I read Anne 's first . She just struck right into things in the first paragraph . She said her year at St. Mary 's was nearly up , and when it was she meant to quit teaching and go away to New York and learn to be a trained nurse . She said she was just broken-hearted about Gilbert , and would always love him to the day of her death . But she knew he did n't care anything more about her after the way he had acted , and there was nothing left for her in life but to do something for other people , and so on and so on , for twelve mortal pages . Anne is a fine writer , and I just cried like a babe over that letter , it was so touching , although I was enjoying myself hugely all the time , I was so delighted to find out that Anne loved Gilbert still . I was getting skeered she did n't , her letters all winter had been so kind of jokey and frivolous , all about the good times she was having , and the parties she went to , and the new dresses she got . New dresses ! When I read that letter of Anne 's , I knew that all the purple and fine linen in the world was just like so much sackcloth and ashes to her as long as Gilbert was sulking out on a prairie farm . Well , I wiped my eyes and polished up my specs , but I might have spared myself the trouble , for in five minutes , Nora May , there was I sobbing again ; over Gilbert 's letter . By the most curious coincidence he had opened his heart to me too . Being a man , he was n't so discursive as Anne ; he said his say in four pages , but I could read the heartache between the lines . He wrote that he was going to Klondike and would start in a month 's time . He was sick of living now that he 'd lost Anne . He said he loved her better than his life and always would , and could never forget her , but he knew she did n't care anything about him now after the way she 'd acted , and he wanted to get as far away from her and the torturing thought of her as he could . So he was going to Klondike -- going to Klondike , Nora May , when his mother was writing to him to come home every week and Anne was breaking her heart for him at St. Mary 's . Well , I folded up them letters and , says I , `` Grandpa Holland , I guess my birthday celebration is here ready to hand . '' I thought real hard . I could n't write myself to explain to those two people that they each thought the world of each other still -- my hands are too stiff ; and I could n't get anyone else to write because I could n't let out what they 'd told me in confidence . So I did a mean , dishonourable thing , Nora May .
I sent XXXXX 's letter to Gilbert and Gilbert 's to Anne .
Anne Klondike Mary May heartache jokey minutes right specs week