She stood for a second staring at her victim open-mouthed with the scissors upraised in one hand, then advanced, and grasping a handful of the soft hair drew it down over Lilac’s face.
“Oh, Agnetta,” cried an imploring voice behind the screen thus formed, “you’ll be careful! You won’t tek off too much.”
“Come nearer the light,” said Agnetta.
Still holding the hair, she drew her cousin towards the wide open doors of the loft. “Now,” she said, “I can see what I’m at, an’ I shan’t be a minute.”
The steel scissors struck coldly against Lilac’s forehead. It was too late to resist now. She held her breath. Grind, grind, snip! they went in Agnetta’s remorseless fingers, and some soft waving lengths of hair fell on the ground. It certainly did not take long; after a few more short clips and snips Agnetta had finished, and there stood Lilac fashionably shorn, with the poor discarded locks lying at her feet.
It was curious to see how much Agnetta’s handiwork had altered her cousin’s face. Lilac’s forehead was prettily shaped, and though she had worn her hair “scrattled” off it, there were little waving rings and bits which were too short to be “scrattled”, and these had softened its outline. But now the pure white forehead was covered by a lump of hair which came straight across the middle of it, and the small features below looked insignificant. The expression of intelligent modesty which had made Lilac look different from other girls had gone; she was just an ordinary pale-faced little person with a fringe.
“There!” exclaimed Agnetta triumphantly as she drew a small hand-glass from her pocket; “now you’ll see as how I was right. You won’t hardly know yerself.”
Lilac took it, longing yet fearing to see herself. From the surface of the glass a stranger seemed to return her glance—someone she had never seen before, with quite a different look in her eyes. Certainly she was altered. Was it for the better? She did not know, and before she could tell she must get more used to this new Lilac White. At present she had more fear than admiration for her.
“Clump! clump!” came the sound of heavy feet up the loft ladder. Lilac let the glass fall at her side, and turned a terrified gaze on Agnetta.
“Oh, what’s that?” she cried. “Let me hide—don’t let anyone see me!”