Page:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu/27

 dessert. Jane folded her hands and said vaguely:

"I wonder if they just said it that way because it sounds grand, or if it's really true."

"What?" Alan inquired; "what, anyway?"

With the Fortune of the Indies went the fortunes of the Ingrams, his sister quoted dreamily.

"Doesn't it look as though it were true?" Mark said. "I haven't noticed much fortune embarrassing the Ingrams of late. I'd awfully like more ham, Aunt Lucia."

"I'm afraid there is no more, my dear," said Miss Lucia. "Could you eat bread? The saying is true, Jane, though I am very little given to believing in old tales."

"I must say I don't see where it all went to," Alan put in. "Wasn't great-grandfather supposed to be one the wealthiest men in the China trade?"

"You must remember," said Miss Ellen, "that most of his great investments went wrong after his death. The Civil War ruined many a fortune, Alan."