Nellie broke down. The thought of having to give up her dear old Virginia home, that had been in their family for five generations, was more than she could bear.
Madge kissed Eleanor gently. In the face of great difficulties Madge was not the harum-scarum person she seemed. "Don't worry too much, Nellie," she urged. "If Uncle and Aunt are well, then the loss of the money isn't so dreadful. Somehow, I don't believe we shall have to give up 'Forest House.' It would be too frightful! Perhaps Uncle will find the money in time to save it, or we shall get it in some way. I am nearly grown now. I ought to be able to help. Anyhow, I don't mean to be an expense to Uncle and Aunt any more after this summer." Madge's face clouded, although she tried to conceal her dismay. "Do Uncle and Aunt want us to leave the houseboat and come home at once?"
Phil's and Lillian's faces were as long and as gloomy as their other chums' at this suggestion.
But Eleanor shook her head firmly. "No; Father says positively that he does not wish us to leave the houseboat until our holiday is over. It is not costing us very much and he wishes us to have a good time this summer, so that we can bear whatever happens next winter."
No one had noticed little Tania while the houseboat girls were talking. Her eyes were bigger and blacker than ever, and as Madge turned to go into the cabin she saw that there were tears in them.
"What is it, Tania?" putting her arms about the quaint child.
"Did you say that you didn't have all the money you wanted?" inquired Tania anxiously. "I didn't know that people like you ever needed money. I thought that all poor people lived in slums and took in washing like old Sal."
Madge laughed. "I don't suppose the people in the tenements are as poor as we are sometimes, Tania, because they don't need so many things. But don't worry your head about me, little Fairy Godmother. I am sure that you will bring me good luck."
"Madge, I am afraid that you and the girls are not having as good a time at Cape May as I had hoped you would have," remarked Mrs. Curtis to the little captain about a week later as they strolled along the beautiful ocean boulevard that overlooked the sea. Only the day before Mrs. Curtis and Tom had returned from Chicago. Just behind them, Lillian, Miss Jenny Ann, Phyllis, Tom Curtis and Mrs. Curtis's protégé, Philip Holt, loitered along the beach. They were too far away to overhear the conversation of the two women.