41 Anne Of The Island - Read By Stephanie Poppins

Anne of the Island by L.

M.

Montgomery Read by Stephanie Poppins Chapter 41 Love takes up the glass of time I've come to ask you to go for one of our old time rambles through September Woods and over hills where spices grow this afternoon said Gilbert,

Coming suddenly round the porch corner Suppose we'd visit Hester Grey's garden Anne,

Sitting on the stone step with her lap full of a pale,

Filmy green stuff looked up rather blankly I wish I could,

She said slowly,

But I really can't,

Gilbert I'm going to Alice Penhallow's wedding this evening,

You know I've got to do something to this dress and by the time it's finished I'll have to get ready I'm so sorry,

I'd love to go Well,

Can't you go tomorrow afternoon then?

Asked Gilbert apparently not much disappointed Yes,

I think so In that case,

I'll hire me home at once to do something I otherwise should have to do tomorrow So,

Alice Penhallow's to be married tonight Three weddings for you,

Anne,

In one summer Fields,

Alice's and Jane's I'll never forgive Jane for not inviting me to her wedding You really can't blame her when you think of the tremendous Andrew's connection who had to be invited,

Said Anne The house could hardly hold them all I was only bidden by grace of being Jane's old chum at least on Jane's part I think Mrs Harman's motive for inviting me was to let me see Jane's surpassing gorgeousness Is it true she wore so many diamonds you couldn't tell where the diamonds left off and Jane began?

Anne laughed She certainly wore a good many What with all the diamonds and white satin and tulle and lace and roses and orange blossoms prim little Jane was almost lost to sight But she was very happy And so was Mr Inglis And so was Mrs Harman Is that the dress you're going to wear tonight?

Asked Gilbert looking down at the fluffs and frills Yes,

Isn't it pretty?

And I shall wear star flowers in my hair The haunted woods full of them this summer Gilbert had a sudden vision of Anne arrayed in a frilly green gown with the virginal curves of arms and throat slipping out of it and white stars shining against the coils of her ruddy hair The vision made him catch his breath but he turned lightly away Well,

I'll be up tomorrow Hope you'll have a nice time tonight Anne looked after him as he strode away and sighed Gilbert was friendly,

Very friendly far too friendly He had come quite often to Green Gables after his recovery and something of their old comradeship had returned but Anne no longer found it satisfying The rose of love made the blossom of friendship pale and scentless by contrast And Anne had again began to doubt if Gilbert now felt anything for her but friendship In the common light of common day her radiant certainty of that rapt morning had faded She was haunted by a miserable fear that her mistake could never be rectified It was quite likely that it was Christine whom Gilbert loved after all Perhaps he was even engaged to her Anne tried to put all unsettling hopes out of her heart and reconcile herself to a future where work and ambition must take the place of love She could do good,

If not know or work as a teacher and the success her little sketches were beginning to meet with in certain editorial sanctums augured well for her budding literary dreams But,

But.

.

.

Anne picked up her green dress and sighed again When Gilbert came the next afternoon he found Anne waiting for him,

Fresh as the dawn and fair as a star after all the gaiety of the preceding night She wore a green dress Not the one she had worn to the wedding but an old one which Gilbert had told her at Redmond he liked especially It was just the shade of green that brought out the rich tints of her hair and the starry grey of her eyes and the iris-like delicacy of her skin Gilbert,

Glancing at her sideways as they walked along a shadowy wood path thought she had never looked so lovely Anne,

Glancing sideways at Gilbert now and then thought how much older he looked since his illness It was as if he'd put boyhood behind him forever The day was beautiful and the way was beautiful Anne was almost sorry when they reached Hester Grey's garden and sat down on the old bench But it was beautiful there too As beautiful as it had been on the faraway day of the golden picnic when Diana and Jane and Priscilla had found it Then it had been lovely with Narcissus and Violets Now Goldenrod had kindled its fairy torches in the corners and Astor's dotted it bluely The call of the brook came through the woods from the valley of birches with all its old allurement and the mellow air was full of the purr of the sea Beyond were fields rimmed by fences bleached silvery grey in the suns of many summers and long hills scarfed with the shadows of autumnal clouds with the blowing of the west wind old dreams returned I think,

Said Anne softly that the land where dreams come true is in the blue haze yonder over in that little valley Have you any unfulfilled dreams,

Anne?

Asked Gilbert Something in his tone something she had not heard since that miserable evening in the orchard at Patty's place made Anne's heart beat wildly but she made answer lightly Of course,

Everybody has It wouldn't do for us to have all our dreams fulfilled We'd be as good as dead if we had nothing left to dream about What a delicious aroma that low-descending sun is extracting from the asters and ferns I wish we could see perfumes as well as smell them I'm sure they'd be very beautiful Gilbert was not to be thus sidetracked I have a dream,

He said slowly I persist in dreaming it although it's often seemed to me it could never come true I dream of a home with a hearth fire in it a cat and a dog the footsteps of friends and you,

Anne Anne wanted to speak but she could find no words Happiness was breaking over her like a wave It almost frightened her I asked you a question over two years ago,

Anne If I ask it again today,

Will you give me a different answer?

Still Anne could not speak But she lifted her eyes,

Shining with all the love rapture of countless generations and looked into his for a moment Gilbert wanted no other answer They lingered in the old garden until twilight,

Sweet as dusk in Eden must have been crept over it There was so much to talk over and recall things said and done and heard and thought and felt and misunderstood I thought you loved Christine Stewart,

Anne told him as reproachfully as if she had not given him every reason to suppose she loved Roy Gardner Gilbert laughed boyishly Christine was engaged to someone in her hometown I knew it and she knew it and she knew I knew it When her brother graduated she told me his sister was coming to Kinsport the next winter to take music and asked if I'd look after her a bit She knew no one then and it would be very lonely for her,

So I did And then I liked Christine for her own sake She's one of the nicest girls I've ever known I knew college gossip credited us with being in love with each other I didn't care,

Nothing mattered to me much for a time there after you told me you could never love me,

Anne There was nobody else,

There never could be anybody else for me but you I'd loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school I don't see how you could keep on loving me when I was such a little fool,

Said Anne Well I tried to stop,

Said Gilbert frankly not because I thought you what you call yourself but because I felt sure there was no chance for me after Gardner came on the scene But I couldn't,

And I can't tell you either what it's meant these two years to believe you were going to marry him and be told every week by some busybody your engagement was on the point of being announced I believed it till one blessed day when I was sitting up after the fever I got a letter from Phil Gordon,

Phil Blake rather in which she told me there was really nothing between you and Roy and advised me to try again Well the doctor was amazed at my rapid recovery after that Anne laughed,

Then shivered I can never forget the night I thought you were dying,

Gilbert I knew,

I knew then,

And I thought it was too late But it wasn't,

Sweetheart Oh Anne,

This makes up for everything,

Doesn't it?

Let's resolve to keep this day sacred to perfect beauty all our lives for the gift it's given us It's the birthday of our happiness,

Said Anne softly I've always loved this old garden of Hester Grey's and now it will be dearer to me than ever But I'll have to ask you to wait a long time,

Said Gilbert sadly It'll be three years before I finish my medical course and even then there will be no diamond sunbursts and marble halls Anne laughed,

I don't want sunbursts and marble halls I just want you You see,

I'm quite as shameless as Phil about it Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well But there's more scum for imagination without them And as for the waiting,

That doesn't matter,

Gilbert We'll be just as happy waiting and working for each other and dreaming And my dreams will be very sweet now Gilbert drew her close to him and kissed her Then they walked home together in the dusk,

Crowned king and queen in the bridal realm of love Along winding paths fringed with the sweetest flowers that ever bloomed And over haunted meadows where winds of hope and memory blew The End