[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
excuse to be away that day. He'd got so used to Mr. Bentley he didn't mind
him, but he's going to find it hard to get acquainted with a new minister,
and a new minister's wife will frighten him to death."
"I'll be as secret as the dead," assured Anne. "But oh, Marilla, will you let
me make a cake for the occasion? I'd love to do something for Mrs. Allan,
and you know I can make a pretty good cake by this time."
CHAPTER XXI 174
"You can make a layer cake," promised Marilla.
Monday and Tuesday great preparations went on at Green Gables. Having
the minister and his wife to tea was a serious and important undertaking,
and Marilla was determined not to be eclipsed by any of the Avonlea
housekeepers. Anne was wild with excitement and delight. She talked it all
over with Diana Tuesday night in the twilight, as they sat on the big red
stones by the Dryad's Bubble and made rainbows in the water with little
twigs dipped in fir balsam.
"Everything is ready, Diana, except my cake which I'm to make in the
morning, and the baking-powder biscuits which Marilla will make just
before teatime. I assure you, Diana, that Marilla and I have had a busy two
days of it. It's such a responsibility having a minister's family to tea. I never
went through such an experience before. You should just see our pantry. It's
a sight to behold. We're going to have jellied chicken and cold tongue.
We're to have two kinds of jelly, red and yellow, and whipped cream and
lemon pie, and cherry pie, and three kinds of cookies, and fruit cake, and
Marilla's famous yellow plum preserves that she keeps especially for
ministers, and pound cake and layer cake, and biscuits as aforesaid; and
new bread and old both, in case the minister is dyspeptic and can't eat new.
Mrs. Lynde says ministers are dyspeptic, but I don't think Mr. Allan has
been a minister long enough for it to have had a bad effect on him. I just
grow cold when I think of my layer cake. Oh, Diana, what if it shouldn't be
good! I dreamed last night that I was chased all around by a fearful goblin
with a big layer cake for a head."
"It'll be good, all right," assured Diana, who was a very comfortable sort of
friend. "I'm sure that piece of the one you made that we had for lunch in
Idlewild two weeks ago was perfectly elegant."
"Yes; but cakes have such a terrible habit of turning out bad just when you
especially want them to be good," sighed Anne, setting a particularly
well-balsamed twig afloat. "However, I suppose I shall just have to trust to
Providence and be careful to put in the flour. Oh, look, Diana, what a
lovely rainbow! Do you suppose the dryad will come out after we go away
CHAPTER XXI 175
and take it for a scarf?"
"You know there is no such thing as a dryad," said Diana. Diana's mother
had found out about the Haunted Wood and had been decidedly angry over
it. As a result Diana had abstained from any further imitative flights of
imagination and did not think it prudent to cultivate a spirit of belief even
in harmless dryads.
"But it's so easy to imagine there is," said Anne. "Every night before I go to
bed, I look out of my window and wonder if the dryad is really sitting here,
combing her locks with the spring for a mirror. Sometimes I look for her
footprints in the dew in the morning. Oh, Diana, don't give up your faith in
the dryad!"
Wednesday morning came. Anne got up at sunrise because she was too
excited to sleep. She had caught a severe cold in the head by reason of her
dabbling in the spring on the preceding evening; but nothing short of
absolute pneumonia could have quenched her interest in culinary matters
that morning. After breakfast she proceeded to make her cake. When she
finally shut the oven door upon it she drew a long breath.
"I'm sure I haven't forgotten anything this time, Marilla. But do you think it
will rise? Just suppose perhaps the baking powder isn't good? I used it out
of the new can. And Mrs. Lynde says you can never be sure of getting good
baking powder nowadays when everything is so adulterated. Mrs. Lynde
says the Government ought to take the matter up, but she says we'll never
see the day when a Tory Government will do it. Marilla, what if that cake
doesn't rise?"
"We'll have plenty without it" was Marilla's unimpassioned way of looking
at the subject.
The cake did rise, however, and came out of the oven as light and feathery
as golden foam. Anne, flushed with delight, clapped it together with layers
of ruby jelly and, in imagination, saw Mrs. Allan eating it and possibly
asking for another piece!
CHAPTER XXI 176
"You'll be using the best tea set, of course, Marilla," she said. "Can I fix the
table with ferns and wild roses?"
"I think that's all nonsense," sniffed Marilla. "In my opinion it's the eatables
that matter and not flummery decorations."
"Mrs. Barry had HER table decorated," said Anne, who was not entirely
guiltless of the wisdom of the serpent, "and the minister paid her an elegant
compliment. He said it was a feast for the eye as well as the palate."
"Well, do as you like," said Marilla, who was quite determined not to be
surpassed by Mrs. Barry or anybody else. "Only mind you leave enough
room for the dishes and the food."
Anne laid herself out to decorate in a manner and after a fashion that should
leave Mrs. Barry's nowhere. Having abundance of roses and ferns and a
very artistic taste of her own, she made that tea table such a thing of beauty
that when the minister and his wife sat down to it they exclaimed in chorus
over it loveliness.
"It's Anne's doings," said Marilla, grimly just; and Anne felt that Mrs.
Allan's approving smile was almost too much happiness for this world.
Matthew was there, having been inveigled into the party only goodness and
Anne knew how. He had been in such a state of shyness and nervousness
that Marilla had given him up in despair, but Anne took him in hand so
successfully that he now sat at the table in his best clothes and white collar
and talked to the minister not uninterestingly. He never said a word to Mrs.
Allan, but that perhaps was not to be expected.
All went merry as a marriage bell until Anne's layer cake was passed. Mrs.
Allan, having already been helped to a bewildering variety, declined it. But
Marilla, seeing the disappointment on Anne's face, said smilingly:
"Oh, you must take a piece of this, Mrs. Allan. Anne made it on purpose for
you."
CHAPTER XXI 177
"In that case I must sample it," laughed Mrs. Allan, helping herself to a
plump triangle, as did also the minister and Marilla.
Mrs. Allan took a mouthful of hers and a most peculiar expression crossed
her face; not a word did she say, however, but steadily ate away at it.
Marilla saw the expression and hastened to taste the cake.
"Anne Shirley!" she exclaimed, "what on earth did you put into that cake?"
"Nothing but what the recipe said, Marilla," cried Anne with a look of
anguish. "Oh, isn't it all right?"
"All right! It's simply horrible. Mr. Allan, don't try to eat it. Anne, taste it
yourself. What flavoring did you use?"
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plalternate.pev.pl
|
|
|
