334 THE MAN OF TWO LIVES. 



fortune at the door of the more fortunate barber. Grim the farrier 

 doubted, 



" The while his iron did on the anvil cool," 



whether he did not shoe less horses in consequence of Singe. Rusk 

 the baker thought it odd and hard too that Samuel should be shaving 

 while he was drawing his rolls. Spigot merely and inwardly cursed 

 his temperate habits; while Grigg the grocer (he did not know why 

 it was, but it was so) " could not bear that fellow." 



These were, it is true, " trifles light as air," but fate had now 

 realities heavy as lead in store for him. Rumours had taken wind 

 tending to the belief that his pomatum was not irreproachable, and 

 whispers of hog's lard and tallow-grease gained daily ground. Dark 

 and cloudy insinuations of brick-dust hung loweringly over the re- 

 putation of his dentifrice, while his shop was decided to contain no 

 choice of articles, because upon one occasion he could not supply a 

 corpulent customer with a tooth-brush as large as the brush of a chim- 

 ney-sweep. 



Well, these things' must be borne. It was the common fate of 

 merit to be depreciated, and while he scented these injurious false- 

 hoods he could not trace them. Like the source of the Nile, they 

 were hidden ; like the Nile itself they contained crocodile calumnies 

 that threatened to destroy him. But the worst was to come, just 

 at a time when envious hostility had, as he fondly thought, spent its 

 last arrow. There was a house (it had been recently let) immedi- 

 ately opposite directly opposite fatally ^opposite the barber's dwell- 

 ing. Crook the carpenter, " a hot friend cooling," was engaged to put 

 in a new shop- front of most imposing dimensions, of magnificent sweep, 

 and of circular range. Adder the house-painter, no friend at all, but 

 a foe of no ordinary calibre, was employed to beautify the exterior. 

 The carpenter having completed, the house-painter was summoned ; 

 and now came Adder and ladder, paint-pots, brushes, easel, pallet, 

 and guiding-stick, and in a few short hours, in large, fanciful, golden, 

 legible characters, " Frizzle, Hairdresser and Perfumer, from Oxford 

 Street, London," met or rather intruded itself upon the eye of 

 Singe. 



Here was a blow that might have staggered a Stoic. But Samuel 

 was not one of the desponding genus. Indomitable energy had raised 

 him to his present position, and the same power must keep him there. 

 But who was Frizzle ? Whence came he ? From Oxford Street, Lon- 

 don that was a crushing circumstance ; but Singe knew full well 

 that he of barbers was the most expert, that in the use and mastery 

 of his weapons, whether for ease, or dexterity, or expedition, the 

 country could not find his parallel. The work of Lightly himself, 

 his former master, was acknowledged on all chins a decided failure 

 in comparison with his ; Singe, therefore, maintained a serene dig- 

 nity all that day, giving and receiving civilities with perfect grace 

 and the most winning freedom. 



On the following morning the shutters of the rival establishment 

 were to be taken down business was to be commenced the tug of 

 war was to begin. The shutters of Singe's eyes were raised long 

 ere rustic could " help Hyperion to his horse," and, hastening down- 



