Anne of Windy Poplars - L. M. Montgomery [101]
‘When?’ he said.
‘Last night, at his sister’s,’ said Anne.
Franklin Westcott looked at her for a moment out of yellowish-brown eyes deeply set under penthouses of grizzled eyebrows. Anne had a moment of wondering what he had looked like when he was a baby. Then he threw back his head and went into one of his spasms of soundless laughter.
‘You mustn’t blame Dovie, Mr Westcott,’ said Anne earnestly, recovering her powers of speech now that the awful revelation was over. ‘It wasn’t her fault –’
‘I’ll bet it wasn’t,’ said Franklin Westcott.
Was he trying to be sarcastic?
‘No, it was all mine,’ said Anne simply and bravely. ‘I advised her to elo – to be married. I made her do it. So please forgive her, Mr Westcott.’
Franklin Westcott coolly picked up a pipe and began to fill it. ‘If you’ve managed to make Sibyl elope with Jarvis Morrow, Miss Shirley, you’ve accomplished more than I ever thought anybody could. I was beginning to be afraid she’d never have backbone enough to do it. And then I’d have had to back down, and, Lord, how we Westcotts hate backing down! You’ve saved my face, Miss Shirley, and I’m profoundly grateful to you.’
There was a very loud silence while Franklin Westcott tamped his tobacco down and looked with an amused twinkle at Anne’s face. Anne was so much at sea that she didn’t know what to say.
‘I suppose,’ he said, ‘that you came here in fear and trembling to break the terrible news to me?’
‘Yes,’ said Anne, a trifle shortly.
Franklin Westcott chuckled soundlessly. ‘You needn’t have. You couldn’t have brought me more welcome news. Why, I picked Jarvis Morrow out for Sibyl when they were kids. Soon as the other boys began taking notice of her I shooed them off. That gave Jarvis his first notion of her. He’d show the old man! But he was so popular with the girls that I could hardly believe the incredible luck when he did really take a genuine fancy to her. Then I laid out my plan of campaign. I knew the Morrows root and branch. You don’t. They’re a good family, but the men don’t want things they can get easily. And they’re determined to get a thing when they’re told they can’t. They always go by contraries. Jarvis’s father broke three girls’ hearts because their families threw them at his head. In Jarvis’s case I knew exactly what would happen. Sibyl would fall head over heels in love with him, and he’d be tired of her in no time. I knew he wouldn’t keep on wanting her if she was too easy to get. So I forbade him to come near the place and forbade Sibyl to have a word to say to him, and generally played the heavy parent to perfection. Talk about the charm of the uncaught! It’s nothing to the charm of the uncatchable. It all worked out according to schedule, but I struck a snag in Sibyl’s spinelessness. She’s a nice child, but she is spineless. I’ve been thinking she’d never have the pluck to marry him in my teeth. Now if you’ve got your breath back, my dear young lady, unbosom yourself of the whole story.’
Anne’s sense of humour had again come to her rescue. She could never refuse an opportunity for a good laugh even when it was on herself. And she suddenly felt very well acquainted with Franklin Westcott.
He listened to the tale, taking quiet, enjoyable whiffs of his pipe. When Anne had finished he nodded comfortably.
‘I see I’m more in your debt even than I thought. She’d never have got up the courage to do it if it hadn’t been for you. And Jarvis Morrow wouldn’t have risked being made a fool of twice, not if I know the breed. Gosh, but I’ve had a narrow escape! I’m yours to command for life. You’re a real brick to come here as you did, believing all the yarns gossip told you. You’ve been told a-plenty, haven’t you, now?’
Anne nodded. The bulldog had got his head on her lap and was snoring blissfully.
‘Everyone agreed that you were cranky, crabbed, and crusty,’ she said candidly.
‘And I suppose they told you I was a tyrant, and made my poor wife’s life miserable,