Devlin the BarberFarjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
Devlin the Barber
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Detective and mystery stories; English fiction -- 19th century
Scarcely had a minute passed before a customer entered. Devlin, who,
while he was arguing with me, had taken off his coat, and put on a
linen jacket of spotless white, behaved most decorously. His manner
was deferential without being subservient, respectful without being
familiar. The man was shaved by Devlin, and then his head was brushed
by machinery, which I had forgotten to mention was fixed in the shop.
There was a caressing motion about Devlin's shapely hands which could
not but be agreeable to those who sought his tonsorial aid, and his
conversation, judging from the expression on his customer's face, must
have been amusing and entertaining. The customer took his departure,
and another, appearing as he went out, was duly attended to. This went
on until eleven o'clock by my watch, and nothing had occurred of
especial interest to me. Devlin was kept pretty busy; but, although
his time was fully employed, the business at such prices could not
have been remunerative, especially when it was considered that the
fitting up of the shop must have cost a pretty sum of money, and that
the profits of the concern had to be divided between two persons, Mr.
Lemon and himself. It was not till past eleven that my attention was
more than ordinarily attracted by Devlin's behaviour, the difference
in which perhaps no one except myself would have particularly noticed.
A man of the middle class entered and took his seat. He wore a beard
and moustache; and although I could not hear what he said, he spoke in
so low a tone, I judged correctly that he instructed Devlin to shave
his face bare. Devlin proceeded to obey him, and clipped and cut, and
finally applied his razor until not a vestige of hair was left on the
man's face. That being done, Devlin cut this customer's hair close,
and then used his brushes; and as his hands moved about the man's head
there was, if I may so describe it, a feline, insinuating expression
in them which aroused my curiosity. I thought of the singular dream I
have described, and it appeared to me that all the while Devlin was
employed over his customer the brains of the man sitting so quietly in
the chair were figuratively exposed to his view, and that he was
reading the thoughts which stirred therein. When the man was gone
there was a peculiar smile upon Devlin's face, and I observed that he
laughed quietly to himself. There happened to be no one in the shop to
claim Devlin's attention, and I, who was impatiently waiting for some
sign from Devlin pertinent to the secret purpose to which both he and
I were pledged, expected it to be given now; for the circumstance of
the man having been shaved bare--which so altered his appearance that
I should not otherwise have known that the person who entered the shop
was the same person who left it--was to me so suspicious that in my
anxiety and agitation I connected it with the murder of poor Lizzie
Melladew, arguing that the man had effected this disguise in himself
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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