of the rooms. I don't care
where or how you get the items for furnishing, but I'd like some of the
fun of going about with you when you visit odd corners of the country to
dig up the antiques."

"If you waste your time that way, how do you expect to finish a hurried
education in engineering?" asked Polly.

"Oh, furnishing won't last long, and studying will."

"If Mr. Dalken is a conscientious executor of your estate I should think
he'd forbid your wasting any time hunting up furniture and hiring
decorators to do it for you, at the same time," teased Eleanor.

Mr. Dalken laughed and said: "I always said 'All work and no play makes
Jack a dull boy.'"

"Well, Jack can work for two whole weeks before he gets any play, as far
as going to a sale is concerned. There will be no sale, that we know of,
until the old house at Parsippany is sold in two weeks," explained Polly.

"I won't have to wait as long as that, I hope, for my apartment. I'm
paying rent on it already, and am stopping with Mr. Dalken as his guest,
until I get a bed and a chair."

"But I thought you wanted to furnish by going to the sales of antiques,"
ventured Polly.

"I did, but I want to go to one tomorrow. Can't you girls contract to
escort me to places in the city where we can get things without waiting?"

"As far as that is concerned, we can take you right over to the Ashby
Shop and find everything on earth you can use, right in his collections,"
said Polly.

"I wanted to feel that you two girls were getting this contract and the
profits, and not a famous establishment," demurred Jack.

"We'll have the contract, all right, but we will only buy what we need
from Mr. Ashby, at regular discount, you know," explained Eleanor in a
business-like manner.

Mr. Dalken smiled indulgently on his two young friends who had developed
such marvelous aptitude for business since their trip abroad that summer.
And young Baxter concluded with: "All right; tomorrow, you girls get Mrs.
Fabian, and come over to my rooms to get your 'atmosphere.' Then we'll
start in and shop."

So the next ten days were filled with a great many visits to the
apartment to determine certain colors and styles of things, and with a
great deal of important conferring between the client and the decorators.
But eventually, the apartment was almost ready for its occupant, and
three young people declared that the decorating was a work of art--simply
perfect! And it did not cost so _very_