"That is true. I don't believe that is right. Why didn't you say so before, Val? I will tell Aunt Caroline to-night."
"I say," interrupted Valentine, "I've got a dandy idea! Let's ask the Brady family over, and take them up to that room! No one will ever know, and it would be a jolly lark. I'll open the front door, and the servants won't know, either. It will be no end of fun. You go after them now and bring them over. You see, if we had them in the other part of the house we couldn't keep them out of sight, and the servants would make a fuss."
Elizabeth looked doubtful. "I should like to," she said, "but we shall have to keep very quiet there, and not disturb the things in the room much. It really seems as if we ought to give them a good time, though, and when I explain it all to Aunt Caroline I don't believe she will mind; do you? At least, not so very much."
"Of course she won't," said Valentine, hopefully, upon whom the scheme had taken a strong hold. "Go and get them and bring them around to the front door, and I will let you in."
And without giving her time to remonstrate, Val left her and ran up the garden walk to the house.
"After all," said Elizabeth to herself, "it can't be a wrong thing to do, for it says in the Bible that when people give parties they ought to invite all kinds of queer people. I remember perfectly it says to call in the lame, the halt, and the blind. I always thought 'call in' was such a funny expression, but I am sure it says it somewhere in the Bible, and I think it was about that party. Now the Brady family are not lame or blind, but perhaps they are halt. I never knew what halt meant, and very likely they are halt. Anyhow, I mean to call them in." And suiting the action to the word, she raised her voice and called loudly: "Eva Louise! Eva Louise!"
Eva Louise had been surveying her neighbors through a hole in the fence for some time. She had even caught a word or two of the conversation, and had heard her own name mentioned, but she had not understood what it was all about. Now, seeing that Elizabeth was alone, she opened the gate.
"What do yer want?" she asked.
"Is Bella at home?"
"Guess so."