Marilla Cuthbert Is Surprised (Anne of Green Gables)

01CHAPTER III.

02MARILLA CUTHBERT IS SURPRISED.

03Marilla came briskly forward as Matthew opened the door.

04But when her eyes fell on the odd little figure in the stiff, ugly dress with the long braids of red hair and the eager, luminous eyes, she stopped short in amazement.

05"'Matthew Cuthbert, who's that?' she ejaculated.

06"'Where's the boy?' "'There wasn't any boy,' said Matthew wretchedly.

07"'There was only her.' He nodded at the child, remembering that he had never even asked her name.

08"'No boy!

09But there must have been a boy,' insisted Marilla.

10"'We sent word to Mrs.

11Spencer to bring a boy.' "'Well, she didn't.

12She brought her.

13I asked the station-master.

14And I had to bring her home.

15She couldn't be left there, no matter where the mistake had come in." "'Well, this is a pretty piece of business,' ejaculated Marilla." During this dialogue the child had remained silent, her eyes roving from one to the other, all the animation fading out of her face.

16Suddenly she seemed to grasp the full meaning of what had been said.

17Dropping her precious carpet-bag she sprang forward a step and clasped her hands.

18"'You don't want me!' she cried.

19"'You don't want me because I'm not a boy!

20I might have expected it.

21Nobody ever did want me.

22I might have known it was all too beautiful to last.

23I might have known nobody really did want me.

24Oh, what shall I do?

25I am going to burst into tears!' Burst into tears she did.

26Sitting down on a chair by the table, flinging her arms out upon it and burying her face in them, she proceeded to cry stormily.

27Marilla and Matthew looked at each other deprecatingly across the stove.

28Neither of them knew what to say or do.

29Finally Marilla stepped lamely into the breach.

30"'Well, well, there's no need to cry so about it.' "'Yes, there is need!' the child raised her head quickly, revealing a tear-stained face and trembling lips.

31"'You would cry too if you were an orphan and had come to a place you thought was going to be home and found that they didn't want you because you weren't a boy.

32Oh, this is the most tragical thing that has ever happened to me!' Something like a reluctant smile, rather rusty from long disuse, mellowed Marilla's grim expression.

33"'Well, don't cry any more.

34We're not going to turn you out of doors to-night.

35You'll have to stay here until we investigate this affair.

36What's your name?' The child hesitated for a moment.

37"'Will you please call me Cordelia?' she said eagerly.

38"'Call you Cordelia?

39Is that your name?' "'No, it's not exactly my name.

40But I would love to be called Cordelia.

41It's such a perfectly elegant name.' "'I don't know what on earth you mean.

42If Cordelia isn't your name, what is?' "'Anne Shirley,' reluctantly faltered forth the owner of that name.

43"'But oh, please do call me Cordelia.

44It can't matter much what you call me if I'm only going to be here a little while, can it?

45And Anne is such an unromantic name.' "'Unromantic fiddlesticks,' said the unsympathetic Marilla.

46"'Anne is a real good, plain, sensible name.

47You've no need to be ashamed of it.' "'Oh, I'm not ashamed of it,' explained Anne.

48"'Only I like Cordelia better.

49I've always imagined that my name was Cordelia.

50At least I always have of late years.

51When I was young I used to imagine it was Geraldine.

52But I like Cordelia better now.

53But if you call me Anne, please call me Anne spelled with an E.' "'What difference does it make how it's spelled?' asked Marilla with another rusty smile as she picked up the teapot.

54"'Oh, it makes such a difference.

55It looks so much nicer.

56When you hear a name pronounced, can't you always see it in your mind, just as if it was printed out?' "'I can.

57And A-N-N looks dreadful, but A-N-N-E looks so much more distinguished.

58If you'll only call me Anne spelled with an E, I shall try to reconcile myself to not being called Cordelia.

59"'Very well, then, Anne spelled with an E.

60Can you tell us how this mistake came to be made?

61We sent word to Mrs.

62Spencer to bring us a boy.

63Were there no boys at the asylum?' "'Oh, yes, there was an abundance of them.

64But Mrs.

65Spencer said distinctly that you wanted a girl about eleven years old, and the matron said she thought I would do.

66You don't know how delighted I was.

67I couldn't sleep all last night for joy.' "'Oh,' she added reproachfully, turning to Matthew, "'why didn't you tell me at the station that you didn't want me and leave me there?

68If I hadn't seen the white way of delight in the lake of shining waters, it wouldn't be so hard.' "'What on earth does she mean?' demanded Marilla, staring at Matthew.

69"'She—she's just referring to some conversation we had on the road,' said Matthew hastily.

70"'I'm going out to put the mare in, Marilla.

71Have tea ready when I come back.' "'Did Mrs.

72Spencer bring anybody over besides you?' continued Marilla, when Matthew had gone out.

73"'She brought Lily Jones for herself.

74Lily is only five years old, and she is very beautiful, and has nut-brown hair.

75If I was very beautiful and had nut-brown hair, would you keep me?' "'No.

76We want a boy to help Matthew on the farm.

77A girl would be of no use to us.

78Take off your hat.

79I'll lay it and your bag on the hall table.' Anne took off her hat meekly.

80Matthew came back presently, and they sat down to supper.

81But Anne could not eat.

82In vain she nibbled at the bread and butter, and pecked at the crab-apple preserve out of the little scalloped glass dish by her plate.

83She did not really make any headway at all.

84"'You're not eating anything,' said Marilla sharply.

85"'Eying her as if it were a serious shortcoming.' Anne sighed.

86"'I can't.

87I'm in the depths of despair.

88Can you eat when you're in the depths of despair?' "'I have never been in the depths of despair, so I can't say,' responded Marilla.

89"'Weren't you?

90Well, did you ever try to imagine you were in the depths of despair?' "'No, I didn't.' "'Then I don't think you can understand what it's like.

91It's a very uncomfortable feeling, indeed.

92When you try to eat a lump comes right up in your throat, and you can't swallow anything, not even if it was a chocolate caramel.

93I had one chocolate caramel once two years ago, and it was simply delicious.

94I've often dreamed since then that I've had a lot of chocolate caramels, but I always wake up just when I'm going to eat them.

95I do hope you won't be offended because I can't eat.

96Everything is extremely nice.

97But still I cannot eat.' "'I guess she's tired,' said Matthew, who hadn't spoken since his return from the barn.

98"'Best put her to bed, Marilla.' Marilla had been wondering where Anne should be put to bed.

99She had prepared a couch in the kitchen chamber for the desired and expected boy, but although it was neat and clean, it did not seem quite the thing to put a girl there somehow.

100But the spare room was out of the question for such a stray waif, so there remained only the east gable room.

101Marilla lighted a candle and told Anne to follow her, which Anne spiritlessly did, taking her hat and carpet-bag from the hall table as she passed.

102The hall was fearsomely clean.

103The little gable chamber in which she presently found herself seemed still cleaner.

104Marilla set the candle on a three-legged, three-cornered table and turned down the bedclothes.

105"'I suppose you have a nightgown?' she questioned.

106Anne nodded.

107"'Yes, I have two.

108The matron of the asylum made them for me.

109They're fearfully skimpy.

110There's never enough to go around in an asylum, so things are always skimpy—at least in a poor asylum like ours.

111I hate skimpy nightdresses.

112But one can dream just as well in them as in lovely trailing ones with frills around the neck.

113That's one consolation.' "'Well, undress as quick as you can and go to bed.

114I'll come back in a few minutes for the candle.

115I daren't trust you to put it out yourself.

116You'd likely set the place on fire.' When Marilla had gone, Anne looked around her wistfully.

117The whitewashed walls were so painfully bare and staring that she thought they must ache over their own bareness.

118The floor was bare, too, except for a round braided mat in the middle such as Anne had never seen before.

119In one corner was the bed—a high, old-fashioned one with four dark, low-turned posts.

120In the other corner was the aforesaid three-corner table adorned with a fat, red velvet pincushion hard enough to turn the point of the most adventurous pin.

121Above it hung a little six-by-eight mirror.

122Midway between table and bed was the window, with an icy white muslin frill over it, and opposite it was the washstand.

123The whole apartment was of a rigidity not to be described in words, but which sent a shiver to the very marrow of Anne's bones.

124With a sob she hastily discarded her garments, put on the skimpy nightgown, and sprang into bed, where she burrowed face downward into the pillow, and pulled the clothes over her head.

125When Marilla came up for the light, various skimpy articles of raiment scattered most untidily over the floor, and a certain tempestuous appearance of the bed were the only indications of any presence save her own.

126She deliberately picked up Anne's clothes, placed them neatly on a prim yellow chair, and then, taking up the candle, went over to the bed.

127"'Good night,' she said, a little awkwardly, but not unkindly.

128Anne's white face and big eyes appeared over the bedclothes with a startling suddenness.

129"'How can you call it a good night when you know it must be the very worst night I've ever had?' she said reproachfully.

130Then she dived down into invisibility again.

131Marilla went slowly down to the kitchen and proceeded to wash the supper dishes.

132Matthew was smoking—a sure sign of perturbation of mind.

133He seldom smoked, for Marilla set her face against it as a filthy habit.

134But at certain times and seasons he felt driven to it, and then Marilla winked at the practice, realizing that a mere man must have some vent for his emotions.

135"'Well, this is a pretty kettle of fish,' she said wrathfully.

136"'This is what comes of sending word instead of going ourselves.

137Richard Spencer's folks have twisted that message somehow.

138One of us will have to drive over and see Mrs.

139Spencer tomorrow, that's certain.

140This girl will have to be sent back to the asylum.' "'Yes, I suppose so,' said Matthew reluctantly.

141"'You suppose so?

142Don't you know it?' "'Well, now, she's a real nice little thing, Marilla.

143It's kind of a pity to send her back when she's so set on staying here.' "'Matthew Cuthbert!

144You don't mean to say you think we ought to keep her?' Marilla's astonishment could not have been greater if Matthew had expressed a predilection for standing on his head.

145"'Well, now, no, I suppose not—not exactly,' stammered Matthew, uncomfortably driven into a corner for his precise meaning.

146"'I suppose we could hardly be expected to keep her.' "'I should say not.

147What good would she be to us?' "'We might be some good to her,' said Matthew suddenly and unexpectedly.

148"'Matthew Cuthbert!

149I believe that child has bewitched you.

150I can see as plain as plain that you want to keep her.' "'Well, now, she's a real interesting little thing,' persisted Matthew.

151"'You should have heard her talk come in from the station.' "'Oh, she can talk fast enough.

152I saw that at once.

153It's nothing in her favour, either.

154I don't like children who have so much to say.

155I don't want an orphan girl, and if I did, she isn't the style I'd pick out.

156There's something I don't understand about her.

157No, she's got to be dispatched straightway back to where she came from.' "'I could hire a French boy to help me,' said Matthew, "'and she'd be company for you.' "'I'm not suffering for company,' said Marilla shortly, "'and I'm not going to keep her.' "'Well, now, it's just as you say, of course, Marilla,' said Matthew, rising and putting his pipe away.

158"'I'm going to bed.' To bed went Matthew, and to bed, when she had put her dishes away, went Marilla, frowning most resolutely.

159And upstairs, in the east gable, a lonely, heart-hungry, friendless child, cried herself to sleep.

160End of chapter 3 End of chapter 3 End of chapter 3 End of chapter 3