Anne of Ingleside - L. M. Montgomery [2]
‘Let there be as many Sloanes as there will, I’m going out after supper to walk all over the old orchard by moonlight. I suppose I’ll have to go to bed finally, though I’ve always thought sleeping on moonlight nights a waste of time… but I’m going to wake early to see the first faint morning light over the Haunted Wood. The sky will turn to coral and the robins will be strutting around… perhaps a little grey sparrow will alight on the window-sill, and there’ll be gold and purple pansies to look at…’
‘But the rabbits has et up all the June lily bed,’ said Mrs Lynde sadly, as she waddled downstairs, feeling secretly relieved that there need be no more talk about the moon. Anne had always been a bit queer that way. And there did not any longer seem to be much use in hoping she would outgrow it.
Diana came down the walk to meet Anne. Even in the moonlight you saw that her hair was still black and her cheeks rosy and her eyes bright. But the moonlight could not hide that she was something stouter than in years agone… and Diana had never been what Avonlea folks called ‘skinny’.
‘Don’t worry, darling, I haven’t come to stay…’
‘As if I’d worry over that,’ said Diana reproachfully. ‘You know I’d far rather spend the evening with you than go to the reception. I feel I haven’t seen half enough of you and now you’re going back the day after tomorrow. But Fred’s brother, you know… we’ve just got to go.’
‘Of course you have. And I just ran up for a moment. I came the old way, Di… past the Dryad’s Bubble… through the Haunted Wood… past your bowery old garden… and along by Willowmere. I even stopped to watch the willows upside down in the water as we always used to do. They’ve grown so.’
‘Everything has,’ said Diana with a sigh. ‘When I look at young Fred! We’ve all changed so, except you. You never change, Anne. How do you keep so slim? Look at me!’
‘A bit matronish, of course,’ laughed Anne. ‘But you’ve escaped the middle-aged spread so far, Di. As for my not changing… well, Mrs H. B. Donnell agrees with you. She told me at the funeral that I didn’t look a day older. But Mrs Harmon Andrews doesn’t. She said, “Dear me, Anne, how you’ve failed!” It’s all in the beholder’s eye – or conscience. The only time I feel I’m getting along a bit is when I look at the pictures in the magazines. The heroes and heroines in them are beginning to look too young to me. But never mind, Di, we’re going to be girls again tomorrow. That’s what I’ve come up to tell you. We’re going to take an afternoon and evening off and visit all our old haunts… every one of them. We’ll walk over the spring fields and through those ferny old woods. We’ll see all the old familiar things we loved and hills where we’ll see our youth again. Nothing ever seems impossible in spring, you know. We’ll stop feeling parental and responsible and be as giddy as Mrs Lynde really thinks me still in her heart of hearts. There’s really no fun in being sensible all the time, Diana.’
‘My, how like you that sounds! And I’d love to. But…’
‘There aren’t any buts. I know you’re thinking, “Who’ll get the men’s supper” – ’
‘Not exactly. Anne Cordelia can get the men’s supper as well as I can, if she is only eleven,’ said Diana proudly. ‘She was going to anyway. I was going to the Ladies’ Aid. But I won’t. I’ll go with you. It will be like having a dream come true. You know, Anne, lots of evenings I sit down and just pretend we’re little girls again. We’ll take our supper with us…’
‘And we’ll eat it back in Hester Gray’s garden… I suppose Hester Gray’s garden is still there?’
‘I suppose so,’ said Diana doubtfully. ‘I’ve never been there since I was married. Anne Cordelia explores a lot, but I always tell her she mustn’t go too far from home. She loves prowling about the woods, and one day when I scolded