Anne and Priscilla Meet Philippa Gordon

Anne and Priscilla Meet Philippa Gordon is the first encounter between Anne Shirley, Priscilla Grant, and their future friend Philippa Gordon. In Old St. John’s Cemetery, Philippa’s hesitation gives way to an exuberant, frank approach; before they part, she has asked for friendship, and Anne feels that she has begun to take root in Kingsport. The scene makes acquaintance less a matter of polished introductions than of recognizing a lively, generous temperament beneath appearances.

Setting and First Approach

Anne and Priscilla are exploring Old St. John’s Cemetery, whose weathered memorials have already drawn Anne’s thoughtful attention. At the end of an avenue they notice a girl sitting beneath a great willow on a gray slab. Priscilla recognizes her from Redmond and has watched her try to come up the avenue six times, each time turning back. She wonders whether the stranger is shy or troubled by conscience, and proposes that a graveyard may make an easier place to meet than the college.

As Anne and Priscilla walk along the grassy arcade, the stranger’s appearance makes them newly conscious of their own clothes. Her brown suit, fashionable shoes, and dull-pink straw hat trimmed with golden-brown poppies look striking beside Priscilla’s village-trimmed hat and Anne’s homemade blouse. Both briefly feel tempted to retreat, but they have already stopped near the slab. The girl rises at once, crosses to them with an outstretched hand and a bright smile, and dispels the impression that her repeated reversals came from shyness or guilt.

Philippa’s Candor and Self-Presentation

Philippa Gordon introduces herself as Phil and says she has wanted to know the two girls since seeing them at Redmond that morning. She makes them laugh by confessing that the college gathering had seemed so awful that she had wished she had stayed home and married. She readily proposes that they sit together on the gravestone and get acquainted, certain that they will adore one another. The warmth of this invitation turns a meeting that might have remained awkward into a deliberately shared beginning.

Her exuberance comes with an explanation: Philippa says she cannot make up her mind, and that after choosing one course she is liable to feel another would have been right. She had wanted to approach Anne and Priscilla at Redmond but could not decide to do so. The cemetery encounter thus reveals the hesitation that Priscilla has observed, while Philippa herself supplies the meaning of that behavior. She insists that indecision, not shyness, is her failing, and asks her new acquaintances to call her Phil immediately.

Her candor extends to her appearance. Philippa explains that choosing which hat to wear took half an hour: she first favored a brown hat with a feather, then a pink hat with a floppy brim, and finally put the hats side by side and used a hat pin to settle the choice. When Anne tells her that she and Priscilla had thought her the prettiest girl at Redmond, Philippa admits that she had thought so too but wanted another person’s opinion to bolster her confidence. She also recounts that a great-aunt’s mournful remarks about how much prettier she had been as a baby unsettle her. Her vanity is presented not as cold self-regard but as another subject on which she seeks reassurance and companionship.

Shared Origins and Invitation to Friendship

When Philippa says she comes from Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia, Anne exclaims that Bolingbroke is where she was born. Philippa is pleased by the coincidence, which makes them feel like neighbors and, in her view, makes it easier to confide secrets. The exchange briefly connects Anne’s new life at Redmond to her earlier origins: she and Priscilla say together that they are from the Island, while Philippa names her own home. The resemblance of their backgrounds gives their friendship an immediate point of recognition without making them identical.

Philippa says she cannot keep secrets and gives indecision as her other chief failing. She later describes two suitors who are willing to wait until she can make up her mind, while she expects to enjoy the attention of numerous beaux at Redmond. She talks about popularity and boys with the same unguarded ease with which she discusses hats and her looks. Anne is initially rather cold when she and Priscilla begin to leave, saying that it is late and she has work to do. Philippa gets up, puts an arm around each girl, asks them to visit her, and offers to visit them. She worries that her frivolity may have disgusted them, but Anne responds to the embrace and returns to a more cordial manner.

Before they part, Philippa insists that she is not as silly as she sounds and asks to be accepted with her faults. Her attention shifts readily back to the cemetery: she calls it a sweet place and notices a grave within an iron railing, identifying its occupant as a midshipman killed in the fight between the Shannon and the Chesapeake. That turn from flirtatious self-description to curiosity about the memorials keeps the scene grounded in their surroundings and in the shared activity that has brought them together.

Aftermath and Significance

Afterward, Anne tells Priscilla that she likes Philippa despite her nonsense, describing her as lovable and wondering whether she will ever really grow up. Priscilla agrees that she likes her, though she compares Philippa’s talk of boys with Ruby Gillis’s and asks why it affects her differently. Anne’s answer clarifies what she has found appealing: she thinks Ruby is self-conscious about courtship and sometimes boasts in order to emphasize how many beaux she has, whereas Philippa treats boys as good comrades and enjoys being popular. Even Philippa’s two suitors, Anne believes, are simply playfellows to her.

The distinction lets Anne recognize a kind of youthful romantic talk that she can enjoy without feeling measured or challenged by it. Philippa’s openness is not proof that she has no vanities or indecision; rather, her willingness to expose them makes her company feel affectionate instead of competitive. Anne’s conclusion also gives the meeting a consequence beyond the introduction itself. She says she is glad they went to Old St. John’s and met Philippa, and hopes she has put a tiny soul-root into Kingsport soil. In a city where Anne and Priscilla have felt like strangers, the new friendship becomes an early sign that their unfamiliar surroundings may become a home.