They had a `` perfectly elegant tea ; '' and then came the delicious occupation of dressing in Diana 's little room upstairs . Diana did Anne 's front hair in the new pompadour style and Anne tied Diana 's bows with the especial knack she possessed ; and they experimented with at least half a dozen different ways of arranging their back hair . At last they were ready , cheeks scarlet and eyes glowing with excitement . True , Anne could not help a little pang when she contrasted her plain black tam and shapeless , tight-sleeved , homemade gray-cloth coat with Diana 's jaunty fur cap and smart little jacket . But she remembered in time that she had an imagination and could use it . Then Diana 's cousins , the Murrays from Newbridge , came ; they all crowded into the big pung sleigh , among straw and furry robes . Anne reveled in the drive to the hall , slipping along over the satin-smooth roads with the snow crisping under the runners . There was a magnificent sunset , and the snowy hills and deep-blue water of the St. Lawrence Gulf seemed to rim in the splendor like a huge bowl of pearl and sapphire brimmed with wine and fire . Tinkles of sleigh bells and distant laughter , that seemed like the mirth of wood elves , came from every quarter . `` Oh , Diana , '' breathed Anne , squeezing Diana 's mittened hand under the fur robe , `` is n't it all like a beautiful dream ? Do I really look the same as usual ? I feel so different that it seems to me it must show in my looks . '' `` You look awfully nice , '' said Diana , who having just received a compliment from one of her cousins , felt that she ought to pass it on . `` You 've got the loveliest color . '' The program that night was a series of `` thrills '' for at least one listener in the audience , and , as Anne assured Diana , every succeeding thrill was thrillier than the last . When Prissy Andrews , attired in a new pink-silk waist with a string of pearls about her smooth white throat and real carnations in her hair -- rumor whispered that the master had sent all the way to town for them for her -- `` climbed the slimy ladder , dark without one ray of light , '' Anne shivered in luxurious sympathy ; when the choir sang `` Far Above the Gentle Daisies '' Anne gazed at the ceiling as if it were frescoed with angels ; when Sam Sloane proceeded to explain and illustrate `` How Sockery Set a Hen '' Anne laughed until people sitting near her laughed too , more out of sympathy with her than with amusement at a selection that was rather threadbare even in Avonlea ; and when Mr. Phillips gave Mark Antony 's oration over the dead body of Caesar in the most heart-stirring tones -- looking at Prissy Andrews at the end of every sentence -- Anne felt that she could rise and mutiny on the spot if but one Roman citizen led the way . Only one number on the program failed to interest her . When Gilbert Blythe recited `` Bingen on the Rhine '' Anne picked up Rhoda Murray 's library book and read it until he had finished , when she sat rigidly stiff and motionless while Diana clapped her hands until they tingled . It was eleven when they got home , sated with dissipation , but with the exceeding sweet pleasure of talking it all over still to come . Everybody seemed asleep and the house was dark and silent .
Anne and Diana tiptoed XXXXX the parlor , a long narrow room out of which the spare room opened .
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