Patty in Paris | Page 8

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-shell 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."
"All right, then," said Marian, encouraged to proceed. "I want a bead
bag--one of those gay coloured ones made of very small beads, worked
in old-fashioned flowers, roses, you know, or hibiscus--not on any
account the tulip pattern, because I hate it."
"You'd better write out these instructions, Marian, or I shall be sure to
get tulips by mistake."
"Don't you do it, Patty; I'll write them all down most explicitly. And
then I want a scarf, a very long one, cream-coloured ground, with a
Persian border in blues and greys. But not a palm-leaf border--I mean
that queer stencilled sort of a design; I'll draw a pattern of it so you
can't mistake it."
"But suppose I can't find just that kind, Marian."
"Oh, yes, you can! Ethel Holmes has one, and hers came from Paris.
And you've all winter to look for it, you know."
"Well, I'll devote the winter to the search, but if I don't find it along
toward spring I'll give it up. What else, Marian?"
"Well, I'd like a lot of Napoleon things. Some old prints of him, you
know, and perhaps a little bronze statuette, and a cup and saucer or
pen-wiper, or any of those things that they make with pictures of
Napoleon on. And then--oh! Patty, I do want some Cyclamen
perfumery. It's awfully hard to get. There's only one firm that makes it.
I forget the name, but it's Something Bros. & Co., and their place is
across the Seine."
"Across the Seine from what?"

"Why, just across. On the other side, you know. Of course I don't know
across from what, because I've never been to Paris; but everybody who
has lived there always just says 'across the Seine,' and everybody
knows at once where they mean. You'll know all right after you've
lived there a little while."
"Marian, you're a wonder," declared Patty. "I don't think I ever knew
anybody with such a perfect and complete understanding of her own
wants as you seem to have. I hope you haven't mentioned half the
things I'm to bring you, but don't tell me the rest now. I might change
my mind about going. But you buy a large blank book and write out all
these orders at full length, giving directions just when to cross the
Seine and when to cross back again, and I'll promise to do my very best
with the whole list."
"Patty, you're a darling," said Marian, "and I'm almost reconciled to
having you go when I think of having souvenirs brought to me that I
really want."
"Marian," said Patty, struck with a sudden thought, "your idea of the
difference between desirable and undesirable souvenirs is an interesting
one. Now I shall bring little gifts to all my friends and relatives, I
expect, and if you happen to know of anything that would be especially
liked by Uncle Charlie or Aunt Alice or any of your family, or the Tea
Club girls, I wish you'd make another list and put those things all down
for me. It would be the greatest kind of a help."
Marian promised to do this, and Patty felt sure that she would be glad