They re--they re not--pretty, said Anne reluctantly.
Pretty! Marilla sniffed. I didn t trouble my head about getting
pretty dresses for you. I don t believe in pampering vanity, Anne, I ll
tell you that right off. Those dresses are good, sensible, serviceable
dresses, without any frills or furbelows about them, and they re all
you ll get this summer. The brown gingham and the blue print will do
you for school when you begin to go. The sateen is for church and
Sunday-school. I ll expect you to keep them neat and clean and not to
tear them. I should think you d be grateful to get most anything after
those skimpy wincey things you ve been wearing.
Oh, I _am_ grateful, protested Anne. But I d be ever so much
gratefuller if--if you d made just one of them with puffed sleeves.
Puffed sleeves are so fashionable now. It would give me such a thrill,
Marilla, just to wear a dress with puffed sleeves.
Well, you ll have to do without your thrill. I hadn t any material
to waste on puffed sleeves. I think they are ridiculous-looking things
anyhow. I prefer the plain, sensible ones.
But I d rather look ridiculous when everybody else does than plain and
sensible all by myself, persisted Anne mournfully.
Trust you for that! Well, hang those dresses carefully up in your
closet, and then sit down and learn the Sunday-school lesson. I got
a quarterly from Mr. Bell for you and you ll go to Sunday-school
tomorrow, said Marilla, disappearing downstairs in high dudgeon.
Anne clasped her hands and looked at the dresses.
I did hope there would be a white one with puffed sleeves, she
whispered disconsolately. I prayed for one, but I didn t much expect it
on that account. I didn t suppose God would have time to bother about
a little orphan girl s dress. I knew I d just have to depend on
Marilla for it. Well, fortunately I can imagine that one of them is of
snow-white muslin with lovely lace frills and three-puffed sleeves.
The next morning warnings of a sick headache prevented Marilla from
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