Page:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu/28

 "And the ship and her cargo were lost," Miss Lucia added.

"The ship wasn't everything," argued Alan, "even if she was the best in the trade. And it was before the Civil War."

"The Fortune of the Indies," Jane murmured; "she was the most beautiful ship that ever was."

"The thing I'd like to know," said Mark, "is whatever became of the model of her."

"Who wouldn't!" exclaimed his brother, reaching for the cookies. "It does seem as if the Ingrams ought to have been able to hang on to that, at least."

The aunts sighed a little. This topic was one which recurred every so often, unavoidably, and was apt to last indefinitely, if not diverted. The old ladies, with a little nod to one another, rose from the table. Aunt Lucia took from behind the kitchen door a small apron, which her sister fastened for her. Though there was a little servant, of a sort, in the kitchen, the aunts themselves always washed the remnant of Ingram china.

The boys went off to study, but Jane, who needed very little impetus to be started on an