be delightful, I'd love to go."

"Me too," chimed in Elise; "mother, do say yes, won't you? You know
you're just as anxious to go there as we are, because you spoke of it
only yesterday."

"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Farrington heartily; "I quite approve of the
plan, and if your father has no objection, we can make a charming picnic
of it."

Mr. Farrington was quite as interested in the project as the others, and
they immediately began to arrange the details of the expedition. Bert
Chester had a road map in his pocket, which showed exactly the routes
they could take, but the decision of these things was left to Mr.
Farrington and Arthur Oram, who put their heads together over the
complicated-looking charts and decided upon their way.

"Do you know," said Paul Marchbanks, "you're the first American girls I
have ever known socially? I've seen tourists in railway stations or
restaurants, but I never talked to any Americans before."

"For goodness' sake!" exclaimed Patty, "have they kept you walled up in
a dungeon tower all your life, or what?"

"Not exactly that; but we English fellows who go to school and then to
college, and meantime live in our country homes, with an occasional run
up to London, have almost no opportunity to meet anybody outside of our
own people. And I haven't jogged about as much as a good many fellows.
This is the first time I've been to Paris."