Mr. Harrison did his best to speak dolefully , but an irrepressible twinkle in his eye betrayed him . `` Mr. Harrison , you are glad your wife is come back , '' cried Anne , shaking her finger at him . `` You need n't pretend you 're not , because I can see it plainly . '' Mr. Harrison relaxed into a sheepish smile . `` Well ... well ... I 'm getting used to it , '' he conceded . `` I ca n't say I was sorry to see Emily . A man really needs some protection in a community like this , where he ca n't play a game of checkers with a neighbor without being accused of wanting to marry that neighbor 's sister and having it put in the paper . '' `` Nobody would have supposed you went to see Isabella Andrews if you had n't pretended to be unmarried , '' said Anne severely . `` I did n't pretend I was . If anybody 'd have asked me if I was married I 'd have said I was . But they just took it for granted . I was n't anxious to talk about the matter ... I was feeling too sore over it . It would have been nuts for Mrs. Rachel Lynde if she had known my wife had left me , would n't it now ? '' `` But some people say that you left her . '' `` She started it , Anne , she started it . I 'm going to tell you the whole story , for I do n't want you to think worse of me than I deserve ... nor of Emily neither . But let 's go out on the veranda . Everything is so fearful neat in here that it kind of makes me homesick . I suppose I 'll get used to it after awhile but it eases me up to look at the yard . Emily has n't had time to tidy it up yet . ''
As soon as they were comfortably seated on the veranda Mr. Harrison began his tale XXXXX woe .
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