Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery (distant reading .TXT) đ
- Author: L. M. Montgomery
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âOh, no, donât say things like that, Jane,â said Anne quickly, âbecause it sounds silly. It couldnât be better than Mrs. Evansâs, you know, for she is a professional, and Iâm only a schoolgirl, with a little knack of reciting. Iâm quite satisfied if the people just liked mine pretty well.â
âIâve a compliment for you, Anne,â said Diana. âAt least I think it must be a compliment because of the tone he said it in. Part of it was anyhow. There was an American sitting behind Jane and meâ âsuch a romantic-looking man, with coal-black hair and eyes. Josie Pye says he is a distinguished artist, and that her motherâs cousin in Boston is married to a man that used to go to school with him. Well, we heard him sayâ âdidnât we, Jane?â ââWho is that girl on the platform with the splendid Titian hair? She has a face I should like to paint.â There now, Anne. But what does Titian hair mean?â
âBeing interpreted it means plain red, I guess,â laughed Anne. âTitian was a very famous artist who liked to paint red-haired women.â
âDid you see all the diamonds those ladies wore?â sighed Jane. âThey were simply dazzling. Wouldnât you just love to be rich, girls?â
âWe are rich,â said Anne staunchly. âWhy, we have sixteen years to our credit, and weâre happy as queens, and weâve all got imaginations, more or less. Look at that sea, girlsâ âall silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldnât enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds. You wouldnât change into any of those women if you could. Would you want to be that white-lace girl and wear a sour look all your life, as if youâd been born turning up your nose at the world? Or the pink lady, kind and nice as she is, so stout and short that youâd really no figure at all? Or even Mrs. Evans, with that sad, sad look in her eyes? She must have been dreadfully unhappy sometime to have such a look. You know you wouldnât, Jane Andrews!â
âI donât knowâ âexactly,â said Jane unconvinced. âI think diamonds would comfort a person for a good deal.â
âWell, I donât want to be anyone but myself, even if I go uncomforted by diamonds all my life,â declared Anne. âIâm quite content to be Anne of Green Gables, with my string of pearl beads. I know Matthew gave me as much love with them as ever went with Madame the Pink Ladyâs jewels.â
XXXIV A Queenâs GirlThe next three weeks were busy ones at Green Gables, for Anne was getting ready to go to Queenâs, and there was much sewing to be done, and many things to be talked over and arranged. Anneâs outfit was ample and pretty, for Matthew saw to that, and Marilla for once made no objections whatever to anything he purchased or suggested. Moreâ âone evening she went up to the east gable with her arms full of a delicate pale green material.
âAnne, hereâs something for a nice light dress for you. I donât suppose you really need it; youâve plenty of pretty waists; but I thought maybe youâd like something real dressy to wear if you were asked out anywhere of an evening in town, to a party or anything like that. I hear that Jane and Ruby and Josie have got âevening dresses,â as they call them, and I donât mean you shall be behind them. I got Mrs. Allan to help me pick it in town last week, and weâll get Emily Gillis to make it for you. Emily has got taste, and her fits arenât to be equaled.â
âOh, Marilla, itâs just lovely,â said Anne. âThank you so much. I donât believe you ought to be so kind to meâ âitâs making it harder every day for me to go away.â
The green dress was made up with as many tucks and frills and shirrings as Emilyâs taste permitted. Anne put it on one evening for Matthewâs and Marillaâs benefit, and recited âThe Maidenâs Vowâ for them in the kitchen. As Marilla watched the bright, animated face and graceful motions her thoughts went back to the evening Anne had arrived at Green Gables, and memory recalled a vivid picture of the odd, frightened child in her preposterous yellowish-brown wincey dress, the heartbreak looking out of her tearful eyes. Something in the memory brought tears to Marillaâs own eyes.
âI declare, my recitation has made you cry, Marilla,â said Anne gaily stooping over Marillaâs chair to drop a butterfly kiss on that ladyâs cheek. âNow, I call that a positive triumph.â
âNo, I wasnât crying over your piece,â said Marilla, who would have scorned to be betrayed into such weakness by any poetry stuff. âI just couldnât help thinking of the little girl you used to be, Anne. And I was wishing you could have stayed a little girl, even with all your queer ways. Youâve grown up now and youâre going away; and you look so tall and stylish and soâ âsoâ âdifferent altogether in that dressâ âas if you didnât belong in Avonlea at allâ âand I just got lonesome thinking it all over.â
âMarilla!â Anne sat down on Marillaâs gingham lap, took Marillaâs lined face between her hands, and looked gravely and tenderly into Marillaâs eyes. âIâm not a bit changedâ ânot really. Iâm only just pruned down and branched out. The real meâ âback hereâ âis just the same. It wonât make a bit of difference where I go or how much I change outwardly; at heart
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