21 Cont. Anne Of Avonlea Read By Stephanie Poppins

Hello.

Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,

Your go-to romantic podcast that guarantees you a calm and entertaining transition into a great night's sleep.

Come with me as we immerse ourselves in a romantic journey to a time long since forgotten.

But before we begin,

Let's take a moment to focus on where we are now.

Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.

That's it.

Now close your eyes and feel yourself sink deeper into the support beneath you.

It is time to relax and fully let go.

There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.

Happy listening.

Anne of Avonlea This is the second book in the Anne of Green Gables series.

I am delighted to present to you Anne as she has now grown up into an elegant teenager.

Come with me as we hear all the trials and tribulations as she continues on her journey to womanhood.

Chapter 21.

Continued The entrance to Miss Lavender's house had a low ceiling and two square small pane windows.

Curtained with muslin frills,

All the furnishings were old-fashioned,

But so well and daintily kept the effect was delicious.

But it must be candidly admitted the most attractive feature to the two healthy girls who just tramped four miles through autumn air was a table set out with pale blue china and laden with delicacies.

While little golden-hued ferns scattered over the cloth gave it what Anne would have termed a festal air.

Miss Lavender must be expecting somebody to tea,

Anne whispered.

There are six places set.

But what a funny little girl she has.

She looked like a messenger from Pixieland.

I suppose she could have told us the road.

But I was curious to see Miss Lavender.

Shh,

Here she's coming.

And with that Miss Lavender Lewis was standing in the doorway.

The girls were so surprised they forgot good manners and simply stared.

They had unconsciously been expecting to see the usual type of elderly spinster as known to their experience.

A rather angular personage with prim grey hair and spectacles.

But nothing more unlike Miss Lavender could possibly be imagined.

She was a little lady with snow white hair,

Beautifully wavy and thick and carefully arranged in becoming puffs and coils.

Beneath it was almost a girlish face,

Pink-cheeked and sweet-lipped with big soft brown eyes and dimples.

Actual dimples.

She wore a very dainty gown,

Cream muslin with pale-hued roses on it.

A gown which would have seemed ridiculously juvenile on most women of her age,

But which suited Miss Lavender so perfectly that you never thought about it at all.

Charlotta Faw said you wished to see me,

She said in a voice that matched her appearance.

We wanted to ask the right road to West Grafton,

Said Diana.

We were invited to tea at Mr.

Kimble's but we took the long path coming through the woods and came out to the baseline instead of the West Grafton Road.

Do we take the right or left turning at your gate?

The left,

Said Miss Lavender with a hesitating glance at her tea table,

Then she exclaimed as if in a sudden little burst of resolution.

But oh,

Won't you stay and have tea with me?

Please do.

Mr.

Kimble's will have tea over before you get there and Charlotta the Fourth and I will be glad to have you.

And Charlotta the Fourth and I will be glad to have you.

Diana looked,

Mute inquiry at Anne.

We'd like to stay,

Said Anne promptly,

For she'd made up her mind she wanted to know more of this surprising Miss Lavender.

But if it won't inconvenience you,

You are expecting other guests,

Aren't you?

Miss Lavender looked at her tea table again and blushed.

I know you think me dreadfully foolish,

She said.

I am foolish and I'm ashamed of it when I'm found out.

But nevertheless,

I am found out.

I was not expecting anybody.

I was just pretending I was.

You see,

I was so lonely.

I love company.

That is the right kind of company.

But so few people ever come here because it's so far out of the way.

Charlotta the Fourth was lonely too,

So I pretended I was going to have a tea party.

I cooked for it and decorated the table and set it with my mother's wedding china and I dressed up for it.

Diana secretly thought Miss Lavender quite as peculiar as report had pictured her.

The idea of a woman of 45 playing at having a tea party,

Just as if she were a little girl.

But Anne of the Shining Eyes exclaimed joyfully,

Oh,

Do you imagine things too?

That too revealed a kindred spirit to Miss Lavender.

Yes,

I do,

She confessed boldly.

Of course,

It's silly in anybody as old as I am.

But what is the use of being an independent old maid if you can't be silly when you want to?

I don't believe I could live at times if I didn't pretend things.

I'm not often caught at it though,

And Charlotta the Fourth never tells.

But I'm glad to be caught today,

For you've really come and I have tea already.

Will you go up to the spare room and take off your hats?

It's the white door at the head of the stairs.

I must run out to the kitchen and see that Charlotta the Fourth isn't letting the tea boil.

Charlotta the Fourth is a very good girl,

But she will let the tea boil.

Miss Lavender tripped off to the kitchen on hospitable thoughts intent,

And the girls found their way up to the spare room,

An apartment as white as its door,

Lighted by the ivy hung dormer window and looking,

As Anne said,

Like the place where happy dreams grew.

This is quite an adventure,

Isn't it?

Said Diana.

And isn't Miss Lavender sweet if she is a little old?

She doesn't look a bit like an old maid.

She looks just as music sounds,

I think,

Answered Anne.

When they went down,

Miss Lavender was carrying in the teapot,

And behind her looking vastly pleased was Charlotta the Fourth with a plate of hot biscuits.

Now,

You must tell me your names,

Said Miss Lavender.

I'm so glad you're young girls.

I love young girls.

It's so easy to pretend I'm a girl myself when I'm with them.

I do hate,

With a little grimace,

To believe I'm old.

Now,

Who are you,

Just for convenience's sake?

Diana Barry?

Anne Shirley?

Anne Shirley?

May I pretend I've known you for a hundred years and call you Anne Diana right away?

You may,

Both girls said together.

Then just let's sit comfily down and eat everything,

Said Miss Lavender happily.

Charlotta,

You sit at the foot and help with the chicken.

It's so fortunate I made the sponge cake and donuts.

Of course,

It was foolish to do it for an imaginary guest.

I know Charlotta the Fourth thinks so,

Don't you,

Charlotta?

But you see how well it's turned out.

Of course,

They wouldn't have been wasted,

For Charlotta the Fourth and I could have eaten them through time.

But sponge cake is not a thing that improves with time.

That was a merry and memorable meal.

And when it was over,

They all went to the garden,

Lying in the glamour of sunset.

I do think you have the loveliest place here,

Said Diana,

Looking round her admiringly.

Why do you call it Echo Lodge?

Asked Anne.

Charlotta,

Said Miss Lavender,

Go into the house and bring out the little tin horn that's hanging over the clock shelf.

Charlotta the Fourth skipped off and returned with the horn.

Blow it,

Charlotta,

Commanded Miss Lavender.

Charlotta accordingly blew a rather raucous,

Strident blast.

There was a moment's stillness,

And then from the woods over the river came a multitude of fairy echoes,

Sweet,

Elusive,

Silvery,

As if all the horns of Helfland were blowing against the sunset.

Anne and Diana exclaimed in delight.

Now laugh,

Charlotta,

Laugh loudly,

Said Miss Lavender.

Charlotta,

Who would probably have obeyed if Miss Lavender had taught her to stand on her head,

Climbed upon the stone bench and laughed loud and heartily.

Back came the echoes as if a host of pixie people were mimicking her laughter in the purple woodlands and along the fir fringe points.

People always admire my echoes very much,

Said Miss Lavender,

As if the echoes were her personal property.

They're very good company,

With a little pretending.

On calm evenings,

Charlotta the Fourth and I often sit out here and amuse ourselves with them.

Charlotta,

Take back the horn and hang it carefully in its place.

Why do you call her Charlotta the Fourth?

Asked Diana,

Who was bursting with curiosity on this point.

Just to keep her getting mixed up with the other Charlottas in my thoughts,

Said Miss Lavender seriously.

They all look so much alike,

There's no telling them apart.

Her name isn't really Charlotta at all,

It's,

Um,

Let me see,

What is it?

I think it's Leonora.

Yes,

Yes,

It's Leonora.

You see,

It's this way.

When mother died 10 years ago,

I couldn't stay here alone,

And I couldn't afford to pay the wages of a grown-up girl.

So I got a little Charlotta Bauman to come and stay with me for board and clothes.

Her name really was Charlotta.

She was Charlotta the First.

She was just 13.

She stayed with me till she was 16,

Then she went away to Boston,

Because she could do better there.

Her sister came to stay with me then.

Her name was Julietta.

Mrs.

Bauman had a weakness for fancy names,

I think.

But she looked so like Charlotta,

I kept calling her that all the time,

And she didn't mind.

So I just gave up trying to remember her right name.

She was Charlotta the Second.

When she went away,

Evelina came,

And she was Charlotta the Third.

Now I have Charlotta the Fourth.

But when she's 16,

She's 14 now,

She will want to go to Boston too,

And what shall I do then?

I really do not know.

Charlotta the Fourth is the last of the Bauman girls,

And the best.

The other Charlottas always let me see that they thought it's silly of me to pretend things.

But Charlotta the Fourth never does,

No matter what she really might think.

I don't care what people think about me,

If they don't let me see it.

Well,

Said Diana,

Looking regretfully at the setting sun,

I suppose we must go if we want to get back to Mr.

Kimble's before dark.

We have had a lovely time,

Miss Lewis.

Won't you come again to see me?

Pleaded Miss Lavender.

Then told Anne put her arm around the little lady.

Indeed we shall,

She promised.

Now that we've discovered you,

We'll wear out our welcome coming to see you.

Yes,

We must go.

We must tear ourselves away,

As Paul Irving says every time he comes to Green Gables.

Paul Irving,

I'm sure he'll be happy to see you.

Paul Irving?

There was a subtle change in Miss Lavender's voice.

Who is he?

I didn't think there was anybody of that name in Avonlea.

Anne felt vexed at her own heedlessness.

She'd forgotten about Miss Lavender's old romance when Paul's name slipped out.

He's a little pupil of mine,

She explained slowly.

He came from Boston last year to live with his grandmother,

Mrs.

Irving of the Shore Road.

Is he Stephen Irving's son?

Miss Lavender asked,

Bending over her namesake's border so that her face was hidden.

Yes.

I'm going to give you girls a bunch of lavender apiece,

Said Miss Lavender brightly,

As if she'd not heard the answer to the question.

It's very sweet,

Don't you think?

Mother always loved it.

She planted these borders long ago.

Father named me Lavender because he was so fond of it.

The very first time he saw Mother was when he visited her home in East Grafton with her brother.

He fell in love with her at first sight,

And they put him in the spare room,

Bed to sleep,

And the sheets were scented with lavender,

And he lay awake all night and thought of her.

He always loved the scent of lavender after that,

And that was why he gave me the name.

Don't forget to come back soon,

Girls.

We'll be looking for you,

Charlotte IV and I.

Then she opened the gate under the first for them to pass through.

She looked suddenly old and tired.

The glow and radiance had faded from her face.

Her parting smile was as sweet with ineradicable youth as ever.

But when the girls looked back from the first curve in the lane,

They saw her sitting on the old stone bench under the silver poplar in the middle of the garden with her head leaning wearily on her hand.

She does look lonely,

Said Diana softly.

We must come more often to see her.

I think her parents gave her the only right and fitting name that could possibly be given,

Said Anne.

If they'd been so blind as to name her Elizabeth or Nellie or Muriel,

She must have been called Lavender just the same,

I think.

It's so suggestive of sweetness and old-fashioned graces and silk attire.

Now my name just smacks of bread and butter,

Patchwork and chores.

No,

I don't think so,

Said Diana.

Said Diana,

Anne seems to me real stately and quite like a queen.

I think people make their names nice or ugly just by what they are themselves.

I can't bear Josie or Gertie for names now,

But before I knew the Pie Girls,

I thought them real pretty.

That's a lovely idea,

Diana,

Said Anne enthusiastically.

Living so that you beautify your name,

Even if it wasn't beautiful to begin with.

Making it stand in people's thoughts for something so lovely and pleasant that they never think of it by itself.

Thank you,

My friend.