33 And 34 Anne Of The Island - Read By Stephanie Poppins

Anne of the Island by L.

M.

Montgomery Read by Stephanie Poppins Chapter 33 He just kept coming and coming Three days later,

Anne came home from school and found Janet crying.

Tears in Janet seemed so incongruous that Anne was honestly alarmed.

What is the matter?

She cried anxiously.

I'm forty today,

Sobbed Janet.

Well,

You were nearly that yesterday and it didn't hurt.

But John Douglas won't ask me to marry him.

Oh,

But he will.

You must give him time,

Janet.

Time?

He's had twenty years.

How much time does he want?

Do you mean that John Douglas has been coming to see you for twenty years?

He has and he's never so much as mentioned marriage.

And I don't believe he ever will now.

I've never said a word to a mortal about it but it seems to me I've just got to talk it out with someone at last or I'll go crazy.

John Douglas began to go with me twenty years ago before Mother died.

Well,

He kept coming and coming and after a spell I began making quilts and things.

But he never said anything about getting married.

He just kept coming and coming.

There wasn't anything I could do.

Mother died when we'd be going for eight years.

I thought maybe he would speak out then.

I was left alone in the world.

He was real kind and feeling and did everything he could but he never said marry.

And that's the way it's been going on ever since.

People blame me for it.

They say I won't marry him because his mother's so sickly and I don't want the bother of waiting on her.

But I'd love to wait on John's mother.

Perhaps his mother doesn't want him to marry anybody,

Suggested Anne.

She does.

She told me time and time again she'd love to see him settled.

She's always giving him hints.

You heard it yourself the other day.

It's beyond me,

Said Anne helplessly.

She thought of Ludovic Speed but the cases were not parallel.

John Douglas was not a man of Ludovic's type.

You should show more spirit,

Janet,

She went on resolutely.

Why didn't you send him about his business long ago?

I couldn't,

Said poor Janet pathetically.

You see,

Anne,

I've always been awful fond of him.

He might just as well keep coming as not.

There was never anybody else,

So it didn't matter.

But it might have made him speak out like a man.

Janet shook her head.

No,

I guess not.

I was afraid to try anyway for fear he'd think I meant it and go.

I suppose I'm a poor spirited creature,

But that's how I feel and I can't help it.

You could help it,

Janet.

It isn't too late yet,

Said Anne.

Take a firm stand.

Let that man know you're not going to enjoy his shilly-shallying any longer.

I'll back you up.

I don't know,

Said Janet hopelessly.

I don't know if I could ever get up enough spunk.

Things have drifted so along,

But I'll think it over.

Anne felt she was very disappointed in John Douglas.

She had liked him so well,

And she'd not thought in the sort of man who would play fast and loose with a woman's feelings for over 20 years.

He certainly should be taught a lesson,

And Anne felt vindictively she would enjoy seeing the process.

Therefore,

She was delighted when Janet told her as they were going to prayer meeting the next night that she meant to show some spirit.

I'll let John Douglas see I'm not going to be trodden on any longer.

You're perfectly right,

Said Anne emphatically.

When prayer meeting was over,

John Douglas came up with his usual request.

Janet looked frightened,

But resolute.

No,

Thank you,

She said icily.

I know the road home pretty well alone.

I ought to,

Seeing I've been travelling it for 40 years,

So you needn't trouble yourself,

Mr Douglas.

Anne was looking at John Douglas,

And in that brilliant moonlight she saw the last twist of the rack again.

Without a word,

He turned and strode down the road.

Stop,

She called wildly after him,

Not caring in the least for the other dumbfounded onlookers.

Mr Douglas,

Stop,

Come back.

John Douglas stopped,

But he did not come back.

Anne flew down the road,

Caught his arm and fairly dragged him back to Janet.

You must come back,

She said imploringly.

It's all a mistake,

Mr Douglas,

All my fault.

I made Janet do it,

She didn't want to,

But it's all right now,

Isn't it,

Janet?

Without a word,

Janet took his arm and walked away.

Anne followed the meekly home and slipped in by the back door.

Well,

You're a nice person to back me up,

Said Janet sarcastically.

I couldn't help it,

Janet,

Anne said repentantly.

I felt as if I'd stood by and seen a murder done.

I had to run after him.

Well,

I'm just as glad you did.

When I saw John Douglas making off down that road,

I felt as if every little bit of joy and happiness that was left was going with him.

It was an awful feeling.

Did he ask you why you did it?

Asked Anne.

No,

He never said a word,

Replied Janet dully.

Anne was not without a feeble hope that something might come of it after all.

But nothing did.

John Douglas came and took Janet driving and walked home from prayer meeting as he'd been doing for 20 years,

And he seemed likely to do so for another 20 years more.

The summer waned.

Anne taught her school and wrote letters and studied.

Her walks to and from school were pleasant.

She always went by the way of the swamp.

It was a lovely place,

A boggy soil green with the greenest of mossy hillocks.

A silvery brook meandered through it,

And spruces stood erectly,

Their boughs a trail with grey-green mosses,

Their roots overgrown with all sorts of woodland loveliness.

Nevertheless,

Anne felt life in Valley Road was a little monotonous.

To be sure,

There was one diverting incident.

She had not seen the lank,

Toe-headed Samuel of the Peppermints since the evening of his call,

Save for some chance meetings on the road.

But one warm August night he reappeared and solemnly seated himself on the rustic bench by the porch.

He wore his usual working habiliments,

Consisting of very patched trousers,

A blue jean shirt out of the elbows and a ragged straw hat.

He was chewing a straw and he kept on chewing it while he looked solemnly at Anne.

After a long silence he suddenly spoke.

I'm leaving over there,

He said abruptly,

Waving his straw in the direction of the neighbouring house.

Oh,

Are you?

Said Anne politely.

Yep.

And where are you going now?

Well,

I've been thinking of getting a place of my own.

There's one that's suit me over at Millersville.

But if I rent it,

I'll want a woman.

I suppose so,

Said Anne vaguely.

Yep.

There was another long silence.

Finally,

Sam removed his straw hat again and said,

Well,

Will you have me?

What?

Gasped Anne.

Will you have me?

Do you mean marry you?

Yep.

I'm highly acquainted with you.

But you did acquainted with me after we was married.

Anne gathered up her poor dignity.

Certainly I won't marry you,

She said haughtily.

Well,

You might do worse.

I'm a good worker and I've got some money in the bank.

Don't speak of this to me again.

Whatever put such an idea into your head?

You're a likely looking girl and have a right smart way of stepping.

I don't want no lazy woman.

Think it over.

Won't change my mind yet a while.

Well,

I must be getting.

Got to milk the cows.

Anne's illusions concerning proposals had suffered so much of late years.

That there were few of them left.

So she could laugh wholeheartedly over this one.

Not feeling any secret sting.

One afternoon when Anne's adjourn in Fanny Road was drawing to a close.

Alec Ward came driving down to wayside in hot haste.

For Janet.

They want you at the Douglas place quick.

He said.

I believe old Mrs Douglas is going to die at last after pretending to do it for 20 years.

Janet ran to get her hat.

And Anne asked if Mrs Douglas was worse than usual.

She's not half as bad,

Said Alec solemnly.

And that's what makes me think it's serious.

This time she's lying still at mum.

When Mrs Douglas is mum she's pretty sick you bet.

You don't like old Mrs Douglas?

I like cats as is cats.

I don't like cats as is women.

Janet came home in the twilight.

Mrs Douglas is dead.

She said wearily.

She died soon after I got there.

I suppose she'll marry John now she said.

It cut me to the heart Anne to think John's own mother thought I wouldn't marry him because of her.

I couldn't say a word either.

There were other women there.

She began to cry drearily.

But Anne brewed her a hot drink of ginger tea to her comforting.

To be sure Anne discovered on later that she'd used white pepper instead of ginger.

But Janet never knew the difference.

The evening after the funeral Janet and Anne were sitting on the French porch steps at sunset.

The wind had fallen asleep in the pinelands and lurid sheets of heat and lightning flickered across the northern skies.

Janet was wearing her ugly black dress and looked her very worst.

Her eyes and nose red from crying.

They talked little for Janet seemed faintly to resent Anne's efforts to cheer her up.

She plainly preferred to be miserable.

Suddenly the gate latch clicked and John Douglas strode into the garden.

He walked towards them straight over the geranium bed.

Janet stood up.

So did Anne.

Anne was a tall girl and wore a white dress but John Douglas did not see her.

The words burst out as if they'd been wanting to be said for twenty years and must be uttered now.

Janet's face was so red from crying it couldn't turn any redder.

So it turned a most unbecoming purple.

She said slowly.

I couldn't.

She made me promise not to.

Nineteen years ago she took a terrible spell.

We thought she couldn't live through it.

She implored me to promise not to ask you to marry me while she was alive.

I didn't want to promise such a thing even though we all thought she couldn't live very long.

But I had to promise.

What did she have against me?

Cried Janet.

Nothing.

She just didn't want another woman,

Any woman there while she was living.

She said if I didn't promise she'd die right there and then.

Why didn't you tell me all this?

Asked Janet chokingly.

If only I'd known.

Why didn't you tell me?

She made me promise I wouldn't tell us all.

She swore it to me on the Bible.

Janet,

I'd never have done it if I'd have dreamed I was to be there for so long.

You'll never know what I've suffered these nineteen years.

And I know I've made you suffer too.

But you'll marry me for all that,

Won't you?

I've come as soon as I could.

At this moment the stupefied Anne came to her senses and realised she had no business to be there whatsoever.

She slipped away and did not see Janet until the next morning when the latter told her the rest of the story.

That cruel,

Relentless,

Deceitful old woman,

Cried Anne.

Hush,

She's dead,

Said Janet solemnly.

If she wasn't,

But she is,

So we mustn't speak ill of her.

But I'm happy at last,

Anne,

And I wouldn't have minded waiting so long if I'd only known why.

When are you to be married?

Next month.

Of course it'll be very quiet.

I suppose people will talk terrible.

They'll say I made enough haste to snap John up as soon as his poor mother was out of the way.

John wanted to let them know the truth,

But I said no.

After all,

She was your mother,

I said,

And will keep the secret between us.

You're much more forgiving than I could ever be,

Said Anne rather crossly.

You'll feel differently about a good many things when you get to be my age,

Said Janet tolerantly.

That's one of the things we learn as we get older,

How to forgive.

It comes easier at 40 than it did at 20.