Энн из Зеленых Крыш. Уровень 1 / Anne of Green Gables

Rachel closed the door and noticed everything that was on that table. There were three plates, so Marilla expected someone.

"Good evening, Rachel,” Marilla said briskly. "This is a fine evening, isn't it? Won't you sit down?”

Marilla was a tall, thin woman. She looked like a woman of rigid conscience.

"I was afraid,” said Mrs. Rachel, "when I saw Matthew. I thought maybe he went to the doctor's.”

Marilla's lips twitched understandingly.

"Oh, no,” she said. "Matthew went to Bright River. We want to get a little boy from an orphan asylum[3 - orphan asylum – сиротский приют] in Nova Scotia.

He'll come on the train tonight.”

Mrs. Rachel was actually shocked.

"Are you serious, Marilla?” she demanded.

"Yes, of course,” said Marilla.

Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert adopt a boy! From an orphan asylum!

"But why? But how…” she demanded disapprovingly.

"Well, we thought about it,” answered Marilla. "Mrs. Spencer was up here one day before Christmas. She said she wanted to get a little girl from the asylum over in Hopeton in the spring.

Her cousin lives there. So we thought about a boy. Matthew is not young, you know – he's sixty. He isn't so spry as he once was. His heart troubles him. So we decided to ask Mrs. Spencer to pick us out a good boy when she went over to get her little girl. We want to get a smart boy of about ten or eleven. We had a telegram from Mrs. Spencer today – the mailman brought it from the station. So Matthew went to Bright River to meet him. ”

"Well, Marilla, I'll just tell you that I think. You will do a very foolish thing – a risky thing. You don't know what you get. You want to bring a strange child into your house! It was only last week I read in the newspaper how a man and his wife took a boy out of an orphan asylum and he set fire to the house[4 - set fire to the house – поджёг дом] at night!”

Marilla knitted.

"I don't deny there's something in what you say, Rachel. But Matthew wanted to get a boy.

”

Mrs. Rachel decided to go up the road to Robert Bell's and tell him the news. So she went away, to Marilla's relief.

Chapter II

Matthew Cuthbert is surprised

Matthew Cuthbert and the sorrel mare jogged comfortably over the eight miles to Bright River. It was a pretty road, the air was sweet with the breath of many apple orchards and meadows. Matthew enjoyed the drive. He dreaded all women except Marilla and Mrs. Rachel.