little Mrs. Fielding, who had been divorced, and was a daughter of
the railroad king, Lowell Lang, said that she hated Newport and
Easthampton because the women dressed so much. She dressed more
beautifully than any other women at Marlborough Gardens, but was
quite unostentatious and informal.

Nancy's cheeks burned when she remembered something she had
innocently said to Mrs. Fielding, in the early days of their
acquaintance. The fare to the city was seventy cents, and Nancy
commented with a sort of laughing protest upon the quickness with
which her mileage books were exhausted, between the boys' dentist
appointments, shopping trips, the trips twice a month that helped
to keep Agnes and Dora happy, and the occasional dinner and
theatre party she herself had with Bert.

"Besides that," she smiled ruefully, "There's the cab fare to the
station, that wretched Kilroy charges fifty cents each way, even
for Anne, and double after ten o'clock at night, so that it almost
pays Mr. Bradley and myself to stay in town!"

"I never go in the train, I don't believe I've ever made the trip
that way," said Mrs. Fielding pleasantly. And immediately she
added, "Thorn has nothing to do, and it saves me any amount of
fatigue, having him follow me about!"

"But what do you do with the car, if you stay in for the theatre?"
Nancy asked, a day or two later, after she and Bert had made some
calculations as to the expense of this.

"Oh, Thorn leaves it in some garage, there are lots of them. And