Bert got up good-naturedly and laid the diagrams between the pages of his book to mark the place.
“You fellows make me tired,” he said. “When I want to study, you won’t let me. Why the mischief don’t you let Phin rent his own room?”
“Phin’s too busy,” answered Hansel. “He’s in a hole, anyhow, with a week’s work to make up. Besides, this is going to be a sort of a surprise.”
“Who for?” laughed Bert. “Johnny Sanger?”
“No,” said Harry, “for the landladies whose rooms we get the refusals of!”
“It’s a bit hard on them, isn’t it?” asked Bert virtuously, as he took his cap which Hansel tossed him. “They’ll think you mean to take their old rooms.”
“Merely a bit of innocent deception,” responded Harry airily. “They won’t be any worse off than they were before.”
“Besides,” said Hansel, “if you’ll persuade this Sanger chap to rent Mrs. Freer’s room we won’t have to play tricks on the landladies. And then your conscience won’t trouble you, Bert.”
“All right; come along. I was cut out for a room-renting agency, anyhow. Besides, Sanger is an awful duffer, anyway, and ought to have worse than this happen to him.”