customary signs.

GEORGIANA. [_Looking at_ COLEMAN'S _photograph._] Bella, I should say
Lieutenant Coleman has splendid, straight, honest hair, shouldn't you?

BELLA. I can't say as I've ever really had any experience of his hair,
ma'am.

GEORGIANA. But do you think him an awfully handsome man, Bella, or am I
prejudiced?

BELLA. No, indeed, I never seen a handsomer gentleman, not even in the
pictures of gentlemen's clothes in tailor store windows. [_Puts comb
down, and takes brush and brushes again._] But what continues to make me
nervous about Mr. Gootch is that he's right there among all those black
creatures, whose manners is very free, I'm told, and whose style of
dressing is peculiar, the least you say! Mr. Gootch always did favor
dark-complexioned people, and if that letter don't come to-morrow--

[_Getting excited, she again pulls_ GEORGIANA'S _hair._

GEORGIANA. Ouch! [_Laughing, holds up her hand, and catches her hair to
ward off another pull._] Be careful!

BELLA. Excuse me! in my art, there's no use talking, you oughtn't let
your mind wander from the subject in hand--does your head feel better?

GEORGIANA. I don't know, Bella, if it does or not! Your treatment is
very heroic.