Anne of Green Gables: Diana Is Invited to Tea

One Saturday in October, Marilla went to a meeting at Carmody and, to Anne’s great joy, said that Anne could invite her friend Diana to tea.Marilla allowed the old brown tea set, fruit cake, cherry preserves and cookies, and she said that the girls could also have a bottle of raspberry cordial that stood on the second shelf of the sitting-room pantry.Diana arrived in her second-best dress, knocked politely at the front door, and the two girls shook hands as seriously as if they had never met.

This grown-up solemnity lasted only until Anne forgot to be dignified, jumped up and took Diana out to the orchard to pick apples.They spent most of the afternoon in a grassy corner, eating apples while Diana told the news from school, until she mentioned Gilbert Blythe and Anne quickly said that it was time to go in for the cordial.Anne could not find the bottle on the second shelf, but she found one at the back of the top shelf, and she put it on a tray with a glass for Diana.

Diana drank a glass, said that it was the nicest cordial she had ever tasted, and with a little encouragement from Anne she soon had a second glass and then a third.While Diana drank, Anne chattered about her many kitchen disasters, such as the cake she had baked without any flour.Suddenly Diana stood up unsteadily, put her hands to her head, and said that she felt sick and must go home at once, and she would not stay even for tea.

Anne walked her friend to the Barrys’ fence in tears, and two days later, on Monday, Marilla sent her on an errand to Mrs. Lynde’s.She came flying back in tears, for Mrs. Lynde had said that Mrs. Barry was furious, believing that Anne had made Diana drunk, and would never let the girls play together again.Marilla went to the pantry and discovered that the bottle was her homemade currant wine, and that she herself had put the cordial in the cellar instead of the pantry.

Struggling not to laugh, she told Anne that it was all a mistake, and because Anne was afraid to face Mrs. Barry, Marilla went to Orchard Slope to explain.But Mrs. Barry, a woman of strong prejudices, did not believe her, and Marilla came home angry and said that she had never met a more unreasonable woman.That evening Anne went to Mrs. Barry herself, begged forgiveness in her most dramatic words and asked to see Diana just once to say goodbye, but Mrs. Barry shut the door on her.

Anne told Marilla that there was nothing left to do but pray, though she doubted that even God could do much with someone as obstinate as Mrs. Barry.Marilla scolded her, but that night she laughed as she told Matthew the story, and when she found Anne asleep with tears on her face, she gently kissed her cheek.