Marilla Makes Up Her Mind (Anne of Green Gables)

01CHAPTER VI.

02MARILLA MAKES UP HER MIND.

03Get there they did, however, in due season.

04Mrs.

05Spencer lived in a big yellow house at White Sands Cove, and she came to the door with surprise and welcome mingled on her benevolent face.

06Dear, dear, she exclaimed, you're the last folks I was looking for today, but I'm real glad to see you.

07You'll put your horse in?

08And how are you, Anne?" I'm as well as can be expected, thank you," said Anne, smilelessly.

09A blight seemed to have descended on her.

10I suppose we'll stay a little while to rest the mare, said Marilla, but I promised Matthew I'd be home early.

11The fact is, Mrs.

12Spencer, there's been a queer mistake somewhere, and I've come over to see what it is.

13We sent word, Matthew and I, for you to bring us a boy from the asylum.

14We told your brother Robert to tell you we wanted a boy ten or eleven years old.

15"'Marilla Cuthbert, you don't say so,' said Mrs.

16Spencer, in distress.

17"'Why, Robert's sent down word by his daughter Nancy, and she said you wanted a girl.

18Didn't she, Flora Jane?' appealing to her daughter, who had come out to the steps.

19"'She certainly did, Miss Cuthbert,' corroborated Flora Jane earnestly.

20"'I'm dreadfully sorry,' said Mrs.

21Spencer.

22It's too bad.

23But it certainly wasn't my fault, you see, Miss Cuthbert.

24I did the best I could, and I thought I was following your instructions.

25Nancy is a terrible flighty thing.

26I have often had to scold her well for her heedlessness.' "'It was our own fault,' said Marilla resignedly.

27"'We should have come to you ourselves and not left an important message to be passed along by word of mouth in that fashion.

28Anyhow, the mistake has been made, and the only thing to do is set it right.

29Can we send the child back to the asylum?

30I suppose they'll take her back, won't they?' "'I suppose so,' said Mrs.

31Spencer thoughtfully.

32"'But I don't think it will be necessary to spend her back.

33Mrs.

34Peter Blewett was up here yesterday, and she was saying to me how much she wished she sent by me for a little girl to help her.

35Mrs.

36Peter has a large family, you know, and she finds it hard to get help.

37Anne will be the very girl for you.

38I call it positively providential.' Marilla did not look as if she thought providence had much to do with the matter.

39Here was an unexpectedly good chance to get this unwelcome orphan off her hands, and she did not even feel grateful for it.

40She knew Mrs.

41Peter Blewett only by sight, as a small, shrewish-faced woman without an ounce of superfluous flesh on her bones.

42But she had heard of her.

43A terrible worker and driver, Mrs.

44Peter was said to be, and discharged servant-girls told fearsome tales of her temper and stinginess and her family of pert quarrelsome children.

45Marilla felt a qualm of conscience at the thought of handing Anne over to her tender mercies.

46"'Well, I'll go in and we'll talk the matter over,' she said.

47"'And if there isn't Mrs.

48Peter coming up the lane this blessed minute,' exclaimed Mrs.

49Spencer, bustling her guests through the hall into the parlour, where a deadly chill struck on them as if the air had been strained so long through dark green, closely drawn blinds that it had lost every particle of warmth it had ever possessed.

50"'That is real lucky, for we can settle the matter straight away.

51Take the armchair, Miss Cuthbert.

52Anne, you sit here on the ottoman and don't wiggle.

53Let me take your hats.

54Flora Jane, go out and put the kettle on.

55Good afternoon, Mrs.

56Blewett.

57We were just saying how fortunate it was you happened along.

58Let me introduce you two ladies.

59Mrs.

60Blewett, Miss Cuthbert.

61Please excuse me for just a moment.

62I forgot to tell Flora Jane to take the buns out of the oven.' Mrs.

63Spencer whisked away after pulling up the blinds.

64Anne, sitting mutely on the ottoman, with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, stared at Mrs.

65Blewett as one fascinated.

66Was she to be given into the keeping of this sharp-faced, sharp-eyed woman?

67She felt a lump coming up in her throat, and her eyes smarted painfully.

68She was beginning to be afraid she couldn't keep back the tears when Mrs.

69Spencer returned, flushed and beaming, quite capable of taking any and every difficulty, physical, mental or spiritual, into consideration and settling it out of hand.

70"'It seems there's been a mistake about this little girl, Mrs.

71Blewett,' she said.

72"'I was under the impression that Mr.

73and Miss Cuthbert wanted a little girl to adopt.

74I was certainly told so.

75But it seems it was a boy they wanted.

76So if you're still of the same mind you were yesterday, I think she'll be just the thing for you.' Mrs.

77Blewett darted her eyes over Anne from head to foot.

78"'How old are you, and what's your name?' she demanded.

79"'Anne Shirley,' faltered the shrinking child, not daring to make any stipulations regarding the spelling thereof.

80"'And I'm eleven years old.' "'Humph!

81You don't look as if there was much to you.

82But you're wiry.

83I don't know, but the wiry ones are the best after all.

84Well, if I take you, you'll have to be a good girl, you know.

85Good and smart and respectful.

86I'll expect you to earn your keep, and no mistake about that.

87Yes, I suppose I might as well take her off your hands, Miss Cuthbert.

88The baby's awful fractious, and I'm clean worn out attending to him.

89If you like, I can take her home right now.' Marilla looked at Anne and softened at the sight of the child's pale face with its look of mute misery—the misery of a helpless little creature who finds itself once more caught in the trap from which it had escaped.

90Marilla felt an uncomfortable conviction that, if she denied the appeal of that look, it would haunt her to her dying day.

91Moreover, she did not fancy Mrs.

92Blewett.

93To hand a sensitive, high-strung child over to such a woman—no, she could not take the responsibility of doing that.

94"'Well, I don't know,' she said slowly.

95I didn't say that Matthew and I had absolutely decided that we wouldn't keep her.

96In fact, I may say that Matthew is disposed to keep her.

97I just came over to find out how the mistake had occurred.

98I think I'd better take her home again and talk it over with Matthew.

99I feel that I oughtn't decide on anything without consulting him.

100"'If we make up our mind not to keep her, we'll bring or send her over to you to-morrow night.

101If we don't, you may know that she is going to stay with us.

102Will that suit you, Mrs.

103Blewett?' "'I suppose it will have to,' said Mrs.

104Blewett, ungraciously.

105During Marilla's speech a sunrise had been dawning on Anne's face.

106First look of despair faded out.

107Then came a faint flush of hope.

108Her eyes grew deep and bright as morning stars.

109The child was quite transfigured.

110And a moment later, when Mrs.

111Spencer and Mrs.

112Blewett went out in quest of a recipe the latter had come to borrow, she sprang up and flew across the room to Marilla.

113"'Oh, Miss Cuthbert, did you really say that perhaps you would let me stay at Green Gables?' she said in a breathless whisper, as if speaking aloud might shatter the glorious possibility.

114"'Did you really say it?

115Or did I only imagine that you did?' "'I think you'd better learn to control that imagination of yours, Anne, if you can't distinguish between what is real and what isn't,' said Marilla crossly.

116"'Yes, you did hear me say just that and no more.

117It isn't decided yet, and perhaps we will conclude to let Mrs.

118Blewett take you after all.

119She certainly needs you more than I do.' "'I'd rather go back to the asylum than go to live with her,' said Anne passionately.

120"'She looks exactly like a—like a gymlet!' Marilla smothered a smile under the conviction that Anne must be reproved for such a speech.

121"'A little girl like you should be ashamed of talking so about a lady and a stranger,' she said severely.

122"'Go back and sit down quietly and hold your tongue and behave as a good girl should.' "'I'll try to do and be anything you want me.

123If only you'll keep me,' said Anne, returning meekly to her ottoman." When they arrived back at Green Gables that evening, Matthew met them in the lane.

124Marilla from afar had noted him prowling along it and guessed his motive.

125She was prepared for the relief she read in his face when he saw that she had at least brought Anne back with her.

126But she said nothing to him, relative to the affair, until they were both out in the yard behind the barn milking the cows.

127Then she briefly told him Anne's history and the result of the interview with Mrs.

128Spencer.

129"'I wouldn't give a dog I like to that Blewett woman,' said Matthew with unusual vim.

130"'I don't fancy her style myself,' admitted Marilla.

131"'But it's that or keeping her ourselves, Matthew.

132And since you seem to want her, I suppose I'm willing—or have to be.

133I've been thinking over the idea until I've got kind of used to it.

134It seems a sort of duty.

135I've never brought up a child, especially a girl, and I dare say I'll make a terrible mess of it.

136But I'll do my best.

137So as far as I'm concerned, Matthew, she may stay.' Matthew's shy face was a glow of delight.

138"'Well, now, I reckoned you'd come to see it in that light, Marilla,' he said.

139"'She's such an interesting little thing.' "'It'd be more to the point if you could say she was a useful little thing,' retorted Marilla.

140"'But I'll make it my business to see she's trained to be that.

141And mind, Matthew, you're not to go interfering with my methods.

142Perhaps an old maid doesn't know much about bringing up a child, but I guess she knows more than an old bachelor.

143So you just leave me to manage her.

144When I fail, it'll be time enough to put your oar in.' "'There, there, Marilla, you can have your own way,' said Matthew reassuringly.

145"'Only be as good and kind to her as you can without spoiling her.

146I kind of think she's one of the sort you can do anything with if only you get her to love you.' Marilla sniffed, to express her contempt for Matthew's opinions concerning anything feminine, and walked off to the dairy with the pails.

147"'I won't tell her to-night that she can stay,' she reflected, as she strained the milk into the creamers.

148She'd be so excited that she wouldn't sleep a wink.

149"'Marilla Cuthbert, you're fairly in for it.

150Did you ever suppose you'd see the day when you'd be adopting an orphan girl?

151It's surprising enough, but not so surprising as that Matthew should be at the bottom of it, him that always seemed to have such a mortal dread of little girls.

152Anyhow, we've decided on the experiment, and goodness only knows what will become of it.'" End of chapter 6