"But he has gone away," said Elise; "and oh, Patty, I just remember! I left my purse on the seat!"

"Was there much in it?"

"Yes, a good deal. I haven't done any shopping yet, you know."

"Well, that explains it. He's gone off with your purse, for he knew that very likely we didn't have his number, and of course we can never find him again. Elise, don't you dare to cry! We're in an awful sc.r.a.pe now, but we'll get out of it somehow if you'll only be plucky about it!

Don't you fail me, and I'll get out of it somehow!"

Patty's admonitions were none too soon, for Elise was on the very verge of bursting into tears. But when Patty appealed to her for aid she tried hard to overcome her fears and be a help instead of a hindrance.

Patty considered the situation. "I hate to go back into that shop and ask that young man to call me a cab," she said, "for he was so fawning and officious that I didn't like his manner a bit. But there doesn't seem to be anything else to do, for there's no policeman in sight, and of course no telephone station, and of course it wouldn't work if there was one, and there's no other place about here that looks as if I dare go in, and so we must go back and ask that horrid man. Now brace up, Elise; put on your most haughty air and look as dignified as a d.u.c.h.ess."

[Ill.u.s.tration with caption: "'I just remember! I left my purse on the seat!'"]

CHAPTER XX

THE BAZAAR

Elise tried hard to follow Patty's directions, but she did not represent a very haughty type of d.u.c.h.ess as she tremblingly followed Patty into the shop.

But Patty herself held her head high, and a.s.sumed the dignity of a whole line of d.u.c.h.esses as she stalked toward the counter. She chose her French with much care, and in exceedingly formal diction informed the young man that she desired to call a cab.

Without expressing astonishment at this, the young man politely a.s.sured her that he would call a cab for her at once; that it would take some time to procure one, as there were none save at a considerable distance.

There being nothing else to do, poor Patty expressed herself as willing to wait, but coldly desired that all possible haste be made.

The fifteen minutes that the girls waited was perhaps the most uncomfortable quarter of an hour they had ever spent in their lives, and indeed it seemed more like fifteen hours than fifteen minutes. They scarcely spoke to one another; Patty, feeling the responsibility of the whole affair, was thinking what she should do in case a cab didn't come, while Elise was entirely absorbed in her earnest endeavours not to cry.

But at last a cab appeared and the two girls got in.

Patty gave the order to drive back to the great shop from which they had started on their adventure.

It seemed an interminable distance through the unpleasant streets, but when at last they reached the Magasins du Louvre and drew up to the entrance Elise gave a delighted cry, and said: "Oh, there's our car, and Jules in it!"

The car was across the street, and the chauffeur sat with his arms folded, in an att.i.tude of patient waiting. The girls got out of the cab, Patty paid the cabman, and as they beckoned to Jules, he started the car across the street toward them.

"Where have you been?" inquired Elise, in a reproving tone.

But the chauffeur declared that he had sat the whole afternoon in that one spot, waiting for the young ladies.

When Elise said that they had come to the door and looked for him in vain, he only a.s.severated that he had not moved from the spot opposite the entrance, but had been there all the time watching the door for their reappearance.

As she had never known Jules to be untruthful, Elise was bewildered at this statement, but presently a light dawned on Patty.

"I see, Elise," she cried; "it's the other entrance! The doors are almost exactly the same! This is the one where we went in, but we came out at the door on the other street, and we were such idiots we didn't know the difference!"

"And we flattered ourselves that we knew Paris!" exclaimed Elise.

"Well, Patty, let's go home. We're not fit to be trusted out alone."

So home the girls went, feeling decidedly light-hearted that they were so well out of their sc.r.a.pe.

Patty went at once to Mrs. Farrington and gave her an exact narrative of the whole affair. She took all the blame on herself, and it was rightfully hers, saying that she had persuaded Elise against her will to go in the cab across the Seine to the perfumer's.

Mrs. Farrington laughed at Patty's extremely penitential air, and said: "My dear child, don't take it quite so seriously. You're not to blame for mistaking the doors. That big shop is very confusing, and after waiting for Jules, and telephoning, and all that, you did quite right to take a cab, as it was really an emergency. But you did not do right to go exploring an unfamiliar quarter of Paris on an uncertain errand.

However, you certainly had punishment enough in your bewilderment and anxiety, and I think you have learned your lesson, and nothing more need be said about it."

Nothing more was said about it by way of reprimand, but many times Patty was joked by the Farrington family, and often when she started out anywhere was advised not to try to buy Cyclamen perfumery.

Toward the end of January the Van Ness girls came to call. They had returned to Paris as they expected, and were truly glad to see Patty and Elise again.

"We've had a lovely trip," Doris declared; "but we're awfully glad to get back to Paris. And oh, girls, I want to tell you about a plan in which we're awfully interested. There's a poor girl, an American, and her name is Leila Hunt."

"Let me tell," broke in Alicia; "she's an art student, and she's trying to support herself in Paris while she studies. And the other day we were walking through the Louvre, and we saw her there."

"Copying a picture," chimed in Doris.

"Yes, copying a picture," went on Alicia; "and she was so faint, because she doesn't have enough to eat, you know, that she fell off the stool and fainted away from sheer exhaustion."

"How dreadful!" cried Patty; "can't we help her?"

"That's just it," said Doris; "we want to help her, and we're getting up a bazaar for her benefit. But she mustn't know it, for she's awfully proud, and wouldn't like it a bit."

"You know her personally, then?" asked Elise.

"Yes; we hunted up her address and went to see her, and the poor thing is so weak and thin, but awfully brave and plucky. And papa says he'll give some money, and I thought perhaps Mr. Farrington would, too; and then we thought it might help to have a bazaar and make some money that way, and then we'll send it to her anonymously, for I don't believe she'd take it any other way."

Rosamond Barstow was present at this conversation, and she said: "I think it's a lovely plan, and I'll be glad to help. Where are you going to hold the bazaar?"

"That's the trouble," said Alicia; "we don't know any place that's just right. You see, we're at a hotel, and a bazaar in a hotel is so public.

I suppose there isn't room in this house?"

"No," said Elise; "there are plenty of rooms, but no one is big enough for an affair of that kind."

"But we have one," exclaimed Rosamond eagerly. "Our house has an immense ballroom. We almost never use it, but it would be just the place for a bazaar."

"Would your people like to have us use it?"

"Oh, yes; mother lets me do anything I like. And, anyway, she'll be awfully glad to help an American girl--you said an American girl, didn't you?"

"Yes, Miss Hunt is from New England. Oh, it will be lovely if we can have the bazaar in your house, and all the American colony will come, and we'll make a lot of money."

The plan was laid before Mrs. Farrington, who entirely approved of it, and then the five girls went over to Rosamond's to ask Mrs. Barstow's consent, and to look at the ballroom.

Mrs. Barstow was greatly pleased with the idea and consented at once that the bazaar should be held in the ballroom, and she went with the girls to look at the big apartment and to make plans.