ow. And you would have it, too; I'm perfectly
sure you would."

Mary was evidently much interested.

"I wish I might meet your cousin," she said.

"Why, you can. She is here in Boston now, buying for the summer. I'll
phone her and we three will lunch together tomorrow. Don't say you
won't; you've just got to."

So Mary, rather reluctantly, consented to make one of the luncheon
party. Afterward she was glad that she did, for Miss Esther
Hemingway--this was the cousin's name--was an interesting person. She
told Mary all about her tea-room and gift shop, how she started in
business, the mistakes she made at first, and the lessons she had
learned from experience. Because Barbara had asked her to do so she
brought with her photographs of the establishment, its attractive and
quaint exterior and its equally delightful interior.

"The whole secret," she said, "is in keeping everything in good taste
and simple. Choose the right location, fit up your rooms in taste and
cheerfully, serve the best you can find, and sell the unusual and the
attractive things that other people do not have, or at least are not
likely to have. Then charge adequate prices."

"Adequate being spelled A double D," observed Barbara significantly.

Mary parted from Miss Hemingway with a new idea in her head, an idea
that sometime or other she meant to put into practice.

On Thursday afternoon she called upon Mr. Green. That gentleman, having
had his opportunity to think, was ready with a proposition. Briefly it
was this: He had personally seen the principal creditors of Hamilton
and Company--they were all Boston business houses--and he and they had
agreed to make the following offer: Hamilton and Company's credit upon
debts already owed was to be extended six months. Mary was to go home,
endeavor to collect what money she could, and with it buy for cash
whatever goods were needed for the summer season. If that season was a
success and the business promised well for the future, then arrangements
could be made for future buying and for paying the old debt a little at
a time.

"At any rate," concluded Mr. Green, "this postpones the mortgaging or
selling for a time at least, and you always have it to fall back on if
you can't make your new undertaking pay. I believe you can. I advise you
to accept. Your other creditors feel the same way."

He did not add, as he might have done, that the opinion of those other
creditors had been influenced almost ent