CAPILLARY ATTRACTIONS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10756, 8 September 1900, Page 2

CAPILLARY ATTRACTIONS.

BT Fill_BSTB C. WISTBSV. Frank Holland had iust taken his hat from the attendant, and, with a glance in the mirror at his fine dark locks, so artistically trimmed by the hairdresser who had been "so proud to officiate for Monsieur," had turned to the door, when his attention was caught by what appeared to him a somewhat unusual ciicums&ance. A young girl was bilking with the bar ber, and her voice, naturally sweet, was somewhat raised and excited; and as she was speaking in the French language, of which young Holland understood only a > small percentage when it was spoken quick ly, the scene was rapidly becoming as incomprehensible as it seemed unusual and interesting. For he was interested—thai was ths curious part of it—without know ing why. he knew that he was distinctly interested. Suddenly the young, girl snatched off her hat, and with* lightning swiftness drew out half a dozen hairpins, and then shaking her head, the whole magnificent abundance of her hub• fe*l around her shoulders and adown her back like a cataract of shining, I glowing, molten gold. "Mais, roila! Monsieur, voila!" she ex j claim-ad, in an indescribable tone of mingled I anguish, admiration, and indignation. A sudden glow of enthusiasm swept ovet the soul of Frank Holland. He couldn't in the least guess what the excitement wat about, but he knew he "had never in his life seen such a head of hair; and, with out knowing why, he suddenly experienced a feeiing of hatred toward the coiffeur. A; i to that artist, he merely elevated his shoul-'-ders-t:'H thc-y seemed far above the crown of his head, and declared it was "iinpos sible. Mademoi-eile, impossible." But at this point Frank could .bear nc more, and, stepping forward, he enquired of the barber what was the cause of the | young lady's agitation—-for by this time I she had burst into tears, and turning to tin inexorable artist in hair, had exclaimed: f "'Tres-bien, Monsieur, tres-bien! I have !no choice—take it! take it!" I The last words had been spoken in English, which Frank did not observe at the I time; but the fam_iar language cast a I ray of h'ght on tbe situation which en abled the interested American to make a shrewd gussa at the explanation, even be. ■ fore tha barber and dresser of hair haid answered his eager questioning. The young l_dy wished to sell her hair, and the prospective buyer declared himsel.' unable to pay tha price she asked for it.

"She asks ten francs, Monsieur, and I offei her fivei —I can afford no more—the coloui is not in fashion just now, and I may lose on the transaction at that price." "Ten francs, and you offer her five!" shouted Frank, when he could recover Invoice. "Five francs for that hafr! You Goth! You Vandal! You monstrous in iquity of a hair-cutter! You wretchec swindler of a wig-maker! When you know such a head of hair is worth its weight in gold! Mademoiselle.!" turning to the younj, imy gravely, and with ah abrupt change of manner to ope of the utmost gentleness: "Permit mc to purchase your hair? 7 ' and hastily selecting? some crisp notes from hit pocket-book he gj_ye them to the girl, wht took them mechanically, overcome with snr prise, but showing no trace of embarrass ment—-her need was too great for that, and the sale of her hair was a mere bu_inea_ transaction,. ■ >-.•■'..- _ •■-. --"- "' - "^ She crushed the money tightly in. hei hand, not looking at it, for she knew it must be more than- she had asked for; and then in the same mechanical way she turnec' from him, toward jthe hair-dresser, shaking out her luxuriant mane once more that he ■might the more easily operate on it. But as he raised his arm Frank snatched the long sharp shear! from ills hand, and separating one, glossy curl from the wavy mass, approached the scissors to its glistening strands. "Monsieur, Monsieur!" exclaimed the mas cmine Delilah, "you will best let mc do the cutting! You will but waste the .beautifu.' ha:r and spoil Mademoiselle's good looks!" "I think not!" retorted Frank sharply, as he gently snipped off the shining lock and placed it delicately within his pocketbook, where it occupied the place of the bank-notes he had given the pirL "Many thanks, Mademoiselle, and I will beg you to keep the rest and wear it for mc!" With a profound bow, one swift smile into the girl's wondering eyes, and bis own heart beating strangely, the young man vanished through the door, stiß held open by the obedient attendant, and in a moment had disappeared. Frank was scarcely conscious how fast he was walking, but "he knew instinctively that he must hasten before the young lady should learn the full amount of the money he had placed in her hand—for the single \ glance he had seen of those deep eyes and that firm mouth told him that she would j hasten aftec him, and perhaps insist on breaking the sale she had made when she discovered that her grasp enclosed the sum

of two hundred dollars in good Americamoney instead of the ten, or possibly twenty, francs which she probably expected when she came out to count her store. "Good Heavens!" thought the young man, "to what straits must a lovely girl be reduced when she offers to sell her hair, and such hair, too, for ten __~eg! Horrible! horrible! How sad she looked, and yet how brave I dear mc! In this magnificent city, too. I never realised that such poverty might be conosaled behind the opulence and beauty of Paris! What American girl would offer to sell her hair? But by Jove, she was not French* either! She spoke English, and without a French accent— without an English accent, either! Why then, she may be an American stranger in a strange land! Horrible! Why didn't I think of that before? I should -have made some enquiry—l could have introduced myself to a fellow-countryman! What a donkey I was not to think of that sooner, but perhaps it is not too late." While revolving these thoughts in his mind Frank Ho'Jand hsd come to an abrupt standstill, and glancing hurriedly about he realised how quickly he must have walked, for he was already in a strange and unknown part of the city; but seeing a fiacre approaching, he speedily hailed it, and giving th 9 driver directions as well as his uncertain knowledge of the city would allow, bade him drive with all possible ha3te, promising- him double fare if he reached the address in good time. But although the maearned his money, Frank found himself too late, the young lady had gone and the coiffeur knew neither her name nor address. But what Frank guessed might occur had, in fact, realiy happened. As soon as she had recovered from her astonishment and from his sadden departure she had given her attention to the money in her hand, and on seem? the .-expected amount she had shown considerable agitation, and had demanded the name or address of her benefactor. —or name?" int_Tupted Frank hurriedly; "I wouldn't receive back one cent of that money—l meant every dollar of it for hex —and little enough, too, poor girl!—of course yon- gave her no address?" "Mais, non, Monsieur!' said tbe ma_ with his everlasting shrug and deprecating smile; "for how was it possible? Monsieur's name address are --known to mc." "True, true," exclaimed Frank, determined they should continue so ; "but if you caffjfind out the young lady's name and address I will make it worth while for you. She w-1 come again, perhaps?" "Truly, yes," assented th* co_feur, "Mademoiselle first came hese to have that beautiful hair dressed—she was to sing in an entertainment somewhere —she studies la _msiq_e for—what you call it in rour country?—the concert platform. I heard her name then, but it has left mc; but when she comes again I will ask the name and address fnr 310n.-?i?ur—ah! I remember—the papa of Mademoiselle had falkn ill. aud she, too. bad _ac axalade a poitrine—how do you call *

it? a. cold in the chest, eh? or—or throat! -h! oui, oui! Mademoiselle quite lost her voice and no more can sing——" "And she L* hers alone, poor, her only protector sick and m_feri_g!" exclaimed Frank, who was _ very kind young fellow, and away from his own homo for the first time. ''What a fate * and to what straits she must have fallen when she would offer that beautiful hair for sale! Well, thank Heaven, she has money at her command., and if I can but find her?-—"

He reiterated all be had already said on the subject to th* hair-_?esser; and re-en-tered the nacre, which, he kept —riving about for the rest of the day, in the wild hope of seeing, somewhere, the young girl who had so interested him, and in whom he could not but feel a certain degree of ownership since he had become the proprietor of her magnificent hair. But days and weeks passed, and Frank seemed further than ever from the object of his interest, which, curiously now, seemed in another sense to grow more and more near, as if it were rapidly becoming a part of himself. This was, no doubt, because he wore that single lock of hair which he had severed from the rest close against his heart; and as, day by day, he felt it there, the magic of its lustre, of its glossy golden beauty, seemed to get within the very fibres of his being till it became a part of his own soal. "I must find that girl or die!" he exclaimed on© day; "I am madly in love with her; some extraordinary psychological miracle has taken place in mc; this lock of hair binds mc to her as no cable ever yet connected one coantry with another! "l dream of her at night,"l think of her day by day, I see her everywhere I go, and "yet I can find her nowhere 1 O, I shall go mad if this goes on! I must—l must and shall find her! or else there is nothing left to live for in this world!"

Of course he had returned to the hairdresser's again and again, and at last there was news for him. Mademoiselle Clarice Mayborne had been there ones more, and again her errand had been the £ sa_e of her hair

"Great Heavens, man! You did not buy it!" exclaimed Frank, and he could almost have hugged the man as he shrugged his shoulders with indignant denial. "Mais, non, Monsieur," he had assured Mademoiselle that such a sale would forever now bo impossible. The hair belonged to Monsieur, the eccentric young American who had bought it, and if he had chosen to pay fifty times more for it than the value, why that was his affair. At this Mademoiselle*had grown white and then red—she had not meant to sell what was not her own—she hadn't quite realised that the hair b-eionged, of course, to Monsieur; and then she wept, and explained to the hairdresser how she had accepted only fifty francs of the money, and was keeping the rest to return to Monsieur; and it was then that the coiffeur took advantage of that statement to get her name and address, promising to send Monsieur Frank Holland- (who had given his name) to call on' her, and finish the transaction of-the sale to her satisfaction.

And it was for this information > that Frank had paid his hairdresser so lavishly that the tonsorial artist was more than ever convinced in his own mind that rich young Americans were a species of lunatic that were fortunately permitted to roam abroad, instead of being, as in more civilised countries, shut up in asylums or only allowed to wander loose under the close guardianship of keepers.

Days had lengthened into weeks, and weeks were now becoming months; Frank Holland's intended stay in Paris had prolonged itself far beyond his original intentions, and his friends and relatives were constantly sending alarmed telegrams from various points in Switzerland and Italy, where he had promised to meet them, enquiring the cause of his delay, or anxiously asking information regarding his health; but still he lingered; Already he had made a good -fsal of trouble for himself, following demoiselles with golden or auburn hair. The flashing of the sun had played him several tricks, causing him to.mistake the -flowing. Jocks of one handsome girl, and the shining braids of another, for the lustrous cataract of shining gold-bronze hair belonging to him, although still worn by her. Squibs on the subject had been published in the comic papers, and he found himself referred to among, the young men in tbe American set as the new "Japhet in Search of a Father," or the modern "Ccalebs in Search of a Wife."

But nothing altered! his deierraination to find the genuine possessor of this capillary attraction, which was, indeed, becoming so powerful that each glistening strand seemed to be a separate and individual magnet tugging at his heart and drawing his feet to rush in search of it.

Long sines, the streets of Paris had become as familiar to him as his own Amtrican birthplace; and he haunted the poorer streets especially, for when he had sought Clarice at the 'address left by her hairdresser, and found her already gone, he saw by the locality that she would be found only in the poorest and most wretched quarter of that great city. And at length his perseverance was rewarded. It was late in the evening, just before the streets had been lighted, and he knew at a glance that this time he was not mistaken; for he had seen her face as well as her beautiful hair which had fallen, half unbound, about her slender shoulders, dis-' bevelled by the haste with which she had been walking, and oh, how sad, how pale, how worn and thin was that despairing, wi'd young face. Frank's heart contracted with pain at seeing it so, even while he sprang forward in pursuit, an exclamation of triumph on his lips at having at length found her. He reached the door just in time to glide through the opening before she had closed it, and then as she fitted upstairs, scarcely conscious that he followed her, he paused for breath on the upper landing and had just unclosed his lips to speak to her, when a door beside him opened inward, and before be could think, two pairs of strong arms seized him, and he was literally lifted off his feet and carried within,, unable to realise that it was not the transformation scene in a dream.

One of the bravos flung him into a broken chair, while the other closed the door and drew the bolt.

"Now, young fellow, we want all you have on you—if that isn't enough we will hold you here while one of us carries your message for more—and no time to waste about it."

This was the substance of the proposition made to Frank; but if he was alow at understanding the language at its best, when it was flung at him in the low argot of Parisian thieves and footpads it was still more unintelligible; but the language of pantomime, of expression, and of voice and eye makes'its me-oring -tolerably clear without the need of words: and Frank understood that he had fallen among thieves, and it was now a question of yotrr money or your life. It would be infinitely easier as well as pleasanter to give up all of value that he had in his possession, and even to make terms in regard to getting more; but it would be so entirely un-American that the yotmg man did not waste a moment in considering the chances for or against a refusal. Whale the ruffians were speaking he had already drawn his pistol, and with a movement as quick as lightning had risen, kicked the chair aside, and jumped into a corner of the room, where, by drawing the only other article of furniture in front of him, he stood at bay, his pistol for the moment protecting him from both the braves. But only for a moment.

"It's no go, bully boy!" exclaimed the leader; "we know a trick worth two of that! Pistol shots are common here, and no one asks why! There's a pistol gallery at the end of the alley."

"Come now, be good, little kid!" exclaimed the other; "we don't mean to kill you—not a bit of it! Your life is precious to us—only fork over the swag!" and with a brutal laugh both ruffian- pointed their pistols lazily at their victim, as if too sura of the game to trouble about aiming for it; Frank saw that it would be a fight foe life and that his only chance was in shooting first, and that so surely and so quickly that his opponents would be- taken og their guard; arid without an instant's hesitation he fired at the leader of the two. A howl of pain followed, and at the same moment the enemy's pistol went off as it dropped to the floor from his wounded hand. A. second time Frank fired, and a third, and fourth— so quickly that he did not see that the second ruffian hod fallen, wounded by the accidental firing of his companion's pistol. Howls of rage and pain came from both the ruffians, but in an instant they were on their feet ajrain, and as Frank bounded across the table and toward the door, they both hurled themselves upon him, furious at bis une_peeted resistance, and in their rage determined to make short work of him.

And, indeed, it would have gone hard with Frank had not, at this moment the door been wrenched from its hinges, while a welcome vision of Parisian police apneared in the aperture where it had stood.' "The pair of ruffians were overcome and handcuffed, and Frank had given his name and address and all necessary, explanations, with almost ludicrous expedition; and then he wsq alone with Clarice for a few minutes.

It appeared that she had recognised him even before he had seen her, and as he disappeared in the darkness within the door which she knew to be the entrance to a den of thieves, she comprehended what had hap> pened in an instant, and flying down the stairs again, she _ed into the street in search of the police, and brought them none too

soon. f It was a thrilling incident, and the consequences were interesting to all concerned. First, the bravos were sentenced to the galleys for a term of years; and after that Clarice and her father were persuaded to change their lodgings for an. apartment in a less objectionable part of the city. For a time Clarice persisted in calling Frank her "benefactor" ; but finally she was persuaded that the life she had saved was even more valuable to herself than to the original owner. From that time the course of true love ran so smoothly that it is not worth describing. The only incident of sufficient interest to be worth recording is that the hairdresser occasionally referrea to had the honour of arranging the bride's hair, and declared it to be worth more than the value set on it by the bridegroom.