"Found whom? As if you didn't know! I mean the man of d-d-destiny! He is
a snake charmer, Pepeeta! He just fairly b-b-bamboozled you! I was
laughing in my sleeve and saying to myself, 'He's bamboozled Pepeeta;
but he can't b-b-bamboozle me!' When he up and did it! Tee-totally did
it! And if he can bamboozle me, he can bamboozle anybody."

"Did you understand what he said?" Pepeeta asked.

"Understand? Well, I should say not! The d-d-devil himself couldn't make
head nor tail out of it. But between you and me and the town p-p-pump
it's all the better, for if he can fool the people with that kind of
g-g-gibberish, he can certainly f-f-fool them with the Balm of the
B-B-Blessed Islands! First time I was ever b-b-bamboozled in my life.
Feels queer. Our fortune's made, P-p-pepeeta!"

His triumph and excitement were so great that he did not notice the
silence and abstraction of his wife. His ardent mind invariably
excavated a channel into which it poured its thoughts, digging its bed
so deep as to flow on unconscious of everything else. Exulting in the
prospect of attaching to himself a companion so gifted, never doubting
for a moment that he could do so, reveling in the dreams of wealth to be
gathered from the increased sales of his patent medicine, he entered the
hotel and made straight for the bar-room, where he told his story with
the most unbounded delight.

Pepeeta retired at once to her room, but her mind was too much excited
and her heart too much agitated for slumber. She moved restlessly about
for a long time and then sat down at the open window and looked into the
night. For the first time in her life, the mystery of existence really
dawned upon her. She gazed with a new awe at the starry sky. She thought