skimpy night-dresses. But one can dream just as well in them as
in lovely trailing ones, with frills around the neck, that s one
consolation.
Well, undress as quick as you can and go to bed. I ll come back in a
few minutes for the candle. I daren t trust you to put it out yourself.
You d likely set the place on fire.
When Marilla had gone Anne looked around her wistfully. The whitewashed
walls were so painfully bare and staring that she thought they must
ache over their own bareness. The floor was bare, too, except for a
round braided mat in the middle such as Anne had never seen before.
In one corner was the bed, a high, old-fashioned one, with four dark,
low-turned posts. In the other corner was the aforesaid three-cornered
table adorned with a fat, red velvet pincushion hard enough to turn the
point of the most adventurous pin. Above it hung a little six-by-eight
mirror. Midway between table and bed was the window, with an icy white
muslin frill over it, and opposite it was the wash-stand. The 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. With 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. When 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.
She 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.
Good night, she said, a little awkwardly, but not unkindly.
Anne s white face and big eyes appeared over the bedclothes with a
startling suddenness.
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.
Then she dived down into invisibility again.
26