Anne of Ingleside - L. M. Montgomery [45]
‘He is not a spiritual man,’ said Mrs Churchill coldly.
‘I have heard that his sermons are remarkable,’ said Anne.
‘I heard one and do not wish to hear more. My soul sought food and was given a lecture. He believes the kingdom of heaven can be taken by brains. It cannot.’
‘Speaking of ministers… they have a very clever one at Lowbridge now. I think he is interested in my young friend, Stella Chase. Gossip says it will be a match.’
‘Do you mean a marriage?’ said Mrs Churchill.
Anne felt snubbed but reflected that you had to swallow things like that when you were interfering in what didn’t concern you.
‘I think it would be a very suitable one, Mrs Churchill. Stella is especially fitted for a minister’s wife. I’ve been telling Alden he mustn’t try to spoil it.’
‘Why?’ asked Mrs Churchill, without the flicker of an eyelid.
‘Well… really… you know, I’m afraid Alden would stand no chance whatever. Mr Chase doesn’t think anyone good enough for Stella. All Alden’s friends would hate to see him dropped suddenly like an old glove. He’s too nice a boy for that.’
‘No girl ever dropped my son,’ said Mrs Churchill, compressing her thin lips. ‘It was always the other way about. He found them out, for all their curls and giggles, their wrigglings and mincings. My son can marry any woman he chooses, Mrs Blythe… any woman.’
‘Oh?’ said Anne’s tongue. Her tone said, ‘Of course I am too polite to contradict you, but you have not changed my opinion.’ Mary Churchill understood, and her white, shrivelled face warmed a little as she went out of the room to get her missionary contribution.
‘You have the most wonderful view here,’ said Anne, when Mrs Churchill ushered her to the door.
Mrs Churchill gave the gulf a glance of disapproval.
‘If you felt the bite of the east wind in winter, Mrs Blythe, you might not think so much of the view. It’s cool enough tonight. I should think you’d be afraid of catching cold in that thin dress. Not but what it’s a pretty one. You are young enough still to care for gauds and vanities. I have ceased to feel any interest in such transitory things.’
Anne felt fairly well satisfied with the interview as she went home through the dim green twilight.
‘Of course one can’t count on Mrs Churchill,’ she told a flock of starlings who were holding a parliament in a little field scooped out of the woods, ‘but I think I worried her a little. I could see she didn’t like having people think Alden could be jilted. Well, I’ve done what in me lies with all concerned except Mr Chase, and I don’t see what I can do with him when I don’t even know him. I wonder if he has the slightest notion that Alden and Stella are sweethearting. Not likely. Stella would never dare take Alden to the house, of course. Now, what am I to do about Mr Chase?’
It was really uncanny… the way things helped her out. One evening Miss Cornelia came along and asked Anne to accompany her to the Chase home.
‘I’m going down to ask Richard Chase for a contribution to the new church kitchen stove. Will you come with me, dearie, just as a moral support? I hate to tackle him alone.’
They found Mr Chase standing on his front steps, looking, with his long legs and his long nose, rather like a meditative crane. He had a few shining strands of hair brushed over the top of his bald head and his little grey eyes twinkled at them. He happened to be thinking that if that was the doctor’s wife with old Cornelia she had a mighty good figure. As for Cousin Cornelia, twice removed, she was a bit too solidly built and had about as much intellect as a grasshopper, but she wasn’t a bad old cat at all if you always rubbed her the right way.
He invited them courteously into his small library, where Miss Cornelia settled into a chair with a little grunt.
‘It’s dreadful hot tonight. I’m afraid we’ll have a thunderstorm. Mercy on us, Richard, that cat is bigger than ever.’
Richard Chase had a familiar in the shape of a yellow cat of abnormal size which now climbed up on his knee. He stroked it tenderly. ‘Thomas the Rhymer gives the world assurance of a cat,’ he said.