Prior warning; this post is about 1,600 words long, sorry about that.
Anne of Windy Willows, by L.M.Montgomery.
So, a recently engaged Anne is living in Summerside at a residence aptly named Windy Willows, and is the newly appointed Principle of the local High School. The first 50 pages are all written in the form of letters from Anne to her fiancee Gilbert Blythe, and are wonderful in their own right. She finishes her letters so… uniquely, i love it, sometimes with “Your very Anne-est ~ANNE” or “Fondestly yours” and one particular letter she has started with “Honoured and respected sir: that is how a love-letter of Aunt Chatty’s grandmother began. Isn’t it delicious?” and she ends the next with “Your tenderest, most faithful friend, ANNE SHIRLEY. P.S. More of Aunt Chatty’s Grandmother!”
But the part of the book i have just seen the end of had me giggling with delight and rushing to my laptop to write out exactly what i thought of it! I’m not even connected to the internet right now and i’m typing this out in WriteRoom, to upload later. But that’s irrelevant.
The small piece of back story you will need for this to make sense is that Anne is at the wedding of Sally Nelson, who is one of many sisters, and the second to last of them to be married. The one single sister remaining is Nora Nelson, who had a man, Jim, after her for several years, but she played hard to get and he eventually gave up several months back.
She’s sitting by the river with Anne, voicing her troubles and realising that she does indeed want to be with Jim “Yes, i do… i do! I love Jim… and i want to get married. I want to have a home of my own and be a ‘Mrs’ and shut Aunt Mouser’s mouth!’ Aunt Mouser is the nickname they all gave their Aunt when they were young, because she’s a snoop and a bit depressing. All day before the wedding she was trotting about making comments such as “Well, i hope they wont make a mistake and play the Dead March like Mrs Tom Scott did at Dora Best’s Wedding! Such a bad omen.” and “All i hope is the groom wont have a hunted look like so many of them do. I s’pose they do feel that way, but they needn’t show it so plain. And i hope they don’t forget the ring. Upton Hardy did. Him and Flora had to be married with a ring off one of the curtain poles.”
Anyway, Anne and Nora come in from their talk and a young groomsman in the corridor is talking with Aunt Mouser: ‘“I hope nobody will get up and give a reason why they shouldn’t be joined together. That happened at Tillie Hatfield’s wedding.” “No such luck for Gordon as that,” said the groomsman. Aunt Mouser fixed him with a stony brown eye. “Young man, marriage isn’t exactly a joke.” “You bet it isn’t,” said the unrepentant. “Hello, Nora, when are we going to have a chance to dance at your wedding?” Nora did not answer in words. She went closer up to him and deliberately slapped him, first on one side of his face and then the other. The slaps were not make-believe ones. Then she went upstairs without looking behind her. “That girl,” said Aunt Mouser, “is overwrought”
I loved that.
Anyway, more to the point, Nora and her boy Jim live across the harbour, and as kids she would set a light in the attic window when she wanted to see him and he would sail over. So Anne has this brilliant idea;
‘An idea popped into Anne’s head. She had always been a prey to impulse. Darting into the kitchen, she snatched up a little hand-lamp alight there, sped up the back stairs and up another flight to the attic. She set the light in the dormer window that looked out across the harbour.
“He may see it and come. I suppose Nora will be furious with me, but that wont matter if he only comes!”
Jim Wilcox did not come.
Anne gave up looking for him after a while and forgot him in the merriment of the evening. Nora had disappeared and Aunt Mouser had gone to bed. It was eleven o’clock when the revelry ceased and the tired moonlighters yawned their way upstairs. Anne was so sleepy, she never thought of the light in the attic. But at two o’clock Aunt Mouser crept into the room and flashed a candle in the girls faces. “Goodness, what’s the matter?” gasped Dot Fraser sitting up in bed. “S-s-s-sh” warned Aunt Mouser, “I think there’s someone in the house… i know there is. What is that noise?” “Sounds like a cat mewing or a dog barking” giggled Dot. “Nothing of the sort,” said Aunt Mouser severely. “I know there’s a dog barking in the barn, but that is not what wakened me. It was a bump… a loud, distinct bump.”
“‘From ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night, good Lord, protect us’” Murmured Anne. “Miss Shirley, this ain’t any laughing-matter.”
- skipping a bit -
“I tell you i heard a bump,” quavered Aunt Mouser. A couple of boys joined the party. They crept down the stairs with the Doctor at the head and Aunt Mouser, candle in one hand and poker in the other, bringing up the rear. There were undoubtedly noises in the library. The Doctor opened the door and walked in. Nora and a young man were standing in the middle of the room, which was dimly lighted by another flickering candle. the young man had his arms around Nora and was holding a large white handkerchief to her face. “He’s chloroforming her!” shrieked Aunt Mouser, letting the poker fall with a tremendous crash.
The young man turned, dropped the handkerchief and looked foolish. Yet he was a rather nice-looking young man, with crinkly russet eyes and crinkly red-brown hair, not to mention a chin that gave the world assurance of a chin.
Nora snatched the handkerchief up and applied it to her face.
“Jim Wilcox, what does this mean?” said the Doctor, with exceeding sternness.
“I don’t know what it means,” said Jim Wilcox rather sulkily. “All i know is Nora signalled for me. I didn’t see the light until i got home at one from a Masonic banquet in Summerside. And i sailed right over.”
“I didn’t signal for you,” stormed Nora. “For pity’s sake don’t look like that, Father. I wasn’t asleep… i was sitting at my window… i hadn’t undressed… and i saw a man coming up from the shore. When he got near the house i knew it was Jim, so i ran down. Ane i… I ran into the library door and made my nose bleed. He’s just been trying to stop it.”
“I jumped in at the window and knocked over that bench… and now Nora says she didn’t signal for me, so I’ll just relieve you of my unwelcome presence, with apologies to all concerned.”
“It was I who put the light in the window,” said Anne shamefacedly, “and then i forgot…”
“You dared!” cried Nora. “I’ll never forgive you…”
Nora was shedding tears of rage and shame. Mingled with the blood on her face they made her a fearsome sight. Jim Wilcox looked as if he wished the floor would open and gently drop him in the cellar.
“Well,” said Aunt Mouser belligerently, “all you can do now is marry her, Jim Wilcox. She’ll never get a husband if it gets round that she was found here with you at two o’clock at night.”
“Marry her!” cried Jim in exasperation. “What have I wanted all my life but to marry her… never wanted anything else!”
“Then why didn’t you say so long ago?” demanded Nora, whirling about to face him. “Say so? You’ve snubbed and frozen and jeered at me for years. You’ve gone out of your way times without number to show me how you despised me. I didn’t think it was the least use to ask you. And last January you said…”
“You goaded me into saying it…”
“I goaded you! I like that! You picked a quarrel with me just to get rid of me…”
“I didn’t… I…”
“And yet I was fool enough to tear over here in the dead of night because I thought you’d put our old signal in the window and wanted me! Ask you to marry me! Well, I’ll ask you now and have done with it and you can have the fun of turning me down before all this gang. Nora Edith Nelson, will you marry me?”
“Oh, won’t I… won’t I!” cried Nora so shamelessly that even Barnabas blushed for her. Jim gave her one incredulous look… then sprang at her. Perhaps her nose had stopped bleeding… perhaps it hadn’t. It didn’t matter.
“I think you’ve all forgotten that this is the Sabbath morn,” said Aunt Mouser “I could do with a cup of tea if anyone would make it. I ain’t used to demonstrations like this."
I just thought that was lovely and i wanted to share it with you all. Though you mightn’t have bothered reading it. Oh, i don’t mind! I’m so happy this morning!
