as Emily s taste permitted. Anne put it on one evening for Matthew s
and Marilla s benefit, and recited The Maiden s Vow 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
Marilla s own eyes.
I declare, my recitation has made you cry, Marilla, said Anne gaily
stooping over Marilla s chair to drop a butterfly kiss on that lady s
cheek. Now, I call that a positive triumph.
No, I wasn t crying over your piece, said Marilla, who would have
scorned to be betrayed into such weakness by any poetry stuff. I just
couldn t 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. You ve grown up now and you re going away; and you look so
tall and stylish and so--so--different altogether in that dress--as if
you didn t belong in Avonlea at all--and I just got lonesome thinking it
all over.
Marilla! Anne sat down on Marilla s gingham lap, took Marilla s lined
face between her hands, and looked gravely and tenderly into Marilla s
eyes. I m not a bit changed--not really. I m only just pruned down and
branched out. The real _me_--back here--is just the same. It won t make a
bit of difference where I go or how much I change outwardly; at heart I
shall always be your little Anne, who will love you and Matthew and dear
Green Gables more and better every day of her life.
Anne laid her fresh young cheek against Marilla s faded one, and reached
out a hand to pat Matthew s shoulder. Marilla would have given much just
then to have possessed Anne s power of putting her feelings into words;
but nature and habit had willed it otherwise, and she could only put her
arms close about her girl and hold her tenderly to her heart, wishing
that she need never let her go.
Matthew, with a suspicious moisture in his eyes, got up and went
out-of-doors. Under the stars of the blue summer night he walked
agitatedly across the yard to the gate under the poplars.
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