One could have eaten a meal off the ground without overbrimming the proverbial peck of dirt . Mrs. Rachel rapped smartly at the kitchen door and stepped in when bidden to do so . The kitchen at Green Gables was a cheerful apartment -- or would have been cheerful if it had not been so painfully clean as to give it something of the appearance of an unused parlor . Its windows looked east and west ; through the west one , looking out on the back yard , came a flood of mellow June sunlight ; but the east one , whence you got a glimpse of the bloom white cherry-trees in the left orchard and nodding , slender birches down in the hollow by the brook , was greened over by a tangle of vines . Here sat Marilla Cuthbert , when she sat at all , always slightly distrustful of sunshine , which seemed to her too dancing and irresponsible a thing for a world which was meant to be taken seriously ; and here she sat now , knitting , and the table behind her was laid for supper . Mrs. Rachel , before she had fairly closed the door , had taken a mental note of everything that was on that table . There were three plates laid , so that Marilla must be expecting some one home with Matthew to tea ; but the dishes were everyday dishes and there was only crab-apple preserves and one kind of cake , so that the expected company could not be any particular company . Yet what of Matthew 's white collar and the sorrel mare ? Mrs. Rachel was getting fairly dizzy with this unusual mystery about quiet , unmysterious Green Gables . `` Good evening , Rachel , '' Marilla said briskly . `` This is a real fine evening , is n't it ? Wo n't you sit down ? How are all your folks ? '' Something that for lack of any other name might be called friendship existed and always had existed between Marilla Cuthbert and Mrs. Rachel , in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- their dissimilarity . Marilla was a tall , thin woman , with angles and without curves ; her dark hair showed some gray streaks and was always twisted up in a hard little knot behind with two wire hairpins stuck aggressively through it . She looked like a woman of narrow experience and rigid conscience , which she was ; but there was a saving something about her mouth which , if it had been ever so slightly developed , might have been considered indicative of a sense of humor . `` We 're all pretty well , '' said Mrs. Rachel . `` I was kind of afraid YOU were n't , though , when I saw Matthew starting off today . I thought maybe he was going to the doctor 's . '' Marilla 's lips twitched understandingly .
She had expected Mrs. Rachel up ; she had known that the sight XXXXX Matthew jaunting off so unaccountably would be too much for her neighbor 's curiosity .
about at before by if like of through to without