xplains the whole thing!" Titmouse listened with infinite
satisfaction to this unanswerable and truly philosophical account of the
matter.

"Remember, sir--my hair is to come like yours--eh? you recollect, sir?
Honor--that was the bargain, you know!"

"I have very little doubt of it, sir--nay, I am certain of it, knowing
it by experience."

[The scamp had been hired expressly for the purpose of lying thus in
support of the Cyanochaitanthropopoion; his own hair being a _natural_
black.]

"I'm going to a grand dinner to-morrow, sir," said Titmouse, "with some
devilish great people at the west end of the town--eh? you understand?
will it do by that time? Would give a trifle to get my hair a shade
darker by that time--for--hem!--most lovely gal--eh? you understand the
thing?--devilish anxious, and all that sort of thing, you know!"

"Yes--I do," replied the gentleman of the shop, in a confidential tone;
and opening one of the glass doors behind him, took out a bottle
considerably larger than the first, and handed it to Titmouse. "This,"
said he, "will complete the thing; it combines chemically with the
purple particles, and the result is--generally arrived at in about two
days' time"----

"But it will do _something_ in a night's time--eh!--surely."

"I should think so! But here it is--it is called the TETARAGMENON
ABRACADABRA."

"What a name!" exclaimed Titmouse, with a kind of awe. "'Pon honor, it
almost takes one's breath away"----

"It will do more, sir; it will take your red hair away! By the way, only
the day before yesterday, a lady of high rank, (between ourselves, Lady
Caroline Carrot,) whose red hair always seemed as if it would have set
her bonnet in a blaze--ha, ha!--came here, after two days' use of the
Cyanochaitanthropopoion, and one day's use of this Tetaragmenon
Abracadabra--and asked me if I knew her. Upon my soul I did not, till
she solemnly assured me she was really Lady Caroline!"

"_How_ much is it?" eagerly inquired Titmouse, thrusting his hand into
his pocket, with no little excitement.

"Only nine-and-sixpence."

"Oh, my stars, what a price! Nine-and-six"----

"Ah, but would you have believed it, sir? This extraordinary fluid cost
a great German chemist his whole life to bring to perfection; and it
contains expensive materials from all the four corners of the world!
It's ruined the proprietor long ago!"

"That may be--but really--I've laid out a large figure with you, sir,
this day