'successfully?'" asked Anne. "Does she mean
that Dick's memory is really restored?"

"Not likely--since she says nothing of it," said Gilbert. "She uses
the word 'successfully' from the surgeon's point of view. The
operation has been performed and followed by normal results. But it is
too soon to know whether Dick's faculties will be eventually restored,
wholly or in part. His memory would not be likely to return to him all
at once. The process will be gradual, if it occurs at all. Is that
all she says?"

"Yes--there's her letter. It's very short. Poor girl, she must be
under a terrible strain. Gilbert Blythe, there are heaps of things I
long to say to you, only it would be mean."

"Miss Cornelia says them for you," said Gilbert with a rueful smile.
"She combs me down every time I encounter her. She makes it plain to
me that she regards me as little better than a murderer, and that she
thinks it a great pity that Dr. Dave ever let me step into his shoes.
She even told me that the Methodist doctor over the harbor was to be
preferred before me. With Miss Cornelia the force of condemnation can
no further go."

"If Cornelia Bryant was sick, it would not be Doctor Dave or the
Methodist doctor she would send for," sniffed Susan. "She would have
you out of your hard-earned bed in the middle of the night, doctor,
dear, if she took a spell of misery, that she would. And then she
would likely say your bill was past all reason. But do not mind her,
doctor, dear. It takes all kinds of people to make a world."

No further word came from Leslie for some time. The May days crept
away in a sweet succession and the shores of Four Winds Harbor greened
and bloomed and purpled. One day in late May Gilbert came home to be
met by Susan in the stable yard.

"I am afraid something has upset Mrs. Doctor, doctor, dear," she said
mysteriously. "She got a letter this afternoon and since then she has
just been walking round the garden and talking to herself. You know it
is not good for her to be on her feet so much, doctor, dear. She did
not see fit to tell me what her news was, and I am no pry, doctor,
dear, and never was, but it is plain something has upset her. And it
is not good for her to be upset."

Gilbert hurried rather anxiously to the garden. Had anything happened
at Green Gables? But Anne, sitting on the rustic seat by the brook,
did not look troubled, though she was certainly much excited. Her eyes
wer