aking back any article
which a customer did not like, or did not find what she had supposed
when she got it home, and refunding the money. This was the best sort
of business; it held custom; the woman became a customer for life. The
floor-walker laughed, and after he had told an anxious applicant,
"Second aisle to the left, lady; three counters back," he concluded to
Erlcort, "I say she because a man never brings a thing back when he's
made a mistake; but a woman can always blame it on the house. That
so?"

Erlcort laughed with him, and in going out he stopped at the
book-counter. Rather it was a bookstore, and no small one, with ranks
of new books covering the large tables and mounting to their level
from the floor, neatly piled, and with shelves of complete editions
and soberer-looking volumes stretching along the wall as high as the
ceiling. "Do you happen to have a good book--a book that would read
good, I mean--in your stock here?" he asked the neat blonde behind
the literary barricade.

"Well, here's a book that a good many are reading," she answered, with
prompt interest and a smile that told in the book's favor; it was a
protectingly filial and guardedly ladylike smile.

"Yes, but is it a book worth reading--worth the money?"

"Well, I don't know as I'm a judge," the kind little blonde replied.
She added, daringly, "All I can say is, I set up till two last night
to finish it."

"And you advise me to buy it?"

"Well, we're not allowed to do that, exactly. I can only tell you what
I know."

"But if I take it, and it isn't what I expected, I can return it and
get my money back?"

"That's something I never was asked before. Mr. Jeffers! Mr. Jeffers!"
she called to a floor-walker passing near; and when he stopped and
came up to the counter, she put the case to him.

He took the book from Erlcort's hand and examined the outside of it
curiously if not critically. Then he looked from it to Erlcort, and
said, "Oh, how do you do again! Well, no, sir; I don't know as we
could do that. You see, you would have to read it to find out that you
didn't want it, and that would be like using or wearing an article,
wouldn't it? We couldn't take back a thing that had been used or
worn--heigh?"

"But you might have some means of knowing whether a book is good or
not?"

"Well, yes, we might. That's a point we have never had raised before.
Miss Prittiman, haven't we any means of knowing whether a book's
something we ca