The Frenchwoman seemed to understand, and began counting out seven candles.  Patty looked anxiously after Mr. Farrington and Elise, who had gone on ahead, not noticing that Patty had stopped.  But she knew she could soon catch up to them if only she could get her candles and manage to pay for them in the confusing and unfamiliar French money.  As she was counting out the change, greatly to her surprise, the Frenchwoman lighted her seven candles, one after the other.  Patty exclaimed in dismay, wondering if she did it to test their wicks, or what could be the reason.  But even as she watched her the woman placed the candles, all seven of them, in a sort of a branched candlestick on the wall above her head.

“Non!  Non!” cried Patty; “they are mine, mine! comprenez-vous?  Mine!”

“Oui, oui, oui,” exclaimed the Frenchwoman, nodding her head complacently, and taking Patty’s money, which she put in a box on the table before her.

“But I want them!” cried Patty.  “I want to take them away with me!”

Still the woman smiled amiably, and Patty realised she was not understanding a word.  But all Patty’s French, and it was not very much at best, seemed to fly out of her head and she could not even think how to say, “I wish to take them away with me.”  So seeing nothing else to do, she cut the Gordian knot of her dilemma by reaching up and taking the candles from the sockets.  She blew them out, and holding them in a bundle, said pleasantly, “Papier?” having thought of a French word at last that expressed what she wished.

The woman looked at her in amazement, as if she had done something wrong, and poor Patty was thoroughly perplexed.

“Why, I bought them,” she exclaimed, forgetting the Frenchwoman could not understand her, “and I paid you for them, and now they’re mine, And I’m going to take them away.  If you won’t give me any paper to wrap them in, I’ll carry them as they are.  Eon jour!”

But by this time Mr. Farrington and Elise had returned in search of their missing comrade, and Patty appealed to Mr. Farrington, explaining that she had purchased the candles.

“Why, yes, they’re yours, child, and certainly you may take them away if you like.  But it is not customary; usually people buy the candles to burn at the shrine of their patron saint, or in memory of some friend, and, of course, the woman supposed that was your intention.”

“Well, I’m glad to understand it,” said Patty, “and I wish you’d please explain it to her, for I certainly do want to keep the candles, and I couldn’t make her understand.”

So Mr. Farrington explained the state of the case in French that the woman could understand, and all was well, and Patty walked off in triumph with her candles.

Then they went back past the Louvre, and leaving the automobile again, they went for a short walk in the garden of the Tuileries.  This also fascinated Patty, and she thought it beautiful beyond all words.