Let Kindness Be the Reason: L.M. Montgomery’s Short Story ‘The Story of an Invitation’

Young women in their dormitory at Oxford Female Institute, 1900. Public Domain

It’s difficult to understand how different people feel at different moments in time. Nevertheless, whether they feel sorrow or joy, an act of kindness can make another person’s day that much better.

In her short story “The Story of an Invitation,” L.M. Montgomery demonstrates that kindness is a beautiful virtue that should be practiced and cultivated. This virtue makes the world less dreary and far more hopeful. It cultivates true friendship and gives love a chance to lift up others.

Vacation Approaching

The semester is about to end for the students at Dartmouth, and Bertha Sutherland arrives at her dorm room with a box of chocolates to celebrate. She offers some to her roommate, Grace Maxwell, and announces that she’s received exciting news.

Bertha brandishes a letter and says that her Aunt Meg has invited her and some friends to spend the school vacation with her. She then reads her aunt’s letter aloud:

“I want you to spend your holidays with me, my dear. ... There is just room for one more, and that one must be yourself. Come to Riversdale when school closes, and ... we'll have picnics and parties and merry doings galore.” Bertha bursts with excitement and finishes by asking Grace if that isn’t just the loveliest news.

Grace bravely responds that this news is, indeed, quite lovely. She then reveals that, once the semester ends, she will stay and work at Mr. Clarkman’s bookstore, since she has no family and the aunt who raised her died before the school began. Bertha is quite shocked and immediately grows anxious. Grace is by no means a strong person. But Grace explains that she is poor and, if she wants to afford the rest of the next year’s room and board, she must make money.

Let Kindness Be the Reason

However, this explanation doesn’t help to alleviate Bertha’s worries. While she announces that she will study for her English exam, she continues to contemplate Grace’s situation. She would love to take Bertha with her to Aunt Meg’s home, but Aunt Meg can only take one more person. She would take Grace to her family’s home, but only if she were going there herself.

A row of elm trees grows along College Street on the Dartmouth campus in the late 19th century. Public Domain

Suddenly, an idea comes to her, but she thrusts it aside as nonsense. Yet the idea persists until she finally makes a decision. The next day, Bertha writes a letter to Aunt Meg asking her to invite Grace, instead of herself.

Aunt Meg agrees to invite Grace and sends a letter to her via Bertha, inviting her to visit during the holidays. Bertha passes the letter to Grace and hopes that she doesn’t guess that the invitation was her own idea. She hopes Grace accepts.

Through this story, Montgomery shows what kindness can do. It sees beyond one’s own self and brings true friendship and charity to others.

Montgomery seems to encourage the reader, as Roy T. Bennett says in “The Light in the Heart”: “Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.” For kindness not only cultivates goodness and love, but it also becomes the reason for others to feel joy and hope.

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