Before Blue Bonnet realized it, it was dinner time and Julia had begun to lay the table; she jumped up in dismay. “I only meant to stay a few moments! What will Aunt Lucinda say? I was right in the middle of practising.”
Visions of an undusted parlor, of Grandmother waiting patiently for her and her mending-basket, rose before her.
“It had to be in the middle of something, hadn’t it?” Debby laughed.
“But you are both to stay to dinner with us,” Mrs. Blake said, coming in; “I’m sending word by Lydia now.”
“Oh, I would love to do that!” Blue Bonnet exclaimed; it would be fun making part of a family, if only for a day.
“I wish I had five little sisters!” she told Sarah, sitting on the bed in the latter’s room. “It must be lovely, having someone to share your room with you.”
Sarah, conscious of certain unexpressed longings for a room all to herself,—Julia was so untidy,—only smiled by way of answer.
“How about the club this afternoon?” Debby asked, from the washstand. “Are we meeting here, or at Blue Bonnet’s?”
Blue Bonnet turned suddenly to look out of the window, while Sarah answered, hurriedly. “Let’s make it a walking meeting, it’s too nice to stay indoors. Father’s going out by the Doyles’ after dinner; I’ll ask him to tell Ruth and Susy to meet us at the cross-roads.”
“Kitty can’t go, she’s off with the doctor for the day,” Debby said; “it’s Amanda’s treat. I’ll run around there after dinner and remind her. Sarah, I never knew that the view from your back window was so absorbing.”