Mrs. Rachel Lynde said emphatically after the funeral that Ruby Gillis was the handsomest corpse she ever laid eyes on . Her loveliness , as she lay , white-clad , among the delicate flowers that Anne had placed about her , was remembered and talked of for years in Avonlea . Ruby had always been beautiful ; but her beauty had been of the earth , earthy ; it had had a certain insolent quality in it , as if it flaunted itself in the beholder 's eye ; spirit had never shone through it , intellect had never refined it . But death had touched it and consecrated it , bringing out delicate modelings and purity of outline never seen before -- doing what life and love and great sorrow and deep womanhood joys might have done for Ruby . Anne , looking down through a mist of tears , at her old playfellow , thought she saw the face God had meant Ruby to have , and remembered it so always . Mrs. Gillis called Anne aside into a vacant room before the funeral procession left the house , and gave her a small packet . `` I want you to have this , '' she sobbed . `` Ruby would have liked you to have it . It 's the embroidered centerpiece she was working at . It is n't quite finished -- the needle is sticking in it just where her poor little fingers put it the last time she laid it down , the afternoon before she died . '' `` There 's always a piece of unfinished work left , '' said Mrs. Lynde , with tears in her eyes . `` But I suppose there 's always some one to finish it . '' `` How difficult it is to realize that one we have always known can really be dead , '' said Anne , as she and Diana walked home . `` Ruby is the first of our schoolmates to go . One by one , sooner or later , all the rest of us must follow . '' `` Yes , I suppose so , '' said Diana uncomfortably . She did not want to talk of that . She would have preferred to have discussed the details of the funeral -- the splendid white velvet casket Mr. Gillis had insisted on having for Ruby -- `` the Gillises must always make a splurge , even at funerals , '' quoth Mrs. Rachel Lynde -- Herb Spencer 's sad face , the uncontrolled , hysteric grief of one of Ruby 's sisters -- but Anne would not talk of these things . She seemed wrapped in a reverie in which Diana felt lonesomely that she had neither lot nor part . `` Ruby Gillis was a great girl to laugh , '' said Davy suddenly .
`` Will she laugh as much in heaven as she did in Avonlea , XXXXX ?
Anne Davy Diana Gillis Lynde Ruby before centerpiece first playfellow