Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 30: The Queen’s Class Is Organized Summary & Analysis

One dark November evening, Marilla lays her knitting aside; her eyes grow tired easily these days. Anne is curled up in front of the fire, her book fallen to the floor. Marilla watches the daydreaming girl with tenderness. She refrains from “indulging” Anne by being demonstrative; indeed, Anne isn’t even sure that Marilla loves her. Marilla fears it isn’t right to love a human being so intensely and compensates for her affection by being stricter than necessary.

Marilla tells Anne that Miss Stacy stopped by this afternoon. Anne is interested, but goes on a digression describing her wanderings in the woods with Diana that afternoon. She and Diana no longer talk about childish things, she says—they’re almost 14. In fact, the other day, Miss Stacy took all the teenage girls for a walk and talked to them about the importance of developing good habits now, since their characters will already be formed by the time they are adults. After that, she and Diana resolved to become as sensible as possible.

Marilla tries to get a word in edgewise, but when Anne hears that Miss Stacy stopped by to discuss her, she feels a pang of conscience. She explains that Miss Stacy caught her reading Ben-Hur during Canadian history yesterday. She’d gotten to the chariot race scene during the dinner hour, and she couldn’t bear to set it aside, so she tucked the novel inside her history book. When Miss Stacy discovered this, she was very disappointed. She kept Anne inside during recess and rebuked her both for wasting time and for deceiving her, but then she readily forgave Anne.

Marilla says Miss Stacy never mentioned this story and that when she was young, she wasn’t even allowed to look at novels. Anne says Ben-Hur shouldn’t really be considered a novel when it’s such a religious book. Anyway, she no longer reads books that both Miss Stacy and Mrs. Allan wouldn’t approve of. One day Miss Stacy found her reading a “lurid” mystery book and told her it was unwholesome, but Anne wants so much to please Miss Stacy that she happily gave it up.

Marilla says that Anne clearly isn’t interested in Miss Stacy’s news, so Anne promises to stop talking so much. Marilla explains that Miss Stacy wants to organize a class to study for the Queen’s Entrance exam and she asks if Anne wants to go to Queen’s and become a teacher. Anne says it’s been her dream over the past few months, but she thought it would be too expensive. Marilla says she doesn’t need to worry about that; she and Matthew have been setting aside money for her education. Marilla believes that a girl should be able to earn a living. She can always live at Green Gables, but she wants Anne to be able to support herself just in case. Anne hugs Marilla and promises to work hard.

Marilla says she’s sure Anne will do well, though she doesn’t tell Anne just how highly Miss Stacy praised her. The Entrance exam isn’t for another year and a half, so she tells Anne not to study excessively hard. Anne is happy to have a worthy goal in life—Mrs. Allan says everyone should—and she likes the idea of being a teacher like Miss Stacy someday.

Soon the Queen’s class is organized, including Anne, Gilbert, Ruby Gillis, Jane Andrews, Josie Pye, Charlie Sloane, and Moody Spurgeon MacPherson. Diana’s parents don’t plan to send her to Queen’s, so it’s the first time the two of them have been separated in school. But Anne is excited about the Queen’s class for its own sake.

Some of the girls intend to earn their living by teaching, some just want an education and hope to marry. Moody Spurgeon wants to be a minister, and Charlie wants to go into politics. But Anne doesn’t know or care what Gilbert’s goals are. They’re locked in a rivalry for the first place in their class. Ever since the incident on the pond, Gilbert has steadfastly ignored Anne. Anne finds this isn’t so pleasant, but she tries to tell herself she doesn’t care. Her resentment has faded. She realizes she’s forgiven Gilbert—but it’s too late.

The winter passes pleasantly, as Anne is an eager, engaged student. She loves reading books, singing in the Sunday school choir, and visiting Mrs. Allan on Saturday afternoons. As spring comes to Avonlea, Anne’s enthusiasm for studying wanes, but Miss Stacy encourages the Queen’s class to have a relaxing vacation with lots of outdoor time. Anne decides to put her books away for the summer, since it might be her last summer as a “little girl,” and she might not even believe in fairies next year.

The next day Mrs. Lynde drops by. Marilla has been anxious about Matthew’s more frequent bad spells with his heart. It seems that he works too hard. As they drink tea together, Mrs. Rachel observes that Anne has turned out to be much smarter and more helpful than she seemed at first. Marilla agrees that Anne has turned out to be steady and trustworthy. Rachel gladly admits she was mistaken about Anne—she was an odd child to whom the rules that work with other children don’t seem to apply.