glad she d be when Mr. Phillips went away and she declared she d never
shed a tear. Well, she was worse than any of us and had to borrow a
handkerchief from her brother--of course the boys didn t cry--because
she hadn t brought one of her own, not expecting to need it. Oh,
Marilla, it was heartrending. Mr. Phillips made such a beautiful
farewell speech beginning, The time has come for us to part. It was
very affecting. And he had tears in his eyes too, Marilla. Oh, I felt
dreadfully sorry and remorseful for all the times I d talked in school
and drawn pictures of him on my slate and made fun of him and Prissy.
I can tell you I wished I d been a model pupil like Minnie Andrews. She
hadn t anything on her conscience. The girls cried all the way home from
school. Carrie Sloane kept saying every few minutes, The time has come
for us to part, and that would start us off again whenever we were in
any danger of cheering up. I do feel dreadfully sad, Marilla. But one
can t feel quite in the depths of despair with two months vacation
before them, can they, Marilla? And besides, we met the new minister and
his wife coming from the station. For all I was feeling so bad about Mr.
Phillips going away I couldn t help taking a little interest in a new
minister, could I? His wife is very pretty. Not exactly regally lovely,
of course--it wouldn t do, I suppose, for a minister to have a regally
lovely wife, because it might set a bad example. Mrs. Lynde says the
minister s wife over at Newbridge sets a very bad example because she
dresses so fashionably. Our new minister s wife was dressed in blue
muslin with lovely puffed sleeves and a hat trimmed with roses.
Jane Andrews said she thought puffed sleeves were too worldly for
a minister s wife, but I didn t make any such uncharitable remark,
Marilla, because I know what it is to long for puffed sleeves. Besides,
she s only been a minister s wife for a little while, so one should
make allowances, shouldn t they? They are going to board with Mrs. Lynde
until the manse is ready.
If Marilla, in going down to Mrs. Lynde s that evening, was actuated by
any motive save her avowed one of returning the quilting frames she had
borrowed the preceding winter, it was an amiable weakness shared by most
of the Avonlea people. Many a thing Mrs. Lynde had lent, sometimes
never expecting to see it again, came home that night in charge of the
borrowers thereof. A new minister, and moreover a minister with a wife,
was a lawful object of curiosity in a quiet little country settlement
where sensations were few and far between.
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