Dorothy, must needs be worshipping at some shrine. Nevertheless, life was
stripped of several more illusions, and Anne began to think drearily that it
seemed rather bare.
She came down from the porch gable on the evening of her return with a
sorrowful face.
“What has happened to the old Snow Queen, Marilla?”
“Oh, I knew you’d feel bad over that,” said Marilla. “I felt bad myself. That
tree was there ever since I was a young girl. It blew down in the big gale we had
in March. It was rotten at the core.”
“I’ll miss it so,” grieved Anne. “The porch gable doesn’t seem the same room
without it. I’ll never look from its window again without a sense of loss. And oh,
I never came home to Green Gables before that Diana wasn’t here to welcome
me.”
“Diana has something else to think of just now,” said Mrs. Lynde
significantly.
“Well, tell me all the Avonlea news,” said Anne, sitting down on the porch
steps, where the evening sunshine fell over her hair in a fine golden rain.
“There isn’t much news except what we’ve wrote you,” said Mrs. Lynde. “I
suppose you haven’t heard that Simon Fletcher broke his leg last week. It’s a
great thing for his family. They’re getting a hundred things done that they’ve
always wanted to do but couldn’t as long as he was about, the old crank.”
“He came of an aggravating family,” remarked Marilla.
“Aggravating? Well, rather! His mother used to get up in prayer-meeting and
tell all her children’s shortcomings and ask prayers for them. ‘Course it made
them mad, and worse than ever.”
“You haven’t told Anne the news about Jane,” suggested Marilla.
“Oh, Jane,” sniffed Mrs. Lynde. “Well,” she conceded grudgingly, “Jane
Andrews is home from the West—came last week—and she’s going to be
married to a Winnipeg millionaire. You may be sure Mrs. Harmon lost no time
in telling it far and wide.”
“Dear old Jane—I’m so glad,” said Anne heartily. “She deserves the good
things of life.”
“Oh, I ain’t saying anything against Jane. She’s a nice enough girl. But she
isn’t in the millionaire class, and you’ll find there’s not much to recommend that
man but his money, that’s what. Mrs. Harmon says he’s an Englishman who has
made money in mines but I believe he’ll turn out to be a Yankee. He certainly