one of
extraordinary politeness--

"Just exactly _how_ would you do my hair, Aunt Maria, if you were in my
place to-day?"

Lady Hayes straightened herself briskly. "I should _brush_ it," she
said emphatically. "It is naturally curly, no doubt, but I cannot
believe that a good brushing would not reduce it to order! I should
damp it and brush it well, and then tie it back so that it would not
hang loose over your shoulders like a mane. It would be pleasant to see
what a difference it would make. A neat head is one of the things which
every young gentlewoman should strive to possess."

Darsie folded her needlework, put it neatly away in her bag, and, rising
from her seat, marched slowly from the room. It was nearing the hour
for tea, when she usually went upstairs to wash and tidy-up generally,
so that there was nothing unusual in her departure; it was only when she
was safe inside her room that the extraordinary nature of to-day's
preparations was revealed.

She took off the lace collar and pretty bead necklace which gave an air
of lightness to her plain dark dress, wrapped a dressing-jacket round
her shoulders, and dipped her head deep into a basin of water. Then
with a comb the _wet_ hair was parted accurately in the centre, and
brushed to the ears till it had the air of being painted rather than
real, so smooth and plastered was the effect. The ends, plaited with
merciless tightness, were looped together with a fragment of a broken
shoelace, so tightly that from the front no sign of their presence could
be suspected. When all was finished and the dressing-jacket thrown
aside the effect was positively startling to behold. It did not seem
possible to believe that this prim, demure damsel could be the same
brilliant-looking creature who had entered the room but ten minutes
before, and Darsie herself was half-shocked, half-triumphant at the
completeness of the transformation.

"'Spose I had a fever and lost my hair! How simply awful!" she said to
herself in terror. "If they could see me at home, they'd never call me
pretty again. I think even Aunt Maria will jump!"

She skipped with delight at the possibility, and the gesture seemed so
singularly out of keeping with her appearance that she laughed again,
restored to good temper by the delightful experience of taking part in a
prank once more.

Ten minutes later, accurately at the moment when the tea equipage would
be in course of arrangement in the dr