"What is it?" asked Valentine.
"It is about the Bradys," said Elizabeth, standing close to him and speaking in a low, mysterious voice that she might not be overheard from the other side of the fence. "Don't you think, Val, that it must be very hard for those girls to live in such a tiny little house and never to have a bit good time? Why, Eva Louise thinks the very nicest thing she can do is to play jack-stones on people's door-steps. Just think of it, Val, jack-stones! And she told me once that she had never been inside of any house, except those in their street that are like their own!"
"Well, what of it? We can't help it; and what is your idea?"
"But we can help it! That is just what I am going to tell you. We can invite the Bradys in to see us."
"Oh, my eye! What would Aunt Caroline say?"
Elizabeth was silent for a minute. She had not thought of that. "I don't know," she said, slowly. "I don't suppose Aunt Caroline would like it. We will have to give it up."
"No, we won't," returned Val, who was becoming bored with city life and longed for excitement of some kind. "Let's have a party to-day while the aunts are away. They would never know."
"We might; but I should tell them afterwards, of course. I really should, Val."
"Seems to me you are getting pretty particular all of a sudden. How about that room that you go to all the time on the sly?"