hall fasten this little white house rose
just behind your ear. There was just one on my bush, and I saved it for
you."

"Shall I put my pearl beads on?" asked Anne. "Matthew brought me a
string from town last week, and I know he'd like to see them on me."

Diana pursed up her lips, put her black head on one side critically,
and finally pronounced in favor of the beads, which were thereupon tied
around Anne's slim milk-white throat.

"There's something so stylish about you, Anne," said Diana, with
unenvious admiration. "You hold your head with such an air. I suppose
it's your figure. I am just a dumpling. I've always been afraid of it,
and now I know it is so. Well, I suppose I shall just have to resign
myself to it."

"But you have such dimples," said Anne, smiling affectionately into the
pretty, vivacious face so near her own. "Lovely dimples, like little
dents in cream. I have given up all hope of dimples. My dimple-dream
will never come true; but so many of my dreams have that I mustn't
complain. Am I all ready now?"

"All ready," assured Diana, as Marilla appeared in the doorway, a gaunt
figure with grayer hair than of yore and no fewer angles, but with a
much softer face. "Come right in and look at our elocutionist, Marilla.
Doesn't she look lovely?"

Marilla emitted a sound between a sniff and a grunt.

"She looks neat and proper. I like that way of fixing her hair. But I
expect she'll ruin that dress driving over there in the dust and dew
with it, and it looks most too thin for these damp nights. Organdy's the
most unserviceable stuff in the world anyhow, and I told Matthew so when
he got it. But there is no use in saying anything to Matthew nowadays.
Time was when he would take my advice, but now he just buys things for
Anne regardless, and the clerks at Carmody know they can palm anything
off on him. Just let them tell him a thing is pretty and fashionable,
and Matthew plunks his money down for it. Mind you keep your skirt clear
of the wheel, Anne, and put your warm jacket on."

Then Marilla stalked downstairs, thinking proudly how sweet Anne looked,
with that

"One moonbeam from the forehead to the crown"

and regretting that she could not go to the concert herself to hear her
girl recite.

"I wonder if it IS too damp for my dress," said Anne anxiously.

"Not a bit of it," said Diana, pulling up the window blind. "It's a
perfect night, and there won't be any dew. Look at the moonlight."