Page:Anne of the Island (1920).djvu/227

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ENTER JONAS
211

is adorable—and he certainly has a beautiful soul and disposition.

“We were good chums right way. Of course he is a graduate of Redmond, and that is a link between us. We fished and boated together; and we walked on the sands by moonlight. He didn’t look so homely by moonlight and oh, he was nice. Niceness fairly exhaled from him. The old ladies—except Mrs. Grant—don’t approve of Jonas, because he laughs and jokes—and because he evidently likes the society of frivolous me better than theirs.

“Somehow, Anne, I don’t want him to think me frivolous. This is ridiculous. Why should I care what a tow-haired person called Jonas, whom I never saw before thinks of me?

“Last Sunday Jonas preached in the village church. I went, of course, but I couldn’t realize that Jonas was going to preach. The fact that he was a minister—or going to be one—persisted in seeming a huge joke to me.

“Well, Jonas preached. And, by the time he had preached ten minutes, I felt so small and insignificant that I thought I must be invisible to the naked eye. Jonas never said a word about women and he never looked at me. But I realized then and there what a pitiful, frivolous, small-souled little butterfly I was, and how horribly different I must be from Jonas’ ideal woman. She would be grand and strong and noble. He was so earnest and tender and true. He was everything a minister ought to be. I wondered how I could