`` 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 of woe . `` I lived in Scottsford , New Brunswick , before I came here , Anne . My sister kept house for me and she suited me fine ; she was just reasonably tidy and she let me alone and spoiled me ... so Emily says . But three years ago she died . Before she died she worried a lot about what was to become of me and finally she got me to promise I 'd get married . She advised me to take Emily Scott because Emily had money of her own and was a pattern housekeeper . I said , says I , 'Em ily Scott would n't look at me . '
` You ask her and see , ' says my sister ; and just XXXXX ease her mind I promised her I would ... and I did .
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