The stout lady occasionally turned her head squarely around and surveyed Anne through her eyeglasses until Anne , acutely sensitive of being so scrutinized , felt that she must scream aloud ; and the white-lace girl kept talking audibly to her next neighbor about the `` country bumpkins '' and `` rustic belles '' in the audience , languidly anticipating `` such fun '' from the displays of local talent on the program . Anne believed that she would hate that white-lace girl to the end of life . Unfortunately for Anne , a professional elocutionist was staying at the hotel and had consented to recite . She was a lithe , dark-eyed woman in a wonderful gown of shimmering gray stuff like woven moonbeams , with gems on her neck and in her dark hair . She had a marvelously flexible voice and wonderful power of expression ; the audience went wild over her selection . Anne , forgetting all about herself and her troubles for the time , listened with rapt and shining eyes ; but when the recitation ended she suddenly put her hands over her face . She could never get up and recite after that -- never . Had she ever thought she could recite ? Oh , if she were only back at Green Gables ! At this unpropitious moment her name was called . Somehow Anne -- who did not notice the rather guilty little start of surprise the white-lace girl gave , and would not have understood the subtle compliment implied therein if she had -- got on her feet , and moved dizzily out to the front . She was so pale that Diana and Jane , down in the audience , clasped each other 's hands in nervous sympathy . Anne was the victim of an overwhelming attack of stage fright . Often as she had recited in public , she had never before faced such an audience as this , and the sight of it paralyzed her energies completely . Everything was so strange , so brilliant , so bewildering -- the rows of ladies in evening dress , the critical faces , the whole atmosphere of wealth and culture about her . Very different this from the plain benches at the Debating Club , filled with the homely , sympathetic faces of friends and neighbors . These people , she thought , would be merciless critics . Perhaps , like the white-lace girl , they anticipated amusement from her `` rustic '' efforts . She felt hopelessly , helplessly ashamed and miserable . Her knees trembled , her heart fluttered , a horrible faintness came over her ; not a word could she utter , and the next moment she would have fled from the platform despite the humiliation which , she felt , must ever after be her portion if she did so .
But suddenly , XXXXX her dilated , frightened eyes gazed out over the audience , she saw Gilbert Blythe away at the back of the room , bending forward with a smile on his face -- a smile which seemed to Anne at once triumphant and taunting .
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