Chapter X
Patty’s Place
The next evening found them treading resolutely the herring-bone walk
through the tiny garden. The April wind was filling the pine trees with its
roundelay, and the grove was alive with robins—great, plump, saucy fellows,
strutting along the paths. The girls rang rather timidly, and were admitted by a
grim and ancient handmaiden. The door opened directly into a large living-room,
where by a cheery little fire sat two other ladies, both of whom were also grim
and ancient. Except that one looked to be about seventy and the other fifty, there
seemed little difference between them. Each had amazingly big, light-blue eyes
behind steel-rimmed spectacles; each wore a cap and a gray shawl; each was
knitting without haste and without rest; each rocked placidly and looked at the
girls without speaking; and just behind each sat a large white china dog, with
round green spots all over it, a green nose and green ears. Those dogs captured
Anne’s fancy on the spot; they seemed like the twin guardian deities of Patty’s
Place.
For a few minutes nobody spoke. The girls were too nervous to find words,
and neither the ancient ladies nor the china dogs seemed conversationally
inclined. Anne glanced about the room. What a dear place it was! Another door
opened out of it directly into the pine grove and the robins came boldly up on the
very step. The floor was spotted with round, braided mats, such as Marilla made
at Green Gables, but which were considered out of date everywhere else, even in
Avonlea. And yet here they were on Spofford Avenue! A big, polished
grandfather’s clock ticked loudly and solemnly in a corner. There were
delightful little cupboards over the mantelpiece, behind whose glass doors
gleamed quaint bits of china. The walls were hung with old prints and
silhouettes. In one corner the stairs went up, and at the first low turn was a long
window with an inviting seat. It was all just as Anne had known it must be.
By this time the silence had grown too dreadful, and Priscilla nudged Anne to
intimate that she must speak.
“We—we—saw by your sign that this house is to let,” said Anne faintly,
addressing the older lady, who was evidently Miss Patty Spofford.