Soldiers, too, used to wear them in their caps, but _they_ have given up doing so. It is only the frozen-hearted women who are killing the poor White Egrets now--but ah, there are so many of them (the women I mean, not the Egrets). I have sat at the entrance of a large concert-hall, and counted the faces that had these lovely egret-plumes--these beautiful, fashionable "ospreys," so white and yet so blood-stained--nodding above them--counted them as they came in and as they went out, young faces, old faces, soft faces, hard faces, shrivelled faces, puckered faces, painted faces, plain faces, ugly faces, quite dreadful faces--ah, what numbers of them there were! It was quite difficult to count them all. Every now and again there would be a pretty face, and I used to count _those_ separately--one--two--three--four--five--sometimes up to half-a-dozen. That was not so tiring, but, you see, I had to count them all. Oh, wise but wicked little demon, who blew his bad powders into the hearts of _all_ the women! There were two kinds, you know, and one of them was "Vanity." Now if it had been a man--however wicked a one--I feel sure that he would have looked about for the women with the _pretty_ faces, and who were rather young, to blow _that_ powder into. But the little demon was wiser, in his own wicked way. He did not go about, looking and looking. He blew it into _all_ their hearts, and that gave him no trouble at all. Now, I must tell you that there are two different kinds of White Egrets, with these beautiful feathers that the women with the frozen hearts wear. One is much larger than the other, and is called the Great White Egret. He is quite a big bird, larger even than our common heron--and you know what a big bird _he_ is. The other one, which is called the Small White Egret, is not more than half the size of the great one, but his feathers are the most beautiful, so that, though he has not nearly so many of them, he is worth nearly twice as much money. That means, of course, that the servants of the wicked little demon, who shoot him and sell his feathers, can get nearly twice as much money for them as they can for the feathers of the other one. So, of course, they like shooting him best, but they are very glad to shoot the other one--the Great White Egret--too, for even _his_ feathers are worth a good deal. Now, if the wicked little demon had not frozen the hearts of women, they would never want to wear feathers that cost the lives of the poor birds to whom they belong--because, you know, women are, _really_, so kind. Then, of course, those feathers that are so beautiful would not be worth anything (as it is called), and so men would not shoot the White Egrets, because they would not be able to sell their feathers. I am afraid they would have no better reason for not doing so than that, because men, you know, are not kind and pitiful--as women are, if only their hearts are not frozen. But, at any rate, the White Egrets would be left alive.