anyone else; and then she will
find out the person is not the paragon she had imagined and come weeping
back to me," said Molly, throwing her arm around Elise and giving her a
warm hug.

"Well, let's enjoy the few hours left to us. It seems hardly possible
that this is the same, stupid old boat that we boarded a little over
a week ago. I hated it, our stuffy stateroom, the crowded table;
and then I always dread a long voyage with Mamma. She gets so cross
and overbearing when she is cut off from society and amusements
and----" Elise stopped suddenly. She felt Molly's friendly arm growing
slack around her waist and she realized that her new friends, the Browns,
could not tolerate her impertinent remarks to and about her mother. "Oh,
Molly, please excuse me. I am trying to be nicer about Mamma. It is
awfully ill-bred of me to speak of her in that way, no matter how I
feel."

"Elise, why don't you try to feel differently and then it would be
impossible for you to speak so?"

"Oh, Molly, I will try." And it shows she was already trying, for she
did not add what was in her heart to say, "If you only knew my mother
you would not ask that of me."

CHAPTER V.

PARIS.

"Judy! Judy! I can't believe that we are really here, that this is
Paris, and that you are you! As for me, I feel like 'there was an old
woman as I've heard tell' who said 'Lawk a mercy on me, this surely
can't be I.'"

Molly settled herself with a sigh of supreme enjoyment on the lumpy seat
of an extremely rickety taxi that Judy had engaged to take the Browns
from the station to Mrs. Pace's very exclusive pension on the Boulevard
St. Michel.

"It does seem almost too good to be true that I have got you and your
dear mother at last. I have not been able to work for a week because of
the excitement of expectation. I went over to Monroe's this morning and
got your mail. I could hardly lug it home, both of you had such a batch.
You see, the mail has beaten your slow steamer in and everyone is
writing to have a greeting ready for you in Paris." And Judy, who was in
the middle, put embracing arms around both Mrs. Brown and Molly as they
rode down the Avenue de l'Opera.

How wonderful Paris looked to them on that clear, crisp day in autumn!
She was showing her best and most smiling aspect to the travelers, which
delighted Judy, as she felt quite responsible for her beloved city and
wanted her friends to like it as much as she did. They passed various