Anne of Windy Poplars - L. M. Montgomery [72]
‘You won’t be miserable at this party, Katherine. You won’t be outside looking in. There’s all the difference in the world, you know, between being inside looking out and outside looking in. You have such lovely hair, Katherine. Do you mind if I try a new way of doing it?’
Katherine shrugged. ‘Oh, go ahead. I suppose my hair does look dreadful, but I’ve no time to be always crimping. I haven’t a party dress. Will my green taffeta do?’
‘It will have to do, though green is the one colour above all others that you should never wear, my Katherine. But you’re going to wear a red pin-tucked chiffon collar I’ve made for you… Yes, you are! You ought to have a red dress, Katherine.’
‘I’ve always hated red. When I went to live at Uncle Henry’s Aunt Gertrude always made me wear aprons of bright turkey-red. The other children in school used to call out “Fire!” when I came in with one of those aprons on. Anyway, I can’t be bothered with clothes.’
‘Heaven grant me patience! Clothes are very important,’ said Anne severely, as she braided and coiled. Then she looked at her work and saw that it was good. She put her arm about Katherine’s shoulders and turned her to the mirror. ‘Don’t you truly think we are a pair of quite good-looking girls?’ she laughed. ‘And isn’t it really nice to think people will find some pleasure in looking at us? There are so many homely people who would actually look quite attractive if they took a little pains with themselves. Three Sundays ago in church – you remember, the day poor old Mr Milvain preached, and had such a terrible cold in his head that nobody could make out what he was saying – well, I passed the time making the people around me beautiful. I gave Mrs Brent a new nose; I waved Mary Addison’s hair and gave Jane Marden’s a lemon rinse; I dressed Emma Dill in blue instead of brown; I dressed Charlotte Blair in stripes instead of checks; I removed several moles; and I shaved off Thomas Anderson’s long, sandy Piccadilly weepers. You wouldn’t have known them when I got through with them. And, except perhaps for Mrs Brent’s nose, they could have done everything I did themselves. Why, Katherine, your eyes are just the colour of tea – amber tea. Now, live up to your name this evening. A brook should be sparkling, limpid, merry.’
‘Everything I’m not.’
‘Everything you’ve been this past week. So you can be it.’
‘That’s only the magic of Green Gables. When I go back to Summerside twelve o’clock will have struck for Cinderella.’
‘You’ll take the magic back with you. Look at yourself, looking for once as you ought to look all the time.’
Katherine gazed at her reflection in the mirror as if rather doubting her identity.
‘I do look years younger,’ she admitted. ‘You were right. Clothes do do things to you. Oh, I know I’ve been looking older than my age. I didn’t care. Why should I? Nobody else cared. And I’m not like you, Anne. Apparently you were born knowing how to live. And I don’t know anything about it – not even the ABC. I wonder if it’s too late to learn? I’ve been sarcastic so long I don’t know if I can be anything else. Sarcasm seemed to me to be the only way I could make any impression on people. And it seems to me too that I’ve always been afraid when I was in the company of other people – afraid of saying something stupid, afraid of being laughed at –’
‘Katherine Brooke, look at yourself in that mirror. Carry that picture of yourself with you – magnificent hair framing your face, instead of trying to pull it backward, eyes sparkling like stars, a little flush of excitement on your cheeks – and you won’t feel afraid. Come, now! We’re going to be late, but fortunately all the performers have what I heard Dora referring to as “preserved.” seats.’
Gilbert drove them to the hall. How like old times it was! Only Katherine was with her in place of Diana. Anne sighed. Diana had so many other interests now. No more