"  I  will  now  show  you.  how  to  prepare  cassie  pomade,  or  floral
pomade  of  any  odor  you  wish,  when  you  have  the  flowers  with
which  to  work,"  he  said  to  us,  after  we  had  assembled.  "It  is
called  maceration.  You  remember  I  promised  sometime  ago  to


A  WEDDING  IN  HIGH   LIFE.  183

instruct  yon  in  the  art,  but  have  not  had  the  time  since  we  left
Australia.  Patsey,  bring  me  the  new  glue  pot."

"I  will  that,  sir."

"This  glue  pot,  3-011  see,"  continued  Jean,  "melts  the  mate-
rial by  the  boiling  of  water ;  it  is  in  fact  a  water-bath,  in  chemical
parlance,  on  a  small  scale.  I  use  beef  suet  or  any  grease  in  pref-
eience  to  lard,  as  pomades  of  lard  body  are  more  heating,  caus-
ing dandruff  and  falling  of  the  hair,  especially  where  the  system
is  scrofulous.  I  have  prepared  some  beef  suet  which  has  been
purified  by  melting  and  straining  it  through  a  close  hair  sieve,
allowing  the  liquid  suet  to  drop  into  cold  water,  thereby  granu-
lating, and  washing  the  blood  and  membrane  from  it.  In  order
to  start  with  a  perfectly  inodorous  grease  I  repeated  the  process
three  times,  using  a  pinch  of  salt  and  a  pinch  of  alum,  to  each
water,  then  I  washed  it  six  times  in  plain  water,  and  finally  re-
melted  the  fat  to  free  it  from  adhering  water,  and  added  a  small
quantity  of  powdered  benzoin.
"Now,  Patsey,  put  the  clarified  suet  into  this  macerating  pot,
and  we  will  proceed."

Patsey  did  so,  and  Jean  went  to  one  of  the  lockers  and  took
out  the  dried  cassie  flowers,  and  putting  as  many  in  the  fat  as  it
would  cover,  let  it  simmer  slowly  on  the  fire  of  a  small  gas  stove.
