L M Montgomery

Rainbow Valley L M Montgomery

It was a clear, apple-green evening in May, and Four Winds Harbour was mirroring backthe clouds of the golden west between its softly dark shores. The sea moaned eerily on thesand-bar, sorrowful even in spring, but a sly, jovial wind came piping down the red harbourroad along which Miss Cornelia's comfortable, matronly figure was making its way towardsthe village of Glen St. Mary. Miss Cornelia was rightfully Mrs. Marshall Elliott, and had beenMrs. Marshall Elliott for thirteen years, but even yet more people referred to her as MissCornelia than as Mrs. Elliott. The old name was dear to her old friends, only one of themcontemptuously dropped it. Susan Baker, the gray and grim and faithful handmaiden of theBlythe family at Ingleside, never lost an opportunity of calling her "Mrs. Marshall Elliott,"with the most killing and pointed emphasis, as if to say "You wanted to be Mrs. and Mrs.you shall be with a vengeance as far as I am concerned."Miss Cornelia was going up to Ingleside to see Dr. and Mrs. Blythe, who were just homefrom Europe. They had been away for three months, having left in February to attend afamous medical congress in London; and certain things, which Miss Cornelia was anxious todiscuss, had taken place in the Glen during their absence. For one thing, there was a newfamily in the manse. And such a family! Miss Cornelia shook her head over them severaltimes as she walked briskly along. Susan Baker and the Anne Shirley of other days saw her coming, as they sat on the bigveranda at Ingleside, enjoying the charm of the cat's light, the sweetness of sleepy robinswhistling among the twilit maples, and the dance of a gusty group of daffodils blowingagainst the old, mellow, red brick wall of the lawn.