luncheon or tea almost any time,
especially in London, but that's different. Who else now, Becky? Let's
see if we choose the same ones."

"Mary and Julia Picknell, and Mary and Ellen Grant, and Lizzie French,
and George Max, and Frank Crane, and my cousin Jim Beck,--Dan's too
little. They would be eight, and you and I make ten--oh, that's too
many!"

"Dear me, no!" said Betty lightly. "I thought of the Fosters, too"--

"We don't have much to do with the Fosters," said Mary Beck. "I don't
see why that Nelly Foster started up and came to see you. I never go
inside her house now. Everybody despises her father"--

"I think that Nelly is a dear-looking girl," insisted Betty. "I like her
ever so much."

"They acted so stuck-up after Mr. Foster was put in jail," Mary went on.
"People pitied them at first and were carrying about a subscription-paper,
but Mrs. Foster wouldn't take anything, and said that they were going to
support themselves. People don't like Mrs. Foster very well."

"Aunt Barbara respects her very much. She says that few women would
show the courage she has shown. Perhaps she hasn't a nice way of
speaking, but Aunt Barbara said that I must ask Harry and Nelly, when we
were talking about to-night." Betty could not help a tone of triumph;
she and Becky had fought a little about the Fosters before this.

"Harry is just like a wild Indian," said Mary Beck; "he goes fishing and
trapping almost all the time. He won't know what to do at a party. I
believe he makes ever so much money with his fish, and pays bills with
it." Becky relented a little now. "Oh, dear, I haven't anything nice
enough to wear," she added suddenly. "We never have parties in
Tideshead, except at the vestry in the winter; and they're so poky."

"Oh, wear anything; it's going to be hot, that's all," said industrious
Betty, in her business-like checked apron; and it now first dawned upon
Becky's honest mind that it was not worth while to make one's self
utterly miserable about one's clothes.

The two girls went scurrying away like squirrels presently to invite the
guests. Nelly Foster looked delighted at the thought of such a
pleasure.

"But I don't know what Harry will say," she added, doubtfully.

"Please ask him to be sure to come," urged Betty. "I should be so
disappointed, and Aunt Barbara asked me to say that she depended upon
him, for she knows him better than she does almost any of the young
people." Nelly looked radiant at th