`` My childhood was n't very happy before I came to Green Gables , '' said Anne , gazing soberly out of the window at the still , sad , dead beauty of the leafless tree-shadows on the moonlit snow . `` Mebbe not -- but it was just the usual unhappiness of a child who has n't anyone to look after it properly . There has n't been any TRAGEDY in your life , Mistress Blythe . And poor Leslie 's has been almost ALL tragedy . She feels , I reckon , though mebbe she hardly knows she feels it , that there 's a vast deal in her life you ca n't enter nor understand -- and so she has to keep you back from it -- hold you off , so to speak , from hurting her . You know if we 've got anything about us that hurts we shrink from anyone 's touch on or near it . It holds good with our souls as well as our bodies , I reckon . Leslie 's soul must be near raw -- it 's no wonder she hides it away . '' `` If that were really all , I would n't mind , Captain Jim . I would understand . But there are times -- not always , but now and again -- when I almost have to believe that Leslie does n't -- does n't like me . Sometimes I surprise a look in her eyes that seems to show resentment and dislike -- it goes so quickly -- but I 've seen it , I 'm sure of that . And it hurts me , Captain Jim . I 'm not used to being disliked -- and I 've tried so hard to win Leslie 's friendship . '' `` You have won it , Mistress Blythe . Do n't you go cherishing any foolish notion that Leslie do n't like you . If she did n't she would n't have anything to do with you , much less chumming with you as she does . I know Leslie Moore too well not to be sure of that . '' `` The first time I ever saw her , driving her geese down the hill on the day I came to Four Winds , she looked at me with the same expression , '' persisted Anne . `` I felt it , even in the midst of my admiration of her beauty .
She looked at me resentfully -- she did , indeed , Captain XXXXX . ''
Anne Blythe Green Jim Leslie Mebbe Moore Winds first tree-shadows