“I’m afraid not, Judy. He’s got a big contract for building a mountain inn in B.C.…a splendid chance for a young architect. Besides…I think he has grown away from us now. He and Pat will never be anything but good friends. You can’t make him jealous…I know for I’ve tried…so I’m sure he doesn’t care for her except just as she cares for him. Do you know, Judy, I think it would be better if the uncles and aunts…and perhaps all of us…would stop teasing Pat about beaus or their absence. She thinks the whole clan is bent on marrying her off…and it rouses the Gardiner obstinacy. There’s a streak of it in us all. If you all hadn’t been so contemptuous of poor Larry Wheeler I don’t believe I’d ever have given him a second thought.”

“Girls do be like that, I’m knowing. But I’d like to see both you and Patsy snug and safe, wid someone to care for ye, afore I die, Cuddles darlint.”

Rae laughed.

“Judy, I’m only seventeen. Hardly on the shelf yet. And don’t you talk of dying…you’ll live to see our grandchildren.”

Judy shook her head.

“I can’t be polishing off a day’s work like I used to, Cuddles dear. Oh, oh, we all have to grow old and ye haven’t larned yet how quick time do be passing.”

“As for Pat,” resumed Rae, “I think perhaps she’ll never marry. She loves Silver Bush too much to leave it for any man. The best chance David has is that the Long House is so near Silver Bush that she could still keep an eye on it. Do you know that Norma is to be married this summer?”