Edith said she must go and study her lessons. 265 May brought out her pretty dishes and her card albums. One was partly full of such pretty kittens Marilla wanted to hug them. Another was Christmas, Easter and birthday cards.
Marilla gave a soft little sigh. How many precious things she had missed out of her life! And though she could not have put it into words it was the tender companionship of childhood, of kindred tastes and eager loves. In the desert of Bethany Home all these emotions had been rigorously repressed. It was best for girls not to expect too much in the homes of other people, the little Cinderella whose place was in the chimney corner.
“Marilla,” called the voice of Mrs. Warren, in a sort of joyous tone, “Dr. Richards has come.”
She almost flew down stairs and he clasped her in his arms.
“I am so happy,” she cried in a voice tremulous with emotion. “It seems such a long, long while since morning so much has happened, and Mrs. Warren is to be my Aunt Grace, she said so, and I have three cousins!”
Her face was alight with happiness. 266
“I wonder if you would get homesick if we did not go back to Newton until some time next week?”
“Oh, no. I shouldn’t get homesick at all! But I couldn’t stay away from fairy godmother a long while. If I didn’t have her, Aunt Grace would take me, and the girls are just splendid!”
“I’ve been to a hospital this afternoon and I want to learn some new things to take home with me, so I will write. You must write, too. I’ve brought you some envelopes addressed and stamped. Why do you smile?”
“I was thinking of the letter I wrote to you in the summer, and I had to beg everything to write with, and Edith has such a nice portable writing desk, and the girls have portfolios, and they all go to school. Oh, it must be splendid to go to school with a crowd of nice girls and have a lovely teacher.”