disdain advertisements; what advertisements would have cost, monsieur,
I put into elegance, charm, comfort. Next year I shall have a
quartette in one of the salons to discourse music, and of the best.
Yes, we ought to charm away the ennui of those whose heads we dress. I
do not conceal from myself the annoyances to a client. (Look at
yourself!) To have one's hair dressed is fatiguing, perhaps as much so
as posing for one's portrait. Monsieur knows perhaps that the famous
Monsieur Humbolt (I did the best I could with the few hairs America
left him--science has this in common with savages, that she scalps her
men clean), that illustrious savant, said that next to the suffering
of going to be hanged was that of going to be painted; but I place the
trial of having your head dressed before that of being painted, and so
do certain women. Well, monsieur, my object is to make those who come
here to have their hair cut or frizzed enjoy themselves. (Hold still,
you have a tuft which _must_ be conquered.) A Jew proposed to supply me
with Italian cantatrices who, during the interludes, were to depilate
the young men of forty; but they proved to be girls from the
Conservatoire, and music-teachers from the Rue Montmartre. There you
are, monsieur; your head is dressed as that of a man of talent ought
to be. Ossian," he said to the lacquey in livery, "dress monsieur and
show him out. Whose turn next?" he added proudly, gazing round upon
the persons who awaited him.

"Don't laugh, Gazonal," said Leon as they reached the foot of the
staircase, whence his eye could take in the whole of the Place de la
Bourse. "I see over there one of our great men, and you shall compare
his language with that of the barber, and tell me which of the two you
think the most original."

"Don't laugh, Gazonal," said Bixiou, mimicking Leon's intonation.