“‘If we ran hard, Miss Shirley, could we get into the sunset?’ she wanted to know. I remembered Paul and his fancies about the ‘sunset land.’
“‘We must wait for Tomorrow before we can do that,’ I said. ‘Look, Elizabeth, at that golden island of cloud just over the harbor mouth. Let’s pretend that’s your island of Happiness.’
“‘There is an island down there somewhere,’ said Elizabeth dreamily. ‘Its name is Flying Cloud. Isn’t that a lovely name … a name just out of Tomorrow? I can see it from the garret windows. It belongs to a gentleman from Boston and he has a summer home there. But I pretend it’s mine.’
“At the door I stooped and kissed Elizabeth’s cheek before she went in. I shall never forget her eyes. Gilbert, that child is just starved for love.
“Tonight, when she came over for her milk, I saw that she had been crying.
“‘They … they made me wash your kiss off, Miss Shirley,’ she sobbed. ‘I didn’t want ever to wash my face again. I vowed I wouldn’t. Because, you see, I didn’t want to wash your kiss off. I got away to school this morning without doing it, but tonight the Woman just took me and scrubbed it off.’
“I kept a straight face.
“‘You couldn’t go through life without washing your face occasionally, darling. But never mind about the kiss. I’ll kiss you every night when you come for the milk and then it won’t matter if it is washed off the next morning.’
“‘You are the only person who loves me in the world,’ said Elizabeth. ‘When you talk to me I smell violets.’
“Was anybody ever paid a prettier compliment? But I couldn’t quite let the first sentence pass.
“‘Your grandmother loves you, Elizabeth.’
“‘She doesn’t … she hates me.’
“‘You’re just a wee bit foolish, darling. Your grandmother and Miss Monkman are both old people and old people are easily disturbed and worried. Of course you annoy them sometimes. And … of course … when they were young, children were brought up much more strictly than they are now. They cling to the old way.’
“But I felt I was not convincing Elizabeth. After all, they don’t love her and she knows it. She looked carefully back at the house to see if the door was shut. Then she said deliberately:
“‘Grandmother and the Woman are just two old tyrants and when Tomorrow comes I’m going to escape them forever.’
“I think she expected I’d die of horror… . I really suspect Elizabeth said it just to make a sensation. I merely laughed and kissed her. I hope Martha Monkman saw it from the kitchen window.
“I can see over Summerside from the left window in the tower. Just now it is a huddle of friendly white roofs … friendly at last since the Pringles are my friends. Here and there a light is gleaming in gable and dormer. Here and there is a suggestion of gray-ghost smoke. Thick stars are low over it all. It is ‘a dreaming town.’ Isn’t that a lovely phrase? You remember … ‘Galahad through dreaming towns did go’?
“I feel so happy, Gilbert. I won’t have to go home to Green Gables at Christmas, defeated and discredited. Life is good … good!
“So is Miss Sarah’s pound cake. Rebecca Dew made one and ‘sweated’ it according to directions … which simply means that she wrapped it in several thicknesses of brown paper and several more towels and left it for three days. I can recommend it.
“(Are there, or are there not, two ‘c’s’ in recommend’? In spite of the fact that I am a B.A. I can never be certain. Fancy if the Pringles had discovered that before I found Andy’s diary!)”
Chapter IX
Trix Taylor was curled up in the tower one night in February, while little flurries of snow hissed against the windows and that absurdly tiny stove purred like a red-hot black cat. Trix was pouring out her woes to Anne. Anne was beginning to find herself the recipient of confidences on all sides. She was known to be engaged, so that none of the Summerside girls feared her as a possible rival, and there was something about her that made you feel it was safe to tell her secrets.
Trix had come up to ask Anne to dinner the next evening. She was a jolly, plump little creature, with twinkling brown eyes and rosy cheeks, and did not look as if life weighed too heavily on her twenty years. But it appeared that she had troubles of her own.
“Dr. Lennox Carter is coming to dinner tomorrow night. That is why we want you especially. He is the new Head of the Modern Languages Department at Redmond and dreadfully clever, so we want somebody with brains to talk to him. You know I haven’t any to boast of, nor Pringle either. As for Esme … well, you know, Anne, Esme is the sweetest thing and she’s really clever, but she’s so shy and timid she can’t even make use of what brains she has when Dr. Carter is around. She’s so terribly in love with him. It’s pitiful. I’m very fond of Johnny … but before I’d dissolve into such a liquid state for him!”
“Are Esme and Dr. Carter engaged?”
“Not yet” … significantly. “But, oh, Anne, she’s hoping he means to ask her this time. Would he come over to the Island to visit his cousin right in the middle of the term if he didn’t intend to? I hope he will for Esme’s sake, because she’ll just die if he doesn’t. But between you and me and the bedpost I’m not terribly struck on him for a brotherin-law. He’s awfully fastidious, Esme says, and she’s desperately afraid he won’t approve of us. If he doesn’t, she thinks he’ll never ask her to marry him. So you can’t imagine how she’s hoping everything will go well at the dinner tomorrow night. I don’t see why it shouldn’t … Mamma is the most wonderful cook … and we have a good maid and I’ve bribed Pringle with half my week’s allowance to behave himself. Of course he doesn’t like Dr. Carter either … says he’s got swelled head … but he’s fond of Esme. If only Papa won’t have a sulky fit on!”
“Have you any reason to fear it?” asked Anne. Every one in Summerside knew about Cyrus Taylor’s sulky fits.
“You never can tell when he’ll take one,” said Trix dolefully. “He was frightfully upset tonight because he couldn’t find his new flannel nightshirt. Esme had put it in the wrong drawer. He may be over it by tomorrow night or he may not. If he’s not, he’ll disgrace us all and Dr. Carter will conclude he can’t marry into such a family. At least, that is what Esme says and I’m afraid she may be right. I think, Anne, that Lennox Carter is very fond of Esme … thinks she would make a ‘very suitable wife’ for him … but doesn’t want to do anything rash or throw his wonderful self away. I’ve heard that he told his cousin a man couldn’t be too careful what kind of family he married into. He’s just at the point where he might be turned either way by a trifle. And, if it comes to that, one of Papa’s sulky fits isn’t any trifle.”
“Doesn’t he like Dr. Carter?”
“Oh, he does. He thinks it would be a wonderful match for Esme. But when Father has one of his spells on, nothing has any influence over him while it lasts. That’s the Pringle for you, Anne. Grandmother Taylor was a Pringle, you know. You just can’t imagine what we’ve gone through as a family. He never goes into rages, you know … like Uncle George. Uncle George’s family don’t mind his rages. When he goes into a temper he blows off … you can hear him roaring three blocks away … and then he’s like a lamb and brings every one a new dress for