“I still don’t quite see where I come in, Uncle Tom.”

“I…I want you to invite her to spend a few days at Silver Bush,” said Uncle Tom eagerly. “I can’t invite her to Swallowfield…Edith would—would have a conniption…and anyhow she wouldn’t come there. But if you’d write her a nice little note…Mrs. Merle Merridew…and ask her to Silver Bush…she went to school with Alec…do, now, Patsy.”

Pat knew she would be letting herself in for awful trouble. Certainly Aunt Edith would never forgive her. Judy would think she had gone clean crazy and Cuddles would think it a huge joke. But it was impossible to refuse poor Uncle Tom, pleading for what he believed his chance for happiness again. Pat did not yield at once but after a consultation with mother she told Uncle Tom she would do it. The letter of invitation was written and sent the very next day and during the following week Pat was in swithers of alternate regret, apprehension, and a determination to stand by Uncle Tom at all costs.

There was a good deal of consternation at Silver Bush when the rest of the family heard what she had done. Dad was dubious…but after all it was Tom’s business, not his. Sid and Cuddles, as Pat had foreseen, considered it a joke. Tillytuck stubbornly refused to express any opinion. It was a man’s own concern, symbolically speaking, and wimmen critters had no right to interfere. Judy, after her first horrified, “God give ye some sinse, Patsy!” was just a bit intrigued with the romance of it…and a secret desire to see how me fine Edith wud be after taking it.

Edith did not take it very well. She descended on Pat, dragging in her wake poor Aunt Barbara who had been weeping all over the house but still thought they ought not to meddle in the matter. Pat had a bad quarter of an hour.

“How could you do such a thing, Pat?”

“I couldn’t refuse Uncle Tom,” said Pat. “And it doesn’t really make any difference, Aunt Edith. If I hadn’t asked her to come here he would have gone to New Brunswick to see her. And she may not marry him after all.”

“Oh, don’t try to be comforting,” groaned Aunt Edith. “Marry him! Of course she’ll marry him. And she is a grandmother. George Streeter said so…and thinks she is still a girl. It’s simply terrible to think of it. I don’t see how I’m going to stand it. Excitement always brings on a pain in my heart. Everybody knows that. You know it, Pat.”