he has rushed into the room and insisted on
my trying on a chignon. He takes me from
my tea to practise the double roll upon me.
When I am ready dressed to go to the play,
he pulls my hair down to try a new form of
bandeau. At all hours of the day and night
I am liable to be curled, and frizzed, and
plaited, and powdered. In sickness and in health,
in joy and in sorrow, I must yield my head to his
ruthless but skilful hands. I know no rest.
For months I have slept with my eyes open."

"With your eyes open, maiden?"

"With my eyes open. It was the
consequence of having my hair done à l'Impératrice.
It was pulled back so tightly that I could not
shut them. It was not until the négligé
friz came up that the muscles relaxed. Ah,
sir, you know not what I have suffered—what I
have sacrificed!"

"Sacrificed, maiden?"

"Yes, sacrificed. My heart, my love, my life.
Listen. A young man, handsome, elegant,
accomplished, from Truefitt's, was in the act of
offering me his hand and heart, when my father
entered the room, and, though that elegant
young man was on his knees before me, insisted
upon my going down into the shop and having
my hair done with blue bugles. When I
returned to the apartment, the young man had
fled."

"But he came again, of course?"

"Alas! he did not—he married another."

"Every great cause, maiden, has its martyrs,"
I said, by way of consolation.

"And I," she replied, "am a martyr in the
great and, I trust, good cause of the
Hairdressers' Academy."

         OUR CARRIAGE-HORSES.

WHEN the carriage is launched, the next
step is to horse it properly, and provide the
harness and coachman, on which the completeness
of the turn-out will depend.

But, before driving away, there is one important
point that has been altogether omitted, and
that is the best way of paying for Our carriages.*
There are three well-accepted ways of dealing
with a coach-builder. You may buy out and
out; you may purchase by three equal annual
instalments; or you may hire for a certain term,
generally three years, with the privilege of
having a new carriage at the end of the term;
you may also, of course, hire by the month or
year. In hiring, or as it is commonly called
jobbing a carriage, the builder is liable for all
repairs except accidents; hence the reason that
the system has grown in favour in London and
many large towns.

* See page 11 of the present volume.

For those who live near a coach-builder, who
have an expensive carriage like a brougham-
barouche, a sociable, or chariot in constant use, to
whom appearance is of importance, who have no
time to look into details, and would not understand
them if they did, there is no arrangement so
comfortable as a first-class "job." A carriage, if
not the same carriage, is always at command, it is
fresh and in the fashion, and the annoyance of
annual coach-builder's bill of incomprehensible
items, and an amount settled by the conscience
of your coachman, is altogether avoided. Fashionable
physicians and ladies of fortune are good
specimens of the classes to whom the system is
invaluable. The one is protected from trouble
and uncertain expense, and the other from
certain imposition. It is not unfrequent for
those who keep only one carriage to arrange to
have a close one in winter, and an open one in
the summer months.

The prices for jobbing vary according to the
customer and the carriage, but broughams may
be had at from thirty to fifty pounds a year.

The division of price into three annual
payments is in part a system of credit which was
brought into extensive practice by the late
eccentric Dick Andrews (the friend of the P. and O.,
the virtual founder of Southampton Docks), for
the benefit of country gentlemen with incomes,
and without ready money to spare. He applied
the system to all sorts ot conveyances, from the
smallest pony carriage to the most expensive
one. The seller on this system limits the credit
he gives; the purchaser has only to take care
that what he buys is intended to last, and not
tacked together for three years' wear. For those
who can keep in check the coachman's propensity
for running to the coachmaker whenever a screw
is loose, who have a dry, well-ventilated, weather-
tight coach–house within reach of frequent
inspection, and who only require a carriage for
pleasure purposes, or, which comes to the same
thing, are not expected to appear in the height
of polish, varnish, bloom, and fashion, the
cheapest plan is to purchase for cash the work
of a conscientious builder—and these are to be
found in town and country—men who not only
put a carriage together with first-rate wood and
ironwork, but spare time for seasoning, and give
quality in paint and varnish.

The wear and tear of a well-built brougham or
family carriage, if properly taken care of, is, with
the exception of the wneels, practically
unlimited; and one which is regularly used and
regularly cleaned will wear longer than one shut
up for months in a close coach-house.

Mr. Starey, of Nottingham, has published a
framed set of instructions for the care of a
carriage, which should be hung up in every
coachman's room.

To horse suitably is much more difficult than
to buy a carriage, because horses cannot be made
to order. The first point is to know what you
want. Suppose it is a brougham promised to
be ready in the course of two months. Your
first brougham! Is it to be ornamental, or
useful, or both? Does a lady only require it to
take her into the Park, on a round of visits
every afternoon in the season, and through a
course of shopping? or is it to be a family
vehicle to hold all the children, and crawl out on
constitutionals as a sort of nursery on wheels?