"I've got plenty of doilies for you," Marilla said briskly when Anne came to her with yesterday's concern. "Come with me."
In the spare room, in a corner, underneath many less important things, there was an old trunk. Marilla slowly pulled it away from the wall and lovingly brushed it off.
She unhooked the latch and Anne heard it creak open, as if it had been a very long since anyone had disturbed its rest. Marilla paused a moment before lifting anything out. Anne said nothing and only watched her. At last Marilla lifted out a small bag and handed it to Anne. Very curious, Anne peeked in, and found a neat stack of perfectly made doilies.
"Did you make these, Marilla?"
Marilla just nodded. "And you're welcome to anything else I have stored up."
Anne knelt down to the floor and hesitantly lifted the tray from the trunk so she could see everything it held.
On the tray were cloth napkins- fancy ones- and an embroidered table runner. Inside the trunk she found a pewter candle snuffer, a small cut glass butter dish, pillow cases, a never-used quilt, and one little baby garment neatly folded.
"What is all this, Marilla? You've never used them."
Marilla would have preferred to leave Anne to look through the things on her own, but Anne's question caught her at the door.
"They were...things I'd gotten. Some I made, others I was given. ...We girls used to call them hope chests."
"Diana and Ruby have them," Anne breathed. "I'd forgotten all about Ruby's. But Diana wrote to me about hers in a letter."
Marilla's soft answer came after a moment of quiet. "Yes. A girl would fill it as she grew up, in the hope of...in the hope of having a home and family of her own one day."
Anne looked up suddenly. "But-"
Marilla didn't meet Anne's eyes. "This was mine."
Anne sat back from it. She didn't know if she felt all right about going through Marilla's things.
Seeing Anne biting her lip, Marilla came back into the room. Sitting down on the edge of the bed nearby Anne, she said, "You don't have to feel that way, you know. It was such a long time ago, and really, it's almost a sin to let so many useful things go to waste!"
"But they would have been useful before, and you never got them out then," Anne protested. "It must have made you too sad to open the trunk..."
Marilla picked up the lovingly made doilies and smiled a bit at them. "I thought it unlikely I'd ever marry, after John and I didn't work out. It was him I had in mind all the time I was sitting in the windowsill crocheting these little things! But...after he moved on, I suppose I thought maybe I'd settle down with someone else, anyone else, one of these days."
"You wanted to marry someone else?" Anne asked.
"No," Marilla admitted. "It was only ever John Blythe. But he had married, what was I to do? As time went on and my friends around me were all married and having children, I had a thought that maybe someone else would come along, someone who could make me forget him, and…oh, but I guarded my heart- I'd never let anyone in after John."
Anne was surprised at how much Marilla was opening up to her.
"It was wasteful of me not to open up this trunk long ago and start using these things!" she said, sounding ashamed. "That table runner would have been a nice touch at Christmas dinner, and we could always use things like napkins and pillowcases- and Walter certainly could have worn that little outfit. I suppose I felt that as long as I was still saving them, then I…"
Anne waited for her to go on.
"Oh, it's so silly: It seemed to me that taking them all out of the trunk and having them in this house for everyday use meant I was admitting to myself that they'd never be used in a married home of my own."
"That isn't silly," Anne whispered, laying a hand over Marilla's aged one. "I wouldn't have wanted you to take them out if it made you sad."
But Marilla came out of some long ago moment, and refocusing, looked down at Anne with a smile. "Seeing them doesn't make me sad. Not when they'll be used in such a happy home! They were saved for the marriage of a young Mr. and Mrs. Blythe, and you know, that's exactly who will have them."
