indefinable reason he went home that night not quite as well satisfied
with himself.

He was much more concerned the next morning when, after relieving the
doctor for his regular morning visits, he was startled an hour later
by the abrupt return of that gentleman. His face was marked by some
excitement and anxiety, which nevertheless struggled with that sense
of the ludicrous which Californians in those days imported into most
situations of perplexity or catastrophe. Putting his hands deeply into
his trousers pockets, he confronted his youthful partner behind the
counter.

"How much did you charge that French-woman?" he said gravely.

"Twenty-five cents," said Kane timidly.

"Well, I'd give it back and add two hundred and fifty dollars if she had
never entered the shop."

"What's the matter?"

"Her head will be--and a mass of it, in a day, I reckon! Why, man, you
put enough plaster on it to clothe and paper the dome of the Capitol!
You drew her scalp together so that she couldn't shut her eyes without
climbing up the bed-post! You mowed her hair off so that she'll have to
wear a wig for the next two years--and handed it to her in a beau-ti-ful
sealed package! They talk of suing me and killing you out of hand."

"She was bleeding a great deal and looked faint," said the junior
partner; "I thought I ought to stop that."

"And you did--by thunder! Though it might have been better business
for the shop if I'd found her a crumbling ruin here, than lathed and
plastered in this fashion, over there! However," he added, with a laugh,
seeing an angry light in his junior partner's eye, "SHE don't seem to
mind it--the cursing all comes from THEM. SHE rather likes your style
and praises it--that's what gets me! Did you talk to her much," he
added, looking critically at his partner.

"I only told her to sit still or she'd bleed to death," said Kane
curtly.

"Humph!--she jabbered something about your being 'strong' and knowing
just how to handle her. Well, it can't be helped now. I think I came in
time for the worst of it and have drawn their fire. Don't do it again.
The next time a woman with a cut head and long hair tackles you, fill
up her scalp with lint and tannin, and pack her off to some of the big
shops and make THEM pick it out." And with a good-humored nod he started
off to finish his interrupted visits.

With a vague sense of remorse, and yet a consciousness of some injustice
done him, Mr. Kane resumed his occ