Combien?
Write it here." And he took a pencil from his pocket and showed her the fly-leaf of his guide-book.

She stood looking at him and scratching her chin with the pencil.

"Is it not for sale ?" he asked.

And as she still stood reflecting, and looking at him with an eye which, in spite of her desire to treat this avidity of patronage as a very old story, betrayed an almost touching incredulity, he was afraid he had offended her.

She simply trying to look indifferent, and wondering how far she might go.
"I haven't made a mistake--pas insulte, no ?" her interlocutor continued.
"Don't you understand a little English ?" The young lady's aptitude for playing a part at short notice was remarkable.