I paid nine guineas for the hideous dress, ordered the silk clothes to be sent to the hotel, and then we went on to the millinery.  Amongst these frightful edifices my heart sank still more, but I steeled myself to the ordeal, and, choosing out the simplest grey one I could find, directed the giggling young shop-assistant to try it on Suzee.

The immense coiffure of shining black hair of the Chinese girl did not lend itself to any Western hat.  Hat and hair together made her head appear out of proportion to the small, short figure.

At last, in despair, I said: 

“You must alter your hair and do it in a different way.  Could you take it down now and roll it up small at the back, do you think?”

Suzee gazed on me in mild surprise.

“Take my hair down, here and now!  Why, it’s done up for a fortnight!” she answered simply, while the shop-girl turned away to replace a hat and hide her titters.

“Do you only do your hair once a fortnight?” I enquired, surprised in my turn.

“Yes, that’s all.  It’s such a bother to do.  It was done just before you came.  I thought it would do for a month, I took such pains with it.”

A month!  So that beautiful, scented, shining coiffure was only brushed out once a month!

A sudden memory of Viola and her gleaming light tresses swept over me, as I had seen them at night lying on her shoulders.  But had I not often waited for her till I was deadly sleepy, and when at length she came to the bedside and I had asked her what she had been doing all that time, had she not generally said—­“brushing her hair”?

Perhaps, after all, a coiffure that never detained its owner at night except once a month might have its advantages.

By the time these reflections had swept over me, Suzee herself had found a little grey velvet hat that looked less dreadful than the rest.  I had only to pay for it, which I did, and she walked away with me in her Western clothes.  At the glove counter things went well, and she triumphed over her civilised sisters.  Her tiny supple hands were easily fitted by number five, and tired and thirsty with our efforts we left the store and found our way to a tea-shop.

The change in dress made matters easier.  She did not attract much notice now; and unless any one looked very closely at her, she would pass for any little ordinary, unattractive European girl.  It rather ruffled my vanity to think she should look like this, but I consoled myself with thinking of the evening, when the hideous disguise could be laid aside and she would appear again in her amber beauty and I could pose her in a hundred ways.

We had several cups of tea apiece.  Very good I found it, though Suzee somewhat disdainfully remarked it was not like China tea; and then returned to the hotel.

As I passed through the swing doors with my reclothed and much altered companion, the proprietor came hastily forwards with protestation written on his face.  He evidently thought I had erred again and this was another investment.  He was about to impart vigorously his opinion of me when a hasty glance at Suzee’s face and my bland look of enquiry stopped him.  Instead of addressing us, he wheeled round discomfited and disappeared into his bureau.