and I wanted to say something back. But I didn't. I just swept her one
scornful look and then I forgave her. It makes you feel very virtuous
when you forgive people, doesn't it? I mean to devote all my energies
to being good after this and I shall never try to be beautiful again. Of
course it's better to be good. I know it is, but it's sometimes so hard
to believe a thing even when you know it. I do really want to be good,
Marilla, like you and Mrs. Allan and Miss Stacy, and grow up to be a
credit to you. Diana says when my hair begins to grow to tie a black
velvet ribbon around my head with a bow at one side. She says she
thinks it will be very becoming. I will call it a snood--that sounds so
romantic. But am I talking too much, Marilla? Does it hurt your head?"

"My head is better now. It was terrible bad this afternoon, though.
These headaches of mine are getting worse and worse. I'll have to see
a doctor about them. As for your chatter, I don't know that I mind
it--I've got so used to it."

Which was Marilla's way of saying that she liked to hear it.

CHAPTER XXVIII. An Unfortunate Lily Maid

"OF course you must be Elaine, Anne," said Diana. "I could never have
the courage to float down there."

"Nor I," said Ruby Gillis, with a shiver. "I don't mind floating down
when there's two or three of us in the flat and we can sit up. It's fun
then. But to lie down and pretend I was dead--I just couldn't. I'd die
really of fright."

"Of course it would be romantic," conceded Jane Andrews, "but I know I
couldn't keep still. I'd be popping up every minute or so to see where I
was and if I wasn't drifting too far out. And you know, Anne, that would
spoil the effect."

"But it's so ridiculous to have a redheaded Elaine," mourned Anne. "I'm
not afraid to float down and I'd love to be Elaine. But it's ridiculous
just the same. Ruby ought to be Elaine because she is so fair and has
such lovely long golden hair--Elaine had 'all her bright hair streaming
down,' you know. And Elaine was the lily maid. Now, a red-haired person
cannot be a lily maid."

"Your complexion is just as fair as Ruby's," said Diana earnestly, "and
your hair is ever so much darker than it used to be before you cut it."

"Oh, do you really think so?" exclaimed Anne, flushing sensitively with
delight. "I've sometimes thought it was myself--but I never dared to ask
anyone for fear she would tell me it wasn't. Do you think it could be
called aubu