Charles Synyard (@CharlesSynyard)

2/2 “Uncle Horace did not prove hard to entertain. When he was not talking over old times with dad or Uncle Tom or Judy he was reading sentimental novels… the more sentimental the better. When he had exhausted the Silver Bush library he borrowed from the neighbours. But the book David Kirk lent him did not please him at all. “‘They don't get married at the last,’ he grumbled. ‘I don’t care a hoot for a book where they don't get properly married... or hanged... at the last. These modern novels that leave everything unfinished annoy me. And the heroines are all too old. I don’t like em a day over sixteen.’” (133-134) Patricia Gardiner’s Uncle Horace airs his views on novels! He brings a sagacious old-timer’s wariness of innovations to Silver Bush when he arrives almost miday through Mistress Pat (1935), the sequel to Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery. Horace, a longtime captain, had sent word he was returning to the Gardiner family home, Silver Bush, for the first visit in twenty years, but is late getting there, and happens to arrive during a party thrown in honor of Pat’s younger sister Rachel. Rae, as she is nicknamed, is herself sixteen, and at just over Uncle Horace’s limit for a heroine, will soon be leaving for her year at Queen’s, a fictional teacher’s college most famously seen in Anne of Green Gables and its sequels, but that is a fixture across several of Montgomery’s works. Pat loves the excuse for getting up a party, and it is an ornate affair, with Chinese lanterns strung up outside, as shown on the cover of the edition in the second pic. I am glad though to have this Bantam paperback featuring the unmatchable artwork of Ben Stahl, next to my cherished Emily of New Moon bookmark. Anyways, Pat is a bit taken aback after the party, when she runs into her relation for the first time. “Pat felt a little bit dazed as he rose to shake hands with her. This was not the Uncle Horace she had pictured... neither the genial old rascal of Judy's yarns nor the typical tar of dad's reminiscences. He was tall and thin and saturnine, with hair of pepper and salt. With his long lean face and shell-rimmed spectacles he looked more like a somewhat dyspeptic minister than a retired sea-captain. To be sure, there was something about his mouth... and his keen blue eyes... Pat felt that she wouldn't have liked to head that mutiny against him.” (131) He was said to have been been witness to “the mutiny off Bombay”, but as this is the early 1930s and Uncle Horace is in his sixties, not sure which event this was. In any case, Horace is not long in opining on the goings-on at the party. “‘Had some fun watching the dance from the bush,’ he said. ‘Some pretty girls clothed in smiles… and not much else. I never expected to see P. E. Island girls at a dance with no clothes on.’ “‘No clothes,’ said Aunt Edith, rather staggered… “‘Well, none to speak of. There were three girls there with no back at all to their frocks. Times have changed since we were young, Alec.’” (131) “Long Alec” Gardiner in Pat’s father. One of the three with “no clothes on to speak of” was, by the way, Pat’s recurring bête noire, May Binnie. The Binnies fill the crass, overworldly eternal nemeses role Josie Pye and the Pyes play in the Anne books, but rarely appear “on screen”. In a rare exception, “May was very gorgeous in a gown of cheap, mail-order radium lace that broke in billows around her feet and afforded a wonderful view of most of the bones in her spine.” (127) Uncle Horace’s decrying this as dancing with no clothes on is a clear reference to, and immediate contrast with one of my favorite moments from the first book, when Pat danced naked outdoors on a moonlit night, thinking to really live a scene fit for a fairy tale. You can see my post on that immortal scene here. As the family maid Judy recalled at the second book’s beginning, “Patsy, do ye be minding the time ye were dancing naked here by the light av the moon and me lady Edith nabbed ye?” (7) Sure enough, Aunt Edith is present in this scene too. Rae, a vivacious modern girl evidently hearing of her older sister’s faux pas for the first time, replied, “Dancing naked? And you won't even let me wear shorts round home.” (7) Presently, on Uncle Horace remarking that times have changed since he and Long Alec were young, she says, “For the better I should think. It must have been awful… dresses lined and re-lined, sleeves as big as balloons, and rats in your hair.” (131-132) In answer to which, “Uncle Horace looked at her meditatively, as if wondering what kind of an insect she was, fitted his finger-tips carefully together, and went on with his tale. For the first time in her life Rae Gardiner felt squelched.” (132) His is wisdom not just to be brushed off. The really interesting thing about the paired scenes, Pat dancing beneath the moon in the nude alone, and the guests dancing skimpily at the Gardiner’s party for Rae, is in the reactions. When Pat’s romantic frolic was discovered, she was treated with scorn, as if she had done something disgraceful, even though it was beautiful, and visible only to close family by chance. But the daringly dressed women at the party, and their boyfriends, behaved very disrespectfully. “‘Patsy darlint, there do be some couples spooning on the flat monnymints in the graveyard. Do ye be thinking that dacent now?’ “‘It's not in the best of taste but we can hardly turn them out of it, Judy.’” (129) “‘I kept back in the bush... had to,’ said Uncle Horace. ‘If I moved I fell over some canoodling couple. There were people in love all over the place.’” (132) These public displays of affection—including atop the monuments in the coveted family graveyard!—sound very far removed from the prim behavior usual to social functions in the Victorian era setting of the Anne, and much closer to what we’d expect on the fringes of a “red Solo cup” event today. But it is just the pair of mysterious old timers, Uncle Horace and Judy (who had been the most understanding to Pat after she was shamed for dancing naked), who object when the kinds of dress and behavior seen in public turn so questionable. Pat’s frolic was really beautiful, harmed no one nor had any bearing on societal morals, and everyone minded or thought her foolish. The party guests brazenly embraced declining standards, were immodest and even disrespectful of the dead, but were not reproved. This is just another case which contrasts the worldly, materialistic outlook with that of the kindred spirits, who have an inner spring of appreciation for beauty, spirit, and what is right in itself, rather than because others say it is. Although the term is not mentioned in this series, it became clear in the first book that Pat, Judy, Hilary, and Bets were among that communion, which Uncle Horace now joins. Now eager to read on. How will Pat keep life at Silver Bush going as it always has, as the years continue to pass, and change comes? #LMMontgomery #MistressPat #PatOfSilverBush #romanticism #parties #dancing #dress #PDA #morals #ethics #kindredspirits #BenStahl #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books