1.
"--and then I said to him, 'What about Knox? He went to the head!'" Gilbert mimed the punchline spiritedly, and looked pleased when Anne and Diana both burst into giggles. "Ah, there's my turn just up on the left. I'll see you at school tomorrow, Diana, Anne-- it was nice meeting you." He shook hands with Anne warmly as they parted. "Welcome to Avonlea. I hope you like it here."
The girls continued walking. As soon as they were out of earshot, Diana spoke. "He's real handsome, isn't he! Anne, do you suppose he fancies you?" After a considered pause, she went on, "He was awfully friendly today. Gil flirts sometimes, but I never saw him behave so nice towards any girl before."
"Pssh. I'm sure that's nonsense. He was merely being neighborly-- providing a welcome for the 'new' face at school and such," dismissed Anne, with a swish of red pigtails. "This Gilbert Blythe does seem like a decent fellow," she decided. "It was very good of him to walk with us. But he would probably do that for anybody."
"I don't know about that. He's never done so before," Diana said doubtfully.
"There wouldn't have been any new students for him to welcome," Anne pointed out. "Didn't you say he missed the past few years of school, moving around?"
"Well, yes," admitted Diana, but she persisted: "He kept looking at you during our walk, when you couldn't see... I think he was admiring your hair, Anne." She added, loyally, "You look really becoming today-- this yellow dress of yours is my favorite for you."
"Thank you. I like it also, but oh, it dirties so easily," Anne lamented, not acknowledging her friend's first observation. Hurriedly changing the topic, she asked, "Diana, dearest, did I tell you about my latest scrape-- burning the tea biscuits yesterday? I felt so dreadful-- they had white sugar, too. And even though she didn't scold me, I could tell Marilla was frightfully disappointed by my backwards progress..."
2.
Take Notice
A. Shirley + G. Blythe
"Anne, that's the second one this month!" Diana whispered, motioning in the direction of the entrance wall. "I wonder how it got there. Nobody saw anything this time, either. Arty Gillis swears the room was empty when he was dusting the board. And it couldn't have been a ghost, because ghosts don't exist." The last part was spoken primly; their harrowing misadventure in the Haunted Wood had curbed Diana's flights of imagination for the supernatural. "Mmm. I wonder if Miss Stacy saw anything?"
"I doubt Miss Stacy would pay attention to something like that," said Anne, not looking up from her conjugation exercises. She had been making steady progress in French and Latin recently-- she had worked hard, needing those marks to make up her poor showing in Geometry. Anne had her heart set on being invited by Miss Stacy to participate in next year's preparatory classes for Entrance to Queens.
To be a teacher and do what Miss Stacy did for her Avonlea pupils-- to educate and shape young minds with her gentle influence, and even earn a living doing so!-- it sounded like a noble ambition to Anne indeed. She would be able to change lives and do good and improve the world! And oh, it would make Matthew and Marilla so proud if Anne managed to attain sole top scholar status in her class. Then there would be no ties-- Anne blamed their frequent joint results for inspiring further instances of having her name written up with her rival's.
A number of take-notices linking Anne Shirley with Gilbert Blythe had been written by unknown persons over various intervals in the two years of their acquaintance. Today appeared to have brought another installment-- much to the evident displeasure of a certain Sloane schoolboy, who kept a running mental tally of such instances.
