"Did you give the countess a swig out of your black bottle, Judy?" asked Sid, who had arrived home and come to find out why nobody had got supper ready for him. "If she left anything in the pantry I'd be glad of a bite."
"Why did you take her into the pantry just as she was leaving, Judy?" asked Pat.
"Oh, oh, I'd promised to give her a jar av me strawberry jam. But she'll niver be getting it home safe ... there do be something in an ocean v'yage it can't be standing ... she'll be firing it overboard afore she's half way across. She said to me in the pantry, Patsy dear, that ye did be having a lovely smile and a grand sinse av fun. Sure and I'm putting that bit av biscuit she lift on her plate in me glory box for a kapesake. It was her third so there did be no insult in her laving it. Well, it do be all over and whether I'll slape a wink to-night or not the Good Man Above only knows."
Judy was snoring soundly enough in the kitchen chamber when Pat and Cuddles went to bed. Young Joe Merritt had been around Silver Bush that night, wanting Pat to go to a picture with him but Pat had refused. Judy, as usual, wanted to know why poor Joe was always being snubbed. Wasn't he be way av being a rale nice young man and a cousin av the Charlottetown Merritts at that?
"I haven't a fault to find with him, Judy," said Pat gravely, "but our taste in jokes is entirely different."
"Oh, oh, that's sarious," agreed Judy ... and crossed Joe Merritt's name from her list of possibles.
"Pull up the blind and let the night in, Cuddles. And don't light the lamp yet. When you light it you make an enemy of the dark. It stares in at you resentfully. Just now it's kind and friendly. Let's sit here at the window and talk it all over. It would be wicked to go to sleep too soon on such a night."
"Sleep! I'll never sleep again in this world," sighed Cuddles luxuriously, squatting on the floor and snuggling against Pat's knee while she proceeded to devour some water-cress sandwiches. They were getting in the habit of these delightful little gossips by their window, with only the trees and the stars to listen. To- night the scent of lilacs drifted in and the night was like a cup of fragrance that had spilled over. A wind was waking far off in the spruces on the hill. The robins were still whistling and the silver bush was an elusive, shadowy world breathing mystery. Bold- and-Bad padded in and insinuated himself into Cuddles' lap, where he lay and purred, tensing and flexing his claws happily. One lap was quite as good as another to Bold-and-Bad.
"I've had too many thrills to-day to be sleepy ... some just awful and some wonderful. Wasn't Lady Medchester lovely, Pat? And NOT because she was a countess. She had such a finished air somehow. She wasn't a bit handsome ... did you notice how much she looked like Mrs. Snuffy Madison? ... and her clothes were really shabby. Except the fox stole of course. But her hat ... well, it looked as if Tillytuck HAD sat on it. But for all that there was something about her that we can't ever get, Pat, in a hundred years."
"SHE wouldn't care what the Binnies thought," said Pat mischievously.
"Don't ... I'm blushing. And I'm never going even to mention it to Trix. Have a sandwich, Pat? You must be empty. We neither of us had anything since dinner but a biscuit and a scrap of Bishop's bread. I was only pretending to eat under Lady Medchester's eyes. Puss, do stop digging your claws into me. I'm sure Lady Medchester will have an amusing tale to tell when she gets home. The stately halls of England will resound to mirth over Judy and Tillytuck."
"Tillytuck perhaps ... but not Judy. People laugh WITH Judy, not AT her. Our countess liked Judy. Did you notice what a lovely voice she had? It somehow made me think of old mellow things that had been loved for centuries ... after I got capable of thinking at all, that is. Cuddles, I'll never forget the sight as we bounced into the kitchen ... Judy Plum and the Countess of Medchester tête-à-tête at our kitchen table, with Tillytuck for audience. Nobody will ever believe it. It WILL be something to tell our grandchildren ... if we ever have any."
"I mean to have some," said Cuddles coolly.
"Well," said Pat, leaning out of the window to catch a glimpse of that loveliest of created things ... a young moon in an evening sky ... "there's one thing the Countess of Medchester will never know she missed ... my lemon cocoanut cake and Judy's fried chicken. I must write Hilary an account of this."