"Anne," she said not ungently.

No answer.

"Anne," with greater severity, "get off that bed this minute and listen
to what I have to say to you."

Anne squirmed off the bed and sat rigidly on a chair beside it, her face
swollen and tear-stained and her eyes fixed stubbornly on the floor.

"This is a nice way for you to behave. Anne! Aren't you ashamed of
yourself?"

"She hadn't any right to call me ugly and redheaded," retorted Anne,
evasive and defiant.

"You hadn't any right to fly into such a fury and talk the way you did
to her, Anne. I was ashamed of you--thoroughly ashamed of you. I
wanted you to behave nicely to Mrs. Lynde, and instead of that you have
disgraced me. I'm sure I don't know why you should lose your temper like
that just because Mrs. Lynde said you were red-haired and homely. You
say it yourself often enough."

"Oh, but there's such a difference between saying a thing yourself and
hearing other people say it," wailed Anne. "You may know a thing is
so, but you can't help hoping other people don't quite think it is. I
suppose you think I have an awful temper, but I couldn't help it. When
she said those things something just rose right up in me and choked me.
I HAD to fly out at her."

"Well, you made a fine exhibition of yourself I must say. Mrs. Lynde
will have a nice story to tell about you everywhere--and she'll tell
it, too. It was a dreadful thing for you to lose your temper like that,
Anne."

"Just imagine how you would feel if somebody told you to your face that
you were skinny and ugly," pleaded Anne tearfully.

An old remembrance suddenly rose up before Marilla. She had been a very
small child when she had heard one aunt say of her to another, "What a
pity she is such a dark, homely little thing." Marilla was every day of
fifty before the sting had gone out of that memory.

"I don't say that I think Mrs. Lynde was exactly right in saying what
she did to you, Anne," she admitted in a softer tone. "Rachel is too
outspoken. But that is no excuse for such behavior on your part. She
was a stranger and an elderly person and my visitor--all three very good
reasons why you should have been respectful to her. You were rude and
saucy and"--Marilla had a saving inspiration of punishment--"you must go
to her and tell her you are very sorry for your bad temper and ask her
to forgive you."

"I can never do that," said Anne determinedly and darkly. "You can
punish me in any way you like, Ma