Leonard Merrick

“ They're no use. The first time you go, the man tells you that you'll be bald directly if you don't use his lotions. 'Ah, humph! Well, I'll do all that can be done for you.' And you buy bottles at half-a-guinea each, and find they make no difference. Then, when you go again to say there isn't any improvement, he exclaims, 'My! I didn't hope to do so much in the time. This is splendid. Look at all that new hair coming up!' Of course you like to believe him, and you go on buying his rubbish for twelve months. A hair specialist lives by his knowledge of human nature, not his knowledge of the hair. ”

“ For the selfish is the peace. The suffering was for the woman who had felt—for me, to whom the reconciliation had proved more painful than the estrangement—for me, whom reality had robbed of a dream I Always I had seen him as he had been—now I could see only the man he had become. Our meeting had killed Remembrance; I could spend hours in the past no longer. I tried, I tried for months, but the spell was gone. The husband of my youth would come to my mind no more—I met only a middle-aged poseur, from whom I turned and fled. ”

“ No, I should scarcely describe him as 'amusing.' Of course he can be very brilliant when he meets a foeman worthy of his steel, but his nature is a wistful one. He has suffered deeply, and it has left its mark. ”