It was a busy morning. Brook arrived at noon. Pat laid and decorated the wedding table. May, too, by way of asserting her rights, set a huge hodge-podge from her herbaceous border in the center of it after Pat had gone up to dress. Judy carried it ostentatiously out to the kitchen.

“Always taking a bit too much on hersilf,” she muttered.

May got square by saying, when Judy appeared in her wine-colored dress-up dress,

“How well that dress has kept its looks, Judy. It doesn’t really look very old-fashioned at all.”

CHAPTER 48

Upstairs a bride was being dressed.

“Here’s a blue garter for luck,” whispered Pat.

Rae stood, looking rather wraith-like in her shimmer of satin and tulle. She wore mother’s old veil…a bit creamy and a bit old-fashioned…high on the head instead of the modern mob-cap…but Rae’s young beauty shone radiantly among its folds. She was so full of happiness that it seemed to spill over and make everything lovely.

“Doesn’t she look cute?” said May, who had pushed herself in.

Pat and Rae’s eyes met in the last of their many amused, secret exchanges of looks. Pat knew it would be the last…at least for many years.

“I won’t…I won’t cry,” she said grimly to herself. “At least not now.”

As Rae gathered up her dress to go downstairs Bold-and-Bad saw his opportunity. He had been sitting at the head of the stairs, very sulky and offended because he had been shut out of Pat’s room. He pounced and bit…bit Rae right in the fleshy part of her slender leg. Rae gave a little squeal…Bold-and-Bad fled…and Pat examined the damage.

“He hasn’t broken the skin…but, darling, the beast has started a run in your stocking. What on earth got into him?”

“It can’t be helped now,” said Rae, stifling a laugh. “Thank heaven skirts are long. I deserve it…it was I who shut the door in his face. I was afraid he’d get tangled up in my veil. It was no way to treat an old family cat. He did perfectly right to bite me.”

The rest all seemed rather dream-like to Pat. The ceremony went off beautifully…though Rae afterwards said she could think of nothing but that run in her stocking the whole time. It would be so awful if Mrs. Binnie caught a glimpse of it somehow in spite of the long skirts…for Mrs. Binnie was there after all, having rushed madly away as soon as dear Samuel’s funeral was over. She reached Silver Bush just as the bride came down the stairs.