Chapter 8 Summary

Marilla forestalls telling Anne that she is to stay at Green Gables until the following afternoon. Anne, smart and mindful but adrift in her daydreams until grounded by rebuke or calamity, is at her wits end to know her fate. The girl's prayers are answered and she succumbs to tears, unable to contain herself. Anne promises to be good, even though it will be "uphill work" owing to the fact that she is "desperately wicked," or so Mrs. Thomas told her. Despite Anne's entreaties to call her new guardian Aunt, Marilla will have none of it; after all, she is not the girl's aunt. Anne wishes that Marilla could imagine she were her aunt, just as Anne herself imagined her reflection in Mrs. Thomas's bookcase and her very own echo as her dear and intimate friends. Learning The Lord's Prayer for Marilla's sake...