Anne Shirley (アン・シャーリー)

Anne,

would you accept my love and consent to marry me?

I can't.

I can't.

I can't marry you.

I can't!

Why can't you?

Because—I don't care enough for you.

So you've just been amusing yourself?

No, no, I haven't.

I did think I cared. Truly I did.

But I know now I don't.

You have ruined my life.

Forgive me.

You can give me no hope?

You are the only woman I can ever love.

I thank you for your friendship, at least.

Goodbye.

Chapter 24

It's the Birthday of Our Happiness

How did it go?

Wait. Wait till you hear what I have to say.

Roy asked me to marry him.

And I refused.

Y-You refused him?

Oh, Phil, don't scold me. You don't understand.

I certainly don't understand.

You've encouraged Roy in every way all this time,

and now you tell me you've refused him.

Then you've just been flirting scandalously with him.

I couldn't have believed it of you.

I didn't! You don't understand!

Then, why?

Oh, I can't explain it to you any more than I could to him.

Well, I suppose there is no use in saying anything to you.

No, there is no need. I've spoiled everything.

Roy despises me, and you despise me,

and I despise myself.

You poor darling.

Forgive me, Anne.

Just come here and let me comfort you.

I've no right to scold you.

Oh, why must things be so complicated and mixed up in real life?

Roy is feeling terribly just now.

I have to listen to his outpourings every day.

But he'll get over it.

He always does.

He's had to give up on love twice before.

And he got back on his feet.

You are the only woman I can ever love.

So I don't think you need worry.

I did want you for a sister, but this won't spoil our friendship, will it?

No, indeed not, Dorothy.

Oh, good! I'll write to you.

Remind me. Your family home is...

In Avonlea on Prince Edward Island.

It's called Green Gables.

Anne! You're home.

What has happened to the old Snow Queen, Marilla?

Oh, it was rotten at the core.

It blew down in the big gale we had in March.

That tree was there ever since Matthew and I were young.

I'll never look from the porch gable window again without a sense of loss.

Well, tell me all the Avonlea news.

There isn't much news except what we've wrote you.

Rachel, have you told Anne the news about Jane?

What's happened to Jane?

Jane Andrews is going to be married to a Winnipeg millionaire.

Dear old Jane! I'm so glad.

She deserves the good things of life.

Oh, Jane's a nice enough girl.

But she isn't in the millionaire class.

Her engagement ring is a diamond cluster so big

that it looks like a plaster on Jane's fat paw.

I think you're being unkind.

Am I, now?

Rachel minds that you're not spoken for by anyone yet.

My just desserts. I've ruined every chance I had.

You mean that fellow Roy?

Yes. I'm going to face the punishment for what I've done.

You tormenting yourself won't do anybody any good.

What has Gilbert Blythe been doing to himself at college?

I saw him when he came home last week,

and he is so pale and thin I hardly knew him.

He studied very hard last winter.

He's going to start the medical course at Redmond,

so I think he's rather run down.

You know he took the Cooper Prize.

It hasn't been taken for five years!

And you took Highest Honors in English.

Jane Andrews could never have managed that.

Mrs. Lynde!

How is Diana?

It is lonely coming home without her here to welcome me.

Diana has something else to think of just now.

You must have heard.

Why don't you go and see her yourself?

My! Isn't he delightful!

Look! Anne's come home.

He looks just like Fred!

Before he came, I wanted a girl, so that I could call her Anne.

But now that little Fred is here, I wouldn't exchange him for a million girls.

"Every little baby is the sweetest and the best."

If little Anne had come, you'd have felt just the same about her.

Yes, Mrs. Allan, you're exactly right.

I can hardly wait till he gets old enough to talk.

I just long to hear him say "mother" with a smile.

...in sickness and in health...

Mother thinks it's terrible.

...in good times and in bad...

She thinks Jo might at least take a church in a decent place.

But the wilderness of the Patterson slums

will blossom like the rose for me if Jo is there.

Oh, Anne,

I'm so happy my heart aches with it.

I'm surrounded by happiness, Matthew.

Yes, of course, Matthew.

I'm happy, too.

"I've tried the world—it wears no more"

"The colouring of romance it wore."

See here, Davy. Not a word to Anne about—

I'm back!

Oh, Anne. You're home.

It's good to see you again.

Come in.

Welcome home, Anne.

I see you're drenched.

How was the wedding?

Oh, Phil was radiant.

Everyone was so nice, I stayed longer than I meant to.

"East, west, home's best."

Davy, have you been growing again lately?

Yeah. I've growed a whole inch since you left.

I'm as tall as Milty Boulter now.

Say, Anne, did you know that Gilbert Blythe is dying?

Davy!

Gilbert is... what?

Like I said, he's dying.

Davy!

Anne, don't look like that— don't look like that!

We didn't mean to tell you so suddenly.

Is it true?

Gilbert is very ill.

He took down with typhoid fever just after you left for Bolingbroke.

The doctor said he'd been terribly run down.

But while there's life, there's hope.