Toys in the Attic Book

Two sisters living together in a small southern town dream of touring Europe one day—but their plans are continually thwarted by the need to bail their ne'er-do-well brother out of a series of misfortunes. They are surprised then, and even oddly distressed, when the brother suddenly turns up with a large sum of money, enough to pay off the mortgage on the family homestead and to send his sisters on their grand tour. As it happens, however, the brother's good fortune stems from a plot devised by the spiteful wife of a local millionaire, and when the brother's wife discovers this, and jealously tells all, the scheme is shattered and the brother savagely beaten. In the end the sisters regain the dependence of their brother—but at a price far greater than they would have willingly chosen to pay.