"Yes, and cannon booming, and salutes being fired, and rockets and
fireworks going off like mad."

"Yes, just that! but now I almost hope we won't pass through it, for
fear it shouldn't quite come up to our notion of it."

"If we do come to it, I'll tell you in time, and you can shut your eyes
and pretend you're asleep while we go through."

But the town in question was not on their route after all, and soon they
came flying in to the town of Versailles. Of course, they made for the
Chateau at once, and alighted from the cars just outside the great wall.

Patty, being unaccustomed to historic sites, was deeply impressed as she
walked up the old steps and found herself on an immense paved court that
seemed to be fairly flooded with the brightest sunlight she had ever
seen. As a rule, Mr. Farrington did not enjoy the services of a guide,
but for the benefit of the young people in his charge, he engaged one to
describe to them the sights they were to see.

The whole royal courtyard and the great Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV.
seemed very wonderful to Patty, and she could scarcely realise that the
great French monarch himself had often stood where she was now standing.

"I never seemed to think of Louis XIV.," she said, "as a man. He seems
to me always like a set of furniture, or a wall decoration, or at most a
costume."

"Now you'ye hit it," said Paul; "Louis XIV. was, at most, a costume; and