Anne of Windy Poplars - L. M. Montgomery [84]
But Anne had flown.
11
Anne, correcting examination papers in the tower room one mid-June evening, paused to wipe her nose. She had wiped it so often that evening that it was rosy-red and rather painful. The truth was that Anne was the victim of a very severe and very unromantic cold in the head. It would not allow her to enjoy the soft green sky behind the hemlocks of the Evergreens, the silver-white moon hanging over the Storm King, the haunting perfume of the lilacs below her window, or the frosty, blue-pencilled irises in the vase on her table. It darkened all her past and overshadowed all her future.
‘A cold in the head in June is an immoral thing,’ she told Dusty Miller, who was meditating on the window-sill. ‘But in two weeks from today I’ll be in dear Green Gables instead of stewing here over examination papers full of howlers and wiping a worn-out nose. Think of it, Dusty Miller!’
Apparently Dusty Miller thought of it. He may also have thought that the young lady who was hurrying along Spook’s Lane and down the road and along the perennial path looked angry and disturbed and un-June-like. It was Hazel Marr, only a day back from Kingsport, and evidently a much-disturbed Hazel Marr, who a few minutes later burst stormily into the tower room without waiting for a reply to her sharp knock.
‘Why, Hazel dear (kershoo!), are you back from Kingsport already? I didn’t expect you till next week.’
‘No, I suppose you didn’t,’ said Hazel sarcastically. ‘Yes, Miss Shirley, I am back. And what do I find? That you have been doing your best to lure Terry away from me – and all but succeeding!’
‘Hazel!’ (Kershoo!)
‘Oh, I know it all! You told Terry I didn’t love him, that I wanted to break our engagement – our sacred engagement!’
‘Hazel, child!’ (Kershoo!)
‘Oh, yes, sneer at me – sneer at everything. But don’t try to deny it. You did it, and you did it deliberately.’
‘Of course I did. You asked me to.’
‘I – asked – you – to!’
‘Here in this very room. You told me you didn’t love him, and could never marry him.’
‘Oh, just a mood, I suppose. I never dreamed you’d take me seriously. I thought you would understand the artistic temperament. You’re ages older than I am, of course, but even you can’t have forgotten the crazy way girls talk… feel. You, who pretended to be my friend!’
‘This must be a nightmare,’ thought poor Anne, wiping her nose. ‘Sit down, Hazel, do!’
‘Sit down!’ Hazel flew wildly up and down the room. ‘How can I sit down, how can anybody sit down when her life is in ruins all about her? Oh, if that is what being old does to you – jealous of younger people’s happiness and determined to wreck it – I shall pray never to grow old.’
Anne’s hand suddenly tingled to box Hazel’s ears with a strange, horrible, primitive tingle of desire. She slew it so instantly that she would never believe afterwards that she had really felt it. But she did think a little gentle chastisement was indicated.
‘If you can’t sit down and talk sensibly, Hazel, I wish you would go away.’ (A very violent kershoo.) ‘I have work to do.’ (Sniff… sniff… snuffle!)
‘I am not going away till I have told you just what I think of you. Oh, I know I’ve only myself to blame. I should have known – I did know. I felt instinctively the first time I saw you that you were dangerous. That red hair and those green eyes! But I never dreamed you’d go so far as to make trouble between me and Terry. I thought you were a Christian at least. I never heard of anyone doing such a thing. Well, you’ve broken my heart, if that is any satisfaction to you.’
‘You little goose –’
‘I won’t talk to you! Oh, Terry and I were so happy before you spoiled everything! I was so happy – the first girl of my set to be engaged. I even had my wedding all planned out: four bridesmaids in lovely pale blue silk dresses with black velvet ribbon on the flounces. So chic! Oh, I don’t know if I hate you the most or pity you the most! Oh, how could you treat me like this… after I’ve loved you so… trusted you so… believed