I must see about getting them bleached . I 've had them sewed up in cotton bags ever since Thomas died , and no doubt they 're an awful color . But there 's a month yet , and dew-bleaching will work wonders . '' Only a month ! Marilla sighed and then said proudly : `` I 'm giving Anne that half dozen braided rugs I have in the garret . I never supposed she 'd want them -- they 're so old-fashioned , and nobody seems to want anything but hooked mats now . But she asked me for them -- said she 'd rather have them than anything else for her floors . They ARE pretty . I made them of the nicest rags , and braided them in stripes . It was such company these last few winters . And I 'll make her enough blue plum preserve to stock her jam closet for a year . It seems real strange . Those blue plum trees had n't even a blossom for three years , and I thought they might as well be cut down . And this last spring they were white , and such a crop of plums I never remember at Green Gables . '' `` Well , thank goodness that Anne and Gilbert really are going to be married after all . It 's what I 've always prayed for , '' said Mrs. Rachel , in the tone of one who is comfortably sure that her prayers have availed much . `` It was a great relief to find out that she really did n't mean to take the Kingsport man . He was rich , to be sure , and Gilbert is poor -- at least , to begin with ; but then he 's an Island boy . '' `` He 's Gilbert Blythe , '' said Marilla contentedly . Marilla would have died the death before she would have put into words the thought that was always in the background of her mind whenever she had looked at Gilbert from his childhood up -- the thought that , had it not been for her own wilful pride long , long ago , he might have been HER son .
Marilla felt that , in some strange way , his marriage with XXXXX would put right that old mistake .
Anne Blythe Gables Kingsport Marilla Rachel Thomas winters year years