gifts came from Miss Lavendar and Paul; Anne opened them in the cheerful
Green Gables kitchen, which was filled with what Davy, sniffing in ecstasy,
called “pretty smells.”
“Miss Lavendar and Mr. Irving are settled in their new home now,” reported
Anne. “I am sure Miss Lavendar is perfectly happy—I know it by the general
tone of her letter—but there’s a note from Charlotta the Fourth. She doesn’t like
Boston at all, and she is fearfully homesick. Miss Lavendar wants me to go
through to Echo Lodge some day while I’m home and light a fire to air it, and
see that the cushions aren’t getting moldy. I think I’ll get Diana to go over with
me next week, and we can spend the evening with Theodora Dix. I want to see
Theodora. By the way, is Ludovic Speed still going to see her?”
“They say so,” said Marilla, “and he’s likely to continue it. Folks have given
up expecting that that courtship will ever arrive anywhere.”
“I’d hurry him up a bit, if I was Theodora, that’s what,” said Mrs. Lynde. And
there is not the slightest doubt but that she would.
There was also a characteristic scrawl from Philippa, full of Alec and Alonzo,
what they said and what they did, and how they looked when they saw her.
“But I can’t make up my mind yet which to marry,” wrote Phil. “I do wish
you had come with me to decide for me. Some one will have to. When I saw
Alec my heart gave a great thump and I thought, ‘He might be the right one.’
And then, when Alonzo came, thump went my heart again. So that’s no guide,
though it should be, according to all the novels I’ve ever read. Now, Anne,
YOUR heart wouldn’t thump for anybody but the genuine Prince Charming,
would it? There must be something radically wrong with mine. But I’m having a
perfectly gorgeous time. How I wish you were here! It’s snowing today, and I’m
rapturous. I was so afraid we’d have a green Christmas and I loathe them. You
know, when Christmas is a dirty grayey-browney affair, looking as if it had been
left over a hundred years ago and had been in soak ever since, it is called a
GREEN Christmas! Don’t ask me why. As Lord Dundreary says, ‘there are
thome thingth no fellow can underthtand.’
“Anne, did you ever get on a street car and then discover that you hadn’t any
money with you to pay your fare? I did, the other day. It’s quite awful. I had a
nickel with me when I got on the car. I thought it was in the left pocket of my
coat. When I got settled down comfortably I felt for it. It wasn’t there. I had a
cold chill. I felt in the other pocket. Not there. I had another chill. Then I felt in a
little inside pocket. All in vain. I had two chills at once.
“I took off my gloves, laid them on the seat, and went over all my pockets