"Well,"--at length said Titmouse, as soon as he had recovered from the surprise occasioned by the sudden volubility with which he had been assailed on entering--"then _is_ it really going on tolerable well?" taking off his hat, and looking anxiously into a glass that hung close by. "_Tolerable_ well, my dear sir! Delightful! Perfect! Couldn't be better! If you'd studied the thing, you'd know, sir, that purple is the middle color between green and black. Indeed, black's only purple and green mixed, which explains 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 or two! Couldn't you say eight sh"----