Exasperated , Marilla returned to the kitchen and poured out her tale of woe to Matthew , who , between his sense of justice and his unlawful sympathy with Anne , was a miserable man . `` Well now , she should n't have taken the brooch , Marilla , or told stories about it , '' he admitted , mournfully surveying his plateful of unromantic pork and greens as if he , like Anne , thought it a food unsuited to crises of feeling , `` but she 's such a little thing -- such an interesting little thing . Do n't you think it 's pretty rough not to let her go to the picnic when she 's so set on it ? '' `` Matthew Cuthbert , I 'm amazed at you . I think I 've let her off entirely too easy . And she does n't appear to realize how wicked she 's been at all -- that 's what worries me most . If she 'd really felt sorry it would n't be so bad . And you do n't seem to realize it , neither ; you 're making excuses for her all the time to yourself -- I can see that . '' `` Well now , she 's such a little thing , '' feebly reiterated Matthew . `` And there should be allowances made , Marilla . You know she 's never had any bringing up . '' `` Well , she 's having it now '' retorted Marilla . The retort silenced Matthew if it did not convince him . That dinner was a very dismal meal . The only cheerful thing about it was Jerry Buote , the hired boy , and Marilla resented his cheerfulness as a personal insult . When her dishes were washed and her bread sponge set and her hens fed Marilla remembered that she had noticed a small rent in her best black lace shawl when she had taken it off on Monday afternoon on returning from the Ladies ' Aid . She would go and mend it . The shawl was in a box in her trunk . As Marilla lifted it out , the sunlight , falling through the vines that clustered thickly about the window , struck upon something caught in the shawl -- something that glittered and sparkled in facets of violet light . Marilla snatched at it with a gasp .
It was the amethyst brooch , hanging to a thread XXXXX the lace by its catch !
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