girl suddenly resumed an expression of gravity, which completely
imposed upon the simple old man.

'You see, mademoiselle,' he continued earnestly, 'I have been
considering a long time what is best to be done. It is evident that my
pomades, usually so successful, have no effect upon _your_ hair;
owing, I suppose, to--to---- I can't say exactly what it is owing to.
It is very strange. I never knew them to fail before. Would
mademoiselle object to wearing a slight addition of false hair?' he
asked anxiously, after a moment's pause.

'Indeed, I should not like it,' was the reply. 'Besides, Monsieur
Lagnier, you have often told me that, in all Paris, it was impossible
to obtain any of the same shade as mine.'

'Ah, but I have succeeded at last!' exclaimed he; and as he spoke, he
drew triumphantly from his pocket a small packet, in which was
carefully enveloped a long lock of soft golden hair.

'How beautiful!' Adelaide involuntarily exclaimed. 'Oh, Monsieur
Lagnier, that is far finer