David was thinking that silence with Pat was more eloquent than talk with any other woman. He was also wondering what Pat would do or say if he suddenly did what he had always wanted to do ... put his arm about her and said, "darling." What he did say was almost as shattering to Pat's new-found mood of contentment.
"Has Suzanne told you her little secret yet?"
Suzanne? A secret? There was only one kind of a secret people spoke about in that tone. Pat involuntarily put up her hand as if warding off a blow.
"No ... o ... o," she said faintly.
"She probably would have if you had been alone with her to-night. She's very happy. She has made up a quarrel she had before we came here with an old lover ... and they are engaged."
It was too much ... it really was. So Suzanne was to be lost to her, too! And she had to be polite and say something nice.
"I ... I ... hope she will always be very happy," she gasped.
"I think she will," said David quietly. "She has loved him for years ... I never knew just what the trouble was. We're a secretive lot, we Kirks. Of course they won't be married till he has finished college. He has had to work his way through. And then ... what am I to do, Pat?"
"You ... you'll miss her," said Pat. She knew she was being incredibly stupid.
"You'll have to tell me what to do, Pat," David said, bending a little nearer, his voice taking on a very significant tone.
Was David by any chance proposing to her? And if he were what on earth could she say? She wasn't going to say anything! She had had enough shocks for one day ... Hilary engaged ... grey hair ... Suzanne engaged! Oh, why must life be such an uncertain thing? You never knew where you were ... you never had security ... you never knew when there might not be some dreadful bolt from the blue. She would just pretend she hadn't heard David's question and go in. Which she did.
But that night she sat in the moonlight in her room for a long while and looked at the two paths she might take in life. Rae was away and the house was silent ... and, so it seemed to Pat, lonely. Silver Bush always seemed when night fell to be mourning for its ravished peace. The sky outside was cloudless but a brisk wind was blowing past. "What is the wind in such a hurry for, Aunt Pat?" Little Mary had asked wistfully not long ago. Everything seemed in a hurry ... life was in a hurry ... it couldn't let you be ... it swept you on with it as if you were a leaf in the wind.
Which path should she take? David was going to ask her to marry him ... she had known for a long time in the back of her mind that he would ask her if she ever let him. She was terribly fond of David. Life with him would be a very pleasant pilgrimage. Even a grey day was full of colour when David was around. She was always contented in his company. And his eyes were sometimes so sad. She wanted to make them happy. Was that reason enough for marrying a man, even one as nice as David? If she didn't marry him she would lose him out of her life. He would never stay at the Long House after Suzanne had gone. And she couldn't lose any more friends ... she just couldn't.
Suppose she didn't take that path? Suppose she just went on living here at Silver Bush ... growing into being "Aunt Pat" ... helping plan the clan weddings and funerals ... her brown hair turning pepper-and-salt. That grey hair popped into her mind. It seemed as if age had just tapped her on the shoulder. But it would be all right if only Silver Bush might be hers to love and plan for and live for, free from all outsiders and intruders. She wouldn't hesitate a second then. But would it be? Would it ever be hers again? She knew what May's designs were. And she knew Sid didn't want to leave Silver Bush for the other place. Would dad stand out against them ... could he? No, it would end in May being mistress of Silver Bush some day. That was the secret dread that always haunted Pat. And if it ever came about ...
A few weeks later David said quietly to her in the garden of the Long House ... the garden where Bet's ghost sometimes walked even yet for Pat ...
"Do you think you could marry me, Pat?"
Pat looked afar for a moment of silence to the firry rim of an eastern hill. Then she said just as quietly, "I think I could."
6
Mother was told first. Mother's face was always serene but it changed a little when Pat told her.
"Darling, do you really love him?"
Pat looked out of the window. There had been a frost the night before and the garden had a blighted look. She had been hoping mother wouldn't ask that question.
"I do really, mother, but perhaps not in just the way you mean." "There's only the one way," said mother softly.
"Then I'm one of the kind of people who can't love that way. I've tried ... and I can't."
"It doesn't come by trying either," said mother.
"Mother dear, I'm terribly fond of David. We suit each other ... our minds click. He loves the same things I do. I'm always happy with him ... we'll always be good chums."
Mother said no more. She picked up something she was making for Rae's hope chest and went on putting tiny invisible stitches in it. After all perhaps it would work out. It was not what she had wanted for Pat but the child must make her own choices. David Kirk was a nice fellow ... mother had always liked him. And Pat would not be far from her.
Judy came next and, for one who had always been anxious to see Pat "settled", betrayed no great delight. But she wished Pat well and was careful to say that MR. Kirk had rale brading. Since the engagement was an accomplished fact Judy was not going to say anything against a future member of the family.
"The poor darlint, she don't be as happy as she thinks hersilf," Judy told Bold-and-Bad, regarding him as the only safe confidant. Only she felt that Bold-and-Bad never understood her quite so well as Gentleman Tom had done. "And after all the min she might have had! But I'm hoping the Good Man Above knows what's bist for us all."
To Rae Pat talked more frankly than to any one.
"Pat dear, if you love him ..."
"Not as you love Brook, Rae. I'm just not capable of that sort of loving ... or it doesn't last. David NEEDS me ... or will need me when Suzanne goes. We're not going to be married until she is ... for two years at the least. I wouldn't marry him, Rae ... I wouldn't marry anybody ... if I knew I could go on living at Silver Bush. But if May stays here ... and she means to ... I can't, especially when you are gone to China. I've always loved the Long House next to Silver Bush. I'll be NEAR Silver Bush ... I can always look down on it and watch over it."
"I believe that's the real reason you're going to marry David Kirk," thought Rae. She looked at the shadow of the vine leaves on the bedroom floor. It looked like a dancing faun. Rae blinked to hide sudden foolish tears. Pat was going to miss something. But aloud she said only,
"I hope you'll be happy, Pat. You deserve to be. You've always been a darling."
Father took it philosophically. He would have liked some one a bit younger. But Kirk was a nice chap and seemed to have enough money to live on. There was something distinguished about him. His war book had been acclaimed by the critics and he was working on a "History of the Maritimes" of which, Long Alec had been told, great things were expected. Pat had always liked those brainy fellows. She had a right to please herself.