THE MAN OF TWO LIVES. 335 



stairs to set his shop in unaccustomed order, arranged his win- 

 dow after 'a novel fashion, and having^thrown open his door, as- 

 sumed a crouching attitude upon a chair by the side of a window, 

 from the corner of which he was in a situation to watch, unobserved, 

 the issue. Suddenly the opposite door was opened ; a young gentle- 

 man in an apron of snowy whiteness, with a handsome tortoise-shell 

 comb stuck carelessly in a hyacinthine side-lock (could it be Frizzle ?) 

 issued forth, and carefully taking down the shutters placed them in a 

 convenient, newly-painted, green, kind of sentry-box by the side of 

 the door. What a blaze of splendour burst upon the dazzled vision 

 of Singe ! Pyramids of pomatum-pots towered in Egyptian grandeur, 

 forests of hair, combs, and tooth-brushes arose in lateral amphithea- 

 tres, vast glass cases on mahogany shelves filled to overflowing with 

 wash-balls, and smelling-bottles, green, blue, yellow, crimson, all the 

 hues of Iris' woof, reflected the sun's rising beams. But, worst of all, 

 three heads, two male and one female busts, larger, aye, and more 

 natural even than life the perfection of wax-work -stared with ro- 

 mantic ken through the vast windows as though proud (as well they 

 might be) of the curled, stylish, and costly wigs that adorned their se- 

 veral sculls. 



For the first time of his life Singe felt downright sickness at heart. 

 His few and formal hairs, which he invariably plastered to his pate 

 with perfumed unguents, erected themselves singly, as though appeal- 

 ing against this monstrous spectacle, and, as he tottered to a chair in 

 the middle of the shop placed for the reception of customers, a cold 

 perspiration exuded from his brow. But this was no time for supine- 

 ness or despair. Measures must be taken. Could not he vie with 

 this rival in splendour, or, at least, contrive a respectable appearance 

 which should not be disgraced by a comparison with the exhibition 

 of his neighbour? Sallying forth boldly, then, he took in at one 

 ample and searching glance all that he had to contend against, 

 and turning suddenly prepared to make a comparative estimate of 

 his own pretensions. I feel that I cannot describe the sound which 

 at that moment issued from his mouth. It was an amalgamation of 

 hysteria, hiccups, and a cough. What! vie with Frizzle ? Ha! ha! 

 ha ! This provincial pig-sty cut out that metropolitan establishment ! 

 Oh ! he felt it was so impossible ! What a miserable, wretched, nig- 

 gard, nasty hole ! What a common, mean, old-fashioned, rascally 

 shop ! what a hut, or, rather, what a hutch ! What a walking-stick, 

 what a faded wand was that which he had hitherto conceived to be a 

 pole, compared with the variegated mast which Frizzle himself (whom 

 now for the first time he beheld) and his genteel apprentice were 

 assisting to lift into the air, and which in a few minutes hung its 

 golden knob threateningly high above the pin's-head insignificance of 

 his own ! And then, the one wooden block-head, a three-quarter size 

 of humanity, in his own window, and the three paragons, half as large 

 again as actual existence, that ornamented the window of his adver- 

 sary ! He had thought his own even comely before, surmounted as it 

 was by a filthy, dusty, fusty peruke. What a daub was that formerly 

 pleasing production ! What a hideous smirk was that once pleasing- 

 smile upon its timber countenance ! I blush to record the act I blush 



