net. The boys can sleep in the tent for the time being. There's a
furnace, but we'll have to make some provision for coal--"

"But, my good woman, you don't propose to make this arrangement
permanent, I suppose?" Bert said, bewilderedly. "Why, I meant to
spend to-morrow looking about--"

"Why shouldn't it be permanent?" Nancy demanded. "We can kitch and
dine and sit in the big room, we'll have all the room we want,
upstairs. It's the only place in the world where we don't have to
pay rent. It's quiet, it's off the main road, nobody will see what
we are doing here, and nobody'll care!"

"They'll see us fast enough," Bert said doubtfully. "I never heard
of any one doing it--I don't know what people would say!"

"Bert," Nancy assured him seriously, "I don't care what they say.
I've been thinking it all over, and I believe I can risk the
opinion of Marlborough Gardens! Some of them will drop us, and you
and I know who they are. How much do we care? And the others will
realize that we are hard hit financially, and trying to catch up.
Mary Ingram came over while you were away, perfectly aghast. She
had just heard of it. I told her what we were trying to do, and
she said--well, she said just the one thing that really could have
helped me. She said: 'You'll have great fun--we lived in our
garage while the house was being built, and it was quite the
happiest summer we ever had down here!'" Nancy had squared herself
on the arm of his chair so that Bert could see her bright eyes in
the dark. "It was just like Mary, to put it that way," she went
on. "For of course even Holly Court was never as large as the