“Everybody knows that all fat people eat all 74 the sweets that they can get, and all thin people take tea without sugar with lemon in it.”
“These people aren’t healthy. That’s where the intelligent supervision comes in.”
“What do you intend to do about them?”
“Watch over them a little more carefully. Regulate their servings craftily. Be sure of my tables. I have lots of schemes. I’ll tell you about them sometime.”
“Sometime,—for this relief much thanks,” murmured Billy; “just now I’ve had as much of these matters as I can stand. I don’t see how you are going to run this thing on a profit, though.”
“I’m not,” Nancy said, “I’m losing money every minute. That fifteen thousand dollars is almost gone now, of course. Billy, do you think it would be perfectly awful if I didn’t try to make money at all?”
“I think it would be a good deal wiser. I’ll raise all the money you want on your expectations.”
“All right then. I’m not going to worry.”
Billy looked down into the courtyard from the room up-stairs in which they had been talking. Already the preparations for lunch were 75 under way. The girls were moving deftly about, laying cloths and arranging flower vases and silver.
“Can I get right down there and sit down at one of those tables and have my lunch,” Billy inquired, “or do I have to go out of the back door and come in the front like a regular customer?”