"Merely an application of the theory of clothes--Sartor Resartus, and all that, you know. Dress to a part, and you get the spirit of it."
"You are joking," said Miss Fillmore, with the seriousness of one to whom the sense of humor is beyond understanding.
"Not at all," I returned. "If Parks came down to the normal supply of hair he might get rid of some abnormal ideas that are going to bring him into trouble."
Miss Fillmore looked at me doubtfully a moment, and again expressed her opinion that I was joking. Then she put aside the subject as one beyond her comprehension, and continued:
"But never mind. I met him this afternoon when I was out taking the air, and he said that there was going to be trouble in the city, and asked if we kept any Chinese servants."
"Yes? And if you did--?"
"Well, we don't, and I told him so, and he said if we did we had better turn them away in a hurry. Then he went on to tell me that there was going to be an uprising of the people, and that the unemployed might make an attack on the Chinese and those who hire them. Now, do you think that the presence of our poor little Moon Ying will bring the mob here?"
"Mr. Parks could answer that question much better than I."
"I asked him, and he said 'Oh, no'--that his people were not warring on women or the sick; but I feared he was too hopeful."
"I do not think there is the slightest danger," I replied. "If Mr. Parks' friends get to be too obstreperous, the police will make short work of them. But I don't think they are enterprising enough to get so far away from Tar Flat." I spoke with a confidence that was more assumed than real.