Her resentment , which to other and older people might be as laughable as its cause , was in no whit allayed and softened by time seemingly . She hated Gilbert Blythe ! She would never forgive him ! `` No , '' she said coldly , `` I shall never be friends with you , Gilbert Blythe ; and I do n't want to be ! '' `` All right ! '' Gilbert sprang into his skiff with an angry color in his cheeks . `` I 'll never ask you to be friends again , Anne Shirley . And I do n't care either ! '' He pulled away with swift defiant strokes , and Anne went up the steep , ferny little path under the maples . She held her head very high , but she was conscious of an odd feeling of regret . She almost wished she had answered Gilbert differently . Of course , he had insulted her terribly , but still -- ! Altogether , Anne rather thought it would be a relief to sit down and have a good cry . She was really quite unstrung , for the reaction from her fright and cramped clinging was making itself felt . Halfway up the path she met Jane and Diana rushing back to the pond in a state narrowly removed from positive frenzy . They had found nobody at Orchard Slope , both Mr. and Mrs. Barry being away . Here Ruby Gillis had succumbed to hysterics , and was left to recover from them as best she might , while Jane and Diana flew through the Haunted Wood and across the brook to Green Gables . There they had found nobody either , for Marilla had gone to Carmody and Matthew was making hay in the back field . `` Oh , Anne , '' gasped Diana , fairly falling on the former 's neck and weeping with relief and delight , `` oh , Anne -- we thought -- you were -- drowned -- and we felt like murderers -- because we had made -- you be -- Elaine . And Ruby is in hysterics -- oh , Anne , how did you escape ? ''
`` I climbed up XXXXX one of the piles , '' explained Anne wearily , `` and Gilbert Blythe came along in Mr. Andrews 's dory and brought me to land . ''
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