Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the thirtieth chapter of Anne's House of Dreams.

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Today we'll be continuing Anne's House of Dreams by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Chapter 30 leslie decides.

A sudden outbreak of a virulent type of influenza at the Glenn and down at the fishing village kept Gilbert so busy for the next fortnight that he had no time to pay the promised visit to Captain Jim, and hoped against hope that he had abandoned the idea about D*** Moore and resolving to let sleeping dogs lie.

She said no more about the subject, but she thought of it incessantly.

I wonder if it would be right for me to tell him that Leslie cares for Owen, she thought he would never let her suspect that he knew, so her pride would not suffer, and it might convince him that he should let D*** Moore alone.

Shall I?

Shall I?

No.

After all, I cannot.

A promise is sacred, and I have no right to betray Leslie's secret.

Oh, I never felt so worried over anything in my life as I do over this.

It's spoiling the spring.

It's spoiling everything.

One evening, Gilbert abruptly proposed that they go down and see Captain Jim with a sinking heart and agreed, and they set forth two weeks of kind.

Sunshine had rot a miracle in the bleak landscape over which Gilbert's Crow had flown.

The hills and fields were dry and brown and warm, ready to break into bud and blossom.

The harbor was laughter shaken again.

The long harbor road was like a gleaming red ribbon.

Down on the dunes, a crowd of boys who were outsmelt fishing were burning the thick, dry sandhill grass of the preceding summer.

The flames swept over the dunes, rosalie flinging their cardinal banners against the dark gulf beyond and illuminating the channel and the fishing village.

It was a picturesque scene, which would at other times have delighted Anne's eyes.

But she was not enjoying this walk.

Neither was Gilbert.

Their usual good comradeship and Joseph feen community of taste and viewpoint were sadly lacking.

Anne's disapproval of the whole project showed itself in the haughty uplift of her head and the studied politeness of her remarks.

Gilbert's mouth was set in all the blithe obstinacy, but his eyes were troubled.

He meant to do what he believed to be his duty, but to be at outs with Anne was a high price to pay altogether.

Both were glad when they reached the light, and were moreceful that they should be glad.

Captain Jim put away the fishing net upon which he was working and welcomed them joyfully in the searching light of the spring evening.

He looked older than Anne had ever seen him.

His hair had grown much grayer, and the strong old hand shook a little.

But his blue eyes were clear and steady, and a staunch soul looked out through them, gallant and unafraid.

Captain Jim listened in amazed silence while Gilbert said what he had come to say.

Anne, who knew how the old man worshipped Leslie, felt quite sure that he would side with her, although she had not much hope that this would influence Gilbert.

She was therefore surprised beyond measure when Captain Jim, slowly and sorrowfully but unhesitatingly, gave it as his opinion that Leslie should be told.

Oh, Captain Jim, I didn't think you'd say that.

She exclaimed reproachfully.

I thought you wouldn't want to make more trouble for her.

Captain Jim shook his head.

I don't want to.

I know how you feel about it, Mistress Blive, just as I feel myself.

But it ain't our feelings we have to steer by through life.

No, no.

We'd make shipwreck mighty often if we did that.

There's only the one safe compass, and.

We'Ve got to set our course by.

That what it's right to do.

I agree with the doctor.

If there's a chance for d***, Leslie should be told of it.

There's no two sides to that, in my opinion.

Well, said Anne, giving up in despair.

Wait until Miss Cornelia gets after you two men.

Cornelia'll rake us foreign aft, no doubt, assented Captain Jim.

You women are lovely critters, Mistress Blive, but you're just a might illogical.

You're a highly educated lady, and Cornelia isn't.

But your like is two peas when it comes to that.

I don't knows you're any the worse for it.

Logic is a sort of hard, merciless thing, I reckon.

Now I'll brew a cup of tea and we'll drink it and talk of pleasant things, just to calm our minds.

A bit, at least.

Captain Jim's tea and conversation calmed Anne's mind to such an extent that she did not make Gilbert suffer so acutely on the way home as she had deliberately intended to do.

She did not refer to the burning question at all, but she chatted amiably of other matters, and Gilbert understood that he was forgiven under protest.

Captain Jim seems very frail and bent this spring.

The winter has aged him, said Anne sadly.

I'm afraid that he will soon be going to seek lost Margaret.

I can't bear to think of it.

Four winds won't be the same place when Captain Jim sets out to sea, agreed Gilbert.

The following evening he went to the house, up the brook, and wandered dismally around until his return.

Well, what did Leslie say?

She demanded when he came in.

Very little, I think.

She felt rather dazed.

And is she going to have the operation?

She's going to think it over and decide very soon.

Gilbert flung himself wearily into the easy chair before the fire.

He looked tired.

It had not been an easy thing for him to tell Leslie, and the terror that had sprung into her eyes when the meaning of what he told her came home to her was not a pleasant thing to remember.

Now, when the die was cast, he was beset with doubts of his own wisdom.

Anne looked at him remorsefully, and she slipped down on the rug beside him and laid her glossy red head on his arm.

Gilbert, I've been rather hateful over this.

I won't be anymore.

Please just call me redheaded and forgive me.

By which Gilbert understood that no matter what came of it, there would be no I told you SOEs, but he was not wholly comforted.

Duty in the abstract is one thing.

Duty in the concrete is quite another, especially when the doer is confronted by a woman's stricken eyes.

Some instinct made Anne keep away from Leslie for the next three days.

On the third evening, Leslie came down to the little house and told Gilbert that she had made up her mind she would take D*** to Montreal and have the operation.

She was very pale and seemed to have wrapped herself in her old mantle of aloofness, but her eyes had lost the look which had haunted Gilbert.

They were cold and bright, and she proceeded to discuss details with him in a crisp, businesslike way.

There were plans to be made and many things to be thought over.

When Leslie had got the information she wanted, she went home.

Anne wanted to walk part of the way with her.

Better not, said Leslie Curtly.

Today's rain has made the ground damp.

Good night.

Have I lost my friend?

Said Anne with a sigh.

If the operation is successful and D*** Moore finds himself again, leslie will retreat into some remote fastness of her soul where none of us can ever find her.

Perhaps she will leave him, said Gilbert.

Leslie would never do that, Gilbert.

Her sense of duty is very strong.

She told me once that her grandmother west always impressed upon her the fact that when she assumed any responsibility, she must never shirk it, no matter what the consequences might be.

That is one of her cardinal rules.

I suppose it's very old fashioned.

Don't be bitter.

And girl, you know you don't think it old fashioned.

You know you have the very same.

Idea of sacredness, of assumed responsibilities yourself.

And you're right, Shirking.

Responsibilities is the curse of our modern life.

The secret of all the unrest and discontent that is seething in the world.

Thus say it.

The preacher mocked Anne, but under the mockery she felt that he was right and she was very sick at heart for Leslie.

A week later, Miss Cornelia descended like an avalanche upon the little house.

Gilbert was away, and Anne was compelled to bear the shock of the impact alone.

Miss Cornelia hardly waited to get her hat off before she began.

Anne, do you mean to tell me it's true what I've heard, that Dr.

Blythe has told Leslie DITT can be cured?

Then she's going to take him to Montreal to have him operated on.

Yes, it is quite true, Ms.

Cornelia, said Anne bravely.

Well, it's in human cruelty, that's what.

It is, said Miss Cornelia, violently agitated.

I did think Dr.

Blythe was a decent man.

I didn't think he could have been guilty of this.

Dr.

Blithe thought it was his duty to tell Leslie that there was a chance for D***, said Anne with spirit.

And she added loyalty to Gilbert getting the better of her.

I agree with him.

Oh, no, you don't, dearie, said Miss Cornelia.

No person with any bows of compassion could.

Captain Jim does.

Don't quote that old ninny to me, cried Miss Cornelia.

And I don't care who agrees with him.

Think.

Think what it means to that poor, hunted, harried girl.

We do think of it.

But Gilbert believes that a doctor should put the welfare of a patient's mind and body before all other considerations.

That's just like a man.

But I expected better things of you.

Anne, said Miss Cornelia, more in sorrow than in wrath.

Then she proceeded to bombard Anne with precisely the same arguments with which the latter had attacked Gilbert.

And Anne valiantly defended her husband with the weapons he had used for his own protection.

Long was the fray, but Miss Cornelia made an end at last.

It's an iniquitous shame, she declared almost in tears.

That's just what it is, an iniquitous shame.

Poor, poor Leslie.

Don't you think D*** should be considered a little too?

Pleaded Anne.

D***?

D*** more.

He's happy enough.

He's a better behaved and more reputable member of society now than he ever was before.

Why, he was a drunkard and perhaps worse.

Are you going to set him loose again?

To roar and to devour?

He may reform, said poor Anne.

Beset by foe without and traitor within.

Reform, your grandmother, retorted Miss Cornelia.

D*** Moore got the injuries that left him as he is in a drunken brawl.

He deserves his fate.

It was sent on him for a punishment.

I don't believe the doctor has any business to tamper with the visitations of God.

Nobody knows how D*** was hurt, Ms.

Cornelia.

It may not have been in a drunken brawl at all.

He may have been whaley and robbed.

Pigs may whistle, but they've poor mouths.

For it, said Miss Cornelia.

Well, the gist of what you tell me is that the thing is settled and there's no use in talking.

If that's so, I'll hold my tongue.

I don't propose to wear my teeth out gnawing files.

When a thing has to be, I give in to it.

But I like to make mighty sure first that it has to be.

Now I'll devote my energies to comforting and sustaining Leslie.

And after all, added Miss Cornelia, brightening up.

Hopefully, perhaps, nothing can be done for D***.

Thank you for joining Bite at Time books today while we read a bite of one of your favorite classics.

Again, my name is Brie Carlyle, and I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite of Anne's House of Dreams.

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