I didn't listen to him very much.

I just let my thoughts run and I thought of the most surprising things." Marilla felt helplessly that all this should be sternly reproved, but she was hampered by the undeniable fact that some of the things Anne had said, especially about the minister's sermons and Mr.Bell's prayers, were what she herself had really thought deep down in her heart for years, but had never given expression to.

It almost seemed to her that those secret, unuttered, critical thoughts had suddenly taken visible and accusing shape and form in the person of this outspoken morsel of neglected humanity..