"Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very
decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that
her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never
for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the
gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the
loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began
to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as
far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There
were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the
girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the
deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys
to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to
bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it
would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and
prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to
come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and
hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening
on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss
Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to
his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not
listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her,
and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished
away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a
four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of
events, Mr. Windibank!" Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming
back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had
taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was
almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that
horrible scar. " Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who 
spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where 
he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.
Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly
as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had 
been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had
tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back
so quickly. Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force
him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's. The harder she tried
to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until 
finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't 
fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash 
and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished. On the other hand, 
he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the
school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, 
as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.
The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling 
them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do 
was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. 
Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump. 