Anne of Windy Poplars - L. M. Montgomery [102]
‘Yes, but I really did take all that with a grain of salt, Mr Westcott. I felt that Dovie couldn’t be as fond of you as she was if you were as dreadful as gossip painted you.’
‘Sensible gal! My wife was a happy woman, Miss Shirley. And when Mrs Captain MacComber tells you I bullied her to death tick her off for me. Excuse my common way. Mollie was pretty – prettier than Sibyl. Such a pink-and-white skin, such golden-brown hair, such dewy blue eyes! She was the prettiest woman in Summerside. Had to be. I couldn’t have stood it if a man had walked into church with a handsomer wife than mine. I ruled my household as a man should, but not tyrannically. Oh, of course, I had a spell of temper now and then, but Mollie didn’t mind them after she got used to them. A man has a right to have a row with his wife now and then, hasn’t he? Women get tired of monotonous husbands. Besides, I always gave her a ring or a necklace or some such gaud after I calmed down. There wasn’t a woman in Summerside had more nice jewellery. I must get it out and give it to Sibyl.’
Anne was wicked. ‘What about Milton’s poems?’
‘Milton’s poems?… Oh, that! It wasn’t Milton’s poems; it was Tennyson’s. I reverence Milton, but I can’t abide Alfred. He’s too sickly sweet. Those last two lines of Enoch Arden made me so mad one night I did fire the book through the window. But I picked it up the next day for the sake of the bugle song. I’d forgive anybody anything for that. It didn’t go into George Clarke’s lily-pond. That was old Prouty’s embroidery… You’re not going? Stay and have a bite of supper with a lonely old fellow robbed of his only whelp.’
‘I’m really sorry I can’t, Mr Westcott, but I have to attend a meeting of the staff tonight.’
‘Well, I’ll be seeing you when Sibyl comes back. I’ll have to fling a party for them no doubt. Good gosh, what a relief this has been to my mind! You’ve no idea how I’d have hated to have had to back down and say, “Take her.” Now all I have to do is to pretend to be heartbroke and resigned and forgive her sadly for the sake of her poor mother. I’ll do it beautifully. Jarvis must never suspect. Don’t you give the show away.’
‘I won’t,’ promised Anne.
Franklin Westcott saw her courteously to the door. The bulldog sat up on his haunches and cried after her.
Franklin Westcott took his pipe out of his mouth at the door and tapped her on the shoulder with it.
‘Always remember,’ he said solemnly, ‘there’s more than one way to skin a cat. It can be done so that the animal’ll never know he’s lost his hide. Give my love to Rebecca Dew. A nice old cat – if you stroke her the right way. Thank you… Thank you.’
Anne betook herself home through the soft, calm evening. The fog had cleared, the wind had shifted, and there was a look of frost in the pale green sky.
‘People told me I didn’t know Franklin Westcott,’ reflected Anne. ‘They were right: I didn’t. And neither did they.’
‘How did he take it?’ Rebecca Dew was keen to know. She had been on tenterhooks during Anne’s absence.
‘Not so badly after all,’ said Anne confidentially. ‘I think he’ll forgive Dovie in time.’
‘I never did see the beat of you, Miss Shirley, for talking people round,’ said Rebecca Dew admiringly. ‘You have certainly got a way with you.’
‘“Something attempted, something done has earned a night’s repose,”’ quoted Anne wearily as she climbed the three steps into her bed that night. ‘But just wait till the next person asks my advice about eloping!’
9
Extract from a letter to Gilbert
I am invited to have supper tomorrow night with a lady of Summerside. I know you won’t believe me, Gilbert, when I tell you her name is Tomgallon – Miss Minerva Tomgallon. You’ll say I’ve been reading Dickens too long and too late.
Dearest, aren’t you glad your name is Blythe? I am sure I could never marry you if it were Tomgallon. Fancy, Anne Tomgallon! No, you can’t fancy it.
This is the ultimate honour Summerside has to bestow – an invitation to Tomgallon House. It has no other name. No nonsense about Elms or Chestnuts or