She bent forward , kissed her reflection affectionately , and betook herself to the open window . `` Dear Snow Queen , good afternoon . And good afternoon dear birches down in the hollow . And good afternoon , dear gray house up on the hill . I wonder if Diana is to be my bosom friend . I hope she will , and I shall love her very much . But I must never quite forget Katie Maurice and Violetta . They would feel so hurt if I did and I 'd hate to hurt anybody 's feelings , even a little bookcase girl 's or a little echo girl 's . I must be careful to remember them and send them a kiss every day . '' Anne blew a couple of airy kisses from her fingertips past the cherry blossoms and then , with her chin in her hands , drifted luxuriously out on a sea of daydreams . CHAPTER IX . Mrs. Rachel Lynde Is Properly Horrified Anne had been a fortnight at Green Gables before Mrs. Lynde arrived to inspect her . Mrs. Rachel , to do her justice , was not to blame for this . A severe and unseasonable attack of grippe had confined that good lady to her house ever since the occasion of her last visit to Green Gables . Mrs. Rachel was not often sick and had a well-defined contempt for people who were ; but grippe , she asserted , was like no other illness on earth and could only be interpreted as one of the special visitations of Providence . As soon as her doctor allowed her to put her foot out-of-doors she hurried up to Green Gables , bursting with curiosity to see Matthew and Marilla 's orphan , concerning whom all sorts of stories and suppositions had gone abroad in Avonlea . Anne had made good use of every waking moment of that fortnight . Already she was acquainted with every tree and shrub about the place . She had discovered that a lane opened out below the apple orchard and ran up through a belt of woodland ; and she had explored it to its furthest end in all its delicious vagaries of brook and bridge , fir coppice and wild cherry arch , corners thick with fern , and branching byways of maple and mountain ash . She had made friends with the spring down in the hollow -- that wonderful deep , clear icy-cold spring ; it was set about with smooth red sandstones and rimmed in by great palm-like clumps of water fern ; and beyond it was a log bridge over the brook .
That bridge led Anne 's dancing feet up over a wooded hill beyond , where perpetual twilight reigned under the straight , thick-growing firs and spruces ; the only flowers there were myriads of delicate `` June bells , '' those shyest and sweetest XXXXX woodland blooms , and a few pale , aerial starflowers , like the spirits of last year 's blossoms .
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