"In that case, my pseudonym should be Guide, not Guile," she cried
merrily. The dimples played in her cheeks and her eyes were dancing.
"B. stands for Baedeker, I'm sure. Baedeker Guide. If the B. isn't
for Baedeker, what is it for?"
"Are you asking what the B. really stands for, Mr. Schmidt?"
"In a round-about way, Miss Guile," he admitted.
"My name is Bedelia," she said, with absolute sincerity. "Me mither
is Irish, d'ye see?"
"By jove, it's worth a lot of trouble to get you to smile like that,"
he cried admiringly. "It is the first really honest smile you've
displayed. If you knew how it improves you, you'd be doing it all of
the time."
"Smiles are sometimes expensive."
"It depends on the market."
"I never take them to a cheap market. They are not classed as
necessities."
"You couldn't offer them to any one who loves luxuries more than I
do."
"You pay for them only with compliments, I see, and there is nothing
so cheap."
"Am I to take that as a rebuke?"
"If possible," she said sweetly.
At this juncture, the miserable Hobbs hove into sight, not
figuratively but literally.
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