with your hateful Cousin Louisa."

"Hateful? Did I ever dare to say that my Cousin Louisa was hateful?
She is one of the loveliest women in this world! Just think! Cousin
Louisa has written to say that she can't have me, or rather won't have
me, visit her. She is going to shut up her house, and is going to sail
for Europe. I know it is just to escape my odious presence."

"Why, Madge, what will you do?" Eleanor asked. "You've nowhere else to
go." You know how you hate those awful children at Charlottesville."

"Wait, Eleanor Butler--wait!" Madge cried dramatically. "You do not
know what has happened, nor why I now truly love and adore the same
Cousin Louisa whom I once thought I disliked. Just look here." Madge
waved a small strip of paper in the air. "Cousin Louisa has sent me a
check for two hundred dollars! She says I am to spend the money on my
summer vacation in any way I like, provided Aunt Sue and Uncle William
approve."

"But you can't go off traveling by yourself," objected Eleanor. "I
should think you would hate to spend your summer alone."

"Alone!" Madge answered indignantly. "Who said I meant to spend my
vacation alone? I want you three girls to spend the six weeks with me.
Only last night Eleanor and I said that we four girls could never be
really happy anywhere without one another."

"Generous Madge," smiled Lillian affectionately. "Two hundred dollars
seems quite a fortune. Perhaps you ought not to spend it all. Where
can we go, and what can we do?"