原文
"I don't think I was crying because I was really so very fond of him,"
reflected Anne. "I just cried because all the others did. It was
Ruby Gillis started it. Ruby Gillis has always declared she hated Mr.
Phillips, but just as soon as he got up to make his farewell speech she
burst into tears. Then all the girls began to cry, one after the other.
I tried to hold out, Marilla. I tried to remember the time Mr. Phillips
made me sit with Gil--with a, boy; and the time he spelled my name
without an e on the blackboard; and how he said I was the worst dunce
he ever saw at geometry and laughed at my spelling; and all the times he
had been so horrid and sarcastic; but somehow I couldn't, Marilla, and I
just had to cry too. Jane Andrews has been talking for a month about how
glad she'd be when Mr. Phillips went away and she declared she'd never
shed a tear. Well, she was worse than any of us and had to borrow a
handkerchief from her brother--of course the boys didn't cry--because
she hadn't brought one of her own, not expecting to need it. Oh,
Marilla, it was heartrending. Mr. Phillips made such a beautiful
farewell speech beginning, 'The time has come for us to part.' It was
very affecting. And he had tears in his eyes too, Marilla. Oh, I felt
dreadfully sorry and remorseful for all the times I'd talked in school
and drawn pictures of him on my slate and made fun of him and Prissy.
I can tell you I wished I'd been a model pupil like Minnie Andrews. She
hadn't anything on her conscience. The girls cried all the way home from
school. Carrie Sloane kept saying every few minutes, 'The time has come
for us to part,' and that would start us off again whenever we were in
any danger of cheering up. I do feel dreadfully sad, Marilla. But one
can't feel quite in the depths of despair with two months' vacation
before them, can they, Marilla? And besides, we met the new minister and
his wife coming from the station. For all I was feeling so bad about Mr.
Phillips going away I couldn't help taking a little interest in a new
minister, could I? His wife is very pretty. Not exactly regally lovely,
of course--it wouldn't do, I suppose, for a minister to have a regally
lovely wife, because it might set a bad example. Mrs. Lynde says the
minister's wife over at Newbridge sets a very bad example because she
dresses so fashionably. Our new minister's wife was dressed in blue
muslin with lovely puffed sleeves and a hat trimmed with roses.
Jane Andrews said she thought puffed sleeves were too worldly for
a minister's wife, but I didn't make any such uncharitable remark,
Marilla, because I know what it is to long for puffed sleeves. Besides,
she's only been a minister's wife for a little while, so one should
make allowances, shouldn't they? They are going to board with Mrs. Lynde
until the manse is ready."
語彙など