"
"Don't we get anything at all?" asked Beth, with quivering lip.
"No, my dear," answered the lawyer, gently. "Your aunt owned nothing
to give you."
Patsy laughed. She felt wonderfully relieved.
"Wasn't I the grand lady, though, with all the fortune I never had?"
she cried merrily. "But 'twas really fine to be rich for a day, and
toss the money around as if I didn't have to dress ten heads of hair
in ten hours to earn my bread and butter."
Louise smiled.
"It was all a great farce," she said. "I shall take the afternoon
train to the city. What an old fraud our dear Aunt Jane was! And how
foolish of me to return her hundred dollar check."
"I used mine," said Beth, bitterly. "It's all I'll ever get, it
seems." And then the thought of the Professor and his debts overcame
her and she burst, into tears.
The boy sat doubled within his chair, so overcome by the extraordinary
fortune that had overtaken him that he could not speak, nor think even
clearly as yet.
Patsy tried to comfort Beth.
"Never mind, dear," said she. "We're no worse off than before we
came, are we? And we've had a nice vacation. Let's forget all
disappointments and be grateful to Aunt Jane's memory.
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