Elise tried hard to follow Patty's directions, but she did not represent a very haughty type of duchess as she tremblingly followed Patty into the shop.
But Patty herself held her head high, and assumed the dignity of a whole line of duchesses as she stalked toward the counter. She chose her French with much care, and in exceedingly formal diction informed the young man that she desired to call a cab.
Without expressing astonishment at this, the young man politely assured her that he would call a cab for her at once; that it would take some time to procure one, as there were none save at a considerable distance.
There being nothing else to do, poor Patty expressed herself as willing to wait, but coldly desired that all possible haste be made.
The fifteen minutes that the girls waited was perhaps the most uncomfortable quarter of an hour they had ever spent in their lives, and indeed it seemed more like fifteen hours than fifteen minutes. They scarcely spoke to one another; Patty, feeling the responsibility of the whole affair, was thinking what she should do in case a cab didn't come, while Elise was entirely absorbed in her earnest endeavours not to cry.
But at last a cab appeared and the two girls got in.
Patty gave the order to drive back to the great shop from which they had started on their adventure.
It seemed an interminable distance through the unpleasant streets, but when at last they reached the Magasins du Louvre and drew up to the entrance Elise gave a delighted cry, and said: "Oh, there's our car, and Jules in it!"
The car was across the street, and the chauffeur sat with his arms folded, in an attitude of patient waiting. The girls got out of the cab, Patty paid the cabman, and as they beckoned to Jules, he started the car across the street toward them.
"Where have you been?" inquired Elise, in a reproving tone.