!" he cried. "The room will be covered with
feathers, and then you will say it was my fault! We shall have to
fasten the stupid thing up somehow or other!" He peered through the
opening as he spoke, and his face changed. "It's not feathers--it's
horsehair! Here's a find! What about that wig for Shylock?"

Esther was dubious.

"It would take a great deal of horsehair to make a wig. It would spoil
the cushion if the horsehair were taken away; it would spoil the sofa if
the cushion were small; it would spoil the room if the sofa--"

Peggy interrupted with a shriek of laughter. "Oh, oh, oh! It's like
the `House that Jack built'! How long do you intend to go on like that?
Nonsense, my dear! It would be perfectly easy to take out what we
want, and put it back afterwards. I'll promise to do it myself and sew
it up tightly, though, if you desire my opinion, I think the cushion
would be improved by letting in a little air. You might as well lean
your head on a brick. Max, you are a made man! You shall have a
beautiful, crinkly black wig, and a beard to match! We will sew them to
your turban, and fasten them with black elastic. It will never show,
and I'll finish off the joins after you are dressed. You'll see?"

"You can do as you like! I'm in your hands!" said Max easily; and when
the night of the reading arrived, and he was attired in wig and gown,
Peggy seated him in a chair and tucked a towel under his chin with an
air of business. She had a number of small accessories on a table near
at hand, and Max was first instructed to stick pieces of black plaster
over alternate teeth, so that he might appear to possess only a few
isolated fangs, and then made to lie back in his chair, while his
dresser stood over him with a glue-brush in one hand and a bunch of
loose horsehair in the other.

"Shut your eyes!" she cried loudly. And before he could say "Jack
Robinson" a tuft of the wiry stuff covered his eyebrow. "Keep your face
still!" And, to his horror, the gum was daubed from the borders of the
beard, halfway up to his eyes, and little prickly ends of hair were held
in Peggy's palm and pressed against his cheeks until they were firmly
attached.

This, indeed, was more than he had bargained for! He jerked back his
head, and began a loud-voiced protest, only to be interrupted by shrieks
of excitement.

"Oh, oh, oh! It's beautiful--beautiful! What a fright! What a
delicious fright! No one would know