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 34

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tall brown-haired boy across the room; and knowing him in the fashion she did, did not help her much, as she reflected pessimistically. Yet she was (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)undeniably(end superscript) glad that they were in the same class; the old rivalry could still be carried on, and Anne would hardly have known what to do if it had been lacking.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable without it,” she thought. “Gilbert looks awfully determined. I suppose he’s making up his mind, here and now, to win the medal. (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)N18(end superscript) I do wish Jane and Ruby had gone in for First Class, too. I suppose I won’t feel so lost and lonely much like a cat in a strange garret when I get acquainted, though. I wonder

 

LMM Notes

LMM Note N18
What a splendid chin he has! I never noticed it before.


PHOTO ANNOTATION

a page from Montgomery's scrapbook with many illustrations, drawings, and photos of cats. In the center, a cyanotpye of the Macneill barnyard and a card with a tuft of cat hair tied with a ribbon

"cat in a strange garret": A "garret" is much more commonly called an "attic" today; the image of the "cat in a strange garret," meaning a cat bewildered by new surroundings and moving cautiously, also calls for further comment. Montgomery adored cats, and it is remarkable that there are no cats in the whole of Anne of Green Gables. The later autobiographical Emily trilogy features cats from the beginning, but in the first two Anne novels, there are no conspicuous cats or other pets (unless you count Mr. Harrison’s loud parrot in Anne of Avonlea). Montgomery preserved bits of her cats' fur on scrapbook pages and collected images of cats for decoration and entertainment (Red Scrapbook, p. 35; Imagining Anne, p. 141).
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