“Evelyn’s looking well, but she shouldn’t have her dress cut that way... it gives her sway back away... lordosis is the name nowadays, I believe... Evelyn is positively triumphant... no shrinking violet about her. I remember the day Amy gave the coming-out tea for her debutante daughter. And was she awkward! But of course seven seasons should give anyone poise.
“D’Arcy isn’t much to look at... his face is too long... but poor Rhea looks quite as well as the other bridesmaids. That shade of blue is so trying... probably Evelyn selected it for that reason. Marnie looks like a gypsy as usual... only gypsies aren’t quite so plump, are they? Amy will find it even harder to get her settled than Evelyn. Diana Blythe looks rather well. There really is something about those Blythe girls... though I’d never admit it to their mother.
“‘I will’... oh, my dear, you needn’t shout it! Everyone knows you will only too willingly. Even in Glen St. Mary they all know that D’Arcy was your last chance. It’s odd how things get around! Of course the Blythes have lots of friends in Montreal and Toronto. And Mrs. Blythe may have the reputation of not being a gossip... but she contrives to get things told... clever woman. Well, as for Evelyn, a professor’s salary is better than an old maid’s pension, no doubt. They’re off to the vestry. Mrs. D’Arcy Phillips! You can see it sticking out all over her. Look at Diana Blythe making eyes at that young what’s-his-name. And yet they say the Blythe girls never flirt! I doubt if she’ll be able to rope him in, for all her mother’s fine tactics. However, that is none of my business. I’m sure I hope poor Evelyn will be happy. But it doesn’t seem to me that anyone can be very happy when she’s simply marrying one man to save her face because another jilted her. Is anyone really happy in this mad world? They say the Blythes... but who knows what goes on behind the scenes? Not even old Susan Baker, I’ll bet my hat. Besides, she’s too loyal to admit...
“Now for the reception and the presents... and the usual silly remarks... and then the trip to Muskoka in D’Arcy’s new flivver. I wonder if the Enterprise will mention that the car is a flivver! Some difference between that and Elmer’s fifteen-thousand-dollar streamliner... or even Jim’s old Packard. But Evelyn will have to come down to a good many things. Jim always spoiled his family. There they come... quite a procession. I believe that boy is in love with Diana Blythe... if it lasts. No doubt Mrs. Blythe will do all she can to keep the fire burning. They tell me that woman is a terrible matchmaker. I wish I had the knack. Then perhaps my girls... well, well, Diana Blythe, you’re welcome to your young man if some other girl doesn’t snatch him up...”
Prue Davis, a bit passé and envious of all brides in general, thinking,
“It seems so funny that Evelyn is marrying D’Arcy Phillips after all, when she has used him so abominably for years. He’s only a poor young professor... but of course any port in a storm. She’s twenty-five... and looks it... more, I should say. Is that why she picked young bridesmaids? Diana Blythe looks sweet. Somehow, those Blythe girls are the only girls I ever met I really liked... and their mother is the only woman I ever felt I could love. If I’d had a mother like her! Well, we have to take what’s handed out to us in this world, parents and children alike. D’Arcy is nice and clever... there was a time when I might have caught him on the rebound... after one of the worst of their quarrels. But I always drop my bread butter side down... I’ve always been a fool and missed my chances. Of course the minute Evelyn crooked her finger he came to heel. Nobody else had any chance then. It’s just a way she has of looking up under her eyelids... the Blythe girls all have it too, I’ve noticed... well, some people have all the luck.
“I hope I won’t get this dress spotted... receptions are such horrible things for that... for heaven knows when I’ll get another. There they come... Evelyn looks well... she always knows how to wear her clothes, I’ll say that for her. It’s born in you. Look at Diana Blythe. I’ll bet that dress of hers didn’t cost a tenth as much as the others did... I believe I heard a rumour she had it made in Charlottetown while the others came from Montreal... and yet, look at it. Her hair, too. I never liked Evelyn’s ash-blonde hair. Heigh-ho! I found a grey hair today. We Davises all turn grey young. Oh, things are so beastly cruel. How do you do, Mrs. Blythe? A lovely wedding, wasn’t it?
“Now, Prue Davis, haven’t you any pride? Throw back your head and look as if you were sitting on top of the world.
“Thank heaven, that’s over. I don’t think any more people will speak to me. I don’t know many of the country folks here except the Blythes and they’ve gone. I wish the reception was over, too. I’m beginning to hate going to such things. ‘What, Prue Davis still! When are we going to attend your wedding?’ Apart from remarks like that, nobody would ever talk to me, except old married men. My looks are going and it’s no use having brains. When I say a clever thing to people they look startled and uncomfortable. I should just like to be quiet for years and years... and not have to go on pretending to be bright and happy and quite, quite satisfied. But I suppose most people have to do it. Only sometimes I think Mrs. Blythe...
“Oh, there’s someone else. How do you do, Mrs. Thompson? Oh, a lovely wedding! And such a charming bride! Oh, me! I’m not so easy to please as some girls, you know. And independence is very sweet, Mrs. Thompson.
“Of course she doesn’t believe for a moment I think that way but one must keep one’s head up. Now for it.”
Cousin Barbara Morse to a friend,
“So this is what I’ve come all the way from Toronto for! These family ties... they’re really all hooey. But I always liked Jim...
“It seems to me I’ve been here for hours. But you have to come early if you want an aisle seat... and you can’t see much if you have any other one. Besides, it’s really fun looking at everybody as they come in. Not that there’s much to look at here... most of the people are country folks. I suppose a fashionable wedding like this is a veritable godsend to them. The Blythes of Ingleside seem to be the only ones who can pretend to any culture. I thought Mrs. Blythe a very charming woman. The doctor, like all the men, thinks he knows it all. But they have a charming family... at least, those I’ve met.
“The bridal party will be late, of course... none of Jim’s family were ever known to be on time. Everybody seems to have been invited... and to have come. Of course it’s just the time of year when a trip to P.E.I. has a special charm. I really had no idea what a delightful place it was. I must come again. Oh, so you come every summer? So I suppose you know most of the people well. Oh, you have a summer cottage at Avonlea? That was Dr. Blythe’s old home, wasn’t it? Isn’t it strange that a man of his ability should have chosen to settle in a place like Glen St. Mary? Well, I suppose it is predestination.
“Why doesn’t Mattie Powell get those terrible moles removed? Electrolysis does it so nicely. Really, some people don’t seem to care how they look. How fat Mabel Mattingly is getting. But I shouldn’t talk. I never get weighed now. It simply won’t do... I’m blue for a week afterwards. Jane Morris of Toronto told me she took four inches off her hips, living just on buttermilk. I wonder... but I’d never have the grit to do it. I’m too fond of a good bite. I hope they’ll give us something eatable at the house. But Amy never was much of a housewife. Of course Mary Hamilton is a good cook. I suppose that is why they take her with them every summer when they go away. Oh, of course I know she’s just like one of the family. Amy always spoiled her servants.
“Look at Carry Ware... that stringy old chiffon! You’d have thought she’d have got something new for a wedding, at least. Even Min Carstairs has a new dress. I hear the Carstairs have come into money. They live in Charlottetown, you know. And Andrew Carstairs is as mean as skim milk. Of course that rose and silver is far too young for her. What’s that? Do you mean to tell me she is only as old as Mrs. Blythe? Well, city women always age more rapidly than country women. I agree with you... Mrs. Blythe is the best dressed woman here... at least she gives that impression. And yet they say she gets all her clothes
made in Charlottetown. But some people have a knack...
“Talking of ages... can you tell me how Sue MacKenzie contrives to look thirty-five when she is forty-seven? I’m not uncharitable, heaven knows... but one can’t help wondering. When she was married... so the story goes... her father made her go back upstairs and wash the powder off her face. If he could see her now! No, they tell me Mrs. Blythe never makes up. But country people are so easily fooled. She couldn’t look like that without a little make-up. As for Sue’s father... he was such an odd man, my dear... the queer things he would do when he got mad! Said nothing but burned rugs and sawed up chairs! Prue Davis wears well, but she must be getting on. I always feel so sorry for the girls who are on the shelf at a time like this. They must feel it.
“Yes, that is one of the Blythe girls... but it can’t be Diana... she is one of the bridesmaids. The idea of having four bridesmaids at a quiet country wedding! But Amy always had very large ideas.
“There’s old Mary Hamilton at the back of the church... of course the eats are all in the hands of the Charlottetown caterers, worse luck. I’d rather take a chance with old Mary any day. But they say she made the wedding cake... she and Susan Baker of Ingleside between them. Susan has a recipe I’m told she won’t give to anyone.
“Yes, Jim’s family have always made an absurd fuss over Mary, or Mollie as they call her sometimes. Why, when Jim got his first car nothing would do Mary but she must learn to drive it, too. And they actually let her! I’m told she’s been fined for speeding times without number. Oh, yes, Irish for a thousand years! It’s amazing how she took up with Susan Baker. You couldn’t imagine two people more unlike. She’s devoted to the bride and all that. At least people say so. But Mary knows on which side her bread is buttered... and to those of us who know a little about Evelyn’s temper! Just look at her staring at everybody and gabbing to Susan Baker. I’ll bet there are some queer tales being told.
“If they don’t come soon I’ll be carried out screaming... it’s ten minutes past the time now. Perhaps Evelyn has changed her mind! Or maybe D’Arcy has faded out of the picture like Elmer. You can say what you like but I’ll never believe he really cares much about Evelyn. Look at the Walter Starrocks! Will you ever forget the day they were married and him standing there with his coattails all over cat hairs? Walter is getting pouches under his eyes. Yes, it’s true we’re all getting on. But I fancy the life Ella Starrocks leads him... you don’t mean to tell me you’ve never heard! Well, just remind me some day.
“There they come at last. I don’t care for those halo veils but Evelyn must always have the very latest fad. How is she going to indulge her expensive tastes on D’Arcy’s salary? That shade certainly doesn’t become Marnie. Diana Blythe looks very well in it, though. As for Rhea... well, it doesn’t matter what she wears... only it’s a pity to have the harmony spoiled, isn’t it? Marnie is the plain sister so she’ll make the best match, take my word for it. I don’t know why it is, but you’ll always see it. I suppose they’re not so particular.
“D’Arcy looks as if he’s carried Evelyn off from a hundred rivals instead of being Hobson’s choice. But of course he doesn’t know that. He’s positively ugly, I think... except for his eyes... but I believe the women with the ugly husbands have the best of it. They don’t have to be everlastingly scheming how to hold their man.
“Well, it really went off very well. I’m glad for Amy’s sake... she’s so fussy over small things. No doubt she has been praying for fine weather every night for a month. I hear that Mrs. Blythe says she believes in prayer. Did you ever hear anything so funny in this day and age?”
Uncle Douglas March, thinking,
“Lot of lean women here. Never see anything of fine figures nowadays. That was back in the days when girls wore bangs and balloon sleeves... and were the same girls underneath, as Dr. Blythe says. His wife is the best-looking woman here. Looks like a woman. The church is dolled up all right. I must take in all the fixings to tell ma. Too bad she couldn’t have come. But rheumatism is rheumatism, as Dr. Blythe says.
“Some difference between this and my father’s wedding. His dad gave him a fourteen-year-old horse and a two-year-old colt, a set of harness, a bobsled, and some provisions. He paid twenty dollars for his clothes, the minister and licence, bought some chairs, a table, and an old stove. Her dad gave her twenty-five dollars and a cow. Well, well, what do we work and slave for if it isn’t to give the tads something better than the old folks had? And yet they don’t seem any happier than we did. It’s a queer old world.
“Here they come. Evelyn fills the eye all right. When she ain’t in sight I can never believe she is as pretty as I remember her. That’s Jim’s nose... a chip off the old block. Just as well... though Amy is a nice old puss... always liked her. Nice-looking boy Evelyn’s got, too... not too handsome... but sort of dependable looking. Some dress! Ma was married in nun’s veiling. Does anybody ever wear nun’s veiling now? Such a pretty name... and pretty stuff. Ah, it’s times like this makes a body realize that he’s no longer young. My day’s over... but I’ve had it... I’ve had it.
“If there ain’t old Mollie Hamilton back there, grinning like the frisky old girl she always was. She was a russet-haired jade when Amy got her... one time when she was visiting the Island. Mary’s grey as a badger now. They must have treated her well, the way she’s stuck to them. They don’t hatch her breed of cats nowadays. She always declared she would never marry... you couldn’t trust any man, she said. Well, she’s kept her word. Don’t know but she was wise. There’s mighty few men you can trust... if I’m a man myself. Except Dr. Blythe now. I’d trust that man with my wife.
“Now for the spread. Though they don’t have the wedding suppers we had in the good old days. ‘Don’t eat things you can’t digest, pa,’ ma told me. ‘You can digest anything if you have the courage to, ma,’ I told her. I heard Dr. Blythe say that once but ma didn’t know it. Doesn’t hurt a woman to think her man can say smart things. A pretty wedding... yes, a pretty wedding. And a happy bride! I’ve lived long enough to know the real thing when I see it. By gum, I have. They’ll stay married. Ma will have to read up about the wedding in the Enterprise. I couldn’t ever do justice to it. Between the Enterprise and Mrs. Blythe she’ll get a pretty good idea of it. Only I must warn Mrs. Blythe not to tell ma she saw me eating indigestible things. It’s lucky she’s a woman you can trust. They’re few and far between. Dr. Blythe’s a lucky man.”
One of the guests, of a cynical turn of mind, thinking,
“H’m... white mums and palms. They’ve done it very well... though I did hear the mums came from the little Ingleside conservatory. And everybody is here who should be... no end of relations... and of course all the curious folks of the Glen and surrounding districts. I hope the groom won’t be kissed to death... though there’s not so much of that nowadays, thank whatever gods there be. They’ve even got old Uncle Douglas from Mowbray Narrows. He’s inside the ribbon so he’s a guest. How they must have hated having him... at least Amy! Jim always had a bit of family feeling... but I doubt if Amy has any. Of course, he’s Jim’s uncle, not hers, but it would have been all the same. Poor Prue Davis... smiling with her lips but not her eyes... hope deferred maketh the heart sick. Odd... I learned that verse in Sunday school fifty years ago. If only Prue knew how well off she was! Mothballs! Who in the world is smelling of mothballs at this time of year? Here they come... Evelyn looks well... her profile and eyelashes always carried her... ‘off with the old love and on with the new’... engaged to Elmer Owen two months ago... and now marrying a man she has hated all her life. Poor D’Arcy! I suppose all this flummery was really planned out for her wedding with Elmer, even to the dress. Amy looks worried. Well, I had to see both my daughters marry the wrong man.
“Marnie’s quite sparkling... she has got twice the pep Evelyn has but nobody ever looks twice at her when Evelyn is around. Maybe she’ll have a chance, now that Evelyn is going.
“Jim is doing everyt
hing very correctly... a well-trained husband... he was crazy about me before he met Amy. If I’d married him he’d have been more successful from a business point of view... but would he have been so happy? I doubt it. I couldn’t have made him believe himself the wonder Amy has done. My sense of humour would have prevented it. We would likely have ended up in the divorce court.
“Does that minister spin out his sermons like that? He seems to have perfected the art of talking for fifty minutes and saying nothing. Not that I’m an authority on sermons, goodness knows. They say the Blythes go every Sunday. Habit is powerful. But they say there is some engagement between the families. I suppose they want to keep on good terms with each other.
“That stately old dowager in blue chiffon, with the old-fashioned pearls, must be D’Arcy’s mother. They say she has devoted her life to him... and now she must hand him over to a chit of a girl. How she must hate Evelyn! Osler was right when he said everybody should be chloroformed at forty... or was it sixty? Women anyhow. And isn’t it odd how women hate to give their sons up when they are always so glad to get their girls well married off?
“What a sight Rhea Bailey is! Those big gaunt girls should never wear flimsy dresses. But of course in this case she had no choice. It wouldn’t have mattered anyhow. Those Bailey girls never had any taste in dress.
“‘For better, for worse.’ That sounds wonderful... but is there really such a thing as love in the world? We all believe it until we are twenty. Why, I used to believe it. Before I married Ramsay I used to lie awake at nights to think about him. Well, I did it after we were married, too, but not for the same reason. It was to wonder what woman he was with. I wonder how his new marriage is turning out. Sometimes I think I was a fool to divorce him. A home and position means a good deal.
The Complete Works of L M Montgomery Page 595