“I don’t think you should have told Miss Brooke that,” said Anne reproachfully.
“But I thought she ought to know,” said Mrs. Dennis somewhat waspishly.
“Did you also think she ought to know that the Inspector said she was one of the best teachers in the Maritimes?” asked Anne. “Or didn’t you know it?”
“Oh, I heard it. But she’s stuck-up enough now without making her any worse. Proud’s no name for it … though what she’s got to be proud of, I dunno. Of course she was mad anyhow tonight because I’d said she couldn’t have a dog. She’s took a notion into her head she’d like to have a dog. Said she’d pay for his rations and see he was no bother. But what’d I do with him when she was in school? I put my foot down. ‘I’m boarding no dogs,’ sez I.”
“Oh, Mrs. Dennis, won’t you let her have a dog? He wouldn’t bother you … much. You could keep him in the basement while she was in school. And a dog really is such a protection at night. I wish you would … please.”
There was always something about Anne Shirley’s eyes when she said “please” that people found hard to resist. Mrs. Dennis, in spite of fat shoulders and a meddlesome tongue, was not unkind at heart. Katherine Brooke simply got under her skin at times with her ungracious ways.
“I dunno why you should worry as to her having a dog or not. I didn’t know you were such friends. She hasn’t any friends. I never had such an unsociable boarder.”
“I think that is why she wants a dog, Mrs. Dennis. None of us can live without some kind of companionship.”
“Well, it’s the first human thing I’ve noticed about her,” said Mrs. Dennis. “I dunno’s I have any awful objection to a dog, but she sort of vexed me with her sarcastic way of asking … ‘I s’pose you wouldn’t consent if I asked you if I might have a dog, Mrs. Dennis,’ she sez, haughty like. Set her up with it! ‘You’re s’posing right,’ sez I, as haughty as herself. I don’t like eating my words any more than most people, but you can tell her she can have a dog if she’ll guarantee he won’t misbehave in the parlor.”
Anne did not think the parlor could be much worse if the dog did misbehave. She eyed the dingy lace curtains and the hideous purple roses on the carpet with a shiver.
“I’m sorry for any one who has to spend Christmas in a boardinghouse like this,” she thought. “I don’t wonder Katherine hates the word. I’d like to give this place a good airing … it smells of a thousand meals. Why does Katherine go on boarding here when she has a good salary?”
“She says you can come up,” was the message Mrs. Dennis brought back, rather dubiously, for Miss Brooke had run true to form.
The narrow, steep stair was repellent. It didn’t want you. Nobody would go up who didn’t have to. The linoleum in the hall was worn to shreds. The little back hall-bedroom where Anne presently found herself was even more cheerless than the parlor. It was lighted by one glaring unshaded gas jet. There was an iron bed with a valley in the middle of it and a narrow, sparsely draped window looking out on a backyard garden where a large crop of tin cans flourished. But beyond it was a marvelous sky and a row of lombardies standing out against long, purple, distant hills.
“Oh, Miss Brooke, look at that sunset,” said Anne rapturously from the squeaky, cushionless rocker to which Katherine had ungraciously pointed her.
“I’ve seen a good many sunsets,” said the latter coldly, without moving. (“Condescending to me with your sunsets!” she thought bitterly.)
“You haven’t seen this one. No two sunsets are alike. Just sit down here and let us let it sink into our souls,” said Anne. Thought Anne, “Do you ever say anything pleasant?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, please.”
The most insulting words in the world! With an added edge of insult in Katherine’s contemptuous tones. Anne turned from her sunset and looked at Katherine, much more than half inclined to get up and walk out. But Katherine’s eyes looked a trifle strange. Had she been crying? Surely not … you couldn’t imagine Katherine Brooke crying.
“You don’t make me feel very welcome,” Anne said slowly.
“I can’t pretend things. I haven’t your notable gift for doing the queen act … saying exactly the right thing to every one. You’re not welcome. What sort of room is this to welcome any one to?”
Katherine made a scornful gesture at the faded walls, the shabby bare chairs and the wobbly dressing-table with its petticoat of limp muslin.
“It isn’t a nice room, but why do you stay here if you don’t like it?”
“Oh … why … Why? You wouldn’t understand. It doesn’t matter. I don’t care what anybody thinks. What brought you here tonight? I don’t suppose you came just to soak in the sunset.”
“I came to ask if you would spend the Christmas holidays with me at Green Gables.”
(“Now,” thought Anne, “for another broadside of sarcasm! I do wish she’d sit down at least. She just stands there as if waiting for me to go.”)
But there was silence for a moment. Then Katherine said slowly,
“Why do you ask me? It isn’t because you like me … even you couldn’t pretend that.”
“It’s because I can’t bear to think of any human being spending Christmas in a place like this,” said Anne candidly.
The sarcasm came then.
“Oh, I see. A seasonable outburst of charity. I’m hardly a candidate for that yet, Miss Shirley.”
Anne got up. She was out of patience with this strange, aloof creature. She walked across the room and looked Katherine squarely in the eye. “Katherine Brooke, whether you know it or not, what you want is a good spanking.”
They gazed at each other for a moment.
“It must have relieved you to say that,” said Katherine. But somehow the insulting tone had gone out of her voice. There was even a faint twitch at the corner of her mouth.
“It has,” said Anne. “I’ve been wanting to tell you just that for some time. I didn’t ask you to Green Gables out of charity … you know that perfectly well. I told you my true reason. Nobody ought to spend Christmas here … the very idea is indecent.”
“You asked me to Green Gables just because you are sorry for me.”
“I am sorry for you. Because you’ve shut out life … and now life is shutting you out. Stop, it, Katherine. Open your doors to life … and life will come in.”
“The Anne Shirley version of the old bromide, ‘If you bring a smiling visage to the glass you meet a smile,’” said Katherine with a shrug.
“Like all bromides, that’s absolutely true. Now, are you coming to Green Gables or are you not?”
“What
