"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-shell kind, I mean--and you
can only get them in Paris."