reddest possible description, were now possessed of
raven-hued locks"--that he threw down the paper, and hurriedly got the
cork out of the bottle. Having turned up his coat-cuffs, he commenced
the application of the Cyanochaitanthropopoion, rubbing it into his
hair, eyebrows, and whiskers, with all the energy he was capable of, for
upwards of half an hour. Then he read over again every syllable on the
papers in which the bottle had been wrapped; and about eleven o'clock,
having given sundry curious glances at the glass, got into bed, full of
exciting hopes and delightful anxieties concerning the success of the
great experiment he was trying. He could not sleep for several hours. He
dreamed a rapturous dream--that he bowed to a gentleman with coal-black
hair, whom he fancied he had seen before--and suddenly discovered that
he was only looking at _himself_ in a glass!!--This awoke him. Up he
jumped--sprang to his little glass breathlessly--but ah! merciful
Heavens! he almost dropped down dead! His hair was perfectly
_green_--there could be no mistake about it. He stood staring in the
glass in speechless horror, his eyes and mouth distended to their
utmost, for several minutes. Then he threw himself on the bed, and felt
fainting. Out he presently jumped again, in a kind of ecstasy--rubbed
his hair desperately and wildly about--again looked into the
glass--there it was, rougher than before; but eyebrows, whiskers, and
head--all were, if anything, of a more vivid and brilliant green.
Despair came over him. What had all his past troubles been to
this?--what was to become of him? He got into bed again, and burst into
a perspiration. Two or three times he got into and out of bed, to look
at himself--on each occasion deriving only more terrible confirmation
than before, of the disaster which had befallen him. After lying still
for some minutes, he got out of bed, and kneeling down, tried to say his
prayers; but it was in vain--and he rose half choked. It was plain he
must have his head shaved, and wear a wig, which would be making an old
man of him at once. Getting more and more disturbed in his mind, he
dressed himself, half determined on starting off to Bond Street, and
breaking every pane of glass in the shop window of the infernal impostor
who had sold him the liquid which had so frightfully disfigured him. As
he stood thus irresolute, he heard the step of Mrs. Squallop approaching
his door, and recollected that he had ordered