Anne's House of Dreams [105]
"Listen patiently to me, dear. I know just how you feel about it. I feel the same. But we've always known we would have to move some day."
"Oh, but not so soon, Gilbert--not just yet."
"We may never get such a chance again. If we don't buy the Morgan place someone else will--and there is no other house in the Glen we would care to have, and no other really good site on which to build. This little house is--well, it is and has been what no other house can ever be to us, I admit, but you know it is out-of-the-way down here for a doctor. We have felt the inconvenience, though we've made the best of it. And it's a tight fit for us now. Perhaps, in a few years, when Jem wants a room of his own, it will be entirely too small."
"Oh, I know--I know," said Anne, tears filling her eyes. "I know all that can be said against it, but I love it so--and it's so beautiful here."
"You would find it very lonely here after Leslie goes--and Captain Jim has gone too. The Morgan place is beautiful, and in time we would love it. You know you have always admired it, Anne."
"Oh, yes, but--but--this has all seemed to come up so suddenly, Gilbert. I'm dizzy. Ten minutes ago I had no thought of leaving this dear spot. I was planning what I meant to do for it in the spring-- what I meant to do in the garden. And if we leave this place who will get it? It IS out-of-the-way, so it's likely some poor, shiftless, wandering family will rent it--and over-run it--and oh, that would be desecration. It would hurt me horribly."
"I know. But we cannot sacrifice our own interests to such considerations, Anne-girl. The Morgan place will suit us in every essential particular--we really can't afford to miss such a chance. Think of that big lawn with those magnificent old trees; and of that splendid hardwood grove behind it--twelve acres of it. What a play place for our children! There's a fine orchard, too, and you've always admired that high brick wall around the garden with the door in it--you've thought it was so like a story-book garden. And there is almost as fine a view of the harbor and the dunes from the Morgan place as from here."
"You can't see the lighthouse star from it."
"Yes, You can see it from the attic window. THERE'S another advantage, Anne-girl--you love big garrets."
"There's no brook in the garden."
"Well, no, but there is one running through the maple grove into the Glen pond. And the pond itself isn't far away. You'll be able to fancy you have your own Lake of Shining Waters again."
"Well, don't say anything more about it just now, Gilbert. Give me time to think--to get used to the idea."
"All right. There is no great hurry, of course. Only--if we decide to buy, it would be well to be moved in and settled before winter."
Gilbert went out, and Anne put away Little Jem's short dresses with trembling hands. She could not sew any more that day. With tear-wet eyes she wandered over the little domain where she had reigned so happy a queen. The Morgan place was all that Gilbert claimed. The grounds were beautiful, the house old enough to have dignity and repose and traditions, and new enough to be comfortable and up-to-date. Anne had always admired it; but admiring is not loving; and she loved this house of dreams so much. She loved EVERYTHING about it--the garden she had tended, and which so many women had tended before her--the gleam and sparkle of the little brook that crept so roguishly across the corner--the gate between the creaking fir trees--the old red sandstone step--the stately Lombardies-- the two tiny quaint glass cupboards over the chimney- piece in the living-room--the crooked pantry door in the kitchen-- the two funny dormer windows upstairs--the little jog in the staircase-- why, these things were a part of her! How could she leave them?
And how this little house, consecrated aforetime by love and joy, had been re-consecrated for her by her happiness and sorrow! Here she had spent her bridal moon; here wee Joyce had lived her one brief day; here the sweetness