Anne of Windy Poplars - L. M. Montgomery [29]
I feel so happy, Gilbert. I won’t have to go home to Green Gables at Christmas, defeated and discredited. Life is good! Good!
So is Miss Sarah’s pound cake. Rebecca Dew made one and ‘sweated’ it according to directions; which simply means that she wrapped it in several thicknesses of brown paper and several more towels and left it for three days. I can recommend it.
(Are there, or are there not, two c’s in ‘recommend’? In spite of the fact that I am a B.A. I can never be certain. Fancy if the Pringles had discovered that before I found Andy’s diary!)
9
Trix Taylor was curled up in the tower one night in February, while little flurries of snow hissed against the windows and that absurdly tiny stove purred like a red-hot black cat. Trix was pouring out her woes to Anne. Anne was beginning to find herself the recipient of confidences on all sides. She was known to be engaged, so that none of the Summerside girls feared her as a possible rival, and there was something about her that made you feel it was safe to tell her secrets.
Trix had come up to ask Anne to dinner the next evening. She was a jolly, plump little creature, with twinkling brown eyes and rosy cheeks, and did not look as if life weighed too heavily on her twenty years. But it appeared that she had troubles of her own.
‘Dr Lennox Carter is coming to dinner tomorrow night. That is why we want you especially. He is the new Head of the Modern Languages Department at Redmond, and dreadfully clever, so we want somebody with brains to talk to him. You know I haven’t any to boast of, nor Pringle either. As for Esme – well, you know, Anne, Esme is the sweetest thing, and she’s really clever, but she’s so shy and timid she can’t even make use of what brains she has when Dr Carter is around. She’s so terribly in love with him. It’s pitiful. I’m very fond of Johnny, but before I’d dissolve into such a liquid state for him…!’
‘Are Esme and Dr Carter engaged?’
‘Not yet’ – significantly. ‘But, oh, Anne, she’s hoping he means to ask her this time. Would he come over to the Island to visit his cousin right in the middle of the term if he didn’t intend to? I hope he will for Esme’s sake, because she’ll just die if he doesn’t. But, between you and me and the bed-post, I’m not terribly struck on him for a brother-in-law. He’s awfully fastidious, Esme says, and she’s desperately afraid he won’t approve of us. If he doesn’t she thinks he’ll never ask her to marry him. So you can’t imagine how she’s hoping everything will go well at the dinner tomorrow night. I don’t see why it shouldn’t. Mamma is the most wonderful cook, and we have a good maid, and I’ve bribed Pringle with half my week’s allowance to behave himself. Of course, he doesn’t like Dr Carter either; says he’s got a swelled head. But he’s fond of Esme. If only Papa won’t have a sulky fit on!’
‘Have you any reason to fear it?’ asked Anne. Every one in Summerside knew about Cyrus Taylor’s sulky fits.
‘You can never tell when he’ll take one,’ said Trix dolefully. ‘He was frightfully upset tonight because he couldn’t find his new flannel nightshirt. Esme had put it in the wrong drawer. He may be over it tomorrow night, or he may not. If he’s not he’ll disgrace us all, and Dr Carter will conclude he can’t marry into such a family. At least, that is what Esme says, and I’m afraid she may be right. I think, Anne, that Lennox Carter is very fond of Esme – thinks she would make a “very suitable wife” for him – but doesn’t want to do anything rash or throw his wonderful self away. I’ve heard that he told his cousin a man couldn’t be too careful what kind of a family he married into. He’s just at the point where he might be turned either way by a trifle. And, if it comes to that, one of Papa’s sulky fits isn’t any trifle.’
‘Doesn’t he like Dr Carter?’
‘Oh, he does! He thinks it would be a wonderful match