Richard Keith’s death and the provisions of his will turn the twins’ uncertain stay at Green Gables into a secure home: his estate provides for Davy Keith and Dora Keith, while leaving Marilla Cuthbert responsible for their care. The news is sad in itself, but the bequest resolves the practical question that had made Marilla fear she could not keep them as they grew older. The event joins bereavement to an unexpected form of provision, and changes the twins’ future from temporary refuge to permanence.

The unanswered question

Richard Keith had been silent since the previous May. Marilla Cuthbert wonders aloud why she has heard nothing from him, while Anne Shirley fears that a letter might require them to send the twins to him. Her dread makes clear that the children’s place in the household is emotionally settled but not yet guaranteed by circumstance: Anne and Marilla want them to stay, yet Marilla has been uncertain whether she could afford to raise them beyond their immediate childhood.

The news comes about a month after that conversation, and it is not a message from Richard himself. His friend writes to report that Richard died of consumption a fortnight earlier. The delay and indirectness matter: by the time the household learns what has happened, the question is no longer whether Richard will send for the children. His death has made that possibility impossible, while his will unexpectedly answers the separate question of how they can be provided for.

The will and its provision

The writer of the letter is Richard’s executor. The will leaves two thousand dollars to Marilla in trust for Davy and Dora until they come of age or marry. In the meantime, the interest is to be used for their maintenance. The arrangement does not simply give Marilla an unrestricted sum; it assigns her a fiduciary role and directs the income toward the children’s support, with the capital held for their future under the stated conditions.

That distinction supplies the practical turning point. Before the letter, the desire to keep the twins had met the limits of Marilla’s means. Now their maintenance has a designated source, and the decision no longer depends on asking Anne to spend her own money on them. The inheritance therefore changes both the children’s prospects and the terms on which Marilla can continue to care for them.

Marilla’s response

Anne receives the news with mixed feeling. She is sorry for Richard, but glad that the twins can remain with them. Her reaction holds the event’s two consequences together: a death has occurred, and the household’s uncertainty has ended. She does not treat the bequest as compensation for a life lost; rather, it makes possible a future she had feared might be taken away.

Marilla responds with practical relief. She had wanted to keep Davy and Dora but had not known how to manage the expense as they grew older. The rent from the farm, she explains, does no more than maintain the house. She had also been determined not to use any of Anne’s money for the twins, even though Anne already did much for them. The trust removes that financial obstacle and, in Marilla’s view, makes their provision secure. Her mention of the new hat Anne bought Dora—a purchase she considered unnecessary—also reveals how closely she watches household spending, even amid her affection for the children.

A permanent home

Davy and Dora are delighted to learn that they will stay at Green Gables for good. Richard was an uncle they had never seen, and his death does not outweigh, for them, the immediate news that they will not have to leave the home where they are being raised. Their response does not erase the loss; it shows how distant the dead man is from their lived experience and how concrete the promise of staying is to them.

Dora’s one misgiving is whether Uncle Richard was buried. Her question gives the news a small but telling human aftermath: although she does not know him, she is concerned about what happened to him after death. Anne reassures her that he was buried. The question briefly places the children’s joy beside an awareness of the person whose death has altered their lives, without turning their response into grief for a relationship they never had.

Consequences in the household

The letter converts Marilla’s wish into a financially supported commitment. The children’s home at Green Gables is no longer dependent solely on her limited resources, and Anne need not fear that an instruction from Richard will take them away. The will’s conditions also make the provision specific to their upbringing and future, rather than a vague promise of assistance.

The event’s significance lies in this conjunction of loss and continuity. Richard’s death closes the possibility of a personal relationship between him and the twins, but the will gives them a lasting place in the family life Marilla and Anne have built. Their delight, Anne’s sorrowful relief, and Marilla’s practical accounting register different sides of the same change: the household can now keep Davy and Dora, and the children can understand Green Gables as home for good.