Anne's House of Dreams Read online

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  Anne's House of Dreams

  by

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  "To Laura, in memory of the olden time."

  CONTENTS

  Chapter

  1 IN THE GARRET OF GREEN GABLES 2 THE HOUSE OF DREAMS 3 THE LAND OF DREAMS AMONG 4 THE FIRST BRIDE OF GREEN GABLES 5 THE HOME COMING 6 CAPTAIN JIM 7 THE SCHOOLMASTER'S BRIDE 8 MISS CORNELIA BRYANT COMES TO CALL 9 AN EVENING AT FOUR WINDS POINT 10 LESLIE MOORE 11 THE STORY OF LESLIE MOORE 12 LESLIE COMES OVER 13 A GHOSTLY EVENING 14 NOVEMBER DAYS 15 CHRISTMAS AT FOUR WINDS 16 NEW YEAR'S EVE AT THE LIGHT 17 A FOUR WINDS WINTER 18 SPRING DAYS 19 DAWN AND DUSK 20 LOST MARGARET 21 BARRIERS SWEPT AWAY 22 MISS CORNELIA ARRANGES MATTERS 23 OWEN FORD COMES 24 THE LIFE-BOOK OF CAPTAIN JIM 25 THE WRITING OF THE BOOK 26 OWEN FORD'S CONFESSION 27 ON THE SAND BAR 28 ODDS AND ENDS 29 GILBERT AND ANNE DISAGREE 30 LESLIE DECIDES 31 THE TRUTH MAKES FREE 32 MISS CORNELIA DISCUSSES THE AFFAIR 33 LESLIE RETURNS 34 THE SHIP O'DREAMS COMES TO HARBOR 35 POLITICS AT FOUR WINDS 36 BEAUTY FOR ASHES 38 RED ROSES 39 CAPTAIN JIM CROSSES THE BAR 40 FAREWELL TO THE HOUSE OF DREAMS

  CHAPTER 1

  IN THE GARRET OF GREEN GABLES

  "Thanks be, I'm done with geometry, learning or teaching it," said AnneShirley, a trifle vindictively, as she thumped a somewhat batteredvolume of Euclid into a big chest of books, banged the lid in triumph,and sat down upon it, looking at Diana Wright across the Green Gablesgarret, with gray eyes that were like a morning sky.

  The garret was a shadowy, suggestive, delightful place, as all garretsshould be. Through the open window, by which Anne sat, blew the sweet,scented, sun-warm air of the August afternoon; outside, poplar boughsrustled and tossed in the wind; beyond them were the woods, whereLover's Lane wound its enchanted path, and the old apple orchard whichstill bore its rosy harvests munificently. And, over all, was a greatmountain range of snowy clouds in the blue southern sky. Through theother window was glimpsed a distant, white-capped, blue sea--thebeautiful St. Lawrence Gulf, on which floats, like a jewel, Abegweit,whose softer, sweeter Indian name has long been forsaken for the moreprosaic one of Prince Edward Island.

  Diana Wright, three years older than when we last saw her, had grownsomewhat matronly in the intervening time. But her eyes were as blackand brilliant, her cheeks as rosy, and her dimples as enchanting, as inthe long-ago days when she and Anne Shirley had vowed eternalfriendship in the garden at Orchard Slope. In her arms she held asmall, sleeping, black-curled creature, who for two happy years hadbeen known to the world of Avonlea as "Small Anne Cordelia." Avonleafolks knew why Diana had called her Anne, of course, but Avonlea folkswere puzzled by the Cordelia. There had never been a Cordelia in theWright or Barry connections. Mrs. Harmon Andrews said she supposedDiana had found the name in some trashy novel, and wondered that Fredhadn't more sense than to allow it. But Diana and Anne smiled at eachother. They knew how Small Anne Cordelia had come by her name.

  "You always hated geometry," said Diana with a retrospective smile. "Ishould think you'd be real glad to be through with teaching, anyhow."

  "Oh, I've always liked teaching, apart from geometry. These past threeyears in Summerside have been very pleasant ones. Mrs. Harmon Andrewstold me when I came home that I wouldn't likely find married life asmuch better than teaching as I expected. Evidently Mrs. Harmon is ofHamlet's opinion that it may be better to bear the ills that we havethan fly to others that we know not of."

  Anne's laugh, as blithe and irresistible as of yore, with an added noteof sweetness and maturity, rang through the garret. Marilla in thekitchen below, compounding blue plum preserve, heard it and smiled;then sighed to think how seldom that dear laugh would echo throughGreen Gables in the years to come. Nothing in her life had ever givenMarilla so much happiness as the knowledge that Anne was going to marryGilbert Blythe; but every joy must bring with it its little shadow ofsorrow. During the three Summerside years Anne had been home often forvacations and weekends; but, after this, a bi-annual visit would be asmuch as could be hoped for.

  "You needn't let what Mrs. Harmon says worry you," said Diana, with thecalm assurance of the four-years matron. "Married life has its ups anddowns, of course. You mustn't expect that everything will always gosmoothly. But I can assure you, Anne, that it's a happy life, whenyou're married to the right man."

  Anne smothered a smile. Diana's airs of vast experience always amusedher a little.

  "I daresay I'll be putting them on too, when I've been married fouryears," she thought. "Surely my sense of humor will preserve me fromit, though."

  "Is it settled yet where you are going to live?" asked Diana, cuddlingSmall Anne Cordelia with the inimitable gesture of motherhood whichalways sent through Anne's heart, filled with sweet, unuttered dreamsand hopes, a thrill that was half pure pleasure and half a strange,ethereal pain.

  "Yes. That was what I wanted to tell you when I 'phoned to you to comedown today. By the way, I can't realize that we really have telephonesin Avonlea now. It sounds so preposterously up-to-date and modernishfor this darling, leisurely old place."

  "We can thank the A. V. I. S. for them," said Diana. "We should neverhave got the line if they hadn't taken the matter up and carried itthrough. There was enough cold water thrown to discourage any society.But they stuck to it, nevertheless. You did a splendid thing forAvonlea when you founded that society, Anne. What fun we did have atour meetings! Will you ever forget the blue hall and Judson Parker'sscheme for painting medicine advertisements on his fence?"

  "I don't know that I'm wholly grateful to the A. V. I. S. in thematter of the telephone," said Anne. "Oh, I know it's mostconvenient--even more so than our old device of signalling to eachother by flashes of candlelight! And, as Mrs. Rachel says, 'Avonleamust keep up with the procession, that's what.' But somehow I feel asif I didn't want Avonlea spoiled by what Mr. Harrison, when he wants tobe witty, calls 'modern inconveniences.' I should like to have it keptalways just as it was in the dear old years. That's foolish--andsentimental--and impossible. So I shall immediately become wise andpractical and possible. The telephone, as Mr. Harrison concedes, is 'abuster of a good thing'--even if you do know that probably half a dozeninterested people are listening along the line."

  "That's the worst of it," sighed Diana. "It's so annoying to hear thereceivers going down whenever you ring anyone up. They say Mrs. HarmonAndrews insisted that their 'phone should be put in their kitchen justso that she could listen whenever it rang and keep an eye on the dinnerat the same time. Today, when you called me, I distinctly heard thatqueer clock of the Pyes' striking. So no doubt Josie or Gertie waslistening."

  "Oh, so that is why you said, 'You've got a new clock at Green Gables,haven't you?' I couldn't imagine what you meant. I heard a viciousclick as soon as you had spoken. I suppose it was the Pye receiverbeing hung up with profane energy. Well, never mind the Pyes. As Mrs.Rachel says, 'Pyes they always were and Pyes they always will be, worldwithout end, amen.' I want to talk of pleasanter things. It's allsettled as to where my new home shall be."

  "Oh, Anne, where? I do hope it's near here."

  "No-o-o, that's the drawback. Gilbert is going to settle at Four WindsHarbor--sixty miles from here."

  "Sixty! It might as well be six hundred," sighed Diana. "I never canget further from home now than Charlottetown."

  "You'll have to come to Four Winds. It's the most beautiful harbor onthe Island. There's a little village called Glen St. Mary at its head,and Dr. David Blythe has been practicing there for fifty years. He isGilbert's great-uncle, you know. He is going to retire, and Gilbert isto take over his practic
e. Dr. Blythe is going to keep his house,though, so we shall have to find a habitation for ourselves. I don'tknow yet what it is, or where it will be in reality, but I have alittle house o'dreams all furnished in my imagination--a tiny,delightful castle in Spain."

  "Where are you going for your wedding tour?" asked Diana.

  "Nowhere. Don't look horrified, Diana dearest. You suggest Mrs.Harmon Andrews. She, no doubt, will remark condescendingly that peoplewho can't afford wedding 'towers' are real sensible not to take them;and then she'll remind me that Jane went to Europe for hers. I want tospend MY honeymoon at Four Winds in my own dear house of dreams."

  "And you've decided not to have any bridesmaid?"

  "There isn't any one to have. You and Phil and Priscilla and Jane allstole a march on me in the matter of marriage; and Stella is teachingin Vancouver. I have no other 'kindred soul' and I won't have abridesmaid who isn't."

  "But you are going to wear a veil, aren't you?" asked Diana, anxiously.

  "Yes, indeedy. I shouldn't feel like a bride without one. I remembertelling Matthew, that evening when he brought me to Green Gables, thatI never expected to be a bride because I was so homely no one wouldever want to marry me--unless some foreign missionary did. I had anidea then that foreign missionaries couldn't afford to be finicky inthe matter of looks if they wanted a girl to risk her life amongcannibals. You should have seen the foreign missionary Priscillamarried. He was as handsome and inscrutable as those daydreams we onceplanned to marry ourselves, Diana; he was the best dressed man I evermet, and he raved over Priscilla's 'ethereal, golden beauty.' But ofcourse there are no cannibals in Japan."

  "Your wedding dress is a dream, anyhow," sighed Diana rapturously."You'll look like a perfect queen in it--you're so tall and slender.How DO you keep so slim, Anne? I'm fatter than ever--I'll soon have nowaist at all."

  "Stoutness and slimness seem to be matters of predestination," saidAnne. "At all events, Mrs. Harmon Andrews can't say to you what shesaid to me when I came home from Summerside, 'Well, Anne, you're justabout as skinny as ever.' It sounds quite romantic to be 'slender,'but 'skinny' has a very different tang."

  "Mrs. Harmon has been talking about your trousseau. She admits it's asnice as Jane's, although she says Jane married a millionaire and youare only marrying a 'poor young doctor without a cent to his name.'"

  Anne laughed.

  "My dresses ARE nice. I love pretty things. I remember the firstpretty dress I ever had--the brown gloria Matthew gave me for ourschool concert. Before that everything I had was so ugly. It seemedto me that I stepped into a new world that night."

  "That was the night Gilbert recited 'Bingen on the Rhine,' and lookedat you when he said, 'There's another, NOT a sister.' And you were sofurious because he put your pink tissue rose in his breast pocket! Youdidn't much imagine then that you would ever marry him."

  "Oh, well, that's another instance of predestination," laughed Anne, asthey went down the garret stairs.