Further Chronicles of Avonlea | Page 7

110 Hollis Street and ask for 'Persian.'
If the cat looks enough like Fatima, buy it and take it to Aunt Cynthia.
If it doesn't--but it must! You'll go, won't you?"
"That depends," said Max.
I stared at him. This was so unlike Max.
"You are sending me on a nasty errand," he said, coolly. "How do I
know that Aunt Cynthia will be deceived after all, even if she be
short-sighted. Buying a cat in a joke is a huge risk. And if she should
see through the scheme I shall be in a pretty mess."
"Oh, Max," I said, on the verge of tears.
"Of course," said Max, looking meditatively into the fire, "if I were
really one of the family, or had any reasonable prospect of being so, I
would not mind so much. It would be all in the day's work then. But as
it is--"
Ismay got up and went out of the room.
"Oh, Max, please," I said.
"Will you marry me, Sue?" demanded Max sternly. "If you will agree,

I'll go to Halifax and beard the lion in his den unflinchingly. If
necessary, I will take a black street cat to Aunt Cynthia, and swear that
it is Fatima. I'll get you out of the scrape, if I have to prove that you
never had Fatima, that she is safe in your possession at the present time,
and that there never was such an animal as Fatima anyhow. I'll do
anything, say anything--but it must be for my future wife."
"Will nothing else content you?" I said helplessly.
"Nothing."
I thought hard. Of course Max was acting abominably--but--but-- he
was really a dear fellow--and this was the twelfth time--and there was
Anne Shirley! I knew in my secret soul that life would be a dreadfully
dismal thing if Max were not around somewhere. Besides, I would
have married him long ago had not Aunt Cynthia thrown us so
pointedly at each other's heads ever since he came to Spencervale.
"Very well," I said crossly.
Max left for Halifax in the morning. Next day we got a wire saying it
was all right. The evening of the following day he was back in
Spencervale. Ismay and I put him in a chair and glared at him
impatiently.
Max began to laugh and laughed until he turned blue.
"I am glad it is so amusing," said Ismay severely. "If Sue and I could
see the joke it might be more so."
"Dear little girls, have patience with me," implored Max. "If you knew
what it cost me to keep a straight face in Halifax you would forgive me
for breaking out now."
"We forgive you--but for pity's sake tell us all about it," I cried.
"Well, as soon as I arrived in Halifax I hurried to 110 Hollis Street,
but--see here! Didn't you tell me your Aunt's address was 10 Pleasant
Street?"
"So it is."
"'T isn't. You look at the address on a telegram next time you get one.
She went a week ago to visit another friend who lives at 110 Hollis."
"Max!"
"It's a fact. I rang the bell, and was just going to ask the maid for
'Persian' when your Aunt Cynthia herself came through the hall and
pounced on me."
"'Max,' she said, 'have you brought Fatima?'

"'No,' I answered, trying to adjust my wits to this new development as
she towed me into the library. 'No, I--I--just came to Halifax on a little
matter of business.'
"'Dear me,' said Aunt Cynthia, crossly, 'I don't know what those girls
mean. I wired them to send Fatima at once. And she has not come yet
and I am expecting a call every minute from some one who wants to
buy her.'
"'Oh!' I murmured, mining deeper every minute.
"'Yes,' went on your aunt, 'there is an advertisement in the
Charlottetown Enterprise for a Persian cat, and I answered it. Fatima is
really quite a charge, you know--and so apt to die and be a dead
loss,'--did your aunt mean a pun, girls?--'and so, although I am
considerably attached to her, I have decided to part with her.'
"By this time I had got my second wind, and I promptly decided that a
judicious mixture of the truth was the thing required.
"'Well, of all the curious coincidences,' I exclaimed. 'Why, Miss Ridley,
it was I who advertised for a Persian cat--on Sue's behalf. She and
Ismay have decided that they want a cat like Fatima for themselves.'
"You should have seen how she beamed. She said she knew you always
really liked cats, only you would never own up to it. We clinched the
dicker then and there. I passed her over your hundred and ten
dollars--she took the money without turning a