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"So what?"

I had to agree What did money mean to any of us now? We had more than we could possibly spend "When the tops wear, I'll throw them out and buy a new pair"

"Then why bother to have the soles treated?"

"Mother, really," he said crossly "I like everything to keep its new appearance until I' at Melodie when she's bulging in thecow"

"I'll be happy the day she shows, then perhaps you can move your eyes away from her"

He lit a cigarette, met my eyes calmly "I bet I could easily take her away from Jory"

"How dare you say such a thing?" I cried angrily

"She never looks at me, have you noticed? I don't think she wants to see that I' than Jory now, and taller, and smarter, and a hundred times richer"

Our eye contact held I sed nervously, plucked invisible lint fro tomorrow"

He shut his eyes briefly, gripped the arms of his chair harder, but otherwise showed no expression "I disapprove of that girl," he finally ed

"I hope you won't be unkind to her while she's here Can't you re you? She loved you before you turned her against you She'd still adore you if you'd stopped teasing her so uns you said and did to your sister?"

"She's not my sister"

"She is, Bart, she is!"

"Oh, God, Mother, I'll never think of Cindy as my sister She's adopted, not truly one of us I've read a few of those letters she writes to you Can't you see what she is? Or do you only read what she says, and not what sheout?"

I ju with you, Bart?" I yelled "You deny Chris as your father, Cindy as your sister, Jory as your brother Don't you need to have anyone but yourself--and that hateful old man who trails you about?"