Anne of Green Gables

by L. M. Montgomery

  CHAPTER XVI. Diana Is Invited to Tea with Tragic Results

  |OCTOBER was a beautiful month at Green Gables, when the birches in thehollow turned as golden as sunshine and the maples behind the orchardwere royal crimson and the wild cherry trees along the lane put on theloveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green, while the fields sunnedthemselves in aftermaths.

  Anne reveled in the world of color about her.

  "Oh, Marilla," she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing inwith her arms full of gorgeous boughs, "I'm so glad I live in a worldwhere there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped fromSeptember to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don'tthey give you a thrill--several thrills? I'm going to decorate my roomwith them."

  "Messy things," said Marilla, whose aesthetic sense was not noticeablydeveloped. "You clutter up your room entirely too much with out-of-doorsstuff, Anne. Bedrooms were made to sleep in."

  "Oh, and dream in too, Marilla. And you know one can dream so muchbetter in a room where there are pretty things. I'm going to put theseboughs in the old blue jug and set them on my table."

  "Mind you don't drop leaves all over the stairs then. I'm going on ameeting of the Aid Society at Carmody this afternoon, Anne, and I won'tlikely be home before dark. You'll have to get Matthew and Jerry theirsupper, so mind you don't forget to put the tea to draw until you sitdown at the table as you did last time."

  "It was dreadful of me to forget," said Anne apologetically, "but thatwas the afternoon I was trying to think of a name for Violet Vale and itcrowded other things out. Matthew was so good. He never scolded a bit.He put the tea down himself and said we could wait awhile as well asnot. And I told him a lovely fairy story while we were waiting, sohe didn't find the time long at all. It was a beautiful fairy story,Marilla. I forgot the end of it, so I made up an end for it myself andMatthew said he couldn't tell where the join came in."

  "Matthew would think it all right, Anne, if you took a notion to get upand have dinner in the middle of the night. But you keep your wits aboutyou this time. And--I don't really know if I'm doing right--it may makeyou more addlepated than ever--but you can ask Diana to come over andspend the afternoon with you and have tea here."

  "Oh, Marilla!" Anne clasped her hands. "How perfectly lovely! You _are_able to imagine things after all or else you'd never have understood howI've longed for that very thing. It will seem so nice and grown-uppish.No fear of my forgetting to put the tea to draw when I have company. Oh,Marilla, can I use the rosebud spray tea set?"

  "No, indeed! The rosebud tea set! Well, what next? You know I never usethat except for the minister or the Aids. You'll put down the old browntea set. But you can open the little yellow crock of cherry preserves.It's time it was being used anyhow--I believe it's beginning to work.And you can cut some fruit cake and have some of the cookies and snaps."

  "I can just imagine myself sitting down at the head of the table andpouring out the tea," said Anne, shutting her eyes ecstatically. "Andasking Diana if she takes sugar! I know she doesn't but of course I'llask her just as if I didn't know. And then pressing her to take anotherpiece of fruit cake and another helping of preserves. Oh, Marilla, it'sa wonderful sensation just to think of it. Can I take her into the spareroom to lay off her hat when she comes? And then into the parlor tosit?"

  "No. The sitting room will do for you and your company. But there's abottle half full of raspberry cordial that was left over from the churchsocial the other night. It's on the second shelf of the sitting-roomcloset and you and Diana can have it if you like, and a cooky to eatwith it along in the afternoon, for I daresay Matthew 'll be late comingin to tea since he's hauling potatoes to the vessel."

  Anne flew down to the hollow, past the Dryad's Bubble and up the sprucepath to Orchard Slope, to ask Diana to tea. As a result just afterMarilla had driven off to Carmody, Diana came over, dressed in _her_second-best dress and looking exactly as it is proper to look when askedout to tea. At other times she was wont to run into the kitchen withoutknocking; but now she knocked primly at the front door. And when Anne,dressed in her second best, as primly opened it, both little girlsshook hands as gravely as if they had never met before. This unnaturalsolemnity lasted until after Diana had been taken to the east gable tolay off her hat and then had sat for ten minutes in the sitting room,toes in position.

  "How is your mother?" inquired Anne politely, just as if she had notseen Mrs. Barry picking apples that morning in excellent health andspirits.

  "She is very well, thank you. I suppose Mr. Cuthbert is hauling potatoesto the _lily sands_ this afternoon, is he?" said Diana, who had riddendown to Mr. Harmon Andrews's that morning in Matthew's cart.

  "Yes. Our potato crop is very good this year. I hope your father's cropis good too."

  "It is fairly good, thank you. Have you picked many of your apples yet?"

  "Oh, ever so many," said Anne forgetting to be dignified and jumping upquickly. "Let's go out to the orchard and get some of the Red Sweetings,Diana. Marilla says we can have all that are left on the tree. Marillais a very generous woman. She said we could have fruit cake and cherrypreserves for tea. But it isn't good manners to tell your company whatyou are going to give them to eat, so I won't tell you what she said wecould have to drink. Only it begins with an R and a C and it's brightred color. I love bright red drinks, don't you? They taste twice as goodas any other color."

  The orchard, with its great sweeping boughs that bent to the groundwith fruit, proved so delightful that the little girls spent most of theafternoon in it, sitting in a grassy corner where the frost had sparedthe green and the mellow autumn sunshine lingered warmly, eating applesand talking as hard as they could. Diana had much to tell Anne of whatwent on in school. She had to sit with Gertie Pye and she hatedit; Gertie squeaked her pencil all the time and it just madeher--Diana's--blood run cold; Ruby Gillis had charmed all her wartsaway, true's you live, with a magic pebble that old Mary Joe from theCreek gave her. You had to rub the warts with the pebble and then throwit away over your left shoulder at the time of the new moon and thewarts would all go. Charlie Sloane's name was written up with Em White'son the porch wall and Em White was _awful mad_ about it; Sam Boulter had"sassed" Mr. Phillips in class and Mr. Phillips whipped him and Sam'sfather came down to the school and dared Mr. Phillips to lay a hand onone of his children again; and Mattie Andrews had a new red hood and ablue crossover with tassels on it and the airs she put on about it wereperfectly sickening; and Lizzie Wright didn't speak to Mamie Wilsonbecause Mamie Wilson's grown-up sister had cut out Lizzie Wright'sgrown-up sister with her beau; and everybody missed Anne so and wishedshe's come to school again; and Gilbert Blythe--

  But Anne didn't want to hear about Gilbert Blythe. She jumped uphurriedly and said suppose they go in and have some raspberry cordial.

  Anne looked on the second shelf of the room pantry but there was nobottle of raspberry cordial there. Search revealed it away back on thetop shelf. Anne put it on a tray and set it on the table with a tumbler.

  "Now, please help yourself, Diana," she said politely. "I don't believeI'll have any just now. I don't feel as if I wanted any after all thoseapples."

  Diana poured herself out a tumblerful, looked at its bright-red hueadmiringly, and then sipped it daintily.

  "That's awfully nice raspberry cordial, Anne," she said. "I didn't knowraspberry cordial was so nice."

  "I'm real glad you like it. Take as much as you want. I'm going torun out and stir the fire up. There are so many responsibilities on aperson's mind when they're keeping house, isn't there?"

  When Anne came back from the kitchen Diana was drinking her secondglassful of cordial; and, being entreated thereto by Anne, she offeredno particular objection to the drinking of a third. The tumblerfuls weregenerous ones and the raspberry cordial was certainly very nice.

  "The nicest I ever drank," said Diana. "It's ever so much nicer thanMrs. Lynde's, although she brags of hers so much. It doesn't taste a bitlike hers.
"

  "I should think Marilla's raspberry cordial would prob'ly be much nicerthan Mrs. Lynde's," said Anne loyally. "Marilla is a famous cook. She istrying to teach me to cook but I assure you, Diana, it is uphill work.There's so little scope for imagination in cookery. You just have to goby rules. The last time I made a cake I forgot to put the flour in. Iwas thinking the loveliest story about you and me, Diana. I thought youwere desperately ill with smallpox and everybody deserted you, but Iwent boldly to your bedside and nursed you back to life; and then I tookthe smallpox and died and I was buried under those poplar trees in thegraveyard and you planted a rosebush by my grave and watered it withyour tears; and you never, never forgot the friend of your youth whosacrificed her life for you. Oh, it was such a pathetic tale, Diana.The tears just rained down over my cheeks while I mixed the cake. ButI forgot the flour and the cake was a dismal failure. Flour is soessential to cakes, you know. Marilla was very cross and I don't wonder.I'm a great trial to her. She was terribly mortified about the puddingsauce last week. We had a plum pudding for dinner on Tuesday and therewas half the pudding and a pitcherful of sauce left over. Marilla saidthere was enough for another dinner and told me to set it on the pantryshelf and cover it. I meant to cover it just as much as could be, Diana,but when I carried it in I was imagining I was a nun--of course I'm aProtestant but I imagined I was a Catholic--taking the veil to bury abroken heart in cloistered seclusion; and I forgot all about coveringthe pudding sauce. I thought of it next morning and ran to the pantry.Diana, fancy if you can my extreme horror at finding a mouse drowned inthat pudding sauce! I lifted the mouse out with a spoon and threw it outin the yard and then I washed the spoon in three waters. Marilla was outmilking and I fully intended to ask her when she came in if I'd give thesauce to the pigs; but when she did come in I was imagining that I wasa frost fairy going through the woods turning the trees red and yellow,whichever they wanted to be, so I never thought about the pudding sauceagain and Marilla sent me out to pick apples. Well, Mr. and Mrs. ChesterRoss from Spencervale came here that morning. You know they are verystylish people, especially Mrs. Chester Ross. When Marilla called me indinner was all ready and everybody was at the table. I tried to be aspolite and dignified as I could be, for I wanted Mrs. Chester Ross tothink I was a ladylike little girl even if I wasn't pretty. Everythingwent right until I saw Marilla coming with the plum pudding in one handand the pitcher of pudding sauce _warmed up_, in the other. Diana, thatwas a terrible moment. I remembered everything and I just stood up inmy place and shrieked out 'Marilla, you mustn't use that pudding sauce.There was a mouse drowned in it. I forgot to tell you before.' Oh,Diana, I shall never forget that awful moment if I live to be a hundred.Mrs. Chester Ross just _looked_ at me and I thought I would sink throughthe floor with mortification. She is such a perfect housekeeper andfancy what she must have thought of us. Marilla turned red as fire butshe never said a word--then. She just carried that sauce and pudding outand brought in some strawberry preserves. She even offered me some, butI couldn't swallow a mouthful. It was like heaping coals of fire onmy head. After Mrs. Chester Ross went away, Marilla gave me a dreadfulscolding. Why, Diana, what is the matter?"

  Diana had stood up very unsteadily; then she sat down again, putting herhands to her head.

  "I'm--I'm awful sick," she said, a little thickly. "I--I--must go righthome."

  "Oh, you mustn't dream of going home without your tea," cried Anne indistress. "I'll get it right off--I'll go and put the tea down this veryminute."

  "I must go home," repeated Diana, stupidly but determinedly.

  "Let me get you a lunch anyhow," implored Anne. "Let me give you a bitof fruit cake and some of the cherry preserves. Lie down on the sofa fora little while and you'll be better. Where do you feel bad?"

  "I must go home," said Diana, and that was all she would say. In vainAnne pleaded.

  "I never heard of company going home without tea," she mourned. "Oh,Diana, do you suppose that it's possible you're really taking thesmallpox? If you are I'll go and nurse you, you can depend on that. I'llnever forsake you. But I do wish you'd stay till after tea. Where do youfeel bad?"

  "I'm awful dizzy," said Diana.

  And indeed, she walked very dizzily. Anne, with tears of disappointmentin her eyes, got Diana's hat and went with her as far as the Barryyard fence. Then she wept all the way back to Green Gables, where shesorrowfully put the remainder of the raspberry cordial back into thepantry and got tea ready for Matthew and Jerry, with all the zest goneout of the performance.

  The next day was Sunday and as the rain poured down in torrents fromdawn till dusk Anne did not stir abroad from Green Gables. Mondayafternoon Marilla sent her down to Mrs. Lynde's on an errand. In a veryshort space of time Anne came flying back up the lane with tears rollingdown her cheeks. Into the kitchen she dashed and flung herself facedownward on the sofa in an agony.

  "Whatever has gone wrong now, Anne?" queried Marilla in doubt anddismay. "I do hope you haven't gone and been saucy to Mrs. Lynde again."

  No answer from Anne save more tears and stormier sobs!

  "Anne Shirley, when I ask you a question I want to be answered. Sitright up this very minute and tell me what you are crying about."

  Anne sat up, tragedy personified.

  "Mrs. Lynde was up to see Mrs. Barry today and Mrs. Barry was in anawful state," she wailed. "She says that I set Diana _drunk_ Saturdayand sent her home in a disgraceful condition. And she says I must be athoroughly bad, wicked little girl and she's never, never going to letDiana play with me again. Oh, Marilla, I'm just overcome with woe."

  Marilla stared in blank amazement.

  "Set Diana drunk!" she said when she found her voice. "Anne are you orMrs. Barry crazy? What on earth did you give her?"

  "Not a thing but raspberry cordial," sobbed Anne. "I never thoughtraspberry cordial would set people drunk, Marilla--not even if theydrank three big tumblerfuls as Diana did. Oh, it sounds so--so--likeMrs. Thomas's husband! But I didn't mean to set her drunk."

  "Drunk fiddlesticks!" said Marilla, marching to the sitting room pantry.There on the shelf was a bottle which she at once recognized as onecontaining some of her three-year-old homemade currant wine for whichshe was celebrated in Avonlea, although certain of the stricter sort,Mrs. Barry among them, disapproved strongly of it. And at the same timeMarilla recollected that she had put the bottle of raspberry cordialdown in the cellar instead of in the pantry as she had told Anne.

  She went back to the kitchen with the wine bottle in her hand. Her facewas twitching in spite of herself.

  "Anne, you certainly have a genius for getting into trouble. You wentand gave Diana currant wine instead of raspberry cordial. Didn't youknow the difference yourself?"

  "I never tasted it," said Anne. "I thought it was the cordial. I meantto be so--so--hospitable. Diana got awfully sick and had to go home.Mrs. Barry told Mrs. Lynde she was simply dead drunk. She just laughedsilly-like when her mother asked her what was the matter and went tosleep and slept for hours. Her mother smelled her breath and knew shewas drunk. She had a fearful headache all day yesterday. Mrs. Barry isso indignant. She will never believe but what I did it on purpose."

  "I should think she would better punish Diana for being so greedy as todrink three glassfuls of anything," said Marilla shortly. "Why, threeof those big glasses would have made her sick even if it had only beencordial. Well, this story will be a nice handle for those folks who areso down on me for making currant wine, although I haven't made any forthree years ever since I found out that the minister didn't approve. Ijust kept that bottle for sickness. There, there, child, don't cry. Ican't see as you were to blame although I'm sorry it happened so."

  "I must cry," said Anne. "My heart is broken. The stars in their coursesfight against me, Marilla. Diana and I are parted forever. Oh, Marilla,I little dreamed of this when first we swore our vows of friendship."

  "Don't be foolish, Anne. Mrs. Barry will think better of it when shefinds you're not to blame. I sup
pose she thinks you've done it for asilly joke or something of that sort. You'd best go up this evening andtell her how it was."

  "My courage fails me at the thought of facing Diana's injured mother,"sighed Anne. "I wish you'd go, Marilla. You're so much more dignifiedthan I am. Likely she'd listen to you quicker than to me."

  "Well, I will," said Marilla, reflecting that it would probably be thewiser course. "Don't cry any more, Anne. It will be all right."

  Marilla had changed her mind about it being all right by the time shegot back from Orchard Slope. Anne was watching for her coming and flewto the porch door to meet her.

  "Oh, Marilla, I know by your face that it's been no use," she saidsorrowfully. "Mrs. Barry won't forgive me?"

  "Mrs. Barry indeed!" snapped Marilla. "Of all the unreasonable womenI ever saw she's the worst. I told her it was all a mistake and youweren't to blame, but she just simply didn't believe me. And she rubbedit well in about my currant wine and how I'd always said it couldn'thave the least effect on anybody. I just told her plainly that currantwine wasn't meant to be drunk three tumblerfuls at a time and that if achild I had to do with was so greedy I'd sober her up with a right goodspanking."

  Marilla whisked into the kitchen, grievously disturbed, leaving a verymuch distracted little soul in the porch behind her. Presently Annestepped out bareheaded into the chill autumn dusk; very determinedly andsteadily she took her way down through the sere clover field over thelog bridge and up through the spruce grove, lighted by a pale littlemoon hanging low over the western woods. Mrs. Barry, coming to the doorin answer to a timid knock, found a white-lipped eager-eyed suppliant onthe doorstep.

  Her face hardened. Mrs. Barry was a woman of strong prejudices anddislikes, and her anger was of the cold, sullen sort which is alwayshardest to overcome. To do her justice, she really believed Anne hadmade Diana drunk out of sheer malice prepense, and she was honestlyanxious to preserve her little daughter from the contamination offurther intimacy with such a child.

  "What do you want?" she said stiffly.

  Anne clasped her hands.

  "Oh, Mrs. Barry, please forgive me. I did not mean to--to--intoxicateDiana. How could I? Just imagine if you were a poor little orphan girlthat kind people had adopted and you had just one bosom friend in allthe world. Do you think you would intoxicate her on purpose? I thoughtit was only raspberry cordial. I was firmly convinced it was raspberrycordial. Oh, please don't say that you won't let Diana play with me anymore. If you do you will cover my life with a dark cloud of woe."

  This speech which would have softened good Mrs. Lynde's heart in atwinkling, had no effect on Mrs. Barry except to irritate her stillmore. She was suspicious of Anne's big words and dramatic gestures andimagined that the child was making fun of her. So she said, coldly andcruelly:

  "I don't think you are a fit little girl for Diana to associate with.You'd better go home and behave yourself."

  Anne's lips quivered.

  "Won't you let me see Diana just once to say farewell?" she implored.

  "Diana has gone over to Carmody with her father," said Mrs. Barry, goingin and shutting the door.

  Anne went back to Green Gables calm with despair.

  "My last hope is gone," she told Marilla. "I went up and saw Mrs. Barrymyself and she treated me very insultingly. Marilla, I do _not_ think sheis a well-bred woman. There is nothing more to do except to pray and Ihaven't much hope that that'll do much good because, Marilla, I do notbelieve that God Himself can do very much with such an obstinate personas Mrs. Barry."

  "Anne, you shouldn't say such things" rebuked Marilla, striving toovercome that unholy tendency to laughter which she was dismayed to findgrowing upon her. And indeed, when she told the whole story to Matthewthat night, she did laugh heartily over Anne's tribulations.

  But when she slipped into the east gable before going to bed and foundthat Anne had cried herself to sleep an unaccustomed softness crept intoher face.

  "Poor little soul," she murmured, lifting a loose curl of hair from thechild's tear-stained face. Then she bent down and kissed the flushedcheek on the pillow.