The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-08
BLAcK.wEED MEDIcIllE co, ATLANTA, GA.

young person. who thought manliness the propefest attribute oI a man.
 Posslbiy that was because she was her seIf so feminine, wlthal a beauty, It was, Tor the most part, beauty unadorn- ed. She was nearly as poor as she was pretty and well Dred-ner greatgrand- father had founded Manoruoh, to say nothing or being Governor of the State then all down the line there were judges, generals and learned men, entilled to write half the letters of, the alphabet after their names. They had been ricn, too, these ancestral dignitarles, put somehow the money had all slipped away before Bernice, the last of the Lyndons, was born. She had known nothing but saving and contriving, sparing here against modest outlay wonder, although in some fashion her mother had managed to keep her from being left out of things.
 Commonly the make-shifts did not daunt the girl. She had a merry heart and brave one-brave enough to laugh at her own lacks. It may well be that the fact of having three beaux to any other girls one had something to do with the laughter. In spite of it, how ever, in spite of all her numerous phi losophy. she found herself crushed at the thought of going to the MacLean's in a dancing frock-her only one--that had seen hard service through two preceding winters.
 There you have the root of the inspira- tion Memory also had something to do with it. When she had called on Miss Bixby talk had somehow drifted to min- iatures-the heiress had dilated upon her own collection of them, airily naming prices of this or that specimen in way that made Alice MacLean turn green with envy. They were astounding prices to Bernice's simple mind-five hundred for Melbourne and double that for un- pronounceable foreign masters But she had not remembered then the two minia- lures slowed at the very bottom of her rusty treasure box, one a beauty In stays and stomacher, with a long curl lying upon her bare bust the other a young fellow in powder and ruffles, with just a glimpse of velvet coat and lowered satin waistcoat.
 Bernice had played dolls with them in her solitary childhood-they were not family portraits-indeed, there was a mystery behind them. They had been found among the effects of a great uncle who, straying into the big world, sud- denly died there. He had been an artist. after sort, but the miniatures were not his handiwork. There was nothing to explain his possession of them-for long they were kept in state, in hope that a claimant would arise. Then they fell to be parlor ornaments, and later to the estate of playthings for a lonely little girl The little girl had grown big, had sharp twinge at the thought of part ing with them-but she was young and craved the things moral to youth.
 All things seemed to work together for her deSDpFatA nurD0Sa She wouId never think of selling the miniatures in Man orton-not even supposing a purchaser could be found. She must go to the city-and opportunity offered. There were still three shares of railway stock in the family-the dividends indeed were almost certain income. And once a year the ownership gave one right to ride free to town. Bernice had been there twice in all her life, albeit it was less than 50 miles away. So her heart was in her mouth as she whirled away on the early train-in fact. she was half way before she took note of the fact that Captain Redmond was a fellow passenger-also that he was looking at her rather wist- fully.
 Which is worst-to be too poor or too rich?" Bernice asked him abruptly as he sat down beside her. He smiled quiz zically and murmured: Ask something easy. pleasel Can you conceive of any bodys ever being too rich?'
 Moo! Not for themselves. But