”Will I die?" said little Elizabeth.
”No, indeed, darling. You were only stunned and you will be all right soon. And, Elizabeth darling, this is your father.”
”Father is in France. Am I in France, too?" Elizabeth would not have been surprised at it. Wasn't this Tomorrow? Besides, things were still a bit wobbly.
”Father is very much here, my sweet." He had such a delightful voice ... you loved him for his voice. He bent and kissed her.
"I've come for you. We'll never be separated anymore.”
The woman in the white cap was coming in again. Somehow, Elizabeth knew whatever she had to say must be said before she got quite in.
”Will we live together?”
”Always," said Father.
”And will Grandmother and the Woman live with us?”
”They will not," said Father.
The sunset gold was fading and the nurse was looking her disapproval. But Elizabeth didn't care.
”I've found Tomorrow," she said, as the nurse looked Father and Miss Shirley out.
”I've found a treasure I didn't know I possessed," said Father, as the nurse shut the door on him. "And I can never thank you enough for that letter, Miss Shirley.”
”And so," wrote Anne to Gilbert that night, "little Elizabeth's road of mystery has led on to happiness and the end of her old world.”
14
”Windy Poplars,
”Spook's Lane,
”(For the last time),
”June 27th.
”DEAREST:
”I've come to another bend in the road. I've written you a good many letters in this old tower room these past three years. I suppose this is the last one I will write you for a long, long time. Because after this there won't be any need of letters. In just a few weeks now we'll belong to each other forever ... we'll be together. Just think of it ... being together ... talking, walking, eating. dreaming, planning together ... sharing each other's wonderful moments ... making a home out of our house of dreams. OUR house! Doesn't that sound 'mystic and wonderful,' Gilbert? I've been building dream houses all my life and now one of them is going to come true. As to whom I really want to share my house of dreams with ... well, I'll tell you that at four o'clock next year.
”Three years sounded endless at the beginning, Gilbert. And now they are gone like a watch in the night. They have been very happy years ... except for those first few months with the Pringles.
After that, life has seemed to flow by like a pleasant golden river. And my old feud with the Pringles seems like a dream. They like me now for myself ... they have forgotten they ever hated me. Cora Pringle, one of the Widow Pringle's brood, brought me a bouquet of roses yesterday and twisted round the stems was a bit of paper bearing the legend, 'To the sweetest teacher in the whole world.' Fancy that for a Pringle!
”Jen is broken-hearted because I am leaving. I shall watch Jen's career with interest. She is brilliant and rather unpredictable.
One thing is certain ... she will have no commonplace existence.
She can't look so much like Becky Sharp for nothing.
”Lewis Allen is going to McGill. Sophy Sinclair is going to Queen's. Then she means to teach until she has saved up enough money to go to the School of Dramatic Expression in Kingsport.
Myra Pringle is going to 'enter society' in the fall. She is so pretty that it won't matter a bit that she wouldn't know a past perfect participle if she met it on the street.
”And there is no longer a small neighbor on the other side of the vine-hung gate. Little Elizabeth has gone forever from that sunshineless house ... gone into her Tomorrow. If I were staying on in Summerside I should break my heart, missing her. But as it is, I'm glad. Pierce Grayson took her away with him. He is not going back to Paris but will be living in Boston. Elizabeth cried bitterly at our parting but she is so happy with her father that I feel sure her tears will soon be dried. Mrs. Campbell and the Woman were very dour over the whole affair and put all the blame on me ... which I accept cheerfully and unrepentantly.
”'She has had a good home here,' said Mrs. Campbell majestically.
”'Where she never heard a single word of affection,' I thought but did not say.
”'I think I'll be Betty all the time now, darling Miss Shirley,' were Elizabeth's last words. 'Except,' she called back, 'when I'm lonesome for you, and then I'll be Lizzie.'
”'Don't you ever dare to be Lizzie, no matter what happens,' I said.
”We threw kisses to each other as long as we could see, and I came up to my tower room with tears in my eyes. She's been so sweet, the dear little golden thing. She always seemed to me like a little aeolian harp, so responsive to the tiniest breath of affection that blew her way. It's been an adventure to be her friend. I hope Pierce Grayson realizes what a daughter he has ... and I think he does. He sounded very grateful and repentant.
”'I didn't realize she was no longer a baby,' he said, 'nor how unsympathetic her environment was. Thank you a thousand times for all you have done for her.'
”I had our map of fairyland framed and gave it to little Elizabeth for a farewell keepsake.
”I'm sorry to leave Windy Poplars. Of course, I'm really a bit tired of living in a trunk, but I've loved it here ... loved my cool morning hours at my window ... loved my bed into which I have veritably climbed every night ... loved my blue doughnut cushion ... loved all the winds that blew. I'm afraid I'll never be quite so chummy with the winds again as I've been here. And shall I ever have a room again from which I can see both the rising and the setting sun?
”I've finished with Windy Poplars and the years that have been linked with it. And I've kept the faith. I've never betrayed Aunt Chatty's hidy-hole to Aunt Kate or the buttermilk secret of each to either of the others.
”I think they are all sorry to see me go ... and I'm glad of it.
It would be terrible to think they were glad I am going ... or that they would not miss me a little when I'm gone. Rebecca Dew has been making all my favorite dishes for a week now ... she even devoted ten eggs to angel-cake TWICE ... and using the 'company' china. And Aunt Chatty's soft brown eyes brim over whenever I mention my departure. Even Dusty Miller seems to gaze at me reproachfully as he sits about on his little haunches.
”I had a long letter from Katherine last week. She has a gift for writing letters. She has got a position as private secretary to a globe-trotting M. P. What a fascinating phrase 'globe-trotting' is! A person who would say, 'Let's go to Egypt,' as one might say, 'Let's go to Charlottetown' ... and GO! That life will just suit Katherine.
”She persists in ascribing all her changed outlook and prospects to me. 'I wish I could tell you what you've brought into my life,' she wrote. I suppose I did help. And it wasn't easy at first.
She seldom said anything without a sting in it, and listened to any suggestion I made in regard to the school work with an air of disdainfully humoring a lunatic. But somehow, I've forgotten it all. It was just born of her secret bitterness against life.
”Everybody has been inviting me to supper ... even Pauline Gibson. Old Mrs. Gibson died a few months ago, so Pauline dared do it. And I've been to Tomgallon House for another supper with Miss Minerva of that ilk and another one-sided conversation. But I had a very good time, eating the delicious meal Miss Minerva provided, and she had a good time airing a few more tragedies. She couldn't quite hide the fact that she was sorry for any one who was not a Tomgallon, but she paid me several nice compliments and gave me a lovely ring set with an aquamarine ... a moonlight blend of blue and green ... that her father had given her on her eighteenth birthday ... 'when I was young and handsome, dear ... QUITE handsome. I may say that NOW, I suppose.' I was glad it belonged to Miss Minerva and not to the wife of Uncle Alexander. I'm sure I could never have worn it if it had. It is very beautiful. There is a mysterious charm about the jewels of the sea.