Will you
consent to instruct the acrobat who is performing with a whip, and to
take a seat in the English hansom beside me?"
"Monsieur," responded the pretty girl graciously, "I shall be charmed;"
and, romantic as the incident appears, the next minute they were
driving along Victoria Street together.
"The good kind fairies have certainly taken me under their wings,"
declared Tricotrin, as he admired his companion's profile. "It was
worth enduring the pangs of exile, to meet with such kindness as you
have shown me."
"I am afraid you will speedily pronounce the fairies fickle," said she,
"for our drive will soon be over, and you will find Soho no fairyland."
"How comes it that your place of residence is so unsuitable to you,
mademoiselle?"
"I lodge in the neighbourhood of the coiffeur's where I am employed,
monsieur--where I handle the tails and transformations. Our specialty
is artificial eyelashes; the attachment is quite invisible--and the
result absolutely ravishing! No," she added hurriedly; "I am not
wearing a pair myself, these are quite natural, word of honour! But we
undertake to impart to any eyes the gaze soulful, or the twinkle
coquettish, as the customer desires--as an artist, I assure you that
these expressions are due, less to the eyes themselves than to the
shade, and especially the curve, of the lashes. Many a woman has
entered our saloon entirely insignificant, and turned the heads of all
the men in the street when she left.
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