Chapter XIV

CHAPTER XIV

Anne's Confession

ON the Monday evening before the picnic Marilla came down from
her room with a troubled face.

"Anne," she said to that small personage, who was shelling peas
by the spotless table and singing, "Nelly of the Hazel Dell" with
a vigor and expression that did credit to Diana's teaching, "did
you see anything of my amethyst brooch? I thought I stuck it in
my pincushion when I came home from church yesterday evening, but
I can't find it anywhere."

"I--I saw it this afternoon when you were away at the Aid
Society," said Anne, a little slowly. "I was passing your door
when I saw it on the cushion, so I went in to look at it."

"Did you touch it?" said Marilla sternly.

"Y-e-e-s," admitted Anne, "I took it up and I pinned it on my
breast just to see how it would look."

"You had no business to do anything of the sort. It's very wrong
in a little girl to meddle. You shouldn't have gone into my room
in the first place and you shouldn't have touched a brooch that
didn't belong to you in the second. Where did you put it?"

"Oh, I put it back on the bureau. I hadn't it on a minute.
Truly, I didn't mean to meddle, Marilla. I didn't think about
its being wrong to go in and try on the brooch; but I see now
that it was and I'll never do it again. That's one good thing
about me. I never do the same naughty thing twice."

"You didn't put it back," said Marilla. "That brooch isn't
anywhere on the bureau. You've taken it out or something, Anne."

"I did put it back," said Anne quickly--pertly, Marilla thought.
"I don't just remember whether I stuck it on the pincushion or laid
it in the china tray. But I'm perfectly certain I put it back."

"I'll go and have another look," said Marilla, determining to be
just. "If you put that brooch back it's there still. If it
isn't I'll know you didn't, that's all!"

Marilla went to her room and made a thorough search, not only
over the bureau but in every other place she thought the brooch
might possibly be. It was not to be found and she returned to
the kitchen.

"Anne, the brooch is gone. By your own admission you were the
last person to handle it. Now, what have you done with it?
Tell me the truth at once. Did you take it out and lose it?"

"No, I didn't," said Anne solemnly, meeting Marilla's angry gaze
squarely. "I never took the brooch out of your room and that is
the truth, if I was to be led to the block for it--although I'm
not very certain what a block is. So there, Marilla."

Anne's "so there" was only intended to emphasize her assertion,
but Marilla took it as a display of defiance.

"I believe you are telling me a falsehood, Anne," she said