Tillytuck was likewise hard-boiled and said that the meetings were merely a form of religious dissipation. Judy went one night out of curiosity but could never be prevailed on to go again. Mr. Wheeler played a violin solo that night and she was horrified. No matter if the meeting was held in a barn. It was, or purported to be, Divine Service and fiddles had no place in such. Neither had she any exalted opinion of the sermon. “Oh, oh, not much av a pracher that! Sure and I cud understand ivery word he said.” So Pat and Rae were the only ones who went regularly…Pat going because Rae was so set on it…and very soon it was bruited abroad in the Glens that the Gardiner girls meant to leave the Presbyterian church and join the go-preachers. It blistered Pat’s pride to hear it and she was less than civil to Mr. Wheeler when he walked home with them after the meeting. To be sure it was on the way to his boarding house and he always walked by Pat and not by Rae, but Pat was the suspicious older guardian sister to the backbone. It was all very well to laugh at calf love but Rae must be protected. It was a real relief to Pat’s mind when, after six hectic weeks, Mr. Wheeler departed for pastures new and Mr. Monkman’s barn reverted to rats and silence. Rae continued to blush furiously for several weeks when Sid teased her about her boyfriend…Mr. Wheeler had said that he was glad to find there were still girls in the world who could blush…but nothing more came of it and Pat’s alarm subsided. Rae was asked to sing in the South Glen choir…began to experiment with the effect of her eye-lashes on the tenor and wear “gauds” again…and everything blew over, save for a little knot of faithful disciples who continued to hold services of their own in their homes and would have nothing further to do with churches of any description.

CHAPTER 18

Pat was in a store in town one evening when Suzanne Kirk came up to her and, in spite of Pat’s frigid bow, said smilingly,

“May I have a chance home with you, Miss Gardiner? David was to have run in for me but something must have gone wrong with our Lizzie.”

“Oh, certainly,” said Pat graciously.

“You are sure it won’t crowd you?”