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 4

70

Thereupon Anne held her tongue so obediently (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)and thoroughly (end superscript)that her continued silence made Marilla rather nervous, as if in the presence of something not exactly natural. Matthew also held his tongue—but this at least was natural—so that the meal was a very silent one.

As it progressed Anne became more and more abstracted, (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)W2(end superscript) This made Marilla more nervous than ever: she had an uncomfortable feeling that while this (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)odd(end superscript) child’s body might be there at the table, her spirit was far away in some remote airy cloudland (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)borne aloft on the wings of imagination. (end superscript)Who would want such a child about the place?

Yet Matthew wished to keep her, of all unaccountable things. Marilla felt that he wanted it just as much this morning as he had the night before, and that he would

 

LMM Notes

LMM Note W2
eating mechanically, with her big eyes fixed unswervingly (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)and unseeingly(end superscript) on the sky outside the window.