Chapter 34: Leaving Home

Anne heads off to college in this chapter, a big moment for both her and Marilla and Matthew.

Marilla even verges on indulgence:

"Anne's outfit was ample and pretty, for Matthew saw to that, and Marilla for once made no objections whatever to anything he purchased or suggested. More—one evening she went up to the east gable with her arms full of a delicate pale green material."

And is it just me, or are tears starting to be a regular thing for her?

"As Marilla watched the bright, animated face and graceful motions her thoughts went back to the evening Anne had arrived at Green Gables, and memory recalled a vivid picture of the odd, frightened child in her preposterous yellowish-brown wincey dress, the heartbreak looking out of her tearful eyes. Something in the memory brought tears to Marilla's own eyes."

And then Anne leaves, and Marilla and Matthew each deal with it in their own way.

"Matthew, with a suspicious moisture in his eyes, got up and went out-of-doors. Under the stars of the blue summer night he walked agitatedly across the yard to the gate under the poplars."

"Marilla plunged fiercely into unnecessary work and kept at it all day long with the bitterest kind of heartache—the ache that burns and gnaws and cannot wash itself away in ready tears"

Gilbert proves useful after all, even if he and Anne don't have much of a speaking relationship.

"Yet she was undeniably glad that they were in the same class; the old rivalry could still be carried on, and Anne would hardly have known what to do if it had been lacking."

As does Josie Pye, who's never been one of Anne's favorite people.

"As a part of Avonlea life even a Pye was welcome."

But that doesn't last long.

"Anne was wondering if, after all, solitude and tears were not more satisfactory than Josie Pye's companionship"