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more than you reveal. That's quite an asset, Anna. You can count it as one of the most valuable items in your dowry."

As though through a glass wall, Anna could see what her cousin was driving at. She could sense Gertrude's disappointment at her still being poor and unmarried. With sudden pride she got to her feet. "I must tell you," she said firmly, "so far as a dowry is concerned, Gertrude darling, the treasures I have found are so great that a tenth part of them should satisfy the most demanding suitor."

"Indeed!" Gertrude looked at her with good-humored skepticism. "One really couldn't discover it by looking at you. So far as I can see that's the same old raincoat you wore when I saw you last. I'm willing to admit that your face is prettier, but I don't see any signs of prosperity; I don't see any diamonds sparkling on your fingers. As for what's inside you; well, naturally, I'm not clairvoyant."

Anna was somewhat hurt, although she knew that Gertrude's remarks were well intended. "If nothing less than diamonds will satisfy you," she jibed, "then I must tell you, Gertrude, that I have plenty of them; but instead of carrying them on me--I keep them inside. And do you know why?" she added playfully, "because they're entirely too heavy. They're fifty acres of vineyards on one side of a hill and forty acres at the other side. . . Now are you pleased, my dear?"

"Well, well, the wonderful things that can happen in this world," Gertrude sighed, assuming that Anna's Cinderella story was merely a figment of her romantic imagination. But if she had not met her fairy Prince at least she could have married an honest worker. She told Anna as much.

"I knew you'd get around to that, my dear," Anna said. "There's plenty of time to talk about such things."

Gertrude put up tea. It was only now that Anna fully took