01x14 - It Is Never Too Late for the Real Prince to Come for the True Princess

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We'll never reach the Kimballs'

in time for tea now.

If only we at least knew where we were.

Diana and I accepted an

invitation from a friend

and got ourselves lost in the woods.

What shall we do?

Should we turn back and go home?

Wait.

There's a house.

Why, it's Echo Lodge.

Miss Lavendar Lewis lives here.

They say she is very peculiar.

Lavendar Lewis?

That Paul is Stephen Irving's boy.

You remember. Him that jilted

Lavendar Lewis over at Grafton?

I've heard her name before.

Come in, ma'am. And you, ma'am.

Is Miss Lewis at home?

I'll tell Miss Lavendar

you're here, ma'am.

And sit down, ma'am.

Couldn't she have directed us to the road?

I was curious to see Miss Lavendar.

Welcome to Echo Lodge.

Won't you stay and have tea with me?

But you are expecting other

guests, aren't you?

Not at all.

So few people ever come here.

So we just pretended we were

going to have a tea party.

I know you'll think me dreadfully foolish.

Oh, no, I—

It's quite all right. I am foolish.

And I'm ashamed of it

when I'm found out.

Chapter 14

It Is Never Too Late for the Real Prince to Come

for the True Princess

Lavendar Lewis?

It's over fifteen years

since I saw her last.

She was reckoned a great

beauty when she was a girl.

Davy Keith!

Don't spread yourself over

the table in that fashion!

Her hair is snow-white but her

face is fresh and almost girlish,

and she's very interesting.

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?

Miss Lavendar imagines things, too.

But when we were plucking flowers from

her garden and getting ready to leave

my tongue slipped.

Paul Irving?

He is a little pupil of mine.

He came from Boston last year

to live with his grandmother,

Mrs. Irving of the shore road.

Then he must be

Stephen Irving's son.

That was rash of me.

Don't go nosing into other people's affairs.

I really did not mean to!

I do wonder what went wrong between

Miss Lavendar and Paul's father.

It must have been something terrible,

for they broke off their engagement.

Then Stephen went away to the

States and never come home since.

Perhaps it was nothing

very dreadful after all.

It's time I went to the A.V.I.S. meeting.

Please don't say anything about my

being at Miss Lavendar's to Mrs. Lynde.

I won't, though Rachel's tied down

home now on account of Thomas.

Now that tastes fine!

Davy!

Do stop squirming like an eel!

It tastes too good to stop!

Diana and I paid many a visit

to Echo Lodge after that.

On days when Diana could

not go, I went alone.

Miss Lavendar!

I thought you would come tonight, Anne!

Charlotta the Fourth is away for the night.

I should have been very lonely

if you hadn't come.

I told Marilla that I planned to

stay the night at Echo Lodge.

I'm doubly glad.

Oh, Anne, how pretty you are!

Charlotta the Fourth is the

youngest of four sisters.

Her real name is

Leonora!

Charlotta the Fourth is named Leonora?

Charlotta is her oldest sister's name.

She stayed with me till she was sixteen.

Then came her sister

Oh, yes! Julietta!

But she looked so like Charlotta that

I kept calling her that all the time.

And she didn't mind.

So I just gave up trying to remember her

right name. She was Charlotta the Second.

And when she went away Evelina came

and she was Charlotta the Third.

Now I have Charlotta the Fourth.

Have I said something funny?

Stephen Irving and me?

Yes, I've heard that you

and he were engaged once.

So we were, twenty-five years ago.

We'd been engaged in a way almost

all our lives, you might say.

He was nine and I was six.

The next time we met,

he told me that he had pretty well made up

his mind to marry me when he grew up.

I remember that I said, "Thank you."

But

Not long after our engagement,

we had just a stupid, silly,

commonplace quarrel.

He was a very high-strung, sensitive fellow.

I suppose I provoked him by

some foolishness of mine.

One day, when Stephen came

back to mend matters,

I wouldn't listen to him.

And so he went away for good.

I might have sent for him perhaps,

but I couldn't humble myself to do that.

I knew I would rather be an old maid than

marry anybody who wasn't Stephen Irving.

Anne?

I'm sorry. I just

You look sympathetic as only seventeen

can look. But don't overdo it.

My heart did break, if ever a heart did,

but real life won't let you stay miserable.

I'm really a very happy, contented little

person in spite of my broken heart.

I enjoy dreams and echoes and peanut candy.

It gave me a shock to hear about Stephen's

son that first day you were here, Anne.

What sort of a boy is he?

He is the dearest, sweetest

child I ever knew.

I'd like to see him.

I wonder if he looks anything like the

little dream-boy who lives here with me

my little dream-boy.

I'll bring him through with me sometime.

Truly?

Yes.

But not too soon. I want to

get used to the thought.

Oh, am I being rash again?

Don't go nosing into other people's affairs.

I won't tell Marilla. And Paul

What shall I say to Paul?

Why does Miss Lewis want

to see me, do you think?

Miss Lavendar pretends

things just like we do.

I suppose she wants to talk

with you because of that.

Does she really? That sounds like fun.

Welcome.

And this is Miss Lavendar.

Good day.

Good day to you, too.

You You are very like your father.

Everybody says I'm a

chip off the old block.

Do you know Father?

I did. A long time ago.

I couldn't begin to imagine

what pain this meeting

would cause Miss Lavendar.

Then Miss Lavendar and Paul

took to each other in no time.

I knew they would.

I also learned where

Echo Lodge got its name.

Charlotta the Fourth and I often sit out

here and amuse ourselves with echoes.

Hello!

Well done, sir.

That was wonderful, Paul.

And as we were going, Paul said to

Miss Lavendar, "You may kiss me if you like."

A goodbye kiss, of course.

How did you know I wanted to kiss you?

Because you looked at me just

as my little mother used to do.

I think I'd like to have you for a particular

friend of mine, if you don't object.

I I don't think I shall object.

I like Miss Lavendar.

I like the way she looked at me,

and I like her stone house,

and I like Charlotta the Fourth.

I didn't know what to say to him.

Who knows how this story will end?

Anne, I'm going to ask

you a serious question.

Do you care anything for Gilbert?

Ever so much as a friend

and not a bit in the way you mean.

You know what my ideal is, Diana.

Tall and slender, with dignified features

and melancholy, mysterious eyes.

And a soft, enchanting voice.

I would marry a man like that

if one presented himself.

But people's ideals change sometimes.

True. Fred Wright doesn't fulfill yours.

But mine won't.

What if you never meet a man who meets it?

Then

Real life won't let you stay miserable.

Then I shall die an old maid.

I daresay it isn't the

hardest death by any means.

Never fear, Anne.

You'll meet the right man for you.

Wouldn't that be something.

I can't blow the horn half as

well as Charlotta the Fourth.

No, sir. You blew very well

for your first time, sir.

Why, Paul, you've grown.

I plan to eat heartily and keep

growing till I'm as tall as Father.

He is six feet, you know.

Yes, I do know.

What is the matter, Charlotta?

Miss Lavendar isn't well,

Miss Shirley, ma'am.

Not since that day you and Paul

were here together before.

Ever since then I've noticed her

acting tired and lonesome like.

She never pretends company's coming,

nor fixes up for it, nor nothing, ma'am.

Miss Lavendar, why do you

look at me like that?

Do forgive me.

You do put me in mind of

somebody I knew long ago.

When you were young?

Yes, when I was young.

Do I seem very old to you, Paul?

Do you know, I can't make

up my mind about that.

Your hair looks old.

But your eyes are as young as my

beautiful teacher's when you laugh.

I tell you what, Miss Lavendar,

I think you would make a splendid mother.

What makes you say that?

You have just the right look in your eyes!

The look my little mother always had!

Do you think I ought never to have

taken Paul to see Miss Lavendar?

It's too late for second thoughts now.

And wasn't it Lavendar who told

you she wanted to meet him?

Well, yes, she did say that.

There must be some way to lift

Miss Lavendar's spirits.

Good day.

What a frivolous person I must be,

that a new dress should exhilarate me so.

It isn't like Paul to miss

school two days running.

I know he lives around here.

Oh, Miss Shirley!

Hello, Paul.

Teacher, father is here from America.

Father, this is Miss Shirley, my teacher!

Here is Paul's father

and Miss Lavendar's prince.

Paul's letters have been so

full of you, Miss Shirley,

that I feel as if I were pretty

well acquainted with you already.

I want to thank you for what

you have done for Paul.

I think that your influence

has been just what he needed.

Paul, would would you ask your

grandmother to make tea?

Grandma!

In Paul's letters he spoke of going

with you to visit Echo Lodge.

Yes, he did.

Do you know her well?

Yes, indeed, she is a very

dear friend of mine.

I wonder how much you know.

About what passed between us.

I know all about it.

I see.

Stephen Irving is home, isn't he?

How did you know? Who told you?

Nobody. I knew that must be it,

just from the way you spoke.

He wants to come and see you.

May I send him word that he may?

Yes, of course. There is no

reason why he shouldn't.

He is only coming as any old friend might.

Mr. Irving loves Miss Lavendar still.

I just know he does.

And Miss Lavendar feels the same.

There is nothing changed about this house

or garden since twenty-five years ago.

Please wait, sir. Miss Lavendar

will be with you shortly, sir.

Look at me. I'm a white-haired old maid.

Do you think that Mr. Irving

will marry Miss Lavendar?

I wonder that myself.

I've been awful worried, thinking what on

earth she'd do when I get to be sixteen

and have to go away and

leave her on her own.

I think we've cause for hope.

If he's going away this early,

there's nothing into it and never will be.

Look, Charlotta.

Oh, Miss Shirley, ma'am!

He must have proposed to her!

I'm not a prophetess,

but I'm going to make a prediction.

There'll be a wedding in this old stone

house before the maple leaves are red.

Do you want that translated

into prose, Charlotta?

No, I can understand that.

Why, you're crying! What for?

Oh, I suppose

because it's all so beautiful

and storybookish and romantic

and sad.

What a wonderfully nice

person Miss Lavendar is.

I think you and she would have

been friends if you had ever met.

And you know, Mother,

I'll always, always love you.

Next Time

I'll Come from the

Ends of the Earth

If Necessary