" My dear, have you decided yet what you are going
to do with your riches ? "

Madge shook her head. ^^ But, as Mr. Fort said,''
she asserted bristly, '^ I shall keep smiling and not
worry. Something will turn up. I can't get over
Aunt Betty's leaving me all that money/' she con-
tinued thou^tf ully.
" She sent for you often enough," flashed Rose.
'* She made your life a burden the whole year before
she died."

" She didn't realize that, of course," answered
Madge. " But Tom Blankenship was her favorite
nephew — ^"

" Not really her nephew, my dear," corrected Gabe,
passing his plate for more fried chicken, that staple
of a Southern meaL

"What is the relationship, anyhow?" queried
Hose. She had accustomed herself to mentioning
Tom casually, so Minnie had heard his name often
enough not to be startled by it. Now she toyed with
her food while Madge attempted to trace that elusive
kinship which exists less often in the North than in
the South where the old families formed a class apart
and intermarried recklessly.
