The smile irritated him.

“I wish you’d stop grinning.”

Too happy to be perturbed, she replied in mock severity:

“If I cry, you resent it; if I smile, you stop me. Really, you know, you’re rather difficult.”

“You’d be difficult, too, if you had to try to do business with a bunch of tightwads. We’ve nothing to grin about, let me tell you.”

“Haven’t we?” archly.

He eyed her radiant face and ejaculated:

“Lord, but you look simple! What ails you?”

“Nothing fatal,” she laughed gaily. “But tell me, Jap, what went wrong this morning?”

The question recalled him to his grievances.