"But whose was it?"
"Don't know and don't care."
"You don't? Why, I think it is the most exciting thing I ever heard of!"
"If that isn't just like a girl! I suppose Marjorie would go wild over it too. But come along down to the garden. I haven't seen the Brady family yet, and I believe that is one of the girls down in the alley now."
"It is," said Elizabeth, joining him at the window. "It is Eva Louise. Very well, we will go down. But I do wish you would be more excited over the room."
"It takes a good deal to excite me," replied her guest. "If it were a game of football, now, or a bicycle-race, I might get excited; but just a room!"
It would be impossible to convey an idea of the lofty scorn expressed by Valentine's voice; and much disappointed and feeling somewhat crushed, Elizabeth put away the keys. Then getting her hat and warm jacket, for the fall days were growing colder, she followed Valentine to the garden, and together they went out through the back gate.
It is one of the peculiarities of Philadelphia that small streets known as "alleys" intersect the larger thoroughfares, and in many cases behind the handsomest houses are small dwellings in which live very poor families.
The Herricks' garden occupied a large amount of space, and the alley and its inhabitants were almost too far away to be noticeable; but they were there, all the same, and here Elizabeth's friends, the Brady family, lived in a manner which formed a startling contrast to her own home.
"I have thought of something," exclaimed Elizabeth, stopping short in the alley. Eva Louise, seeing them coming, had disappeared behind her own back gate. Even in so humble an abode as that of the Bradys it was only the back which opened upon the alley.