a gauzy fan, she held it
out for inspection.

Norah, who was nearest, took it. "It is certainly pretty if not
durable," she remarked.

"I hate durable things," said its owner, with a shrug of her dainty
shoulders. "I know it cost a great deal, for I priced one like it."

"Madelaine!" expostulated her sister.

"Goosie, I don't mean since this came."

"And you don't know who sent it?" asked Charlotte.

"Think of sending a gift like this and not getting the credit for it,"
said Miss Sarah, viewing it from a practical standpoint.

"If I knew who sent it, mamma wouldn't let me keep it,--at least Alex
wouldn't,--so of course I do not know."

It was impossible not to smile at her.

"You are a fraud, Madelaine," Miss Sarah said. "I wish I had the money
some people spend on valentines."

"James Mandeville has a more practical mind than Miss Russell's
unknown admirer; he delivered his valentines in person and demanded
full credit," Marion observed.

Norah whispered to Alex, "Please be nice to my little girl," so Alex
took a seat beside Miss Martin and showed her how to begin a basket.

"Miss Pennington says you are a stenographer. I am trying to learn,
but I am hopelessly stupid. Do you think one can learn by one's self?"

"I learned at the Business College," answered Miss Martin; and
looking Alex up and down she added, "but you do not have to do it, do
you? I am glad I can support myself, but there are other ways,--like
this,--only I never dreamed of it before. In a business office
generally you are just part of a machine." Discovering that Miss
Wilbur, too, was listening, she came to an embarrassed pause.

"What would you do if you were to become suddenly rich, Miss Sarah?"
Madelaine asked, and everybody stopped to listen.

"Lose my mind, probably," was the answer.

"Riches make people so dreadfully commonplace," said Norah.

"What can be more commonplace than poverty?" Alex demanded.

"Well, I suppose both extremes are bad. It is, after all, the people
who have neither poverty nor riches who have ideas and make something
out of life."

"I could get heaps out of life if I were rich," Madelaine said.

"I still insist that rich people are to a considerable extent
unoriginal and stupid. They associate with persons exactly like
themselves, do the same things, say the same things, eat the same
things--"

"This is Miss Pennington's hobby," Marion remarked, smiling.

"What would you do if you were to becom