Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery (distant reading .TXT) đ
- Author: L. M. Montgomery
Book online «Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery (distant reading .TXT) đ». Author L. M. Montgomery
Diana knew it would be useless to ask how Gilbert Blythe had fared, so she merely said:
âOh, youâll pass all right. Donât worry.â
âIâd rather not pass at all than not come out pretty well up on the list,â flashed Anne, by which she meantâ âand Diana knew she meantâ âthat success would be incomplete and bitter if she did not come out ahead of Gilbert Blythe.
With this end in view Anne had strained every nerve during the examinations. So had Gilbert. They had met and passed each other on the street a dozen times without any sign of recognition and every time Anne had held her head a little higher and wished a little more earnestly that she had made friends with Gilbert when he asked her, and vowed a little more determinedly to surpass him in the examination. She knew that all Avonlea junior was wondering which would come out first; she even knew that Jimmy Glover and Ned Wright had a bet on the question and that Josie Pye had said there was no doubt in the world that Gilbert would be first; and she felt that her humiliation would be unbearable if she failed.
But she had another and nobler motive for wishing to do well. She wanted to âpass highâ for the sake of Matthew and Marillaâ âespecially Matthew. Matthew had declared to her his conviction that she âwould beat the whole Island.â That, Anne felt, was something it would be foolish to hope for even in the wildest dreams. But she did hope fervently that she would be among the first ten at least, so that she might see Matthewâs kindly brown eyes gleam with pride in her achievement. That, she felt, would be a sweet reward indeed for all her hard work and patient grubbing among unimaginative equations and conjugations.
At the end of the fortnight Anne took to âhauntingâ the post office also, in the distracted company of Jane, Ruby, and Josie, opening the Charlottetown dailies with shaking hands and cold, sinkaway feelings as bad as any experienced during the Entrance week. Charlie and Gilbert were not above doing this too, but Moody Spurgeon stayed resolutely away.
âI havenât got the grit to go there and look at a paper in cold blood,â he told Anne. âIâm just going to wait until somebody comes and tells me suddenly whether Iâve passed or not.â
When three weeks had gone by without the pass list appearing Anne began to feel that she really couldnât stand the strain much longer. Her appetite failed and her interest in Avonlea doings languished. Mrs. Lynde wanted to know what else you could expect with a Tory superintendent of education at the head of affairs, and Matthew, noting Anneâs paleness and indifference and the lagging steps that bore her home from the post office every afternoon, began seriously to wonder if he hadnât better vote Grit at the next election.
But one evening the news came. Anne was sitting at her open window, for the time forgetful of the woes of examinations and the cares of the world, as she drank in the beauty of the summer dusk, sweet-scented with flower breaths from the garden below and sibilant and rustling from the stir of poplars. The eastern sky above the firs was flushed faintly pink from the reflection of the west, and Anne was wondering dreamily if the spirit of color looked like that, when she saw Diana come flying down through the firs, over the log bridge, and up the slope, with a fluttering newspaper in her hand.
Anne sprang to her feet, knowing at once what that paper contained. The pass list was out! Her head whirled and her heart beat until it hurt her. She could not move a step. It seemed an hour to her before Diana came rushing along the hall and burst into the room without even knocking, so great was her excitement.
âAnne, youâve passed,â she cried, âpassed the very firstâ âyou and Gilbert bothâ âyouâre tiesâ âbut your name is first. Oh, Iâm so proud!â
Diana flung the paper on the table and herself on Anneâs bed, utterly breathless and incapable of further speech. Anne lighted the lamp, oversetting the match safe and using up half a dozen matches before her shaking hands could accomplish the task. Then she snatched up the paper. Yes, she had passedâ âthere was her name at the very top of a list of two hundred! That moment was worth living for.
âYou did just splendidly, Anne,â puffed Diana, recovering sufficiently to sit up and speak, for Anne, starry eyed and rapt, had not uttered a word. âFather brought the paper home from Bright River not ten minutes agoâ âit came out on the afternoon train, you know, and wonât be here till tomorrow by mailâ âand when I saw the pass list I just rushed over like a wild thing. Youâve all passed, every one of you, Moody Spurgeon and all, although heâs conditioned in history. Jane and Ruby did pretty wellâ âtheyâre halfway upâ âand so did Charlie. Josie just scraped through with three marks to spare, but youâll see sheâll put on as many airs as if sheâd led. Wonât Miss Stacy be delighted? Oh, Anne, what does it feel like to see your name at the head of a pass list like that? If it were me I know Iâd go crazy with joy. I am pretty near crazy as it is, but youâre as calm and cool as a spring evening.â
âIâm just dazzled inside,â said Anne. âI want to say a hundred things, and I canât find words to say them in. I never dreamed of thisâ âyes, I did too, just once! I let myself think once, âWhat if I should come out first?â quakingly, you know, for it seemed so vain and presumptuous to think I could lead the Island. Excuse me a
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