Mr. Gilson told Phoebe that he would keep in mind what she had told him. Mr. Gilson looked at his watch and said, “How time goes when you are in good company.”
Nancy said, “We Will have an early tea as I’m sure that Aunt Helen and Mr. Gilson do not want to be getting into Toronto too late.”
After the tea and the goodbyes were in action, Mr. Gilson was saying how pleased he was in meetings all you people. And how he enjoyed the home-cooked meal and the homemade preserves. And Helen gave the two children a big hug, also Nancy and Phoebe.
Mr. Gilson puts his head out the car window and said, “Phoebe, I will be looking forward to seeing you in Toronto.”
“A lots of that all depends on Aunt Helen and Nancy,” was Phoebe’s reply.
They were not too far along the road when Helen asked Mr. Gilson what he thought of the situation.
“Well, Helen, I didn’t want to show how enthusiastic I felt. That girl is a real find. With some music lessons and under the care of a good elocutionist for a little time she can be another Jeanette McDonald. She is the one out of a few, she is one of the very few. That girl has everything going for her. She has poise and dignity, also the figure and myself. Those beautiful legs. What is she, five ten? Her muscle is a big asset to her, especially as she moves.”
Jeanette MacDonald was a dazzling soprano and screen idol at her peak in the nineteen thirties. Her beauty and thrilling voice earned her gold records and glory as she starred in dozens of films. She was likely a heartthrob for many a young man exiting the theatre with a song in his heart and stars in his eyes.
Mr. Gilson told Helen that he could not recall ever hearing a voice such as hers and all the attributes that one could wish for to go with it. “She has a personality that is very difficult to figure out. It is etched in stone and it is genuine according to her honest approach to life. I tell you, Helen, I will be thinking of her a lot and mentally trying to figure out what makes her tick.”
“It’s like this, Sam. If it were possible, I would adopt her. Yes, indeed, I would and look after all her personal needs. Sam, there are some people in Dunadry, good people. They are not Victorian. In a way, they comparable to our native people. Their gardens and fruit and vegetables and self preservation are a very proud element of their existence. Money as a status of superiority does not bother a lot of them, but you go to one of their church socials, particularly if they are raising funds for new pews or other church necessities, to see the pride some of them women have in their pies, pickles, cakes and preserves. It makes you wonder, especially if you happen to be from Toronto or Montréal. Well, Phoebe’s parents happened to be two of them. You could never get them to have a passion for the city gadgetry. In their pride of competition there is never any jealousy. Now for Phoebe’s parents, she is just a chip off the old block. Whatever the parents desires may be, Phoebe complies.”
Helen thought it was quite an accomplishment that she had gained the confidence of the Phoebe’s parents, to trust Phoebe in her care and allow Phoebe to sing in a strange church. But to Dan and Bertha Croiner, it was just another church like Dunadry church.
“Sam, to get anywhere with them you will have to handle them with gloves.”
The summer was whittling away. It was the end of September and Sam Gilson was getting anxious to have Phoebe come down and get used to the routine around there. It would be a feather in his hat to have this wonderful singer display her talents in his choir. Phoebe confidentially told Rev. Little and Lillian Hamilton of the choir that she had an invitation to sing in Ashcroft Church.
Rev. Liddle told Phoebe, “Make sure that they do not keep you there.”
“Not much chance of that,” was her reply.
Well, what do you know, Nancy and Dell dropped into Phoebe’s home to say that they have received this letter from Aunt Helen. Nancy said, “Do you want to read it, Phoebe, or do you want me to read out loud?”
“No, Nancy, you read it out loud.”
In the letter, Mr. Gilson had been able to incorporate some of Phoebe’s favorite hymns into the special October service. Nancy told Phoebe that she could have one of her suitcases to take with her to Toronto. Phoebe was more concerned than they realized about losing more than a week’s work at the factory. She figured a six day week, ten hours a day, would add up to three dollars and fifty cents a day. At ten days lost, that would be thirty-five dollars. She thought, gee, that’s a lot of money.
She would be leaving Dunadry come Monday morning, leaving dad and mum and Earl and Esther for more than a week. Oh, I will just have to buck up and do what I promised Aunt Helen, she thought. I will be all alone in that monster of the train. Maybe I will be able to count the telephone poles as the train speeds along or maybe see some farmers filling silos. One thing I will see will be the odd field yellow with pumpkins and wondering what factory will process them into pie paste.
Come Monday, Nancy saw Phoebe off on the seven forty-five. Aunt Helen met Phoebe with her luggage at union station on the ten-o-five. And Helen gave her a big hug.
“I suppose you could eat a bite. Let’s slip over to the Clover Leaf on Yonge Street. There is the menu. Phoebe, pick out something that you like.”
Phoebe kept taking it all in, the waitresses all in uniforms, the well-dressed businessmen chattering at the tables. In fact the whole place was agog with chatter. She was thinking that you could fit a dozen or more of Ducky Duncan’s snack bar inside that place. Helen had her Whippet car parked out front. When they got home, Helen took Phoebe, and showed her the room she had prepared for her.
“This is it, dear. I’m so glad to be having a nice girl like you staying for little while with me. I just wish that I could have you here all the time. Phoebe, this is your bathroom over here, anytime you feel like having a bath or shower.”
Aunt Helen was well aware that this was all strange to Phoebe. She used all the tact that she could to avoid embarrassing Phoebe in anyway.
“You know where the towels are. There are different soaps. Well, I will leave you to it.”
Helen left the room. She waited on this stairway a few seconds and then returned.
“I was thinking, Phoebe, my cousin was here from Barrie for a time. She came up here to have a bath and, woe and behold, she wasn’t familiar with these faucets and she nearly scalded herself. She opened the hot water tap too far and nearly burned herself. Come here, dear, and I will show you. See, push that lever or handle gently to your right. As you push it, the temperature of the water will change accordingly.”
Helen left the room. What a fine room, thought Phoebe. Fancy frilled bedspread, small night table by the bed, also a reading light on the headboard. And had also nice pink Venetian blinds on the windows, Phoebe took a skelly through the window. There was a great rear view of the street running the opposite way to auntie’s. She could see a man halfway up street. It looked like a rear lawn. He was quite a tall, slim man. There was a lawn chair and a small table with a bottle of something and the glass on it. He was wearing plus fours, a white sweater and checkered cap and was smoking a pipe. He was playing with his Irish setter. Phoebe nearly burst out laughing. Gees, she thought to herself, I’d like to have him on the other end of the cross cut saw. He is the kind of man that you could rub out and draw all over again.
Aunt Helen was getting supper ready when Phoebe came down the stairs.
“That’s a fine room you have up there Aunt Helen.”
“It’s very good, Phoebe, but don’t forget to draw your blinds before you go to bed.”
After supper, Helen and Phoebe just heard the end of the Amos and Andy show. Helen a suggested to Phoebe that they gave Mr. Gilson a call and let him know she was in town.
“Whatever you think. It is all the same to me.”
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