CHAPTER 31 THE TRUTH MAKES FREE Leslie , having once made up her mind what to do , proceeded to do it with characteristic resolution and speed . House-cleaning must be finished with first , whatever issues of life and death might await beyond . The gray house up the brook was put into flawless order and cleanliness , with Miss Cornelia 's ready assistance . Miss Cornelia , having said her say to Anne , and later on to Gilbert and Captain Jim -- sparing neither of them , let it be assured -- never spoke of the matter to Leslie . She accepted the fact of Dick 's operation , referred to it when necessary in a business-like way , and ignored it when it was not . Leslie never attempted to discuss it . She was very cold and quiet during these beautiful spring days . She seldom visited Anne , and though she was invariably courteous and friendly , that very courtesy was as an icy barrier between her and the people of the little house . The old jokes and laughter and chumminess of common things could not reach her over it . Anne refused to feel hurt . She knew that Leslie was in the grip of a hideous dread -- a dread that wrapped her away from all little glimpses of happiness and hours of pleasure . When one great passion seizes possession of the soul all other feelings are crowded aside . Never in all her life had Leslie Moore shuddered away from the future with more intolerable terror . But she went forward as unswervingly in the path she had elected as the martyrs of old walked their chosen way , knowing the end of it to be the fiery agony of the stake . The financial question was settled with greater ease than Anne had feared . Leslie borrowed the necessary money from Captain Jim , and , at her insistence , he took a mortgage on the little farm . `` So that is one thing off the poor girl 's mind , '' Miss Cornelia told Anne , `` and off mine too . Now , if Dick gets well enough to work again he 'll be able to earn enough to pay the interest on it ; and if he does n't I know Captain Jim 'll manage someway that Leslie wo n't have to . He said as much to me . ` I 'm getting old , Cornelia , ' he said , ` and I 've no chick or child of my own .
XXXXX wo n't take a gift from a living man , but mebbe she will from a dead one . '
Anne Dick Gilbert Jim Leslie Moore cleanliness days first hours