The shop became more crowded with customers.

Ladies came to have their hair dressed by the poet: it was so original! He delighted them with singing or chanting his verses.

He had a sympathetic, perhaps a mesmeric voice, which touched the souls of his hearers, and threw them into the sweetest of dreams.
Besides attending to his shop, he was accustomed to go out in the afternoons to dress the hair of four or five ladies.

This occupied him for about two hours, and when he found the ladies at home, he returned with four or five francs in his purse.

But often they were not at home, and he came home francless.