The other children were not unwilling at first to enter upon an
inquisitive friendship with the new-comer; but Marilla was so
uncongenial to the noisy visitors, and so fastidious in the matter of
snowy and muddy shoes, that she was soon avoided. Nan herself was a
teachable child and gave little trouble, and Marilla sometimes
congratulated herself because she had reserved the violent objections
which had occurred to her mind when the doctor had announced, just
before Mrs. Thacher's death, that his ward would henceforth find a
home in his house.
Marilla usually sat in the dining-room in the evening, though she was
apt to visit the study occasionally, knitting in hand, to give her
opinions, or to acquaint herself with various events of which she
thought the doctor would be likely to have knowledge. Sometimes in the
colder winter nights, she drew a convenient light-stand close beside
the kitchen stove and refused to wander far from such comfortable
warmth. Now that she had Nan's busy feet to cover, there was less
danger than ever that she should be left without knitting-work, and
she deeply enjoyed the child's company, since Nan could give innocent
answers to many questions which could never be put to elder members of
the Dyer and Thacher neighborhood. Mrs. Meeker was apt to be discussed
with great freedom, and Nan told long stories about her own childish
experiences, which were listened to and encouraged, and matched with
others even longer and more circumstantial by Marilla.
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