Presently, Having Reduced The Woman To A State
Of Comparative Silence, He Approached Me.
"M'sieur," he said, "I regret that this has happened.
Because you
are a foreigner and because you know not our language, that woman
would make an overcharge; but she forgot she had me to deal with.
I am on guard! See her! She is now quelled! I have given her a
lesson she will not soon forget. M'sieur, the correct amount of
the bill is two-francs-ten. Give it to her and let us begone!"
I still have that guide's name and address in my possession. At
parting he pressed his card on me and asked me to keep it; and I
did keep it. I shall be glad to loan it to any American who may
be thinking of going to Paris. With the card in his pocket, he
will know exactly where this guide lives; and then, when he is in
need of a guide he can carefully go elsewhere and hire a guide.
I almost failed to mention that before we parted he tried to induce
us to buy something. He took us miles out of our way to a pottery
and urged us to invest in its wares. This is the main purpose of
every guide: to see that you buy something and afterward to collect
his commission from the shopkeeper for having brought you to the
shop. If you engage your guide through the porter at your hotel
you will find that he steers you to the shops the hotel people
have already recommended to you; but if you break the porter's
heart by hiring your guide outside, independently, the guide steers
you to the shops that are on his own private list.
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