Thread by @lainasparetime

Are we ready for the next Anne chapter? This is a good one #LainaReadsAnne

#LainaReadsAnne So one thing I didn't do very well last chapter was describe Marilla's brooch. It's an "old-fashioned oval, containing a braid of her mother's hair, surrounded by a border of very fine amethysts". A seafaring uncle gave it to her mother, who passed it down.

#LainaReadsAnne It's her most prized possession.

And it has gone missing.

#LainaReadsAnne She asks Anne if Anne has seen it, and Anne admits that she tried it on just to see how it would look, but swears she put it back. Marilla checks thoroughly again, but she can't find it and goes back to ask Anne if she took it out and lost it.

#LainaReadsAnne No one else has been in her room and this is the only explanation Marilla can think of.

Anne firmly denies it but Marilla thinks she's lying and sends her to her room until she confesses.

#LainaReadsAnne More than anything, Marilla hates the idea of Anne lying, as that makes her untrustworthy, and that's a trait she can't abide in a child. She keeps searching her room, finding nothing, and Anne continues denying knowing anything.

#LainaReadsAnne The next morning, Matthew doesn't want to lose faith in Anne, but even he can't deny it kinda looks bad. She did try it on and then it just happened to go missing? He's just glad not to be involved, as they agreed.

#LainaReadsAnne When Anne still won't admit to anything, Marilla tells her she won't be going to the picnic tomorrow or anywhere else until she confesses.

#LainaReadsAnne Wednesday morning, the day of the picnic, is absolutely beautiful, and when Marilla takes Anne's breakfast up to her, Anne says she's ready to confess.

Though her tactic worked, Marilla doesn't feel good about it at all.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne recites her confession of taking the brooch to play with and losing it in the pond. In punishment, Marilla decides Anne won't be going to the picnic.

Anne is devastated, and exclaims she only confessed because Marilla promised she could go if she did

#LainaReadsAnne Marilla holds firm, tough, and Anne breaks down in tears.

For the rest of the morning, Marilla aggressively cleans because she's so worked up herself, though she expresses it differently. Anne is too upset to come to dinner.

#LainaReadsAnne Matthew says it was wrong of Anne to take the brooch, but can't they go easy on her because she's never had any "bringing up"? Marilla replies that she's having it now.

Honestly I'm mostly on Marilla's side?

#LainaReadsAnne As far as she knows, Anne took a valueable, very sentimental item to play with to feel more fancy while playing, and then lied about it, and, the thing she worries about most, doesn't even seem to feel sorry about it.

That is kind of problematic!!

#LainaReadsAnne She feels that Matthew is making excuses for her and he kiiiiinda is.

Dinner is a very sad affaid. "The only cheerful thing about it was Jerry Buote, the hired boy, and Marilla resented his cheerfulness as a personal insult." Love that line XD

#LainaReadsAnne After doing the dishes, feeding the hens, and setting her bread sponge (which is a very interesting thing to read about if vintage recipes intrigue you vintagerecipesandcookery.com/what-is-a-brea…), Marilla remembers a tear in the shawl she wore Monday afternoon, and decides to fix it

#LainaReadsAnne Now guess what she finds hanging off the lace by its catch?

#LainaReadsAnne She remembers then laying the shawl on the bureau and realizes it must have gotten caught without her noticing before she put it away in another place, where obviously she wouldn't have looked.

#LainaReadsAnne She goes to ask Anne wtf essentially. Anne morosely says, well, Marilla told her that she'd stay in her room until she confessed, and she wanted to go to the picnic so badly, so she made up a confession and "made it was interesting as I could".

#LainaReadsAnne *as, not was, whoops.

Marilla laughs at that in spite of herself, and says though it was wrong of Anne to confess to something she hadn't done, it was Marilla's fault she did, and she shouldn't have doubted her when Anne's never lied to her.

#LainaReadsAnne She says she hopes they can forgive each other and start fresh - and Anne can go to the picnic.

That night, Anne comes home exhausted and estatic. She had a wonderful time and got her ice cream.

#LainaReadsAnne After she goes to bed, Marilla talks things out with Matthew. She admits she made a mistake, but she also learned a lesson, and she has to laugh thinking of Anne's "confession".

#LainaReadsAnne It was a falsehood, but "doesn't seem as bad as the other would have been, somehow, and anyhow I'm responsible for it. That child is hard to understand in some respects. But I believe she'll turn out all right yet."

#LainaReadsAnne Honestly there's something really nice about seeing a parent willing to admit they were wrong and they put unfair expectations on a child which made them act out, and apologize for their mistake.

#LainaReadsAnne It's a very fair thing and frankly something a lot of people could take a lesson from. I really like that Marilla is so willing to apologize to Anne - there's never any doubt about it for her.

#LainaReadsAnne This chapter ends with the best line from Marilla, too. "And there's one thing that's certain, no house will ever be dull that she's in."