“A grand wedding. Some people don’t see how old Charlie Sutton could afford it but I always say most folks is only married once and why not make a splurge. I always did like a wedding. Wasn’t May the naughty thing to run off the way she did, so sly-like? I’ll bet you folks here wasn’t a bit more flabbergasted than I was when I heard it. And maybe I didn’t feel upset about her coming in here with you all. But I always believed it would work out in time and it has. People said May could never live in peace here, Pat was such a crank. But I said, ‘No, Pat isn’t a crank. It’s just that you have to understand her.’ And I was right, wasn’t I, dearie? May made up her mind when she come here that she’d get along with you. ‘It takes two to make a quarrel, ma, you know,’ she said. And I said, ‘That’s the right spirit, dearie. Behave like a lady whatever you do. You’re a Gardiner now and must live up to their traditions. And you must make allowances.’ That’s what I said to her. ‘You must make allowances. And don’t be scared. I hope my daughter isn’t a coward,’ I said. It’s a real joy to me to see how well you’ve got on together, though I don’t deny that Judy Plum has been a hard nut to crack. May has felt certain things…May always did feel things so deeply. But she just made allowances as I advised her. ‘Judy Plum has been spoiled as everyone knows,’ I told her, ‘but she’s old and breaking up fast and you can afford to humor her a bit, dearie.’ ‘Oh, I’m not going to stoop to argue with a servant,’ May says. I’m above that.’ May always was so sensible. Well, I’m glad poor Enid Sutton has got married at last…she’s gone off terrible these past three years waiting for Joe and not knowing if he’d ever come. And what about you, Pat dearie? I can’t imagine what the men are thinking of. Isn’t your widower a bit slow?”…with a smirk that had the same effect on Pat as a dig in the ribs…“Folks think he’s trying to back out of it but I tell them, ‘no, that’ll be a match yet.’ Just you encourage him a little more, dearie…that’s all he needs. To be sure, May said to me the other day, ‘I wouldn’t take another woman’s leavings, ma.’ But you’re not getting any younger, Pat, if you’ll excuse my saying so. I was married when I was eighteen and I could have been married when I was seventeen. My dress was of red velvet and my hat was of black velvet with a green plume. Everyone thought it elegant but I was disappointed. I’d always wanted to be wedded in a sky-blue gown, the hue of God’s own heaven.”