“You can’t know that till you’ve been there,” said practical Nan, and then she had to drag Patty away, and they went back to the hotel. Their purchases were there awaiting them, so quick are the ways of the Paris shops, and they found Mr. Fairfield in the middle of their sitting room completely surrounded by parcels of all shapes and sizes.
“Snowed under!” he declared, as they came in.
Then he good-naturedly helped to untie the bundles, and pack most of them in trunks to be sent directly to America.
“We want to take whatever luggage we need with us,” he said, “but don’t take anything we don’t need. Excess luggage is expensive in Italy, but it’s worth the extra expense if we want it for our convenience or pleasure.”
So each had a good-sized individual trunk, and another trunk held some evening gowns for Nan and Patty, not to be opened except when social occasions required. Still another trunk held indispensable odds and ends that belonged to all of them, and Mr. Fairfield said that was enough to look after.
“You’re lovely people to travel with,” said Patty, thoughtfully. “When I came over here with the Farringtons, they had forty-’leven trunks, and they never could find what they wanted without going through the whole lot.”
“Much better to get along with a few,” said her father, “and then you can find things more easily.”
Mr. Fairfield was a systematic and methodical man, and had always instilled these traits into both Patty and Nan. So they were always ready at traintime or a little before, and thus were saved the many annoyances that follow in the train of delay and procrastination.
The next afternoon they started for Rome. Mr. Fairfield chose to go by the “Rome Express” a rapid and well-appointed train. Patty was greatly interested in the strange appointments of the cars. The Fairfields had two compartments; the larger, double one for the use of Patty and Nan, the other for Mr. Fairfield. But at first they all sat together in the double compartment, which was arranged like a state-room, and not at all like American sleeping-cars. They would be on the train two nights and one day, and Mr. Fairfield chose this plan because it enabled them to see the Alps by daylight.
“It’s just like being in our own house, isn’t it?” said Patty, as they settled their belongings into place. And indeed it was. Shut away from the other passengers in their cosy little room, they were as secluded as if at home. The comfortable seats and convenient little tables, racks and shelves, made room for all their impedimenta, and Patty declared it was lots nicer than American parlour cars, where everybody was in the same room.