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Anne of Avonlea-Part27_L.Maud Montgomery(1874-1942)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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ma'am. She's upstairs, ma'am."

With this the small handmaiden whisked out of sight and the girls,



left alone, looked about them with delighted eyes. The interior of

this wonderful little house was quite as interesting as its exterior.



The room had a low ceiling and two square, small-paned windows,

curtained with muslin frills. All the furnishings were old-fashioned,



but so well and daintily kept that the effect was delicious.

But it must be candidly admitted that the most attractive feature,



to two healthy girls who had just tramped four miles through autumn air,

was a table, set out with pale blue china and laden with delicacies,



while little golden-hued ferns scattered over the cloth gave it what

Anne would have termed "a festal air."



"Miss Lavendar must be expecting company to tea," she whispered.

"There are six places set. But what a funny little girl she has.



She looked like a messenger from pixy land. I suppose she could

have told us the road, but I was curious to see Miss Lavendar.



S. . .s. . .sh, she's coming."

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



The girls were so surprised that they forgot good manners and

simply stared. They had unconsciously been expecting to see



the usual type of elderly spinster as known to their experience

. . .a rather angular personage, with prim gray hair and spectacles.



Nothing more unlike Miss Lavendar could possibly be imagined.

She was a little lady with snow-white hair beautifully wavy and



thick, and carefully arranged in becoming puffs and coils. Beneath

it was an almost girlish face, pink cheeked and sweet lipped, with



big soft brown eyes and dimples. . .actually dimples. She wore a

very dainty gown of cream muslin with pale-hued roses on it. . .a



gown which would have seemed ridiculously juvenile on most women of

her age, but which suited Miss Lavendar so perfectly that you never



thought about it at all.

"Charlotta the Fourth says that you wished to see me," she said,



in a voice that matched her appearance.

"We wanted to ask the right road to West Grafton," said Diana.



"We are invited to tea at Mr. Kimball's, but we took the wrong path

coming through the woods and came out to the base line instead of the



West Grafton road. Do we take the right or left turning at your gate?"

"The left," said Miss Lavendar, with a hesitating glance at her tea table.



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

"But oh, won't you stay and have tea with me? Please, do.



Mr. Kimball's will have tea over before you get there.

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



Diana looked mute inquiry at Anne.

"We'd like to stay," said Anne promptly, for she had made up her mind that



she wanted to know more of this surprising Miss Lavendar, "if it won't

inconvenience you. But you are expecting other guests, aren't you?"



Miss Lavendar looked at her tea table again, and blushed.

"I know you'll think me dreadfully foolish," she said. "I AM



foolish. . .and I'm ashamed of it when I'm found out, but never

unless I AM found out. I'm not expecting anybody. . .I was just



pretending I was. You see, I was so lonely. I love company. . .

that is, the right kind of company. . .but so few people ever



come here because it is so far out of the way. Charlotta the

Fourth was lonely too. So I just pretended I was going to have a



tea party. I cooked for it. . .and decorated the table for it. . .

and set it with my mother's wedding china . . .and I dressed up



for it." Diana secretly thought Miss Lavendar quite as peculiar as

report had pictured her. The idea of a woman of forty-five



playing at having a tea party, just as if she were a little girl!

But Anne of the shining eyes exclaimed joyfuly, "Oh, do YOU imagine



things too?"

That "too" revealed a kindred spirit to Miss Lavendar.



"Yes, I do," she confessed, boldly. "Of course it's silly in anybody

as old as I am. But what is the use of being an independent old maid



if you can't be silly when you want to, and when it doesn't hurt anybody?

A person must have some compensations. I don't believe I could live



at times if I didn't pretend things. I'm not often caught at it though,

and Charlotta the Fourth never tells. But I'm glad to be caught today,



for you have really come and I have tea all ready for you. Will you

go up to the spare room and take off your hats? It's the white door



at the head of the stairs. I must run out to the kitchen and see that

Charlotta the Fourth isn't letting the tea boil. Charlotta the Fourth



is a very good girl but she WILL let the tea boil."

Miss Lavendar tripped off to the kitchen on hospitable thoughts intent






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