Marilla had decided to keep Anne, but she didn't want to tell Anne until the next day.
She took Anne upstairs and said, "Now, Anne, I noticed you threw all your clothes on the floor.
That's a bad habit. Please fold your clothes and put them on the chair."
"I was so upset last night I forgot," said Anne. "I'll fold them nicely tonight."
"Say your prayers and get into bed."
"I never say any prayers," announced Anne.
Marilla was horrified. "What do you mean?
Were you never taught to say prayers?"
"Well, Mrs. Thomas told me that God made my hair red on purpose.
So I don't really care for God. Anyway, I'm always too tired to say prayers."
"Well, you must say your prayers here," Marilla insisted.
"Of course I will," said Anne cheerfully. "I'm ready. What do I say?"
"Just thank God and ask for some things you want," Marilla told Anne.
"I'll do my best," promised Anne. "Dear God, thank you for the wild cherry tree and the lake, which I call 'the Lake of Shining Waters.'
I want so many things that it'll take a long time to say everything.
So the most important things are these: please let me stay at Green Gables and please make me pretty when I grow up."
Marilla waited until the next afternoon to tell Anne she could stay.
During the morning Marilla asked Anne to do various tasks, and she watched Anne with a keen eye.
By noon Marilla saw that Anne was a hard worker, quick to learn, clever, and obedient.
Her most serious shortcoming was a tendency to start daydreaming in the middle of a task and forget everything until Marilla reprimanded her.
When Anne finished washing dishes, she suddenly grabbed Marilla.
"Oh please, Miss Cuthbert, can you tell me if I can stay or not?
I've tried to be patient all morning. Please tell me."
"You haven't rinsed the dishcloth in boiling water, Anne," said Marilla. "Do that first."
Anne attended to the dishcloth and then looked at Marilla again.
"Well," said Marilla, "Matthew and I decided to keep you—if you are a good girl. Anne, what's the matter?"
"I'm crying," said Anne, "but I don't know why. I'm so happy. Oh, happy isn't the right word.
I was happy to see the trees and flowers—but this! I'll try to be so good.
Mrs. Thomas said I am wicked, so it will be difficult, but I'll try. But why am I crying, Marilla?"
"I suppose because you're excited and worked up," said Marilla disapprovingly.
"Sit down on that chair. Try to calm down. You laugh and cry far too easily.
Now, you must go to school when it starts in September. Until then you can help me here."
"What will I call you? Miss Cuthbert? Aunt Marilla?"
"No, just Marilla. I'm not used to Miss Cuthbert. Just plain Marilla is fine."
"It sounds awfully disrespectful to say just Marilla," protested Anne.
"Everybody else does. Make sure you speak politely, and it will be fine," Marilla replied.
"I'd love to call you Aunt Marilla," said Anne.
"I've never had an aunt or any relation at all, not even a grandmother. Please?"
"No, you can't. I don't believe in calling people names that don't belong to them."
"But we could imagine you're my aunt."
"I couldn't," said Marilla grimly.
"Do you ever imagine things different from what they really are, Marilla?" asked Anne, wide-eyed.
"No," said Marilla.
"Oh!" Anne drew a long breath. Then she spoke. "Oh, Marilla, how much you miss!"
Later Anne asked, "Marilla, do you think I will ever have a kindred spirit in Avonlea?"
"A . . . a what?" asked Marilla.
"A kindred spirit, a best friend in whom I can confide my innermost soul.
I've dreamed of meeting her all my life.
I never really supposed I would, but so many of my dreams have come true all at once that perhaps this one will too. Do you think it's possible?"
"Diana Barry lives nearby, and she's about your age," Marilla replied.
"She's a very nice girl, and perhaps she can be your playmate when she comes home.
She's visiting her aunt now. You'll have to be careful how you behave though.
Mrs. Barry is very particular. She won't let Diana play with any girl who isn't nice and good."
"What is Diana like?" Anne asked. "Her hair isn't red, is it? Oh, I hope not.
It's bad enough to have red hair myself, but I positively couldn't endure it in a best friend too."
"Diana is a very pretty girl," said Marilla.
"She has black eyes and hair and rosy cheeks.
And she is good and smart, which is better than being pretty."
"I'm so glad she's pretty," Anne said.
"I'm not beautiful, so having a beautiful friend would be wonderful.
When I lived with Mrs. Thomas, there was a bookcase with glass doors.
One of the doors was broken because Mr. Thomas smashed it when he was drunk. The other glass door was whole.
I used to pretend that my reflection was another little girl who lived in the glass.
"Her name was Katie, and we were very close. I told her everything.
Katie was my only friend. We pretended that the bookcase was enchanted.
I knew the spell that took me to Katie's world.
In Katie's world there were flowers and fairies and sunshine, and we would live there happily ever after.
When I went to live with Mrs. Hammond, I was so upset to leave Katie. She was sad too."
Marilla listened and then gave Anne a strange look.
"I don't approve of such things, Anne.
You seem to half-believe your own imagination.
Don't let Mrs. Barry hear you talking about your friend Katie. She'll think you're strange."
"Oh, I won't," said Anne. "I won't tell anybody. But I thought you'd like to know."
"Well," Marilla said, smiling. "You'll have a real friend soon, Anne."
"Look, there's a big bee in that apple blossom!" said Anne.
"If I wasn't human, I think I'd like to be a bee and live in the flowers!"
"Yesterday you wanted to be a bird," said Marilla.
"You are very fickle. Now just be quiet for a minute!
It seems impossible for you to stop talking if you've got anybody who will listen to you!"