Two women, respectable women in their fifties, were walking along the road leading towards the village of Glen St. Mary. They were speaking to each other – or rather; they were gossiping wildly – about recent events in the small community, and things dating further back in time, to the days long before the War.
"Those Manse children were quite a mischievous bunch at the beginning, wouldn't you say?" Exclaimed the first woman.
"Indeed, they were." The other replied, before quickly continuing, being by far the most talkative of the pair. "Must say things took a turn for the better after Reverend Meredith married Rosemary West. Now they are all solid young people, starting their own families. Of course, both Jerry and Faith married children of the good Doctor Blythe, but Carl's Redmond wife is a very nice girl as well. And then there's Una." The last bit was said with a heavy sigh. "She still has not found a husband, despite the fact that there are plenty of lovely young men about. It beats me why she does not get married like any respectable woman."
Normally such a comment would not have meant much between the two of them; they both agreed that any woman who wanted to be able to continue walking with her face held high ought to marry. In their view only those who could not find a husband could – eventually, after many years of bemoaning the fact – have a sense of pride, it was, after all, not their own fault that they were unmarried. That a young girl, like Una Meredith, should chose not to get married was a foreign thought to them. So most days they would just reinforce each other in the view that marriage was the one and only thing to strive towards for a young girl. This day, however, someone else heard the comment; in the very moment, the comment was being made a young woman walked past them in the opposite direction, a tall slender woman with reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes.
Rilla could not believe her own ears when she heard what those two wile gossipy women were saying about Una. Her initial reaction was to turn around and punch the offender right between her eyes, but that probably would not be considered very a very respectable thing to do. Instead, she turned around and smiled sweetly at the two women.
"Why is it only married women who are respectable?" She asked. "While I never really had the chance to know her I always got the impression that my mother's guardian – Marilla Cuthbert from Avonlea – was a very respectable woman, she never married. Then there is Susan Baker, my parents' maid up at Ingleside."
"But Mrs. Ford." Said the woman who had made the offending remark. "Those two eventually reached a time in their life when they realized that marriage was too late for them. Una is still young; she ought to get married now unless she regrets it later. Who has ever heard of a woman getting respectably married past her twenties?"
This time it took all of Rilla's composure to not physically attack the gossipy hen of a woman. Instead, she drew a few deep breaths before closing her eyes, pretending to be thinking deeply about the question.
"I don't know." She said slowly. "I would say Mrs. John Meredith married quite respectably, so did her sister, Mrs. Norman Douglas. Of course, there is also Mrs. Marshall Elliott. However, apart from those three, I really cannot think of others.
Anyway, this is not the reason I took offence to your comment before, my ladies, the reason is that Una Meredith is my friend, and I do not take kindly to it when people talk badly about my friends, especially when they know nothing about them. I happen to know why Una has chosen to remain unmarried, I will not tell you why – you would just bring it out to everyone before sunset – but I will say this; remember that there has just been a war. Thousands of brave young went away, many did not return, back home sits the women who, while not considered widows in society, are still widows in their hearts."
"The War was five years ago." The first woman, speaking for the first time since her initial comment about the Manse children.
"Some wounds never heal, and five years – though it feels like an eternity when you are in the middle of a war – is just a blink-of-an-eye when it comes to overcoming the horrors of said war. Now, if you will excuse me, I better get back home before little Gilbert wakes from his midday sleep, he tends to be a bit fuzzy when he does."
With those words, the very respectable Mrs. Kenneth Ford went on her way home, leaving the two gossipers to continue their walk towards the village. For a few moments, they were stunned to silence, then:
"Did you hear what happened down by the harbour last night?" the two women continued their gossiping with just as much force as before, only they took care not to be too critic of any young woman who – in their eyes – remained unmarried long after she ought to have found herself a good decent husband.
Rilla, meanwhile, made it back to the House of Dreams and was delighted to see that Owen and Leslie had arrived for the summer vacation. Though the pair stayed at Ingleside when they visited Four Winds – as Anne had said, there was plenty of room now that the Blythe children had begun moving out to start their own families – they still visited Ken, Rilla and little Gilbert as often as they could.
"Hello, Rilla." Leslie said with a smile, then, noticing that Rilla looked about ready to explode, added, "What's wrong? You look like you want to break a slate on someone's head." The old story had been told and re-told countless of times and had practically become a shorthand for someone being really, angry.
"I met a couple of old gossipy women on my way back from Glen." Rilla said, going inside to fetch little Gilbert, he had just awoken from his midday sleep and – as Rilla has told the two women he would – was beginning to fuzz. "Now, normally gossipy women wouldn't bother me that much, I grew up in a house frequented by Miss Cornelia, but when they started talking badly about how Una has not gotten married like 'any respectable woman' I had had enough. I did break any slates, and not only because I did not have any, I was actually being rather calm when I corrected their views about 'respectable women'.
"To some people others can never be respectable. They will always find fault, don't mind them." Leslie said, leaning over to tickle Gilbert under his feet, causing him to giggle.