Warning: If you have a visual impairment, use the manuscript transcript version including the Lucy Maud Montgomery’s foot notes and contextual annotation references.

Chapter 28

440 514

He pulled away with swift defiant strokes, and Anne went up the (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)steep, ferny ferny little(end superscript) path under the maples. She held her head very high but she was conscious of an odd feeling of regret. She almost wished she had answered Gilbert differently. Of course, he had insulted her terribly but still—! Altogether, Anne rather thought it would be a relief to sit down + have a good cry. She was really quite unstrung, for the reaction from her fright and cramped clinging was making itself felt.

Half-way up the path she met Jane and Diana rushing back to the pond in a state narrowly removed from (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)positive(end superscript) frenzy. They had found nobody at Orchard Slope, both



PHOTO ANNOTATION

dark ink sketch of a young girl, in 1920s clothing, clinging to a pile as a boy stands to help her

"cramped clinging": Elizabeth Withington's "updated" illustration of this scene from 1925; note how Anne's clothing and hair, and even Gilbert's hat, have changed with the times.