Anne of Windy Poplars - L. M. Montgomery [91]
‘It won’t take but a few minutes. I’ve been meaning to call on you, Miss Shirley, and I call it real fortunate to find you here. Run away and play, children, while Miss Shirley and I skim over this beautiful prospectus.’
‘Mother’s hired Miss Shirley to look after us,’ said Geraldine, with a toss of her aerial curls. But Gerald had tugged her backward, and they slammed the door shut.
‘You see, Miss Shirley, what this encyclopaedia means. Look at the beautiful paper… Feel it… The splendid engravings… No other encyclopaedia on the market has half the number of engravings. The wonderful print – a blind man could read it – and all for eighty dollars, eight dollars down and eight dollars a month till it’s all paid. You’ll never have such another chance. We’re just doing this to introduce it. Next year it will be a hundred and twenty.’
‘But I don’t want an encyclopaedia, Miss Drake,’ said Anne desperately.
‘Of course you want an encyclopaedia. Everyone wants an encyclopaedia – a National encyclopaedia. I don’t know how I lived before I became acquainted with the National encyclopaedia. Live! I didn’t live; I merely existed. Look at that engraving of the cassowary, Miss Shirley. Did you ever really see a cassowary before?’
‘But, Miss Drake, I –’
‘If you think the terms a little too onerous I feel sure I can make a special arrangement for you, being a school-teacher: six a month instead of eight. You simply can’t refuse an offer like that, Miss Shirley.’
Anne almost felt she couldn’t. Wouldn’t it be worth six dollars a month to get rid of this terrible woman who had so evidently made up her mind not to go until she had got an order? Besides, what were the twins doing? They were alarmingly quiet. Suppose they were sailing their boats in the bathtub. Or had sneaked out of the back door and gone wading in the pond.
She made one more pitiful effort to escape. ‘I’ll think this over, Miss Drake, and let you know.’
‘There’s no time like the present,’ said Miss Drake, briskly getting out her fountain-pen. ‘You know you’re going to take the National, so you might just as well sign for it now as any other time. Nothing is ever gained by putting things off. The price may go up any moment, and then you’d have to pay a hundred and twenty. Sign here, Miss Shirley.’
Anne felt the fountain-pen being forced into her hand. Another moment… and then there was such a blood-curdling shriek from Miss Drake that Anne dropped the fountain-pen under the clump of golden glow that flanked the rustic seat and gazed in amazed horror at her companion.
Was that Miss Drake – that indescribable object, hatless, spectacleless, almost hairless? Hat, spectacles, false front, were floating in the air above her head halfway up to the bathroom window, out of which two golden heads were hanging. Gerald was grasping a fishing-rod, to which were tied two cords ending in fish-hooks. By what magic he had contrived to make a triple catch only he could have told. Probably it was sheer luck.
Anne flew into the house and upstairs. By the time she reached the bathroom the twins had fled. Gerald had dropped the fishing-rod, and a peep from the window revealed a furious Miss Drake retrieving her belongings, including the fountain-pen and marching to the gate. For once in her life Miss Pamela Drake had failed to land her order.
Anne discovered the twins seraphically eating apples on the back porch. It was hard to know what to do. Certainly such behaviour could not be allowed to pass without a rebuke, but Gerald had undoubtedly rescued her from a difficult position, and Miss Drake was an odious creature who needed a lesson. Still…
‘You’ve et a great big worm!’ shrieked Gerald. ‘I saw it disappear down your throat.’
Geraldine laid down her apple and promptly turned sick – very sick. Anne had her hands full for some time. And when Geraldine was better it was the lunch hour, and Anne suddenly decided to let Gerald off with a very mild reproof. After all, no lasting harm had been done to Miss Drake, who for her own sake would probably hold her