e wound
together with the strip of plaster and stop the bleeding--if he cropped
the whole head. His excessive caution for her physical condition did
not extend to her superficial adornment. Her yellow tresses lay on the
floor, her neck and shoulders were saturated with water from the sponge
which he continually applied, until the heated strips of plaster had
closed the wound almost hermetically. She whimpered, tears ran down her
cheeks; but so long as it was not blood the young man was satisfied.

In the midst of it he heard the shop door open, and presently the sound
of rapping on the counter. Another customer!

Mr. Kane called out, "Wait a moment," and continued his ministrations.
After a pause the rapping recommenced. Kane was just securing the last
strip of plaster and preserved a preoccupied silence. Then the door flew
open abruptly and a figure appeared impatiently on the threshold. It was
that of a miner recently returned from the gold diggings--so recently
that he evidently had not had time to change his clothes at his adjacent
hotel, and stood there in his high boots, duck trousers, and flannel
shirt, over which his coat was slung like a hussar's jacket from his
shoulder. Kane would have uttered an indignant protest at the intrusion,
had not the intruder himself as quickly recoiled with an astonishment
and contrition that was beyond the effect of any reproval. He literally
gasped at the spectacle before him. A handsomely dressed woman reclining
in a chair; lace and jewelry and ribbons depending from her saturated
shoulders; tresses of golden hair filling her lap and lying on the
floor; a pail of ruddy water and a sponge at her feet, and a pale
young man bending over her head with a spirit lamp and strips of yellow
plaster!

"'Scuse me, pard! I was just dropping in; don't you hurry! I kin wait,"
he stammered, falling back, and then the door closed abruptly behind
him.

Kane gathered up the shorn locks, wiped the face and neck of his patient
with a clean towel and his own handkerchief, threw her gorgeous opera
cloak over her shoulders, and assisted her to rise. She did so, weakly
but obediently; she was evidently stunned and cowed in some mysterious
way by his material attitude, perhaps, or her sudden realization of her
position; at least the contrast between her aggressive entrance into
the shop and her subdued preparation for her departure was so remarkable
that it affected even Kane's preoccupation.

"Th