Desolate at his inability to please the young ladies, he informed them that nowhere could they find the object of their search, unless it might be at the establishment of the Boissier Freres themselves, which was across the Seine.

“Why, yes,” cried Patty; “that’s just what Marian said.  She said I would have to go across the Seine for it, and I didn’t know what she meant.  Let’s go, Elise; when I start out to do a thing I do like to succeed.”

“So do I. We’ll take the whole afternoon for it, if necessary, but get that stuff we will.”

The obliging salesman wrote down the address for them, and, taking the paper with polite thanks, the girls went away.

But when they reached the street their motorcar was not to be seen.  In vain they looked and waited, but could see nothing of the car or the chauffeur.  They returned to the shop and stood just inside the door, where they watched and waited a long time.

“Something must have happened,” Patty said at last, “and Jules has taken the car away to get it fixed.  But he ought to have let us know that he was going.  What shall we do, Elise?”

“I don’t know what to do, Patty.  I hate to waste this beautiful, bright afternoon, when we might be doing our shopping and having a good time.  And I’m worried about Jules.  The car seemed all right when we left it.”

“Yes; nothing ever happens to that big car.  I think Jules has gone away on purpose.  Perhaps he’ll never come back.”

“Oh, Patty, I don’t know what to do, I’m sure.  Let’s telephone home.”

“We can try it; but I know the telephone will be out of order.  It always is.  I never knew a Paris telephone that wasn’t.”

Sure enough, when they tried to telephone, after much delay and many unsuccessful attempts, they were informed that there was some difficulty with the wires and that connection with the Farrington house was impossible.

The girls returned to their post at the glass-doored entrance and stood looking out with a discouraged air.  Still no car appeared that they could recognise as their own.

At last Patty said:  “There’s no use, Elise, in standing here any longer.  Jules has absconded, or been kidnapped, or something.  Now, I’ll tell you what we’ll do.  Let’s take a cab over to this perfumery place and back again, and then if Jules isn’t here waiting for us we’ll go right home in the same cab.  I know your mother doesn’t let us go in a cab alone, but this is an emergency, and we have to get home somehow; and while we’re about it we may as well go over to the perfumery place.  It isn’t very far.”

“How do you know it isn’t far?”

“Because I know a lot about Paris now, and I know the names of the streets, and I know just about where it is, and of course the cabman will know.  We can talk French to him and we can act very dignified, and anyway we’ll be back here in fifteen or twenty minutes, so come on.”