“Yes,” said Flo, assisting him, “or something else. Well, Patty, we must accept another gift,—I see that clearly. What do you suggest that we can take with propriety, and thus bring smiles to Grimaldi’s face as well as Spaghetti’s, I mean Balotti’s?”
Patty looked about on either side.
“Postcards!” she exclaimed, as she saw a vendor with his tray.
“Just the thing!” cried Flo. “Tell him, Carlo, that the young ladies would be overjoyed to receive the gift of half a dozen postcards each.”
Carlo translated this, and Signor Grimaldi’s face broke into wide smiles as he sprang in his turn from the carriage.
“Tell him only a half dozen, Carlo,” warned Patty, for Grimaldi’s enthusiasm betokened his buying the whole tray, and sending the man for more.
But he obeyed Carlo’s strict orders, and returned, bringing Flo and Patty each six of the most celebrated monuments of Florence.
The girls made charming protestations of gratitude and appreciation of this courtesy, and the drive continued. The two Italians, pleased with their own performances, seemed content to sit and beam pleasantly for the remainder of the way, and soon they were at the portals of the Pitti Palace.
As the young men had promised they were able to show them through some magnificent Royal apartments, rarely shown to strangers, and where even Carlo himself had never been before.
The sights were most interesting, and after a pleasant hour spent there, they all drove back to the hotel. The Italian gentlemen took leave, and through the interpretations of Carlo, Patty asked them to return late in the afternoon and take tea with them, and this the young men readily promised to do.