Anne of Ingleside - L. M. Montgomery [6]
‘And he’s still so small you can creep in to find if he has kicked off the clothes and tuck him in again,’ said Diana enviously. ‘Jack’s nine, you know, and he doesn’t want me to do that now. He says he’s too big. And I loved so to do it! Oh, I wish children didn’t grow up so soon.’
‘None of mine have got to that stage yet… though I’ve noticed that since Jem began to go to school he doesn’t want to hold my hand any more when we walk through the village,’ said Anne with a sigh. ‘But he and Walter and Shirley all want me to tuck them in yet. Walter sometimes makes quite a ritual of it.’
‘And you don’t have to worry yet over what they’re going to be. Now, Jack is crazy to be a soldier when he grows up… a soldier. Just fancy!’
‘I wouldn’t worry over that. He’ll forget about it when another fancy seizes him. War is a thing of the past. Jem imagines he is going to be a sailor, like Captain Jim, and Walter is by way of being a poet. He isn’t like any of the others. But they all love trees and they all love playing in “the Hollow”, as it’s called. A little valley just below Ingleside, with fairy paths and a brook. A very ordinary place… just “the Hollow” to others but to them fairy-land. They’ve all got their faults, but they’re not such a bad little gang… and luckily there’s always enough love to go round. Oh, I’m glad to think that this time tomorrow night I’ll be back at Ingleside, telling my babies stories at bed-time and giving Susan’s calceolarias and ferns their meed of praise. Susan has “luck” with ferns. No one can grow them like her. I can praise her ferns honestly… but the calceolarias, Diana! They don’t look like flowers to me at all. But I never hurt Susan’s feeling by telling her so… I always get around it somehow. Providence has never failed me yet. Susan is such a duck, I can’t imagine what I’d do without her. And I remember once calling her “an outsider”. Yes, it’s lovely to think of going home and yet I’m sad to leave Green Gables too. It’s so beautiful here… with Marilla… and you. Our friendship has always been a very lovely thing, Diana.’
‘Yes… and we’ve always… I mean… I never could say things like you, Anne… but we have kept our old “solemn vow and promise”, haven’t we?’
‘Always, and always will.’
Anne’s hand found its way into Diana’s. They sat for a long time in a silence too sweet for words. Long, still evening shadows fell over the grasses and the flowers and the green reaches of the meadows beyond. The sun went down, grey-pink shades of sky deepened and paled behind the pensive trees… the spring twilight took possession of Hester Gray’s garden where nobody ever walked now. Robins were sprinkling the evening air with flute-like whistles. A great star came out over the white cherry-trees.
‘The first star is always a miracle,’ said Anne dreamily.
‘I could sit here for ever,’ said Diana. ‘I hate the thought of leaving it.’
‘So do I, but after all we’ve only been pretending to be fifteen. We’ve got to remember our family cares. How those lilacs smell! Has it ever occurred to you, Diana, that there is something not quite… chaste… in the scent of lilac blossoms? Gilbert laughs at such a notion; he loves them, but to me they always seem to be remembering some secret, too-sweet thing.’
‘They’re too heavy for the house, I always think,’ said Diana. She picked up the plate which held the remainder of the chocolate cake… looked at it longingly… shook her head, and packed it in the basket with an expression of great nobility and self-denial on her face.
‘Wouldn’t it be fun, Diana, if now, as we went home, we were to meet our old selves running along Lover’s Lane?’
Diana gave a little shiver.
‘No-o-o, I don’t think that would be funny, Anne. I hadn’t noticed it was getting so dark. It’s all right to fancy things in daylight,