“He doesn’t want us to come back,” Babbie declared hotly, outside the door. “He’s afraid we wouldn’t pay the rent on time.”
“We probably shouldn’t, any such rents as those,” Madeline assured her. “We acted like babes in the wood, I suppose. Never mind. We’ll ask Bob Enderby and Dick. They’ll know what to do. You were jolly right, Betty, about beginning on the essentials.”
That night Mrs. Bob’s sitting-room was the scene of a solemn council of war. Dick Blake was scribe, Henri, the Enderbys’ cook, who had once conducted what Dick irreverently described as the slowest quick lunch place in town, was called in as an expert, along with the girl in the top flat, because her two cousins had had a tea-room, until one of them discovered that drawing caricatures of the customers paid much better than selling them sandwiches and tea.
“But it was a splendid thing—that tea-room,” explained the girl earnestly, “because Arline never knew she could draw until then. She sat at the desk, you see, and took checks, and there wasn’t much she could do, so she got to sketching and thought it was fun, and went into an evening class, and now she’s got two things in the big autumn exhibit.”
“Listen to that,” cried Mr. Bob with enthusiasm. “Which of you is going to sit at the desk?”
“I suppose I am,” confessed Betty, “and I haven’t the least talent for drawing, so there won’t be any great artist discovered in our tea-room.”
“Well, my other cousin got married through the tea-room,” explained the girl from the top flat, naively. “They sold candy there, and she married the man they bought their candy boxes of. He’s a millionaire.”
“Hear! Hear!” cried Mr. Bob. “Now which of you is going to get the millionaire?”
“Come, Bob, do be serious,” begged Madeline. “We want to get at the facts.”
“A millionaire is a very valuable fact,” objected Mr. Bob flippantly. “That’s all, Henri, except that we shall want an extra fine supper by and by. Now, Miss Andrus, tell us some more about the profits of tea-rooms, the legitimate ones, if Madeline insists upon it.”