when Snicklefritz got stung on the eyelid by a wasp and had to be shut up in the church barn. And then everybody was getting dressed. Oh, weddings were exciting things … Sid was right. Mother wore the loveliest new dress, the colour of a golden-brown chrysanthemum, and Pat was so proud of her it hurt.
“It’s so nice to have a pretty mother,” she exclaimed rapturously.
She was proud of all her family. Of father, who had had a terrible time finding his necktie and who, in his excitement, had put his left boot on his right foot and laced it up before he discovered his mistake, but now looked every inch a Gardiner. Of darling wee Cuddles with her silk stockings rolled down to show her dear, bare, chubby legs. Of Winnie, who in her yellow dress looked like a great golden pansy. Of Sid and Joe in new suits and white collars. Even of Judy Plum who had blossomed out in truly regal state. The dress-up dress had come out of the brown chest, likewise a rather rusty lace shawl and bonnet of quilted blue satin of the vintage of last century. Judy would have scorned to be seen in public without a bonnet. No giddy hats for her. Also what she called a “paireen” of glossy, patent leather slippers with high heels. Thus fearsomely arrayed Judy minced about, keeping a watchful eye on everything and greeting arriving friends in what she called her “company voice” and the most perfect English pronunciation you ever heard.
Aunt Hazel and her bridesmaids were as yet invisible in the Poet’s room. Mother dressed Pat in her pretty green dress and hat. Pat loved it … but she ran upstairs to her closet to tell her old blue voile that she still loved it the best. Then the aunts came over, Aunt Barbara very weddingish in a dress and coat of beige lace which Aunt Edith thought far too young for her. Nobody could call Aunt Edith’s dress young but it was very handsome and Pat nearly burst with pride in her whole clan.
Uncle Brian from Summerside was going to take the bride and her maids to the church in his new car and it was a wonderful moment when they came floating down the stairs. Pat’s eyes smarted a wee bit. Was this mysterious creature in white satin and misty veil, with the great shower bouquet of roses and lilies of the valley, her dear, jolly Aunt Hazel? Pat felt as if she were already lost to them. But Aunt Hazel lingered to whisper.
“I’ve slipped the pansies you picked for me into my bouquet, darling … they’re the ‘something blue’ the bride must wear, and thanks ever so much.”
And all was well again for a while.
Father took mother and Winnie and Judy and Joe in the Silver Bush Lizzie but Pat and Sid went in Uncle Tom’s “span.” No Lizzie or any other such lady for Uncle Tom. He drove a great roomy, double-seated “phaeton” drawn by two satin bay horses with white stars on their foreheads and Pat liked it far better than any car. But why was Uncle Tom so slow in coming? “We’ll be late. There’s a million buggies and cars gone past already,” worried Pat.
“Oh, oh, don’t be exaggerating, girleen.”
“Well, there was five anyway,” cried Pat indignantly.
“There he’s coming now,” said Judy. “Mind yer manners,” she added in a fierce whisper. “No monkey-didoes whin things get a bit solemn, mind ye that.”
Pat and Sid and Aunt Barbara sat in the back seat. Pat felt tremendously important and bridled notably when May Binnie looked out enviously from a car that honked past them. Generally she and Sid walked to church by a short cut across the fields and along a brook scarfed with farewell summers. But the road was lovely, too, with the sunny, golden stubble fields, the glossy black crows sitting on the fences, the loaded apple boughs dragging on the grass of the orchards, the pastures spangled with asters, and the sea far out looking so blue and happy, with great fleets of cloudland sailing over it.
Then there was the crowded church among its maples and spruces — the arrangement of the procession — the people standing up — Aunt Hazel trailing down the aisle on father’s arm — Jean Madison and Sally Gardiner behind her — Pat bringing up the rear gallantly with her basket of roses in her brown paws — the sudden hush — the minister’s solemn voice — the prayer — the lovely colours that fell on the people through the stained glass windows, turning them from prosaic folks into miracles. At first Pat was too bewildered to analyse her small sensations. She saw a little quivering ruby of light fall on Aunt Hazel’s white veil … she saw Rob Madison’s flying jibs … she saw Sally Gardiner’s night-black hair under her green hat … she saw the ferns and flowers … and suddenly she heard Aunt Hazel saying, “I will,” and saw her looking up at her groom.
A dreadful thing happened to Pat. She turned frantically to Judy Plum who was sitting just behind her at the end of the front pew.
“Judy, lend me your hanky. I’m going to cry,” she whispered in a panic.
Judy fairly came out in gooseflesh. She realised that a desperate situation must be handled desperately. Her hanky was a huge white one which would engulf Pat. Moreover the Binnies were at the back of the church. She bent forward.
“If there do be one tear out av ye to disgrace Silver Bush I’ll niver fry ye an egg in butter agin as long as I live.”
Pat took a brace. Perhaps it was the thought of Silver Bush or the fried egg or both combined. She gave a desperate gulp and swallowed the lump in her throat. Savage winking prevented the fall of a single tear. The ceremony was over … nobody had noticed the little by-play … and everybody thought Pat had behaved beautifully. The Silver Bush people were much relieved. They had all been more or less afraid that Pat would break down at the last, just as Cora Gardiner had done at her sister’s wedding, erupting into hysterical howls right in the middle of the prayer and having to be walked out by a humiliated mother.
“Ye carried yerself off well, darlint,” whispered Judy proudly.
Pat contrived to get through the reception and the supper but she found she couldn’t eat, not even a chicken slice or the lovely “lily salad” mother had made. She was very near crying again when somebody said to Aunt Hazel,
“What is it like to be Hazel Madison? Do you realise that you are Hazel Madison now?”
Hazel Gardiner no longer! Oh, it was just too much!
Chapter 8
Aftermath
1
And then the going away! For the first time in her life Pat found out what it was like to say goodbye to some one who was not coming back. But she could cry then because everybody cried, even Judy, who seldom cried.
“When I feels like crying,” Judy was accustomed to say, “I just do be sitting down and having a good laugh.”
She would not let Pat stand too long, looking after Aunt Hazel, tranced in her childish tears.
“It’s unlucky to watch a parting friend out av sight,” she told her.
Pat turned away and wandered dismally through the empty rooms. With everything so upset and disarranged upstairs and down Silver Bush wasn’t like home at all. Even the new lace curtains seemed part of the strangeness. The table, that had been so pretty, looked terrible … untidy … crumby … messy … with Aunt Hazel’s chair pushed rakily aside just as she had risen from it. Pat’s brown eyes were drowned again.
