1It was what Susan called a streaky winter...all thaws and freezes that kept Ingleside decorated with fantastic fringes of icicles. The children fed seven blue-jays who came regularly to the orchard for their rations and let Jem pick them up, though they flew from everybody else. Anne sat up o' nights to pore over seed catalogues in January and February. Then the winds of March swirled over the dunes and up the harbors and over the hills. Rabbits, said Susan, were laying Easter eggs.

2"Isn't March an INciting month, Mummy?" cried Jem, who was a little brother to all the winds that blew.

3They could have spared the "incitement" of Jem scratching his hand on a rusty nail and having a nasty time of it for some days, while Aunt Mary Maria told all the stories of blood-poisoning she had ever heard. But that, Anne reflected when the danger was over, was what you must expect with a small son who was always trying experiments.

4And lo, it was April! With the laughter of April rain...the whisper of April rain...the trickle, the sweep, the drive, the lash, the dance, the splash of April rain. "Oh, Mummy, hasn't the world got its face washed nice and clean?" cried Di, on the morning sunshine returned.

5There were pale spring stars shining over fields of mist, there were pussywillows in the marsh. Even the little twigs on the trees seemed all at once to have lost their clear cold quality and to have become soft and languorous. The first robin was an event; the Hollow was once more a place full of wild free delight; Jem brought his mother the first mayflowers...rather to Aunt Mary Maria's offence, since she thought they should have been offered to her; Susan began sorting over the attic shelves, and Anne, who had hardly had a minute to herself all winter, put on spring gladness as a garment and literally lived in her garden, while the Shrimp showed his spring raptures by writhing all over the paths.

6"You care more for that garden than you do for your husband, Annie," said Aunt Mary Maria.

7"My garden is so kind to me," answered Anne dreamily...then, realizing the implications that might be taken out of her remark, began to laugh.

8"You do say the most extraordinary things, Annie. Of course I know you don't mean that Gilbert isn't kind...but what if a stranger heard you say such a thing?"

9"Dear Aunt Mary Maria," said Anne gaily, "I'm really not responsible for the things I say this time of the year. Everybody around here knows that. I'm always a little mad in spring. But it's such a divine madness. Do you notice those mists over the dunes like dancing witches? And the daffodils? We've never had such a show of daffodils at Ingleside before."

10"I don't care much for daffodils. They are such flaunting things," said Aunt Mary Maria, drawing her shawl around her and going indoors to protect her back.

11"Do you know, Mrs. Dr. dear," said Susan ominously, "what has become of those new irises you wanted to plant in that shady corner? She planted them this afternoon when you were out right in the sunniest part of the back yard."

12"Oh, Susan! And we can't move them because she'd be so hurt!"

13"If you will just give me the word, Mrs. Dr. dear..."

14"No, no, Susan, we'll leave them there for the time being. She cried, you remember, when I hinted that she shouldn't have pruned the spirea before blooming."

15"But sneering at our daffodils, Mrs. Dr. dear...and them famous all around the harbour..."

16"And deserve to be. Look at them laughing at you for minding Aunt Mary Maria. Susan, the nasturtiums are coming up in this corner, after all. It's such fun when you've given up hope of a thing to find it has suddenly popped up. I'm going to have a little rose garden made in the southwest corner. The very name of rose garden thrills to my toes. Did you ever see such a blue blueness of sky before, Susan? And if you listen very carefully now at night you can hear all the little brooks of the countryside gossiping. I've half a notion to sleep in the Hollow tonight with a pillow of wild violets."

17"You would find it very damp," said Susan patiently. Mrs. Dr. was always like this in the spring. It would pass.

18"Susan," said Anne coaxingly, "I want to have a birthday party next week."

19To be sure, none of the family had a birthday the last week in May, but if Mrs. Dr. wanted a birthday party why boggle over that?

20"For Aunt Mary Maria," went on Anne, as one determined to get the worst over. "Her birthday is next week. Gilbert says she is fifty-five and I've been thinking."

21"Mrs. Dr. dear, do you really mean to get up a party for that..."

22"Count a hundred, Susan...count a hundred, Susan dear. It would please her so. What has she in life, after all?"

23"That is her own fault..."

24"Perhaps so. But, Susan, I really want to do this for her."

25"Mrs. Dr. dear," said Susan ominously, "you have always been kind enough to give me a week's vacation whenever I felt I needed it. Perhaps I had better take it next week! I will ask my niece Gladys to come and help you out. And then Miss Mary Maria Blythe can have a dozen birthday parties, for all of me."

26"If you feel like that about it, Susan, I'll give up the idea, of course," said Anne slowly.

27"Mrs. Dr. dear, that woman has foisted herself upon you and means to stay here forever. She has worried you...and henpecked the doctor...and made the children's lives miserable. I say nothing about myself, for who am I? She has scolded and nagged and insinuated and whined...and now you want to get up a birthday party for her! Well, all I can say is, if you want to do that...we'll just have to go ahead and have it!"

28"Susan, you old duck!"

29Plotting and planning followed. Susan, having yielded, was determined that for the honour of Ingleside the party must be something that even Mary Maria Blythe could not find fault with.

30"I think we'll have a luncheon, Susan. Then they'll be away early enough for me to go to the concert at Lowbridge with the doctor. We'll keep it a secret and surprise her. She shan't know a thing about it till the last minute. I'll invite all the people in the Glen she likes..."

31"And who may they be, Mrs. Dr. dear?"

32"Well, tolerates, then. And her cousin, Adella Carey from Lowbridge, and some people from town. We'll have a big plummy birthday cake with fifty-five candles on it..."

33"Which I am to make, of course..."

34"Susan, you know you make the best fruit-cake in P. E. Island..."

35"I know that I am as wax in your hands, Mrs. Dr. dear."

36A mysterious week followed. An air of hush-hush pervaded Ingleside. Everybody was sworn not to give the secret away to Aunt Mary Maria. But Anne and Susan had reckoned without gossip. The night before the party Aunt Mary Maria came home from a call in the Glen to find them sitting rather wearily in the unlighted sun-room.

37"All in the dark, Annie? It beats me how anyone can like sitting in the dark. It gives me the blues."

38"It isn't dark...it's twilight...there has been a love-match between light and dark and beautiful exceedingly is the offspring thereof," said Anne, more to herself than anybody else.

39"I suppose you know what you mean yourself, Annie. And so you're having a party tomorrow?"

40Anne suddenly sat bolt upright. Susan, already sitting so, could not sit any uprighter.

41"Why...why...Aunty..."

42"You always leave me to hear things from outsiders," said Aunt Mary Maria, but seemingly more in sorrow than in anger.

43"We...we meant it for a surprise, Aunty..."

44"I don't know what you want of a party this time of year when you can't depend on the weather, Annie."

45Anne drew a breath of relief. Evidently Aunt Mary Maria knew only that there was to be a party, not that it had any connexion with her.

46"I...I wanted to have it before the spring flowers were done, Aunty."

47"I shall wear my garnet taffeta. I suppose, Annie, if I had not heard of this in the village I should have been caught by all your fine friends tomorrow in a cotton dress."

48"Oh, no, Aunty. We meant to tell you in time to dress, of course..."

49"Well, if my advice means anything to you, Annie...and sometimes I am almost compelled to think it does not...I would say that in future it would be better for you not to be quite so secretive about things. By the way, are you aware that they are saying in the village that it was Jem who threw the stone through the window of the Methodist church?"

50"He did not," said Anne quietly. "He told me he did not."

51"Are you sure, Annie dear, that he was not fibbing?"

52"Annie dear" still spoke quietly.

53"Quite sure, Aunt Mary Maria. Jem has never told me an untruth in his life."

54"Well, I thought you ought to know what was being said."

55Aunt Mary Maria stalked off in her usual gracious manner, ostentatiously avoiding the Shrimp, who was lying on his back on the floor entreating someone to tickle his stomach.

56Susan and Anne drew a long breath.

57"I think I'll go to bed, Susan. And I do hope it is going to be fine tomorrow. I don't like the look of that dark cloud over the harbour."

58"It will be fine, Mrs. Dr. dear," reassured Susan. "The almanack says so."

59Susan had an almanack which foretold the whole year's weather and was right often enough to keep up its credit.

60"Leave the side door unlocked for the doctor, Susan. He may be late getting home from town. He went in for the roses...fifty-five golden roses, Susan...I've heard Aunt Mary Maria say that yellow roses were the only flowers she liked."

61Half an hour later, Susan, reading her nightly chapter in her Bible, came across the verse, "Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house lest he weary of thee and hate thee." She put a sprig of southernwood in it to mark the spot. "Even in those days," she reflected.

62Anne and Susan were both up early, desiring to complete certain last preparations before Aunt Mary Maria should be about. Anne always liked to get up early and catch that mystical half-hour before sunrise when the world belongs to the fairies and the old gods. She liked to see the morning sky of pale rose and gold behind the church spire, the thin, translucent glow of sunrise spreading over the dunes, the first violet spirals of smoke floating up from the village roofs.

63"It's as if we had had a day made to order, Mrs. Dr. dear," said Susan complacently, as she feathered an orange-frosted cake with cocoanut. "I will try my hand at them new-fangled butterballs after breakfast and I will phone Carter Flagg every half-hour to make sure that he will not forget the ice-cream. And there will be time to scrub the verandah steps."

64"Is that necessary, Susan?"

65"Mrs. Dr. dear, you have invited Mrs. Marshall Elliott, have you not? She shall not see our verandah steps otherwise than spotless. But you will see to the decorations, Mrs. Dr. dear? I was not born with the gift of arranging flowers."

66"Four cakes! Gee!" said Jem.

67"When we give a party," said Susan grandly, "we give a party."

68The guests came in due time and were received by Aunt Mary Maria in garnet taffeta and by Anne in biscuit-coloured voile. Anne thought of putting on her white muslin, for the day was summer-warm, but decided otherwise.

69"Very sensible of you, Annie," commented Aunt Mary Maria. "White, I always say, is only for the young."

70Everything went according to schedule. The table looked beautiful with Anne's prettiest dishes and the exotic beauty of white and purple iris. Susan's butterballs made a sensation, nothing like them having been seen in the Glen before; her cream soup was the last word in soups; the chicken salad had been made of Ingleside "chickens that are chickens"; the badgered Carter Flagg sent up the ice-cream on the tick of the dot. Finally Susan, bearing the birthday cake with its fifty-five lighted candles as if it were the Baptist's head on a charger, marched in and set it down before Aunt Mary Maria.

71Anne, outwardly the smiling serene hostess, had been feeling very uncomfortable for some time. In spite of all outward smoothness she had an ever-deepening conviction that something had gone terribly wrong. On the guests' arrival she had been too much occupied to notice the change that came over Aunt Mary Maria's face when Mrs. Marshall Elliott cordially wished her many happy returns of the day. But when they were all finally seated around the table Anne wakened up to the fact that Aunt Mary Maria was looking anything but pleased. She was actually white...it couldn't be with fury! ...and not one word did she say as the meal progressed, save curt replies to remarks addressed to her. She took only two spoonfuls of soup and three mouthfuls of salad; as for the ice-cream, she behaved to it as if it wasn't there.

72When Susan set the birthday cake, with its flickering candles, down before her, Aunt Mary Maria gave a fearful gulp which was not quite successful in swallowing a sob and consequently issued as a strangled whoop.

73"Aunty, aren't you feeling well?" cried Anne.

74Aunt Mary Maria stared at her icily.

75"Quite well, Annie. Remarkably well, indeed, for such an aged person as myself."

76At this auspicious moment the twins popped in, carrying between them the basketful of fifty-five yellow roses, and, amid a suddenly frozen silence, presented it to Aunt Mary Maria, with lisped congratulations and good wishes. A chorus of admiration went up from the table, but Aunt Mary Maria did not join in it.

77"The...the twins will blow out the candles for you, Aunty," faltered Anne nervously, "and then...will you cut the birthday cake?"

78"Not being quite senile...yet...Annie, I can blow the candles out myself."

79Aunt Mary Maria proceeded to blow them out, painstakingly and deliberately. With equal painstaking and deliberation she cut the cake. Then she laid the knife down.

80"And now perhaps I may be excused, Annie. Such an old woman as I am needs rest after so much excitement."

81Swish went Aunt Mary Maria's taffeta skirt. Crash went the basket of roses as she swept past it. Click went Aunt Mary Maria's high heels up the stairs. Bang went Aunt Mary Maria's door in the distance.

82The dumfounded guests ate their slices of birthday cake with such appetite as they could muster, in a strained silence broken only by a story Mrs. Amos Martin told desperately of a doctor in Nova Scotia who had poisoned several patients by injecting diphtheria germs into them. The others, feeling that this might not be in the best of taste, did not back up her laudable effort to "liven things up" and all went away as soon as they decently could.

83A distracted Anne rushed to Aunt Mary Maria's room.

84"Aunty, what is the matter?..."

85"Was it necessary to advertise my age in public, Annie? And to ask Adella Carey here...to have her find out how old I am...she's been dying to know for years!"

86"Aunty, we meant...we meant..."

87"I don't know what your purpose was, Annie. That there is something back of all this I know very well...oh, I can read your mind, dear Annie...but I shall not try to ferret it out...I shall leave it between you and your conscience."

88"Aunt Mary Maria, my only intention was to give you a happy birthday. I'm dreadfully sorry..."

89Aunt Mary Maria put her handkerchief to her eyes and smiled bravely.

90"Of course I forgive you, Annie. But you must realize that after such a deliberate attempt to injure my feelings I cannot stay here any longer."

91"Amity, won't you believe..."

92Aunt Mary Maria lifted a long, thin, knobby hand.

93"Don't let us discuss it, Annie. I want peace...just peace. 'A wounded spirit who can bear?'"

94Anne went to the concert with Gilbert that night, but it could not be said she enjoyed it. Gilbert took the whole matter "just like a man," as Miss Cornelia might have said.

95"I remember she was always a little touchy about her age. Dad used to rag her. I should have warned you...but it had slipped my memory. If she goes, don't try to stop her"...and refrained through clannishness from adding "good riddance!"

96"She will not go. No such good luck, Mrs. Dr. dear," said Susan incredulously.

97But for once Susan was wrong. Aunt Mary Maria went away the very next day, forgiving everybody with her parting breath.

98"Don't blame Annie, Gilbert," she said magnanimously. "I acquit her of all intentional insult. I never minded her having secrets from me...though to a sensitive mind like mine...but in spite of everything I've always liked poor Annie"...this with the air of one confessing a weakness. "But Susan Baker is a cat of another colour. My last word to you, Gilbert, is...put Susan Baker in her place and keep her there."

99Nobody could believe in their good luck at first. Then they woke up to the fact that Aunt Mary Maria had really gone...that it was possible to laugh again without hurting anyone's feelings...open all the windows without anyone complaining of draughts...eat a meal without anyone telling you that something you specially liked was liable to produce cancer of the stomach.

100"I've never sped a parting guest so willingly," thought Anne, half guiltily. "It is nice to call your soul your own again."

101The Shrimp groomed himself meticulously, feeling that, after all, there was some fun in being a cat. The first peony burst into bloom in the garden.

102"The world is just full of poetry, isn't it, Mummy?" said Walter.

103"It is going to be a real nice June," foretold Susan. "The almanack says so. There are going to be a few brides and most likely at least two funerals. Does it not seem strange to be able to draw a free breath again? When I think that I did all that in me lay to prevent you giving that party, Mrs. Dr. dear, I realize afresh that there is an overruling Providence. And don't you think, Mrs. Dr. dear, that the doctor would relish some onions with his fried steak today?"