It Pays to Smile

In Short

When Miss Freedom Talbot, a proper fifty-year-old Bostonian, takes a position chaperoning the heiress Alicia "Peaches" Pegg, she expects to impart social polish to a loud Western family. Instead, she is swept into an international whirlwind of European travels, stolen art treasures, and high-society intrigue. As Peaches navigates suitors ranging from a wealthy art collector to an enigmatic Italian duke operating in secret, Miss Freedom finds her own rigid upbringing tested. The novel survives as a charming, witty satire of Gilded Age snobbery colliding head-on with American brashness.

The Story

Miss Freedom Talbot has lived her entire life under the strict domestic tyranny of her older sister, Euphemia, in their ancestral Boston home. Desperate for independence and driven by a family tradition of recording notable events, Freedom responds to a newspaper advertisement for a chaperon. She enters the employ of Silas Pegg, a boisterous California orange magnate, and his towering, impossibly striking daughter, Alicia—known to all as "Peaches."

The Peggs are unabashedly American, rich, and immune to Eastern social pretension. Accompanied by Richard, a liveried chauffeur with vague claims to a Western branch of the Talbot family tree, the party embarks on a grand tour of Europe. Silas is far less interested in historic galleries than in expanding his agricultural holdings and establishing an olive trust, while Peaches casually navigates high society in satin gowns and tennis shoes. In London and Monte Carlo, the group crosses paths with Sebastian Markheim, a fiftyish, ruthless millionaire and world-renowned collector of antique paintings who pursues Peaches relentlessly. At the same time, they encounter Sandro, the young Duke of Monteventi, whose passionate, crusading reverence for Italian art stands in stark contrast to Silas Pegg's blunt commercialism.

Amid the moonlit gardens and glittering ballrooms of the Mediterranean, tensions mount around a series of high-profile art thefts, including famous masterpieces like Raphael's Madonna of the Lamp. Freedom repeatedly finds herself thrust into absurd and perilous situations—on one occasion interrupting an armed figure behind a garden hedge with only her dignity and a half-knitted sock to defend her. When Peaches becomes reluctantly betrothed to Markheim, she realizes her heart actually belongs to the enigmatic Sandro, who suddenly vanishes under a cloud of suspicion following the theft of a priceless canvas.

Refusing to let her father force her into an unwanted marriage, Peaches recruits Freedom and Richard to help her escape. Dropping from a window sill and creeping through manicured gardens, the trio flees by motorcar to track down the missing duke. They discover Sandro living in hiding, surrounded by a secret collection of missing masterpieces. Rather than a common criminal, Sandro is revealed to be engaged in a desperate crusade to salvage and protect his nation's cultural heritage from wealthy foreign buyers. With the mystery unraveled, Silas relents, the Talbot family name is vindicated, and Freedom reflects on how her refined New England sensibilities have been permanently expanded by her wild Western charges.

How It Unfolds

Answering the advertisement Bored by fifty years of submitting to her elder sister’s rigid household rules, Freedom Talbot accepts a position as chaperon to an extraordinarily tall, dice-rolling California heiress named Peaches Pegg.

The European tour The party travels abroad, where Silas Pegg seeks to form an international olive and orange trust while Peaches and Freedom navigate high-society hotels, luxury resorts, and encounters with the art collector Sebastian Markheim.

A night in Monte Carlo While knitting in a secluded garden, Freedom startles an armed man behind a hedge, thrusting her into the periphery of a dangerous plot involving international art thieves and clandestine aristocratic feuds.

The secret alcove At a high-society gathering, the group views a rare primitive painting, exposing the intense, fanatical devotion that the young Duke of Monteventi holds for his country's imperiled artistic treasures.

Escape in the dark After Silas locks Peaches in her room to force her marriage to Markheim, Freedom throws proper decorum aside, climbing out a window to join Peaches and Richard the chauffeur in a high-speed nighttime getaway.

The hidden gallery Tracking the fugitive duke to his secret hideout, the group discovers a hidden sanctuary of famous masterworks, exposing the true, noble motive behind the apparent robberies and uniting the young lovers.

The People

• Miss Freedom Talbot: A fifty-year-old Bostonian of impeccable ancestry who prides herself on recording history accurately. Wanting freedom from her sister's overbearing rules, she becomes a chaperon, only to discover that her rigid New England decorum is no match for the energetic unpredictability of the American West.
• Alicia "Peaches" Pegg: A six-foot-two California heiress with gilded hair, exquisite features, and an irreverent, plain-spoken demeanor. She effortlessly commands the attention of wealthy suitors while remaining fiercely independent and loyal to her own heart.
• Silas Pegg: A self-made California citrus magnate who views the world through the lens of business opportunities and agricultural expansion. He treats European culture with cheerful indifference, preferring orange groves and olive vats to high art.
• Sebastian Markheim: A fiftyish millionaire, widower, and world-famous collector of antique paintings. Aggressive and persistent, he pursues Peaches for her hand while amassing rare masterpieces regardless of national preservation laws.
• Sandro, Duke of Monteventi: A handsome young Italian nobleman whose reverent love for classic art drives him into conflict with wealthy foreign buyers, leading him to take extreme, mysterious measures to safeguard his nation's heritage.
• Richard Talbot: The Peggs' clean-cut, sharp-witted chauffeur who claims a dubious connection to Freedom's family lineage and proves an indispensable accomplice during scrapes and escapes.

In Its Own Voice

"My dear Freedom," she would rebuke me, "I am the elder and I know what is best for youth."

Freedom's elder sister, Euphemia, uses her birthright to maintain strict control over their Boston household, long after both women have reached middle age.

"I'd rather see the prospect of a hundred thousand vats of brine and oil than the finest picture any artist ever drew."

Silas Pegg makes his pragmatic priorities clear to Freedom as they travel through the Italian countryside toward a business meeting.

"In time of danger an ounce of action is worth a pound of theory," my dear father used to say; and his precepts are in my blood no less than in my mind.

Arming herself with a sword taken from a suit of armor, Freedom steeling her Boston nerves before creeping down a dark hall to investigate a suspected intruder.

What It's Really About

Beneath its buoyant comic plotting, the novel explores the friction between old-world tradition and new-world vitality. Freedom Talbot represents the fading, insular aristocracy of New England, bound by lineage, custom, and strict propriety. The Peggs represent the uninhibited energy of the American West, where wealth is newly made, speech is direct, and social conventions are cheerfully ignored.

The narrative also interrogates the ethics of art ownership and cultural heritage. Through the conflict over famous paintings, the book contrasts the mercenary impulse to commodify beauty—exemplified by Markheim’s financial hoarding—with Sandro’s romantic, protective devotion to national treasures. Ultimately, the novel argues that true dignity lies not in rigid formality, but in the courage to embrace life with humor, adaptability, and an open mind.

Why Read It Today

This novel offers a delightfully fresh, lighthearted perspective on early twentieth-century American fiction. Written from the perspective of an extraordinarily dry, self-important Boston spinster, the narrative achieves its humor through the sharp contrast between Freedom’s formal prose and the colorful, slang-heavy dialogue of her companions. Readers who enjoy comedic comedy-of-manners stories, Gilded Age travelogues, or spirited heroines will find much to admire in its breezy pace and witty characterization.

Modern readers should be prepared for the breezy, period-typical slang of the 1920s and the somewhat absurd, melodrama-inspired plot twists surrounding art heists and secret noblemen. The central characters can be unapologetically outlandish, and the story relies heavily on exaggerated regional archetypes—from the hyper-refined Bostonian to the brash Westerner. Yet what stays with the reader is the genuine warmth of the central relationships and Freedom Talbot's unexpectedly charming evolution from a hidebound moralist into a co-conspirator in midnight escapes. It is a light, joyful read that celebrates the triumph of humor over pretension.