"You"ll change your mind when you get there and get into the wonderful Paris shops," said her father, smiling; "but never fear, puss; you"ll have enough francs to buy all the pretty dresses and gewgaws and knick-knacks that it"s proper for a little girl like you to have. How old are you now, Patty?"
"Almost eighteen, papa."
"Almost eighteen, indeed! You mean you"re only fairly well past seventeen. But it doesn"t matter. Remember you"re a little girl, and not a society young lady, and conduct yourself accordingly."
"Mrs. Farrington will look out for that," said Nan; "she has the best possible ideas about such things, and she brings up Elise exactly in accordance with my notions of what is right."
"That settles it," said Mr. Fairfield; "I shall have no further anxiety on that score since Nan approves of the outlook. But, Patty girl, we"re going to miss you here."
"Yes, indeed," cried Nan. "I hadn"t realised that side of it. Oh, Patty, we had planned so many things for this winter, and now I shall be alone all day and every day!"
"Come on, and go with me," said Patty, mischievously.
"No," said Nan, smiling at her husband; "I have a stronger tie here even than your delightful companionship. But truly we shall miss you awfully."
"Of course you will," said Patty, "and I"ll miss you, too. But we"ll write each other long letters, and oh! I do think the whole game is perfectly lovely."
"So do I," agreed Nan; and then followed such a lot of feminine planning and chatter that Mr. Fairfield declared his advice seemed not to be needed.
The next morning Nan and Patty went over to the Farringtons to discuss the great subject. They expressed to Mrs. Farrington their hearty thanks for her kind invitation, but she insisted that the kindness was all on Patty"s side, as her company would be a great delight, not only to Elise, but also to the elder members of the party.
"Isn"t Roger going?" asked Patty.
"No," said Mrs. Farrington; "this is his last year in college, so of course he can"t leave. The other children are in school, too, so it seemed just the right year for us to take Elise abroad for a little outing. A winter in Paris will do both of you girls good in lots of ways, and if for any reason we don"t enjoy it, we can go somewhere else, or we can turn around and come home, and no harm done." Although the trip seemed such a great event to Patty, Mrs. Farrington appeared to look upon it merely as a little outing, and seemed so thoroughly glad to have Patty go with them that she almost made Patty feel as if she were conferring the favour.
Elise and Patty went away by themselves to talk it all over, while Nan stayed with Mrs. Farrington to discuss the more practical details.
"I didn"t care a bit about going," said Elise, "until we thought about your going too, and now I"m crazy to go. Oh, Patty, won"t we have the most gorgeous time!"
"Yes, indeed," said Patty; "I can hardly realise it yet. I"m perfectly bewildered. Shall we go to school, Elise?"
"I don"t think so, and yet we may. Mother"s going to take a house, you know, and then we"ll either have masters every day, or go to some school. Mother knows all about Paris. She has lived there a lot. But we sha"n"t have to study all the time, I know that much. We"ll go sight-seeing a good deal, and of course we"ll go motoring."
"I shall enjoy the ocean trip," said Patty; "I"ve never been across, you know. You"ve been a number of times, haven"t you?"
"Yes, but not very lately. We used to go often when Roger and I were little, but I haven"t been over for six years, and then we weren"t in Paris."
"I"m sure I shall love Paris. Do you remember it well?"
"No; when I was there last I was too little to appreciate it, so we"ll explore it together, you and I. I wish Roger were going with us; it"s nice to have a boy along to escort us about."
"Yes, it is," said Patty frankly; "and Roger is so kind and good-natured. When do we sail, Elise?"
"Two weeks from Sat.u.r.day, I think. Father is going to see about the tickets to-day. He waited to see your father yesterday, and make sure that you could go. The whole thing has been planned rather suddenly, but that"s the way father always does things."
"And it"s so fortunate," went on Patty, "that I hadn"t started away to college or boarding-school. Although if I had, and you had invited me, I should have managed some way to get expelled from college, so I could go with you. How long do you suppose we shall stay, Elise?"
"I don"t know, I"m sure. You never can tell what the Farringtons are going to do; they"re here to-day and gone to-morrow. We"ll stay all winter, of course, and then in the spring, mother might take a notion to go to London, or she might decide to come flying home. As for father, he"ll probably bob back and forth. He doesn"t think any more of crossing the ocean than of crossing the street. Have you much to do to get ready to go?"
"No, not much. Nan says for me not to get a lot of clothes, for it"s better to buy them over there; and papa says I can buy all I want, only of course I can"t be as extravagant as you are."
"Oh, pshaw, I"m not extravagant! I don"t care much about spending money, only of course I like to have some nice things. And I do love to buy pictures and books. But we"ll have an awful lot of fun together. I think it"s fun just to be with you, Patty. And the idea of having you all to myself for a whole winter, without Hilda, or Lorraine, or anybody claiming a part of you, is the best of it all. I do love you a lot, Patty, more than you realise, I think."
"You"ve set your affections on a worthless object, then; and I warn you that before the winter is over you"re likely to discover that for yourself. You always did overestimate me, Elise."
"Indeed I didn"t; but as you well know, from that first day at the Oliphant school, when you were so kind to me, I"ve never liked anybody half as much as I do you."
"You"re extremely flattering," said Patty, as she kissed her friend, "and I only hope this winter won"t prove a disillusion."
"I"m not at all afraid," returned Elise gaily; "and oh, Patty, won"t we have a jolly time on board the steamer! It"s a long trip, you know, and we must take books to read and games to play, for as there"ll probably be mostly French people on board, we can"t converse very much."
"You can," said Patty, laughing, "but I"m afraid no one can understand my beautiful but somewhat peculiar accent."
III
SOUVENIRS
Marian came over to spend a few days with Patty before her departure.
She was frankly envious of Patty"s good fortune, but more than that, she was so desperately doleful at the thought of Patty"s going away that she was anything but a cheerful visitor.
Although sorry for her cousin, Patty couldn"t help laughing at the dejected picture that Marian continually presented. She followed Patty around the house wherever she went, or she would sit and look at her with her chin held in her hands, and the big tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Marian, you are a goose," said Patty, exasperated by this performance.
"When I left Vernondale you cried and carried on just this way, but somehow you seemed to live through it. And now that I live in New York you don"t see me so very often anyhow, so why should you be so disconsolate about my going away?"
"Because you"re going so far, and you"ll probably be drowned--those French steamers are ever so much more dangerous than the English lines--and somehow I just feel as if you"d never come back."
"Well, the best thing you can do then is to change your feelings. I"ll be back before you hardly realise that I"m gone; and I"ll bring you the loveliest presents you ever saw."
This was a happy suggestion of Patty"s, for Marian"s tears ceased to flow and she brightened up at once.
"Oh, Patty, that is just what I wanted to talk to you about! If you are going to bring me anything in the way of a gift or a souvenir, wouldn"t you just as lieve I"d tell you what I want, as to have you pick it out yourself, and likely as not bring me something I don"t care for at all?
Everybody who brings me home souvenirs from Europe brings the most hideous things, or else something that I can"t possibly use."
"Why, Marian, dear, I"d be only too glad to have you tell me what you want, and I"ll do my best to select it just right."
"Well, Patty, I want a lot of photographs. The kind we get over here are no good. But I"ve seen the ones that come from Paris, and they"re just as different as day and night. I"d like the Venus of Milo and the Mona Lisa and the Victory and--oh, well--I"ll make you out a list.
There are several Madonnas that I want, and several more that I DON"T want. And I do NOT want any of Nattier"s pictures or a "Baby Stuart,"
but I do want some of Hinde"s hair curlers--the tortoise-sh.e.l.l kind, I mean--and you can only get them in Paris."
By this time Patty was shaking with laughter at Marian"s list, and she asked her if she didn"t want anything else but photographs and hair curlers.
"Why, yes," said Marian, astonished; "I"ve only just begun. You know photographs don"t cost much over there, and of course the curlers won"t count for a present. I thought you meant to bring me something nice."
"I do," said Patty, looking at her cousin, who was so comically in earnest. "You just go on with your list, and I"ll bring all the things, if I have to buy an extra trunk to bring them in."