willingly forego the advantages it gives. The Duchess of Marlborough, wife of the "great Duke," was a termagant of the worst sort. No anecdote so forcibly illustrates her temper as this: She had long and rich hair, which her husband greatly admired. One day, to spite him, she cropped it off close and threw it in his face.
But she was of a nature to defy death itself. When very old, she was taken sick. The physicians told her she must be blistered. She refused. They urged it. She remained obstinate. At length one of them said, "Unless your ladyship is willing to be blistered you will die." "I won't be blistered and I won't die," returned the incorrigible old woman. And for that time she was as good as her word.
Her daughter inherited her disposition, and between them both the Duke, who was an affectionate husband and father, had a trying time. He dryly remarked to his daughter one day:—
"I wonder you and your mother do not agree better. You are so much alike."
But a truce to these stories. We set out to write a chapter on the hair, and not the History of England. We shall begin at once with a few words on the
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HAIR.
When a hair is pulled from the head, we observe that the end which was implanted in the scalp is larger
