chummery

Close by, but only to be glimpsed through the gateway in a high stucco wall, similarly shaded, is the bungalow once known as the chummery where three of four of Mr White's unmarried sub-divisional officers - usually Indians of the uncovenanted provincial civil service - used to live when not on tour in their own allotted areas of the district.

Dicky could not afford living in the chummery, modest as it was. He had to explain this before he moved to a single room next the office where he worked all day.