For about a month in the year the three were away, Marion in her own home in Nottinghamshire, and the Orlingburys staying with different friends and relations. Ada Orlingbury had only three weeks holiday in the summer, and not quite a week at Christmas, but was busy with her type-writing all the rest of the year. Jane had a far longer rest from her cookery classes than Ada from her work, and Marion had longer holidays than either. When all were away they paid rent for their rooms just the same, but, of course, had no other household expenses. Marion was a very economical housekeeper and understood how to keep down expenses as low as possible, whilst still having everything comfortable. We must admit that very acceptable "helps" arrived sometimes from their friends in the country. It might be a large box of eggs, or a "hand" of pork, or perhaps a bag of apples, but this did not happen very often. Once a week they had a dinner without meat, but this was no hardship to any of the three, for all liked vegetables, fruit and fish, and this arrangement made things much easier for the housekeeper. Marion had quite grasped the fact that the best way to keep down the bills was to economise with the butcher's bill, for meat is the most expensive item of all. They had soup very often, as nice soup can be made for so little. They indulged largely in savoury dishes of macaroni and rice, some recipes for which we shall give in the course of this account of the girl-chums and their doings. Once a week, on Wednesday evenings, they went to a choral society to which they belonged, and, as they had to start at seven o'clock, instead of sitting down to dinner at that hour, they found it more convenient to have a sort of "high tea" on that evening and to have hot milk and cake or porridge when they came back. We must not forget to say that on alternate mornings they had porridge for breakfast, which Marion cooked the day before in a double saucepan, whilst she was seeing to her other cookery and which was warmed up in the morning. They generally supplemented this with scones, which Jane, with her superior knowledge of food-stuffs, pronounced to be very nourishing. On Sundays they dined at two o'clock. For this meal they often had meat pie, as that could be made the day before and heated, or eaten cold, as they preferred, or they chose something that did not take long to cook, such as cutlets.