Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 102: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

892 have Madame send one of her capable young assistants to her home. Lucia Lyons was one of the most capable, and also one of the least obtrusive, of these assistants. She had a lithe strength that gave her shampoos a vigor lacking in others, and her manner was just self-effac- ing and worshipful enough to win the patrons of Madame. As a _ hairdresser Lucia was an unqualified success. But success, as wise men have often pointed out, does not mean happiness. Lucia was not happy. How could she be when every working day of her life she saw the lovely ladies of the screen in the salon of Madame? How could she but envy them? Were they not the chosen, the elect, of the world, with their lustrous and plentiful hair, their fair and delicate skins, their bright and happy eyes? Lucia had very little hair, too little even to bob, and it was of a strange, neutral color, somewhere between cold gray and dull brown. It had no luster, no life, no shine. Worse than that, its color affected the natural pallor of her skin. If it hadn’t been for her hair, her skin would have been a clear ivory, delicately tinted and not with- out charm. But her hair lent its own dull- ness to her complexion, so that she had a perpetual gray look. In the same way her eyes, which normally were hazel, and which might have been pools of fascinating brown lighted with green, took on the dull tones of her hair. It was her undoing; it des troyed whatever claims to attractiveness her delicate chin, well-modeled mouth, up- turned nose and frank eyes might have made. You have seen girls like that, somehow colorless, seemingly lifeless. Perhaps you have even stopped to analyze thtir features, to lay your finger on the blemish that makes them drab. If you have been puzzled, finding their features of an average, next time look at their hair. You will probably find the wrong note in their color scheme right there. Lucia, after many painstaking self-in- spections, had arrived at that conclusion. But not even the ménage of Madame Murphy possessed the magic to give her what nature had denied. She couldn’t bob ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. the hank that clothed her pate without en- hancing its scantiness and in no way reliev- ing its dull drab. She stubbornly refused to dye it because it would require repeated experiments to determine just what shade suited her eyes and skin. And not even Madame’s expensive compound designed to produce an abundance of lovely hair had any effect upon her scalp. More or less resigned, but none the less unhappy, Lucia took an envious, vicarious delight in the hair of others, stroking it as if it were her own, caring for it as a miser cherishes his gold. One day one of the most beautiful ladies of the screen—a girl whose dark bobbed hair Lucia had often curled—came into the salon and ordered from Madame a blond wig. -Lucia was standing beside Madame as she took the order, and heard what the distinguished star said. “You see, I’m doing a picture where I’ve simply got to be blond,” she explained. “It’s called ‘ The Yellow Queen’ and it’s a dual rdle. Most of the time I’m this wicked blond adventuress, with a wonder- ful head of yellow hair; the rest of the time I’m myself, in my own mop. Half-sisters, you see, one light and the other dark. So the wig must be the very best you can make, Madame, with fine, long, curly hair. Don’t mind the expense, because the com- pany will pay the bill! That’s what they get for putting me in such a part.” Madame herself supervised the manu- facture of the wig, but Lucia, who had done similar work before, performed the greater part of the labor. In order to increase her none too ample wages she often took it home with her and so earned a few dollars for her extra time. Besides, the star was in a hurry for the wig. Upon one such evening, when Lucia’s dis- content was greater, keener than usual, she was sighing over her final work upon the beautiful blond locks that were to adorn the actress when she happened to look into the mirror before her. She saw her own unlovely, mud-colored crown and sighed. Then, on a sudden impulse, she smoothed her hair carefully over her head and fitted the blond wig over it. The wide-eyed girl who looked back at comicloool C©