and gloves, but Philippe stopped his
mother long enough to embrace her and whisper in her ear: "Both of them
are jewels and I can't tell which one is the more precious"; and Molly
and Judy, unconscious of their being rivals, hugged each other in Cousin
Sally's boudoir and said in chorus: "What an Adonis!"

CHAPTER VIII.

THE OPERA.

The ride through the brilliantly lighted streets; across the Seine with
its myriad of small boats with their red and green lanterns; through the
Place du Carrousel where the Louvre loomed up dark and mysterious; under
the arch and across the Rue de Rivoli; then into the Avenue de l'Opera,
seemed to Mrs. Brown and Molly the very most delightful experience of
their "great adventure." It was an old story to Judy but one she could
not hear too often, this Paris at night; and the marchioness confessed
that after thirty years, the Avenue, if you approached it as they were
doing, gave her a thrill that was ever new and wonderful. They proceeded
slowly, as the procession of automobiles was endless.

"The horse is almost an extinct animal in Paris," said the marquis to
Mrs. Brown, who had remarked that she feared she was coming to Paris too
late to see the much written of type of "cab, cab horse and cabby." One
sees occasionally a specimen of the old days: rickety cab, thin horse
and fat, red-faced _cocher_; but such an equipage seems to be in demand
only by the very timid who are afraid to trust themselves to the modern
means of locomotion. Those poor souls are not, as a rule, on the
boulevards at this hour, but shut snugly behind doors, locked and
barred, safe from the "dread Apaches and all the terrors of the night."

"I love automobiles," exclaimed Molly, "but nothing could ever take the
place of a horse to me, even a poor, abused, old cab horse."

"Ah then, you can ride!" cried the delighted Philippe. "And you, too,
Miss Kean? American girls are the finest on earth surely," (only he said
"sholy"). "We have horses at _Roche Craie_ and all of us ride. Mother is
a splendid horsewoman."

"Yes indeed, I am going to ride just as long as a horse can be found big
enough to carry me," laughed the marchioness. "Sometimes I think my poor
beast must look like a pet duck I had when I was a child. It got run
over by a wagon, and my old mammy said, 'Yo' lil duck got run over,
honey chile. He is right down in the back but still able to bear up!'

"But it is fine that you girls can ride, and whe