Anne of Green Gables /Chapter XV
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Chapitre XV


Tempête dans un verre d'eau à l'école


— Quelle splendide journée ! dit Anne, respirant à pleins poumons. N'est-ce pas formidable d'être en vie un jour comme celui-ci ? Je plains les gens qui ne sont pas encore nés de l'avoir manquée. Ils connaîtront d'autres belles journées, bien sûr, mais ils n'auront jamais celle-ci. Et c'est encore plus splendide d'emprunter un aussi joli chemin pour aller à l'école, n'est-ce pas ?

— C'est beaucoup plus agréable que de faire le tour par la route, si poussiéreuse et si brûlante, dit Diana toujours prosaïque. Elle jeta un coup d'œil à son panier et calcula mentalement comment les trois tartes juteuses et sucrées à la framboise seraient partagées entre dix filles et combien de bouchées cela ferait pour chacune.

Les petites filles de l'école d'Avonlea avaient toujours mis leurs repas en commun, et manger trois tartes à la framboise toute seule ou même seulement ne les partager qu'avec sa meilleure amie aurait été, pour toujours et à jamais, pour la fillette qui aurait fait cela, considéré comme « affreuse avarice ». Et pourtant, quand les tartes auront été partagées entre dix filles, il y en aura à peine assez pour vous mettre l'eau à la bouche..

Le chemin qu'Anne et Diana empruntaient pour aller à l'école était charmant. Anne pensait que ces promenades pour aller et revenir de l'école ne pourraient être plus merveilleuses même pas en imagination. Faire le détour par la grand route aurait été si terre à terre, mais passer par le chemin des Amoureux, l'étang aux Saules pleureurs, le vallon aux Violettes et le sentier des Bouleaux, voilà qui était incontestablement romantique.

L'allée des Amoureux s'ouvrait au-dessous du verger des Pignons Verts et s'enfoncait loin dans les bois jusqu'au bout de la ferme des Cuthbert. C'était le chemin par lequel les vaches étaient menées aux pâturages et celui du bois ramené à la maison en hiver, Anne l'avait baptisé l'Allée des Amoureux avant même d'avoir passé un mois aux Pignons Verts.

— Même s'il n'y a pas vraiment d'amoureux qui flânent là-bas, expliqua-t-elle à Marilla, mais Diana et moi sommes en train de lire un bouquin parfaitement magnifique et il y a une Allée des Amoureux à l'intérieur. Alors nous aussi, nous voulions avoir la nôtre. Et c'est un très joli nom, tu ne trouves pas ? Si romantique ! Nous pouvons imaginer les amoureux s'y promenant, tu sais. J'aime cette allée parce qu'on peut y penser à haute voix sans que les gens te traitent de folle.

Anne, en partant seule le matin, descendit l'allée des Amoureux jusqu'au ruisseau. Là, Diana se joignit à elle, et les deux fillettes partirent en remontant l'allée sous la voûte feuillue des érables — les érables sont des arbres tellement amicaux, disait Anne ; ils bruissent et vous murmurent toujours des choses —, jusqu'à ce qu'elles atteignent un pont rustique. Puis elles quittèrent l'allée et traversèrent le pré derrière chez M. Barry, et passèrent Willowmere. Une fois passé Willowmere, ce fut le val aux Violettes, une fossette verte dans l'ombre des grands bois de M. Andrew Bell. — Bien sûr, il n'y a pas de violettes pour l'instant, dit Anne à Marilla, mais Diana affirme qu'il y en a des millions au printemps. Oh, Marilla, peux-tu simplement imaginer les voir ? Cela me coupe le souffle. Je l'ai appelé le vallon aux Violettes. Diana dit que je n'ai pas mon pareil pour trouver des noms d'endroits charmants. C'est agréable d'avoir un don pour quelque chose, non ? Mais c'est Diana qui a choisi le nom du sentier des Bouleaux. Elle en avait envie, alors je l'ai laissé faire, mais je suis certaine que j'aurais pu trouver quelque chose de plus poétique que sentier des Bouleaux. Tout le monde peut trouver un nom comme ça. Mais le sentier des Bouleaux est un des plus jolis endroits au monde, Marilla.

En effet. D'autres personnes qu'Anne le pensaient quand elles tombaient dessus par hasard. C'était un petit sentier, étroit et tortueux, qui sinuait le long d'une colline à travers les bois de M. Bell, et où la lumière qui diffusait à travers tant d'écrans émeraude était aussi pure que le cœur d'un diamant. Il était bordé sur toute sa longueur de jeunes bouleaux élancés, aux troncs blancs et lisses ; des fougères et des fleurs étoilées, des lis sauvages et des touffes écarlates de baies de pigeon y poussaient abondamment ; et il y avait toujours un délicieux parfum épicé dans l'air et le chant musical des oiseaux s'appelant et le murmure et le rire de la brise dans les ramures des arbres. De temps en temps, vous pouviez apercevoir un lapin traverser la route en sautant à condition de rester immobile,– ce qui arrivait tous les trente-six du mois à Anne et Diana. En bas dans la vallée le sentier débouchait sur la route principale, et il ne restait plus qu'à grimper la colline d'épicéas jusqu'à l'école.

L'école d'Avonlea était un bâtiment blanchi à la chaux, aux avant-toits bas, avec de larges fenêtres ; à l'intérieur on trouvait de confortables pupitres à l'ancienne qui s'ouvraient et se fermaient et dont les couvercles s'ornaient des initiales et hiéroglyphes sculptés par trois générations d'écoliers. L'école était en retrait de la route et derrière elle se trouvait un bois de sapins sombre où coulait un ruisseau dans lequel tous les enfants déposaient leurs bouteilles de lait le matin pour qu'il garde fraîcheur et douceur jusqu'à l'heure du déjeuner.

Marilla avait vu Anne partir pour l'école le premier jour de septembre avec beaucoup de craintes secrètes. Anne était une fillette si étrange. Comment allait-elle s'entendre avec les autres enfants ? Et comment diable allait-elle parvenir à tenir sa langue pendant les heures de cours ?

Toutefois, les choses se passèrent mieux que Marilla l'avait redouté. Ce soir-là, Anne rentra à la maison d'excellente humeur.

— Je crois que je vais aimer l'école maintenant, déclara-t-elle. Bien que le maître ne m'emballe pas beaucoup. Il est tout le temps en train de rouler sa moustache et de faire les yeux doux à Prissy Andrews. Prissy est grande, tu sais. Elle a seize ans et elle étudie pour l'examen d'entrée à la l'Academie Royale de Charlotteville l'année prochaine. Tillie Boulter dit que le maître est fou d'elle. Elle a un joli teint et des cheveux bruns bouclés et elle les arrange si élégamment. Elle est assise sur le banc du fond et il s'y assoit aussi la plupart du temps pour lui expliquer ses leçons, dit-il. Mais Rubis Gillis dit qu'elle l'a vu lui écrire quelque chose sur son ardoise et quand Prissy l'a lu, elle est devenue rouge comme une pivoine et a gloussé ; et Ruby Gillis dit qu'elle ne croit pas que cela ait quelque chose à voir avec la leçon.

— Anne Shirley, je ne veux plus entendre parler de ton professeur de cette façon, dit brusquement Marilla. Tu ne vas pas à l'école pour critiquer le maître. Je suppose qu'il peut t'enseigner quelque chose et il est de ton devoir à toi d'apprendre. Et je veux que tu comprennes tout de suite que tu ne dois pas rentrer à la maison pour raconter des sornettes à son sujet. C'est quelque chose que je n'encouragerai pas. J'espère que tu as été bien sage

— Effectivement je l'ai été, dit Anne sûre d'elle. Ce n'était pas aussi difficile qu'on pourrait l'imaginer, non plus. Je suis assise à côté de Diana. Notre place est juste à côté de la fenêtre, et nous pouvons regarder en bas le Lac des Eaux Étincelantes. Il y a beaucoup de filles gentilles à l'école et nous nous sommes délicieusement amusées à l'heure du repas. C'est tellement bon d'avoir plein de fillettes avec qui jouer. Mais bien sûr, j'aime Diana et je l'aimerai toujours. J'adore Diana. Je suis terriblement en retard par rapport aux autres. Elles en sont toutes au cinquième livre et moi au quatrième seulement. Je le perçois comme une sorte de disgrace. Mais aucune d'elles n'a autant d'imagination que moi et je n'ai pas tardé à m'en rendre compte. Aujourd'hui nous avons eu lecture, géographie, histoire du Canada et dictée. M. Phillips a dit que mon orthographe était lamentable et il a brandi mon ardoise de sorte que tout le monde a pu la voir, toute raturée. Je me suis sentie tellement mortifiée, Marilla ; il aurait dû être plus poli avec quelqu'un qu'il ne connaissait pas, je crois. Ruby Gillis m'a donné une pomme, et Sophia Sloane m'a prêté une jolie carte rose avec " Pourrais-je te voir à à la maison ? " écrit dessus. Je dois la lui rendre demain. Et Tillie Boulter m'a laissé porter sa bague tout l'après-midi. Puis-je récupérer quelques-unes de ces perles sur la vieille pelote d'épingles dans la mansarde pour me faire une bague ? Et oh Marilla, Jane Andrews m'a dit que Minnie MacPherson lui avait dit qu'elle avait entendu Prissy Andrews dire à Sara Gillis que j'avais un très joli nez. Marilla, c'est le premier compliment que l'on me fait de toute ma vie et tu ne peux pas imaginer quelle étrange sensation cela m'a fait. Marilla, ai-je vraiment un joli nez ? Je sais que tu me diras la vérité.

— Ton nez est très bien, se contenta de répondre Marilla. Au fond, elle pensait que le nez d'Anne était remarquablement joli ; mais elle n'avait aucune intention de le lui dire.

Cela faisait trois semaines et jusqu'à présent, tout s'était bien passé. À présent, en ce frais matin de septembre, Anne et Diana sautillaient allègrement sur le sentier des Bouleaux : elles étaient deux des petites filles les plus heureuses d'Avonlea.

— J'espère que Gilbert Blythe sera à l'école aujourd'hui, dit Diana Il est allé rendre visite à ses cousins dans le New Brunswick ,tout l'été, et il n'est rentré que samedi soir. Il est tellement beau, Anne. Et il fait enrager les filles comme personne. Il ne fait que tourmenter nos esprits.

La voix de Diana indiquait qu'elle préférait avoir sa vie tourmentée plutôt que le contraire.

— Gilbert Blythe ? dit Anne. N'est-ce pas son nom qui est écrit sur la paroi du porche avec celui de Julia Bell et un grand « Prenez Garde » juste au-dessus ?

— Si, répondit Diana en hochant la tête, mais je suis sure qu'il n'aime pas Julia Bell tant que ça. Je l'ai entendu dire qu'il avait appris ses tables de multiplication grâce à ses taches de rousseur.

— Oh, ne me parle pas de taches de rousseur, implora Anne. Ce n'est pas délicat alors que j'en ai tant. Mais je pense qu'écrire des sentences sur le mur à propos des garçons et des filles est du plus stupide qui soit. Je voudrais juste voir quelqu'un oser écrire mon nom à côté de celui d'un garçon. Bien sûr que non, se hâta-t-elle d'ajouter, personne ne ferait ça.

Anne soupira. Elle ne voulait pas que son nom soit écrit. Mais c'était un peu humiliant de savoir qu'il n'y avait aucun danger qu'il le fût.

— Sottises, dit Diana, dont les yeux noirs et les boucles brillantes avaient fait tellement de ravages parmi les écoliers d'Avonlea qu'on trouvait son nom sur une demi douzaine de graffitis aux murs du porche. C'est seulement pour rire. Et tu ne peux jamais être sûre que ton nom n'y soit jamais écrit. Charlie Sloane se meurt d'amour pour toi. Il a dit à sa mère – à sa mère, tu te rends compte – que tu étais la fille la plus intelligente de l'école. C'est mieux que d'avoir belle allure.

— Non ça ne l'est pas, dit Anne, féminine en diable. J'aurais préféré être belle qu'intelligente. Et je déteste Charlie Sloane. Je ne supporte pas un garçon aux yeux globuleux. Si quelqu'un inscrit mon nom à côté du sien, je ne m'en remettrai jamais, Diana Barry. Mais c'est bien de prendre la tête de sa classe.

— Tu vas avoir Gilbert dans ta classe après ça, dit Diana, et il a l'habitude d'être le premier de la classe, je peux te le dire. Il en est seulement au manuel de quatrième année, bien qu'il ait presque quatorze ans. Il y a quatre ans, son père était malade et a dû aller à Alberta pour sa santé, et Gilbert a dû partir avec lui. Ils y sont restés trois ans et Gilbert n'allait pas du tout régulièrement à l'école, jusqu'à leur retour. Tu ne trouverais pas très facile de prendre la tête après ça, Anne.

— J'en suis ravie, dit Anne vivement. Je ne tirerais aucune fierté à demeurer la première d'une classe de garçons et de filles d'à peine neuf ou dix ans. Hier, je me suis mise debout pour épeler le mot « ébullition ». Josie Pye était la première, et t'imagines, elle a jeté un coup d'œil dans son livre. M. Phillips ne l'a pas vue... il n'avait d'yeux que pour Prissy Andrews... mais moi, je l'ai vue. Je lui ai uniquement lancé un regard de mépris glacial et elle est devenue aussi rouge qu'une tomate et l'a mal épelé par la suite.

— Ces filles Pye sont toutes des tricheuses, dit Diana avec indignation, alors qu'elles escaladaient la clôture de la route principale. — Gertie Pye est effectivement allée mettre sa bouteille de lait à la place de la mienne dans le ruisseau hier. T'imagines ? Je ne lui parle plus maintenant.

Alors que M. Phillips était au fond de la classe, écoutant le Latin de Prissy Andrews, Diana chuchota à Anne.

— C'est Gilbert Blythe assis de l'autre côté de l'allée, Anne. Regarde-le et vois si tu le trouves beau.

Anne l'examina donc. Elle avait tout le loisir de le faire, car Gilbert Blythe était occupé à punaiser sournoisement au dossier de son siège la longue tresse blonde de Ruby Gillis, qui était assise devant lui. C'était un garçon de grande taille, aux cheveux bruns bouclés, avec de malicieux yeux noisette et la bouche tordue en un sourire taquin. À ce moment précis, Ruby Gillis se leva pour porter au maître le résultat d'une opération ; elle retomba sur son siège avec un petit cri en croyant que ses cheveux venaient de lui être arrachés par les racines. Tout le monde tourna les yeux vers elle et monsieur Phillips lui jeta un regard si sévère que Ruby se mit à pleurer. Gilbert avait escamoté la punaise et faisait mine d'étudier son histoire avec le visage le plus impassible du monde. Mais quand l'agitation se fut calmée, il regarda Anne et lui jeta un clin d'œil d'une indicible drôlerie.

— Ton Gilbert Blythe est certainement très beau, confia Anna à Diana, mais je trouve aussi qu'il est bien effronté. Il n'est pas convenable d'adresser un clin d'œil à une fille qu'on ne connaît pas.

Mais ce n'est que dans l'après-midi que les choses commencèrent vraiment à se produire.

M. Phillips était au fond dans le coin en train d'expliquer un problème d'algèbre à Prissy Andrews, et le reste des élèves faisaient pratiquement ce qu'ils voulaient, mangeant des pommes vertes, chuchotant, dessinant sur leurs ardoises, et conduisant des grillons harnachés avec un fil du haut au bas de l'allée. Gilbert Blythe était en train d'essayer d'attirer l'attention d'Anne Shirley sans le moindre succès, car Anne était à cet instant complètement ignorante, non seulement de l'existence de Gilbert Blythe, mais aussi de tous les autres élèves de l'école d'Avonlea ainsi que de l'école d'Avonlea elle-même. Le menton appuyé sur les mains et les yeux fixés sur les reflets bleus du lac aux Eaux scintillantes que la fenêtre ouest permettait d'apercevoir, elle s'était échappée dans un magnifique pays imaginaire, n'entendant et ne voyant rien d'autre que ses propres visions merveilleuses.

Gilbert Blythe, quant à lui, n'avait pas l'habitude de devoir se mettre en frais pour attirer l'attention d'une fille ni même d'échouer.. Elle allait devoir le regarder, cette Shirley aux cheveux roux avec son petit menton pointu et ses grands yeux qui ne ressemblaient aux yeux d'aucune autre fille de l'école d'Avonlea.

Gilbert traversa l'allée, attrapa la longue tresse rousse d'Anne, la tendit à bout de bras et dit d'une voix aiguë : - Carottes ! Carottes !

Anne lui lança un regard assassin !

Elle fit même plus que de lui lancer un regard. Elle se leva d'un bond, ses rêveries merveilleuses réduites en mille morceaux. Elle foudroya Gilbert d'un regard indigné dans lequel très vite les larmes vinrent éteindre les éclats de colère.

— Tu es un garçon odieux et détestable ! s'exclama-t-elle avec fougue. Comment oses-tu !

Et puis... vlan ! Anne avait balancé son ardoise sur la tête de Gilbert et l'avait fendue... l'ardoise, pas la tête... de part en part.
L'école d'Avonlea appréciait toujours les scènes. Celle-ci était particulièrement jubilatoire. Chacun prononça un « Oh » de délice horrifié. Diana eut le souffle coupé. Ruby Gillis qui avait les nerfs en papier de soie, se mit à pleurer. Tommy Sloane laissa échapper son équipe de grillons tout en regardant le spectacle bouche bée.

M. Phillips descendit l'allée d'un pas raide et posa sa main sur l'épaule d'Anne.

— Anne Shirley, qu'est-ce que ça veut dire ? fit-il en colère.

Anne ne répondit pas. C'était lui demander plus que ce que la nature humaine peut endurer que de s'attendre à ce qu'elle raconte devant toute l'école qu'elle avait été appelée « carotte ». Ce fut Gilbert qui, courageusement, prit la parole.

— C'est ma faute, Monsieur Phillips. Je me suis moqué d'elle.

M. Phillips ne tint pas compte de Gilbert.

— Je suis navré de voir un de mes élèves montrer un tel caractère et un tel esprit vindicatif, dit-il d'un ton solennel, comme si le simple fait d'être un des ses élèves eût dû extirper toutes les mauvaises passions du cœur de petits mortels imparfaits. — Anne, monte sur l'estrade devant le tableau noir et tu y resteras jusqu'à la fin de l'après-midi.

Anne aurait infiniment préféré recevoir le fouet plutôt que cette punition qui offusquait sa sensibilité plus qu'un coup de lanière n'aurait fait. Blanche comme un linge, visage fermé, elle obéit. M. Phillips prit une craie et écrivit sur le tableau, au-dessus de sa tête

« Ann Shirley a très mauvais caractère. Ann Shirley doit apprendre à contrôler son caractère » et puis il lut ce qu'il avait écrit à voix haute afin que même les petits, en première année, qui ne savaient ni lire ni écrire, pussent comprendre.

Anne se tint là le reste de l'après-midi, cette épigraphe placée au-dessus d'elle. Elle ne pleura pas ni ne baissa la tête. La colère était encore trop vive dans son cœur pour cela et elle la soutint tant que dura le supplice de son humiliation. Les yeux plein de rancune et les joues empourprées, elle affronta tout à la fois le regard compatissant de Diana, les hochements de tête indignés de Charlie Sloane et le sourire narquois de Josie Pye. Quant à Gilbert Blythe, elle ne lui jetterait même pas un regard. Plus jamais, elle ne poserait les yeux sur lui ! Plus jamais, elle ne lui adresserait la parole !!

Quand la fin des cours sonna, Anne, toujours rouge de colère, sortit la tête haute. Gilbert Blythe tenta de l'arrêter à l'entrée du préau.

— Je suis vraiment désolé de m'être moqué de tes cheveux, Anne, murmura-t-il d'un air contrit. Je te le jure. Allons, ne sois pas en colère pour de vrai.

Pleine de dédain, Anne le dépassa sans le regarder ou donner l'impression de l'avoir entendu. — Oh ! Comment peux-tu, Anne ? souffla Diana en descendant la route, d'un ton mi-réprobateur, mi-admiratif. Diana sentait qu'elle n'aurait jamais pu résister à l'excuse de Gilbert.

— Je ne pardonnerai jamais à Gilbert Blythe, déclara Anne avec fermeté. Et également à monsieur Phillips qui a écrit mon nom sans « e ». Mon âme est inflexible, Diana.

Diana n'avait pas la moindre idée de ce que voulait dire Anne mais elle comprenait que c'était quelque chose de terrible.

— Il ne faut pas en vouloir à Gilbert de s'être moqué de tes cheveux, dit-elle d'une manière apaisante. Voyons, il se moque de toutes les filles. Il se moque des miens parce qu'ils sont très noirs. Il m'a traité de corbeau une bonne douzaine de fois ; et je ne l'ai jamais entendu s'excuser pour quoi que ce soit avant non plus.

— Il y a une grande différence entre être traitée de corbeau et être traitée de carotte, déclara Anne avec amour-propre. Gilbert Blythe a blessé mon orgueil, Diana.

Cette affaire aurait pu s'apaiser sans plus de tourments si rien d'autre n'était advenu. Mais quand les choses commencent à se produire, elles sont susceptibles de continuer.

Les écoliers d'Avonlea consacraient souvent la pause de midi à recueillir de la résine à mâcher dans le petit bois d'épinettes de M. Bell, sur la colline, à l'autre bout de son grand pré. De là, ils pouvaient surveiller la maison d'Eben Wright, où le maître prenait pension. Quand ils voyaient M. Phillips en sortir, ils couraient vers l'école. mais la distance étant environ trois fois plus longue que celle que M. Wright avait à parcourir, ils arrivaient très facilement, haletants et essoufflés, trois minutes en retard.

Le lendemain, M. Phillips saisi par une de ses envies récurrentes de réforme annonça, avant de partir déjeuner, qu'il s'attendait à trouver tous les écoliers assis à leur place à son retour. Quiconque arriverait en retard serait puni.

Comme d'habitude, tous les garçons et quelques-unes des filles se rendirent dans le petit bois d'épinettes de M. Bell, avec l'intention de ne rester que le temps de « picorer un peu de gomme ». Mais les bosquets d'épinettes sont séduisants et les boules jaunes de gomme envoûtantes ; ils en ramassèrent, flânèrent et s'écartèrent ; et comme d'habitude, la première chose qui leur rappela que le temps avait poursuivi sa course, ce fut le cri de Jimmy Glover qui, du haut d'une vieille épinette datant d'avant le Déluge, hurla : — Le maître arrive.

Les filles, qui étaient au pied des arbres, partirent les premières et réussirent à atteindre l'école à temps, à la seconde près toutefois. Les garçons, qui avaient dû descendre précipitamment des arbres, arrivèrent plus tard ; et Anne, qui n'avait pas du tout cherché de gomme mais qui s'était joyeusement promenée au fond du bosquet, enfouie jusqu'à la taille dans les fougères, en chantant doucement pour elle-même, la tête ceinte d'une couronne de lis, comme si elle avait été une divinité sauvage des endroits obscurs, fut la dernière de tous. Cependant, Anne pouvait courir comme une biche. Ce qu'elle fit, parvenant malicieusement à rattraper les garçons sur le seuil de la porte et à se glisser dans la classe en même temps qu'eux, juste comme M. Phillips suspendait son chapeau.

Le bref élan réformateur de M. Phillips était terminé ; il ne souhaitait pas se donner la peine de punir une douzaine d'élèves ; mais il fallait faire quelque chose pour sauver sa crédibilité, alors il chercha un bouc émissaire et le trouva en la personne d'Anne, qui s'était laissé tomber sur son siège, haletante, avec un bouquet de lys oublié qui pendait au-dessus d'une oreille et lui donnait une apparence particulièrement désinvolte et ébouriffée.

— Anne Shirley, puisque tu sembles tant aimer la compagnie des garçons, nous allons te faire plaisir cet après-midi, dit-il sarcastique. Enleve ces fleurs de tes cheveux et assieds-toi auprès de Gilbert Blythe.

Les autres garçons ricanèrent. Diane blêmit de pitié, retira le bouquet des cheveux d'Anne et lui serra la main. Anne regarda le maître comme si elle était pétrifiée.

As-tu entendu ce que j'ai dit, Anne ? interrogea sévèrement M. Phillips.

— Oui, monsieur, repondit Anne lentement, mais je ne pensais pas que vous étiez sérieux.

— Je t'assure que je le suis... toujours avec le ton sarcastique que tous les enfants, et surtout Anne, détestaient. Ça l'avait piquée au vif. Obéis-moi immédiatement.

Un instant Anne sembla sur le point de désobéir. Puis, réalisant qu'il n'y avait pas d'échappatoire, elle se leva l'air hautain, traversa l'allée, s'assit à côté de Gilbert Blythe, et s'enfouit le visage dans les bras sur le pupitre. Ruby Gillis, qui avait pu apercevoir le visage d'Anne, rapporta aux autres en rentrant de l'école, qu'elle n'avait « jamais vu quelque chose comme ça... il était si blanc et constellé d'horribles petites taches rousses. »

Pour Anne, c'était comme si tout s'effondrait. Anne trouvait que c'était assez dur d'être désignée pour être punie parmi une douzaine d'autres coupables ; c'était encore pire de se faire envoyer s'assoir avec un garçon ; mais que ce garçon soit Gilbert Blythe, rajoutait l'insulte à la blessure à un niveau totalement intolérable Anne sentit qu'elle ne pourrait pas le supporter, et que ce n'était même pas la peine d'essayer. Tout son être bouillait de honte, de colère et d'indignation.

Au début, les autres élèves regardaient, murmuraient, ricanaient et se donnaient des coups de coude. Mais comme Anne ne relevait pas la tête et que Gilbert travaillait à ses fractions comme si son âme toute entière était absorbée par le sujet, ils retournèrent rapidement à leur propre travail et on oublia Anne. Quand M. Phillips appela la classe d'histoire dehors, Anne aurait dû sortir ; mais Anne ne bougea pas, et M. Phillips, qui était en train d'écrire quelques vers " À Priscilla " avant qu'il n'appelle la classe, réfléchissait encore à une rime qui lui résistait, et n'y prêta pas attention. À un moment, alors que personne ne regardait, Gilbert sortit de son pupitre un petit bonbon en forme de cœur rose, avec dessus une devise écrite en doré, " Tu es mignonne ", qu'il glissa sous le bras d'Anne. À la suite de quoi Anne se releva, prit le cœur rose délicatement du bout des doigts, le jeta par terre, le réduisit en poudre sous son talon, et reprit sa position sans daigner accorder un seul regard à Gilbert.

A la fin de la classe, Anne marcha vers son pupitre, prit ostensiblement tout ce qui y était, les livres, le cahier d'écriture, le porte-plume et l'encre, le Testament et l'arithmétique et les empila soigneusement sur son ardoise fendue.

Pourquoi ramènes-tu tout ça à la maison, Anne ? Demanda Diana dès qu'elles furent arrivées sur la route. Elle n'avait pas osé poser la question avant.

— Je ne reviendrai plus jamais à l'école, dit Anne.

Diana soupira et fixa Anne pour voir si elle le pensait vraiment.

— Est-ce que Marilla te laissera rester à la maison ? demanda-t-elle.

— Il le faudra bien, répondit Anne. — Je ne reviendrai jamais à l'école avec cet homme.

— Oh, Anne ! Diana semblait prête à pleurer. Je te trouve vraiment méchante. Que vais-je devenir ? M. Phillips me fera assoir à côté de cette horrible Gertie Pye... je sais qu'il le fera parce qu'elle est assise toute seule. — Reviens donc, Anne.

— J'aurais presque fait n'importe quoi pour toi, Diana, dit tristement Anne. Je me ferais couper en morceaux pour toi s'il le fallait. Mais ça, je ne peux pas le faire, s'il te plait ne me demande pas ça. Tu me brises le cœur.

Pense juste à tous les amusements que tu vas rater, pleurnicha Diana. Nous sommes sur le point de construire la plus jolie nouvelle cabane en bas près du ruisseau, nous allons jouer au ballon la semaine prochaine, et tu n'as jamais joué au ballon, Anne. C'est terriblement excitant. Et nous allons apprendre une nouvelle chanson... Jane Andrews la répète en ce moment, et la semaine prochaine, Alice Andrews va apporter un nouveau livre de la collection Pansy et nous allons le lire à haute voix, un chapitre après l'autre, près du ruisseau. Et tu sais comme tu aimes lire à haute voix, Anne.

Rien ne parvint à ébranler un tant soit peu Anne. Sa décision était prise. Elle ne retournerait pas dans la classe de M. Phillips, elle l'annoncerait à Marilla dès son retour à la maison.

— Tu dis des âneries, déclara Marilla.

— Ce ne sont pas des âneries, rétorqua Anne, lançant à Marilla des regards graves plein de reproches. Tu ne comprends pas, Marilla ? J'ai été offensée.

Taratata... offensée ! Tu iras demain à l'école comme d'habitude.

— Oh, non ! Anne secouait doucement la tête. — Je n'y retournerai pas, Marilla. J'apprendrai mes leçons à la maison et je ferai de mon mieux, et je tiendrai ma langue tout le temps, si c'est possible. Mais je ne retournerai pas à l'école, crois-moi.

En scrutant le petit visage d'Anne, Marilla y découvrit quelque chose d'étonnant, comme une opiniâtreté inflexible. Marilla comprit qu'il lui serait difficile de venir à bout de la détermination d'Anne, aussi résolut-elle, avec sagesse, de ne rien dire de plus pour le moment.

« Je passerai voir Rachel ce soir pour en discuter, » pensa-t-elle Il ne sert à rien de raisonner Anne maintenant. Elle est trop énervée et j'ai idée qu'elle peut être terriblement têtue si l'envie lui prend. Pour autant que je puisse comprendre son histoire, M. Phillips a poussé le bouchon un peu loin. Mais ce n'est pas chose à dire à Anne. Je vais juste en parler avec Rachel. Elle a envoyé dix enfants à l'école, elle devrait savoir quoi en dire. En outre, elle aura également déjà appris toute l'histoire. »

Marilla trouva Mme Lynde tricotant des couvertures aussi assidûment et joyeusement que d'habitude.

—Je présume que tu sais pourquoi je viens te voir, dit-elle, un peu embarrassée.

Mme Rachel fit oui de la tête.

— À propos de l'histoire d'Anne à l'école, je pense, dit-elle. En rentrant de l'école, Tillie Boulter m'a raconté la chose.

— Je ne sais pas quoi faire avec elle, dit Marilla. Elle affirme qu'elle ne retournera pas à l'école. Je n'ai jamais vu une enfant aussi bouleversée. Je m'attendais à des problèmes depuis qu'elle a commencé l'école. Les choses allaient trop bien pour que ça dure. Elle a les nerfs à fleur de peau. Quel est ton sentiment, Rachel ?

— Bien, puisque tu me demandes mon avis, dit gentiment Mme Lynde –Mme Lynde adorait qu'on lui demande son avis – J'ai juste fait un peu d'humour sur elle au début, c'est ce que j'ai fait. Ce que je crois, c'est que M. Phillips a fait une erreur. Bien sûr, il ne faut pas le dire aux enfants, tu sais. Et bien sûr il a eu raison de la punir hier pour avoir laissé éclater sa colère. Mais aujourd'hui c'était différent. Les autres retardataires auraient dû être punis en même temps qu'Anne, un point c'est tout. Et je ne crois pas que faire assoir les filles à côté des garçons soit une punition. Ça n'est pas correct. Tillie Boulter était vraiment indignée. Elle a tout de suite pris parti pour Anne et a dit que tous les autres élèves l'avaient fait aussi. Anne semble réellement populaire, de toutes façons. Je n'aurais jamais pensé qu'elle s'entendrait si bien avec eux.

Donc tu crois vraiment que je ferais mieux de la garder à la maison, dit Marilla avec étonnement.

— Oui. C'est cela, je ne lui parlerais plus d'école jusqu'à ce qu'elle en parle d'elle-même. Cela dépendra, Marilla, d'ici environ une semaine elle se sera calmée, et choisira d'elle-même de retourner en classe, c'est tout ; alors que si tu la forces maintenant à y retourner, dieu sait quelle sera sa prochaine crise de colère et si elle n'occasionnera pas plus de problèmes encore. À mon avis, le mieux est de ne pas faire d'histoires. Elle ne manquera pas grand chose en n'allant pas à l'école, de toute façon. M. Phillips n'est absolument pas un bon professeur. L'organisation de sa classe est honteuse, c'est tout, et il néglige les jeunes élèves pour consacrer tout son temps aux grands qu'il prépare pour l'examen d'entrée à l'Académie royale. Il n'aurait jamais eu la classe une année de plus si son oncle n'était pas un administrateur – l'administrateur, car il mène les deux autres par le bout du nez, c'est pour ça. Je te dis, je ne sais pas ce que va devenir l'éducation dans cette île.

Mme Rachel secoua la tête, comme pour dire que si seulement elle était à la tête de l'éducation de la province, les choses iraient autrement mieux.

Marilla suivit le conseil de Rachel, et plus un seul mot ne fut prononcé sur le retour à l'école. Elle apprit ses leçons à la maison, fit ses devoirs, et s'amusa avec Diana dans la fraicheur des soirs d'automne ; mais lorsqu'elle rencontrait Gilbert Blythe sur la route ou qu'elle le retrouvait à l'école du dimanche, elle le croisait avec un mépris glacial qui n'était pas du tout réchauffé par le désir évident de calmer le jeu du garçon. . Même les efforts d'apaisement de Diana ne servaient à rien. Anne s'était manifestement mise en tête de haïr Gilbert jusqu'à la fin de ses jours.

Autant elle détestait Gilbert, autant elle adorait Diana, de tout l'amour de son petit cœur passionné, aussi excessif dans son amour que dans son désamour. Un soir, Marilla, revenant du verger avec un panier de pommes, trouva Anne assise seule dans la lumière du crépuscule à côté de la fenêtre est, en train de pleurer amèrement.

— Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas maintenant, Anne ? demanda-t-elle.

— C'est à cause de Diana, sanglota Anne de plus belle. J'aime tant Diana, Marilla. Je ne pourrais jamais vivre sans elle. Mais je sais bien que quand nous grandirons Diana se mariera, partira et m'abandonnera. Et oh, que ferai-je alors ? Je déteste son mari, je le déteste terriblement. Je me suis déjà imaginé tout cela — le mariage et tout le reste — Diana toute de blanc vêtue, avec un voile, et paraissant aussi belle et majestueuse qu'une reine ; et moi sa demoiselle d'honneur, avec une jolie robe aux manches bouffantes, certes, mais le cœur brisé caché derrière mon visage souriant. Et puis, disant adieu à Diana — À cet instant, Anne s'effondra complètement et pleura sans aucune retenue.

Marilla se détourna rapidement pour cacher les tressaillements de son visage. Mais ce fut inutile ; elle s'effondra sur la chaise la plus proche et partit dans un éclat de rire si joyeux et si inhabituel que Matthew, qui traversait la cour, s'arrêta stupéfié. Quand, pour la dernière fois, avait-il entendu Marilla rire ainsi ?

— Eh bien, Anne Shirley, rit Marilla aussitôt qu'elle put de nouveau parler, si tu dois t'inventer des problèmes, par pitié, inventes-en qui soient plus d'actualité. Pour avoir de l'imagination, tu as de l'imagination,ça c'est sûr.
unit 1
CHAPTER XV.
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A TEMPEST IN THE SCHOOL TEAPOT.
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"What a splendid day!"
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said Anne, drawing a long breath.
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"Isn't it good just to be alive on a day like this?
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I pity the people who aren't born yet for missing it.
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They may have good days, of course, but they can never have this one.
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And it's splendider still to have such a lovely way to go to school by, isn't it?"
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And yet, when the tarts were divided among ten girls you just got enough to tantalize you.
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The way Anne and Diana went to school was a pretty one.
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So we want to have one, too.
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And it's a very pretty name, don't you think?
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So romantic!
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We can imagine the lovers into it, you know.
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I like that lane because you can think out loud there without people calling you crazy."
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Anne, starting out alone in the morning, went down Lover's Lane as far as the brook.
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Then they left the lane and walked through Mr. Barry's back field and past Willowmere.
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Oh, Marilla, can't you just imagine you see them?
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It actually takes away my breath.
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I named it Violet Vale.
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Diana says she never saw the beat of me for hitting on fancy names for places.
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It's nice to be clever at something, isn't it?
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But Diana named the Birch Path.
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Anybody can think of a name like that.
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But the Birch Path is one of the prettiest places in the world, Marilla."
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It was.
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Other people besides Anne thought so when they stumbled on it.
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Marilla had seen Anne start off to school on the first day of September with many secret misgivings.
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Anne was such an odd girl.
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How would she get on with the other children?
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And how on earth would she ever manage to hold her tongue during school hours?
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Things went better than Marilla feared, however.
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Anne came home that evening in high spirits.
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"I think I'm going to like school here," she announced.
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"I don't think much of the master, though.
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He's all the time curling his moustache and making eyes at Prissy Andrews.
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Prissy is grown-up, you know.
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Tillie Boulter says the master is dead gone on her.
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She's got a beautiful complexion and curly brown hair and she does it up so elegantly.
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"You don't go to school to criticize the master.
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I guess he can teach you something and it's your business to learn.
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And I want you to understand right off that you are not to come home telling tales about him.
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That is something I won't encourage.
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I hope you were a good girl."
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"Indeed I was," said Anne comfortably.
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"It wasn't so hard as you might imagine, either.
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I sit with Diana.
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Our seat is right by the window and we can look down to the Lake of Shining Waters.
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There are a lot of nice girls in school and we had scrumptious fun playing at dinner time.
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It's so nice to have a lot of little girls to play with.
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But of course I like Diana best and always will.
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I adore Diana.
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I'm dreadfully far behind the others.
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They're all in the fifth book and I'm only in the fourth.
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I feel that it's kind of a disgrace.
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But there's not one of them has such an imagination as I have and I soon found that out.
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We had reading and geography and Canadian History and dictation to-day.
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I felt so mortified, Marilla; he might have been politer to a stranger, I think.
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Ruby Gillis gave me an apple and Sophia Sloane lent me a lovely pink card with 'May I see you home?'
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on it.
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I'm to give it back to her to-morrow.
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And Tillie Boulter let me wear her bead ring all the afternoon.
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Can I have some of those pearl beads off the old pincushion in the garret to make myself a ring?
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Marilla, have I really a pretty nose?
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I know you'll tell me the truth."
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"Your nose is well enough," said Marilla shortly.
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That was three weeks ago and all had gone smoothly so far.
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"I guess Gilbert Blythe will be in school to-day," said Diana.
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He's aw'fly handsome, Anne.
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And he teases the girls something terrible.
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He just torments our lives out."
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Diana's voice indicated that she rather liked having her life tormented out than not.
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"Gilbert Blythe?"
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said Anne.
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"Yes," said Diana, tossing her head, "but I'm sure he doesn't like Julia Bell so very much.
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I've heard him say he studied the multiplication table by her freckles."
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"Oh, don't speak about freckles to me," implored Anne.
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"It isn't delicate when I've got so many.
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I should just like to see anybody dare to write my name up with a boy's.
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Not, of course," she hastened to add, "that anybody would."
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Anne sighed.
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She didn't want her name written up.
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But it was a little humiliating to know that there was no danger of it.
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"It's only meant as a joke.
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And don't you be too sure your name won't ever be written up.
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Charlie Sloane is dead gone on you.
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He told his mother—his mother, mind you—that you were the smartest girl in school.
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That's better than being good-looking."
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"No, it isn't," said Anne, feminine to the core.
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"I'd rather be pretty than clever.
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And I hate Charlie Sloane.
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I can't bear a boy with goggle eyes.
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If any one wrote my name up with his I'd never get over it, Diana Barry.
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But it is nice to keep head of your class."
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He's only in the fourth book although he's nearly fourteen.
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They were there three years and Gil didn't go to school hardly any until they came back.
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You won't find it so easy to keep head after this, Anne."
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"I'm glad," said Anne quickly.
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"I couldn't really feel proud of keeping head of little boys and girls of just nine or ten.
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I got up yesterday spelling 'ebullition.'
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Josie Pye was head and, mind you, she peeped in her book.
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Mr. Phillips didn't see her—he was looking at Prissy Andrews—but I did.
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"Gertie Pye actually went and put her milk bottle in my place in the brook yesterday.
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Did you ever?
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I don't speak to her now."
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When Mr. Phillips was in the back of the room hearing Prissy Andrews' Latin Diana whispered to Anne.
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"That's Gilbert Blythe sitting right across the aisle from you, Anne.
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Just look at him and see if you don't think he's handsome."
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Anne looked accordingly.
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Everybody looked at her and Mr. Phillips glared so sternly that Ruby began to cry.
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"I think your Gilbert Blythe is handsome," confided Anne to Diana, "but I think he's very bold.
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It isn't good manners to wink at a strange girl."
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But it was not until the afternoon that things really began to happen.
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Carrots!"
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Then Anne looked at him with a vengeance!
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She did more than look.
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She sprang to her feet, her bright fancies fallen into cureless ruin.
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"You mean, hateful boy!"
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unit 164
she exclaimed passionately.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 165
"How dare you!"
3 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 166
And then—Thwack!
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 167
Anne had brought her slate down on Gilbert's head and cracked it—slate, not head—clear across.
2 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 168
Avonlea school always enjoyed a scene.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 169
This was an especially enjoyable one.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 170
Everybody said, "Oh" in horrified delight.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 171
Diana gasped.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 172
Ruby Gillis, who was inclined to be hysterical, began to cry.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 173
unit 174
Mr. Phillips stalked down the aisle and laid his hand heavily on Anne's shoulder.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 175
"Anne Shirley, what does this mean?"
3 Translations, 5 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 176
he said angrily.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 177
Anne returned no answer.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 179
Gilbert it was who spoke up stoutly.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 180
"It was my fault, Mr. Phillips.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 181
I teased her."
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 182
Mr. Phillips paid no heed to Gilbert.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 184
"Anne, go and stand on the platform in front of the blackboard for the rest of the afternoon."
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 186
With a white, set face she obeyed.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 187
Mr. Phillips took a chalk crayon and wrote on the blackboard above her head.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 188
"Ann Shirley has a very bad temper.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 190
Anne stood there the rest of the afternoon with that legend above her.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 191
She did not cry or hang her head.
3 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 192
unit 194
As for Gilbert Blythe, she would not even look at him.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 195
She would never look at him again!
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 196
She would never speak to him!!
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 197
When school was dismissed Anne marched out with her red head held high.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 198
Gilbert Blythe tried to intercept her at the porch door.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 199
"I'm awful sorry I made fun of your hair, Anne," he whispered contritely.
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 200
"Honest I am.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 201
Don't be mad for keeps, now."
1 Translations, 1 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 202
Anne swept by disdainfully, without look or sign of hearing.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 203
"Oh, how could you, Anne?"
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 204
breathed Diana as they went down the road, half reproach- fully, half admiringly.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 205
Diana felt that she could never have resisted Gilbert's plea.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 206
"I shall never forgive Gilbert Blythe," said Anne firmly.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 207
"And Mr. Phillips spelled my name without an e, too.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 208
The iron has entered into my soul, Diana."
2 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 209
Diana hadn't the least idea what Anne meant but she understood it was something terrible.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 210
"You mustn't mind Gilbert making fun of your hair," she said soothingly.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 211
"Why, he makes fun of all the girls.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 212
He laughs at mine because it's so black.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 213
He's called me a crow a dozen times; and I never heard him apologize for anything before, either."
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 215
"Gilbert Blythe has hurt my feelings excruciatingly, Diana."
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 216
unit 217
But when things begin to happen they are apt to keep on.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 219
From there they could keep an eye on Eben Wright's house, where the master boarded.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 222
Any one who came in late would be punished.
2 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 230
"Take those flowers out of your hair and sit with Gilbert Blythe."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 231
The other boys snickered.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 232
Diana, turning pale with pity, plucked the wreath from Anne's hair and squeezed her hand.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 233
Anne stared at the master as if turned to stone.
2 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 234
"Did you hear what I said, Anne?"
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 235
queried Mr. Phillips sternly.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 236
"Yes, sir," said Anne slowly, "but I didn't suppose you really meant it."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 238
It flicked on the raw.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 239
"Obey me at once."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 240
For a moment Anne looked as if she meant to disobey.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 243
To Anne, this was as the end of all things.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 245
Anne felt that she could not bear it and it would be of no use to try.
2 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 246
Her whole being seethed with shame and anger and humiliation.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 247
At first the other scholars looked and whispered and giggled and nudged.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 253
"What are you taking all those things home for, Anne?"
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 254
Diana wanted to know, as soon as they were out on the road.
2 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 255
She had not dared to ask the question before.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 256
"I am not coming back to school any more," said Anne.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 257
Diana gasped and stared at Anne to see if she meant it.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 258
"Will Marilla let you stay home?"
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 259
she asked.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 260
"She'll have to," said Anne.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 261
I'll never go to school to that man again."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 262
"Oh, Anne!"
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 263
Diana looked as if she were ready to cry.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 264
"I do think you're mean.
3 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 265
What shall I do?
2 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 266
unit 267
Do come back, Anne."
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 268
"I'd do almost anything in the world for you, Diana," said Anne sadly.
2 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 269
"I'd let myself be torn limb from limb if it would do you any good.
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 270
But I can't do this, so please don't ask it.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 271
You harrow up my very soul."
3 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 272
"Just think of all the fun you will miss," mourned Diana.
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 274
It's tremenjusly exciting.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 276
And you know you are so fond of reading out loud, Anne."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 277
Nothing moved Anne in the least.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 278
Her mind was made up.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 279
She would not go to school to Mr. Phillips again; she told Marilla so when she got home.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 280
"Nonsense," said Marilla.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 281
"It isn't nonsense at all," said Anne, gazing at Marilla with solemn, reproachful eyes.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 282
"Don't you understand, Marilla?
2 Translations, 6 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 283
I've been insulted."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 284
"Insulted fiddlesticks!
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 285
You'll go to school to-morrow as usual."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 286
"Oh, no."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 287
Anne shook her head gently.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 288
"I'm not going back, Marilla.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 290
But I will not go back to school I assure you."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 291
Marilla saw something remarkably like unyielding stubbornness looking out of Anne's small face.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 293
"I'll run down and see Rachel about it this evening," she thought.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 294
"There's no use reasoning with Anne now.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 295
She's too worked up and I've an idea she can be awful stubborn if she takes the notion.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 296
unit 297
But it would never do to say so to her.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 298
I'll just talk it over with Rachel.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 299
She's sent ten children to school and she ought to know something about it.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 300
She'll have heard the whole story, too, by this time."
2 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 301
Marilla found Mrs. Lynde knitting quilts as industriously and cheerfully as usual.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 302
"I suppose you know what I've come about," she said, a little shamefacedly.
2 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 303
Mrs. Rachel nodded.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 304
"About Anne's fuss in school, I reckon," she said.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 305
"Tillie Boulter was in on her way home from school and told me about it."
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 306
"I don't know what to do with her," said Marilla.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 307
"She declares she won't go back to school.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 308
I never saw a child so worked up.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 309
I've been expecting trouble ever since she started to school.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 310
I knew things were going too smooth to last.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 311
She's so high-strung.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 312
What would you advise, Rachel?"
2 Translations, 5 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 313
"Well, since you've asked my advice, Marilla," said Mrs. Lynde amiably—Mrs.
2 Translations, 5 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 314
unit 315
It's my belief that Mr. Phillips was in the wrong.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 316
Of course, it doesn't do to say so to the children, you know.
2 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 317
And of course he did right to punish her yesterday for giving way to temper.
2 Translations, 5 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 318
But to-day it was different.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 319
The others who were late should have been punished as well as Anne, that's what.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 320
And I don't believe in making the girls sit with the boys for punishment.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 321
It isn't modest.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 322
Tillie Boulter was real indignant.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 323
She took Anne's part right through and said all the scholars did, too.
2 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 324
Anne seems real popular among them, somehow.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 325
I never thought she'd take with them so well."
3 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 3 months ago
unit 326
"Then you really think I'd better let her stay home," said Marilla in amazement.
2 Translations, 5 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 327
"Yes.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 328
That is, I wouldn't say school to her again until she said it herself.
2 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 330
The less fuss made the better, in my opinion.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 331
She won't miss much by not going to school, as far as that goes.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 332
Mr. Phillips isn't any good at all as a teacher.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 335
I declare, I don't know what education in this Island is coming to."
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 337
Marilla took Mrs. Rachel's advice and not another word was said to Anne about going back to school.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 339
Even Diana's efforts as a peacemaker were of no avail.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 340
Anne had evidently made up her mind to hate Gilbert Blythe to the end of life.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 343
"Whatever's the matter now, Anne?"
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 344
she asked.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 345
"It's about Diana," sobbed Anne luxuriously.
2 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 346
"I love Diana so, Marilla.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 347
I cannot ever live without her.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 348
But I know very well when we grow up that Diana will get married and go away and leave me.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 349
And oh, what shall I do?
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 350
I hate her husband—I just hate him furiously.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 352
unit 354
When had he heard Marilla laugh like that before?
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago
unit 356
I should think you had an imagination, sure enough."
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 7 years, 4 months ago

Update: Thank to Gaby and her watching the movie, we now know that:
1. Anne only use the formal form ("vous") at the start, but later (we agreed for Chapter XI) she will say "tu" to Marilla and Matthew, and the formal form with everybody else but her classmates. Marilla and Rachel are friends and they use "tu".
2. She likes overstatements and superlatives.
3. We need to translate "green gables" by "les pignons verts" as it is done in the movie.

by gaelle044 7 years, 4 months ago

Anne of Green Gables (1908)

Written for all ages, it has been considered a children's novel since the mid-twentieth century. It recounts the adventures of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan girl who is mistakenly sent to Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a middle-aged brother and sister who had intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in Prince Edward Island. The novel recounts how Anne makes her way with the Cuthberts, in school, and within the town. Since publication, Anne of Green Gables has sold more than 50 million copies and has been translated into 20 languages. It has been adapted as film, made-for-television movies, and animated and live-action television series. — Excerpted from Anne of Green Gables (1908) on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Anne_of_Green_Gables_(1908)

by gaelle044 7 years, 4 months ago

CHAPTER XV.

A TEMPEST IN THE SCHOOL TEAPOT.

"What a splendid day!" said Anne, drawing a long breath. "Isn't it good just to be alive on a day like this? I pity the people who aren't born yet for missing it. They may have good days, of course, but they can never have this one. And it's splendider still to have such a lovely way to go to school by, isn't it?"

"It's a lot nicer than going round by the road; that is so dusty and hot," said Diana practically, peeping into her dinner basket and mentally calculating if the three juicy, toothsome, raspberry tarts reposing there were divided among ten girls how many bites each girl would have.

The little girls of Avonlea school always pooled their lunches, and to eat three raspberry tarts all alone or even to share them only with one's best chum would have forever and ever branded as "awful mean" the girl who did it. And yet, when the tarts were divided among ten girls you just got enough to tantalize you.

The way Anne and Diana went to school was a pretty one. Anne thought those walks to and from school with Diana couldn't be improved upon even by imagination. Going around by the main road would have been so unromantic; but to go by Lover's Lane and Willowmere and Violet Vale and the Birch Path was romantic, if ever anything was.

Lover's Lane opened out below the orchard at Green Gables and stretched far up into the woods to the end of the Cuthbert farm. It was the way by which the cows were taken to the back pasture and the wood hauled home in winter, Anne had named it Lover's Lane before she had been a month at Green Gables.

"Not that lovers ever really walk there," she explained to Marilla, "but Diana and I are reading a perfectly magnificent book and there's a Lover's Lane in it. So we want to have one, too. And it's a very pretty name, don't you think? So romantic! We can imagine the lovers into it, you know. I like that lane because you can think out loud there without people calling you crazy."

Anne, starting out alone in the morning, went down Lover's Lane as far as the brook. Here Diana met her, and the two little girls went on up the lane under the leafy arch of maples—"maples are such sociable trees," said Anne; "they're always rustling and whispering to you,"—until they came to a rustic bridge. Then they left the lane and walked through Mr. Barry's back field and past Willowmere. Beyond Willowmere came Violet Vale—a little green dimple in the shadow of Mr. Andrew Bell's big woods. "Of course there are no violets there now," Anne told Marilla, "but Diana says there are millions of them in spring. Oh, Marilla, can't you just imagine you see them? It actually takes away my breath. I named it Violet Vale. Diana says she never saw the beat of me for hitting on fancy names for places. It's nice to be clever at something, isn't it? But Diana named the Birch Path. She wanted to, so I let her; but I'm sure I could have found something more poetical than plain Birch Path. Anybody can think of a name like that. But the Birch Path is one of the prettiest places in the world, Marilla."

It was. Other people besides Anne thought so when they stumbled on it. It was a little narrow, twisting path, winding down over a long hill straight through Mr. Bell's woods, where the light came down sifted through so many emerald screens that it was as flawless as the heart of a diamond. It was fringed in all its length with slim young birches, white-stemmed and lissom boughed; ferns and starflowers and wild lilies-of-the-valley and scarlet tufts of pigeon berries grew thickly along it; and always there was a delightful spiciness in the air and music of bird calls and the murmur and laugh of wood winds in the trees overhead. Now and then you might see a rabbit skipping across the road if you were quiet—which, with Anne and Diana, happened about once in a blue moon. Down in the valley the path came out to the main road and then it was just up the spruce hill to the school.

The Avonlea school was a whitewashed building, low in the eaves and wide in the windows, furnished inside with comfortable substantial old-fashioned desks that opened and shut, and were carved all over their lids with the initials and hieroglyphics of three generations of school-children. The schoolhouse was set back from the road and behind it was a dusky fir wood and a brook where all the children put their bottles of milk in the morning to keep cool and sweet until dinner hour.

Marilla had seen Anne start off to school on the first day of September with many secret misgivings. Anne was such an odd girl. How would she get on with the other children? And how on earth would she ever manage to hold her tongue during school hours?

Things went better than Marilla feared, however. Anne came home that evening in high spirits.

"I think I'm going to like school here," she announced. "I don't think much of the master, though. He's all the time curling his moustache and making eyes at Prissy Andrews. Prissy is grown-up, you know. She's sixteen and she's studying for the entrance examination into Queen's Academy at Charlottetown next year. Tillie Boulter says the master is dead gone on her. She's got a beautiful complexion and curly brown hair and she does it up so elegantly. She sits in the long seat at the back and he sits there, too, most of the time—to explain her lessons, he says. But Ruby Gillis says she saw him writing something on her slate and when Prissy read it she blushed as red as a beet and giggled; and Ruby Gillis says she doesn't believe it had anything to do with the lesson."

"Anne Shirley, don't let me hear you talking about your teacher in that way again," said Marilla sharply. "You don't go to school to criticize the master. I guess he can teach you something and it's your business to learn. And I want you to understand right off that you are not to come home telling tales about him. That is something I won't encourage. I hope you were a good girl."

"Indeed I was," said Anne comfortably. "It wasn't so hard as you might imagine, either. I sit with Diana. Our seat is right by the window and we can look down to the Lake of Shining Waters. There are a lot of nice girls in school and we had scrumptious fun playing at dinner time. It's so nice to have a lot of little girls to play with. But of course I like Diana best and always will. I adore Diana. I'm dreadfully far behind the others. They're all in the fifth book and I'm only in the fourth. I feel that it's kind of a disgrace. But there's not one of them has such an imagination as I have and I soon found that out. We had reading and geography and Canadian History and dictation to-day. Mr. Phillips said my spelling was disgraceful and he held up my slate so that everybody could see it, all marked over. I felt so mortified, Marilla; he might have been politer to a stranger, I think. Ruby Gillis gave me an apple and Sophia Sloane lent me a lovely pink card with 'May I see you home?' on it. I'm to give it back to her to-morrow. And Tillie Boulter let me wear her bead ring all the afternoon. Can I have some of those pearl beads off the old pincushion in the garret to make myself a ring? And oh Marilla, Jane Andrews told me that Minnie MacPherson told her that she heard Prissy Andrews tell Sara Gillis that I had a very pretty nose. Marilla, that is the first compliment I have ever had in my life and you can't imagine what a strange feeling it gave me. Marilla, have I really a pretty nose? I know you'll tell me the truth."

"Your nose is well enough," said Marilla shortly. Secretly she thought Anne's nose was a remarkably pretty one; but she had no intention of telling her so.

That was three weeks ago and all had gone smoothly so far. And now, this crisp September morning, Anne and Diana were tripping blithely down the Birch Path, two of the happiest little girls in Avonlea.

"I guess Gilbert Blythe will be in school to-day," said Diana. "He's been visiting his cousins over in New Brunswick all summer and he only came home Saturday night. He's aw'fly handsome, Anne. And he teases the girls something terrible. He just torments our lives out."

Diana's voice indicated that she rather liked having her life tormented out than not.

"Gilbert Blythe?" said Anne. "Isn't it his name that's written up on the porch wall with Julia Bell's and a big 'Take Notice' over them?"

"Yes," said Diana, tossing her head, "but I'm sure he doesn't like Julia Bell so very much. I've heard him say he studied the multiplication table by her freckles."

"Oh, don't speak about freckles to me," implored Anne. "It isn't delicate when I've got so many. But I do think that writing take-notices up on the wall about the boys and girls is the silliest ever. I should just like to see anybody dare to write my name up with a boy's. Not, of course," she hastened to add, "that anybody would."

Anne sighed. She didn't want her name written up. But it was a little humiliating to know that there was no danger of it.

"Nonsense," said Diana, whose black eyes and glossy tresses had played such havoc with the hearts of Avonlea schoolboys that her name figured on the porch walls in half a dozen take-notices. "It's only meant as a joke. And don't you be too sure your name won't ever be written up. Charlie Sloane is dead gone on you. He told his mother—his mother, mind you—that you were the smartest girl in school. That's better than being good-looking."

"No, it isn't," said Anne, feminine to the core. "I'd rather be pretty than clever. And I hate Charlie Sloane. I can't bear a boy with goggle eyes. If any one wrote my name up with his I'd never get over it, Diana Barry. But it is nice to keep head of your class."

"You'll have Gilbert in your class after this," said Diana, "and he's used to being head of his class, I can tell you. He's only in the fourth book although he's nearly fourteen. Four years ago his father was sick and had to go out to Alberta for his health and Gilbert went with him. They were there three years and Gil didn't go to school hardly any until they came back. You won't find it so easy to keep head after this, Anne."

"I'm glad," said Anne quickly. "I couldn't really feel proud of keeping head of little boys and girls of just nine or ten. I got up yesterday spelling 'ebullition.' Josie Pye was head and, mind you, she peeped in her book. Mr. Phillips didn't see her—he was looking at Prissy Andrews—but I did. I just swept her a look of freezing scorn and she got as red as a beet and spelled it wrong after all."

"Those Pye girls are cheats all round," said Diana indignantly, as they climbed the fence of the main road. "Gertie Pye actually went and put her milk bottle in my place in the brook yesterday. Did you ever? I don't speak to her now."

When Mr. Phillips was in the back of the room hearing Prissy Andrews' Latin Diana whispered to Anne.

"That's Gilbert Blythe sitting right across the aisle from you, Anne. Just look at him and see if you don't think he's handsome."

Anne looked accordingly. She had a good chance to do so, for the said Gilbert Blythe was absorbed in stealthily pinning the long yellow braid of Ruby Gillis, who sat in front of him, to the back of her seat. He was a tall boy, with curly brown hair, roguish hazel eyes and a mouth twisted into a teasing smile. Presently Ruby Gillis started up to take a sum to the master; she fell back into her seat with a little shriek, believing that her hair was pulled out by the roots. Everybody looked at her and Mr. Phillips glared so sternly that Ruby began to cry. Gilbert had whisked the pin out of sight and was studying his history with the soberest face in the world; but when the commotion subsided he looked at Anne and winked with inexpressible drollery.

"I think your Gilbert Blythe is handsome," confided Anne to Diana, "but I think he's very bold. It isn't good manners to wink at a strange girl."

But it was not until the afternoon that things really began to happen.

Mr. Phillips was back in the corner explaining a problem in algebra to Prissy Andrews and the rest of the scholars were doing pretty much as they pleased, eating green apples, whispering, drawing pictures on their slates, and driving crickets, harnessed to strings, up and down the aisle. Gilbert Blythe was trying to make Anne Shirley look at him and failing utterly, because Anne was at that moment totally oblivious, not only of the very existence of Gilbert Blythe, but of every other scholar in Avonlea school and of Avonlea school itself. With her chin propped on her hands and her eyes fixed on the blue glimpse of the Lake of Shining Waters that the west window afforded, she was far away in a gorgeous dreamland, hearing and seeing nothing save her own wonderful visions.

Gilbert Blythe wasn't used to putting himself out to make a girl look at him and meeting with failure. She should look at him, that red-haired Shirley girl with the little pointed chin and the big eyes that weren't like the eyes of any other girl in Avonlea school.

Gilbert reached across the aisle, picked up the end of Anne's long red braid, held it out at arm's length and said in a piercing whisper,

"Carrots! Carrots!"

Then Anne looked at him with a vengeance!

She did more than look. She sprang to her feet, her bright fancies fallen into cureless ruin. She flashed one indignant glance at Gilbert from eyes whose angry sparkle was swiftly quenched in equally angry tears.

"You mean, hateful boy!" she exclaimed passionately. "How dare you!"

And then—Thwack! Anne had brought her slate down on Gilbert's head and cracked it—slate, not head—clear across.
Avonlea school always enjoyed a scene. This was an especially enjoyable one. Everybody said, "Oh" in horrified delight. Diana gasped. Ruby Gillis, who was inclined to be hysterical, began to cry. Tommy Sloane let his team of crickets escape him altogether while he stared open-mouthed at the tableau.

Mr. Phillips stalked down the aisle and laid his hand heavily on Anne's shoulder.

"Anne Shirley, what does this mean?" he said angrily.

Anne returned no answer. It was asking too much of flesh and blood to expect her to tell before the whole school that she had been called "carrots." Gilbert it was who spoke up stoutly.

"It was my fault, Mr. Phillips. I teased her."

Mr. Phillips paid no heed to Gilbert.

"I am sorry to see a pupil of mine displaying such a temper and such a vindictive spirit," he said in a solemn tone, as if the mere fact of being a pupil of his ought to root out all evil passions from the hearts of small imperfect mortals. "Anne, go and stand on the platform in front of the blackboard for the rest of the afternoon."

Anne would have infinitely preferred a whipping to this punishment, under which her sensitive spirit quivered as from a whiplash. With a white, set face she obeyed. Mr. Phillips took a chalk crayon and wrote on the blackboard above her head.

"Ann Shirley has a very bad temper. Ann Shirley must learn to control her temper," and then read it out loud so that even the primer class, who couldn't read writing, should understand it.

Anne stood there the rest of the afternoon with that legend above her. She did not cry or hang her head. Anger was still too hot in her heart for that and it sustained her amid all her agony of humiliation. With resentful eyes and passion-red cheeks she confronted alike Diana's sympathetic gaze and Charlie Sloane's indignant nods and Josie Pye's malicious smiles. As for Gilbert Blythe, she would not even look at him. She would never look at him again! She would never speak to him!!

When school was dismissed Anne marched out with her red head held high. Gilbert Blythe tried to intercept her at the porch door.

"I'm awful sorry I made fun of your hair, Anne," he whispered contritely. "Honest I am. Don't be mad for keeps, now."

Anne swept by disdainfully, without look or sign of hearing. "Oh, how could you, Anne?" breathed Diana as they went down the road, half reproach- fully, half admiringly. Diana felt that she could never have resisted Gilbert's plea.

"I shall never forgive Gilbert Blythe," said Anne firmly. "And Mr. Phillips spelled my name without an e, too. The iron has entered into my soul, Diana."

Diana hadn't the least idea what Anne meant but she understood it was something terrible.

"You mustn't mind Gilbert making fun of your hair," she said soothingly. "Why, he makes fun of all the girls. He laughs at mine because it's so black. He's called me a crow a dozen times; and I never heard him apologize for anything before, either."

"There's a great deal of difference between being called a crow and being called carrots," said Anne with dignity. "Gilbert Blythe has hurt my feelings excruciatingly, Diana."

It is possible the matter might have blown over without more excruciation if nothing else had happened. But when things begin to happen they are apt to keep on.

Avonlea scholars often spent noon hour picking gum in Mr. Bell's spruce grove over the hill and across his big pasture field. From there they could keep an eye on Eben Wright's house, where the master boarded. When they saw Mr. Phillips emerging therefrom they ran for the schoolhouse; but the distance being about three times longer than Mr. Wright's lane they were very apt to arrive there, breathless and gasping, some three minutes too late.

On the following day Mr. Phillips was seized with one of his spasmodic fits of reform and announced, before going home to dinner, that he should expect to find all the scholars in their seats when he returned. Any one who came in late would be punished.

All the boys and some of the girls went to Mr. Bell's spruce grove as usual, fully intending to stay only long enough to "pick a chew." But spruce groves are seductive and yellow nuts of gum beguiling; they picked and loitered and strayed; and as usual the first thing that recalled them to a sense of the flight of time was Jimmy Glover shouting from the top of a patriarchal old spruce, "Master's coming."

The girls, who were on the ground, started first and managed to reach the schoolhouse in time but without a second to spare. The boys, who had to wriggle hastily down from the trees, were later; and Anne, who had not been picking gum at all but was wandering happily in the far end of the grove, waist deep among the bracken, singing softly to herself, with a wreath of rice lilies on her hair as if she were some wild divinity of the shadowy places, was latest of all. Anne could run like a deer, however; run she did with the impish result that she overtook the boys at the door and was swept into the schoolhouse among them just as Mr. Phillips was in the act of hanging up his hat.

Mr. Phillips' brief reforming energy was over; he didn't want the bother of punishing a dozen pupils; but it was necessary to do something to save his word, so he looked about for a scapegoat and found it in Anne, who had dropped into her seat, gasping for breath, with her forgotten lily wreath hanging askew over one ear and giving her a particularly rakish and dishevelled appearance.

"Anne Shirley, since you seem to be so fond of the boys' company we shall indulge your taste for it this afternoon," he said sarcastically. "Take those flowers out of your hair and sit with Gilbert Blythe."

The other boys snickered. Diana, turning pale with pity, plucked the wreath from Anne's hair and squeezed her hand. Anne stared at the master as if turned to stone.

"Did you hear what I said, Anne?" queried Mr. Phillips sternly.

"Yes, sir," said Anne slowly, "but I didn't suppose you really meant it."

"I assure you I did,"—still with the sarcastic inflection which all the children, and Anne especially, hated. It flicked on the raw. "Obey me at once."

For a moment Anne looked as if she meant to disobey. Then, realizing that there was no help for it, she rose haughtily, stepped across the aisle, sat down beside Gilbert Blythe, and buried her face in her arms on the desk. Ruby Gillis, who got a glimpse of it as it went down, told the others going home from school that she'd "acksually never seen anything like it—it was so white, with awful little red spots in it."

To Anne, this was as the end of all things. It was bad enough to be singled out for punishment from among a dozen equally guilty ones; it was worse still to be sent to sit with a boy; but that that boy should be Gilbert Blythe was heaping insult on injury to a degree utterly unbearable. Anne felt that she could not bear it and it would be of no use to try. Her whole being seethed with shame and anger and humiliation.

At first the other scholars looked and whispered and giggled and nudged. But as Anne never lifted her head and as Gilbert worked fractions as if his whole soul was absorbed in them and them only, they soon returned to their own tasks and Anne was forgotten. When Mr. Phillips called the history class out Anne should have gone; but Anne did not move, and Mr. Phillips, who had been writing some verses "To Priscilla" before he called the class, was thinking about an obstinate rhyme still and never missed her. Once, when nobody was looking, Gilbert took from his desk a little pink candy heart with a gold motto on it, "You are sweet," and slipped it under the curve of Anne's arm. Whereupon Anne arose, took the pink heart gingerly between the tips of her fingers, dropped it on the floor, ground it to powder beneath her heel, and resumed her position without deigning to bestow a glance on Gilbert.

When school went out Anne marched to her desk, ostentatiously took out everything therein, books and writing tablet, pen and ink, testament and arithmetic, and piled them neatly on her cracked slate.

"What are you taking all those things home for, Anne?" Diana wanted to know, as soon as they were out on the road. She had not dared to ask the question before.

"I am not coming back to school any more," said Anne.

Diana gasped and stared at Anne to see if she meant it.

"Will Marilla let you stay home?" she asked.

"She'll have to," said Anne. I'll never go to school to that man again."

"Oh, Anne!" Diana looked as if she were ready to cry. "I do think you're mean. What shall I do? Mr. Phillips will make me sit with that horrid Gertie Pye—I know he will because she is sitting alone. Do come back, Anne."

"I'd do almost anything in the world for you, Diana," said Anne sadly. "I'd let myself be torn limb from limb if it would do you any good. But I can't do this, so please don't ask it. You harrow up my very soul."

"Just think of all the fun you will miss," mourned Diana. "We are going to build the loveliest new house down by the brook; and we'll be playing ball next week and you've never played ball, Anne. It's tremenjusly exciting. And we're going to learn a new song—Jane Andrews is practising it up now; and Alice Andrews is going to bring a new Pansy book next week and we're all going to read it out loud, chapter about, down by the brook. And you know you are so fond of reading out loud, Anne."

Nothing moved Anne in the least. Her mind was made up. She would not go to school to Mr. Phillips again; she told Marilla so when she got home.

"Nonsense," said Marilla.

"It isn't nonsense at all," said Anne, gazing at Marilla with solemn, reproachful eyes. "Don't you understand, Marilla? I've been insulted."

"Insulted fiddlesticks! You'll go to school to-morrow as usual."

"Oh, no." Anne shook her head gently. "I'm not going back, Marilla. I'll learn my lessons at home and I'll be as good as I can be and hold my tongue all the time if it's possible at all. But I will not go back to school I assure you."

Marilla saw something remarkably like unyielding stubbornness looking out of Anne's small face. She understood that she would have trouble in overcoming it; but she resolved wisely to say nothing more just then.

"I'll run down and see Rachel about it this evening," she thought. "There's no use reasoning with Anne now. She's too worked up and I've an idea she can be awful stubborn if she takes the notion. Far as I can make out from her story, Mr. Phillips has been carrying matters with a rather high hand. But it would never do to say so to her. I'll just talk it over with Rachel. She's sent ten children to school and she ought to know something about it. She'll have heard the whole story, too, by this time."

Marilla found Mrs. Lynde knitting quilts as industriously and cheerfully as usual.

"I suppose you know what I've come about," she said, a little shamefacedly.

Mrs. Rachel nodded.

"About Anne's fuss in school, I reckon," she said. "Tillie Boulter was in on her way home from school and told me about it."

"I don't know what to do with her," said Marilla. "She declares she won't go back to school. I never saw a child so worked up. I've been expecting trouble ever since she started to school. I knew things were going too smooth to last. She's so high-strung. What would you advise, Rachel?"

"Well, since you've asked my advice, Marilla," said Mrs. Lynde amiably—Mrs. Lynde dearly loved to be asked for advice—"I'd just humour her a little at first, that's what I'd do. It's my belief that Mr. Phillips was in the wrong. Of course, it doesn't do to say so to the children, you know. And of course he did right to punish her yesterday for giving way to temper. But to-day it was different. The others who were late should have been punished as well as Anne, that's what. And I don't believe in making the girls sit with the boys for punishment. It isn't modest. Tillie Boulter was real indignant. She took Anne's part right through and said all the scholars did, too. Anne seems real popular among them, somehow. I never thought she'd take with them so well."

"Then you really think I'd better let her stay home," said Marilla in amazement.

"Yes. That is, I wouldn't say school to her again until she said it herself. Depend upon it, Marilla, she'll cool off in a week or so and be ready enough to go back of her own accord, that's what, while, if you were to make her go back right off, dear knows what freak or tantrum she'd take next and make more trouble than ever. The less fuss made the better, in my opinion. She won't miss much by not going to school, as far as that goes. Mr. Phillips isn't any good at all as a teacher. The order he keeps is scandalous, that's what, and he neglects the young fry and puts all his time on those big scholars he's getting ready for Queen's. He'd never have got the school for another year if his uncle hadn't been a trustee—the trustee, for he just leads the other two around by the nose, that's what. I declare, I don't know what education in this Island is coming to."

Mrs. Rachel shook her head, as much as to say if she were only at the head of the educational system of the Province things would be much better managed.

Marilla took Mrs. Rachel's advice and not another word was said to Anne about going back to school. She learned her lessons at home, did her chores, and played with Diana in the chilly purple autumn twilights; but when she met Gilbert Blythe on the road or encountered him in Sunday-school she passed him by with an icy contempt that was no whit thawed by his evident desire to appease her. Even Diana's efforts as a peacemaker were of no avail. Anne had evidently made up her mind to hate Gilbert Blythe to the end of life.

As much as she hated Gilbert, however, did she love Diana, with all the love of her passionate little heart, equally intense in its likes and dislikes. One evening Marilla, coming in from the orchard with a basket of apples, found Anne sitting alone by the east window in the twilight, crying bitterly.

"Whatever's the matter now, Anne?" she asked.

"It's about Diana," sobbed Anne luxuriously. "I love Diana so, Marilla. I cannot ever live without her. But I know very well when we grow up that Diana will get married and go away and leave me. And oh, what shall I do? I hate her husband—I just hate him furiously. I've been imagining it all out—the wedding and everything—Diana dressed in snowy garments, with a veil, and looking as beautiful and regal as a queen; and me the bridesmaid, with a lovely dress, too, and puffed sleeves, but with a breaking heart hid beneath my smiling face. And then bidding Diana good-bye-e-e—" Here Anne broke down entirely and wept with increasing bitterness.

Marilla turned quickly away to hide her twitching face; but it was no use; she collapsed on the nearest chair and burst into such a hearty and unusual peal of laughter that Matthew, crossing the yard outside, halted in amazement. When had he heard Marilla laugh like that before?

"Well, Anne Shirley," said Marilla as soon as she could speak, "if you must borrow trouble, for pity's sake borrow it handier home. I should think you had an imagination, sure enough."