[Dark Saint Alaick]

This accident, with the loss of my insurance, and with the more serious loss of my hair,
the whole of which had been singed off by the fire, predisposed me to serious
impressions, so that finally I made up my mind to take a wife. There was a rich widow
disconsolate for the loss of her seventh husband, and to her wounded spirit I offered the
balm of my vows. She yielded a reluctant consent to my prayers. I knelt at her feet in
gratitude and adoration. She blushed and bowed her luxuriant tresses into close contact
with those supplied me temporarily by Grandjean. I know not how the entanglement took
place but so it was. I arose with a shining pate, wigless; she in disdain and wrath, halfburied
in alien hair. Thus ended my hopes of the widow by an accident which could not
have been anticipated, to be sure, but which the natural sequence of events had brought
about.