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 of Matthew jaunting off so unaccountably would be too much for her neighbor 's curiosity . `` Oh , no , I 'm quite well although I had a bad headache yesterday , '' she said . `` Matthew went to Bright River . We 're getting a little boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia and he 's coming on the train tonight . '' If Marilla had said that Matthew had gone to Bright River to meet a kangaroo from Australia Mrs. Rachel could not have been more astonished . She was actually stricken dumb for five seconds . It was unsupposable that Marilla was making fun of her , but Mrs. Rachel was almost forced to suppose it . `` Are you in earnest , Marilla ? '' she demanded when voice returned to her . `` Yes , of course , '' said Marilla , as if getting boys from orphan asylums in Nova Scotia were part of the usual spring work on any well-regulated Avonlea farm instead of being an unheard of innovation . Mrs. Rachel felt that she had received a severe mental jolt . She thought in exclamation points . A boy !
Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert XXXXX all people adopting a boy !
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