I went to my room and did as he desired. When I returned to the study he had arranged a number of articles upon the table—crepe hair, spectacles, a curiously low cut collar, and a soft felt hat with a dented crown. He gazed at me with approval, and then said:
"The effect will be excellent, I feel sure. Sit down here."
I did as commanded and he immediately set to work. As he was occupied behind me I could not of course see what he was doing, but after a while he took off my own collar, put on the low one he had brought with him, cut up some crepe hair and gummed it to my face, with what I believe is technically termed "spirit gum," trimmed its exuberances with a pair of scissors, and finally combed my moustache over it. This accomplished, he placed the spectacles upon my nose and the soft felt hat rather rakishly upon my head, patted me on the shoulder, and said:
"Look at yourself in the glass."
I rose and went over to the fire-place. But, though I looked in the mirror above the chimney piece, I did not recognise myself. My moustache was waxed to a point and stood out above a close-cropped chestnut beard, while over my coat collar hung a profusion of curls of a corresponding colour. Indeed, my whole appearance suggested a man whose aim in life it was to copy, as nearly as possible, the accepted portrait of the Bard of Avon.
"It is wonderful," I said. "Nobody would ever recognise me. I feel a theatrical agent all over."
"Remember you are Fairlight Longsman, the author of several farces, and my secretary. Whatever you do, don't forget that. Now we must be going. Come along."
We left the house unnoticed, and, having hailed a hansom, were driven to the carriage builder's yard at Vauxhall. Walworth had evidently written preparing him for our visit, for, early as it was, we found him waiting to receive us.
"Zir," began Mr. Maximillien Stragaus, in broken English, as soon as he had descended from the cab. "Is it you dot are Mr. Ebridge?"
"That is my name, sir," said the coachbuilder. "And you are Mr. Stragaus, I presume."