“We’ve got each other, Anne. I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here⁠—if you’d never come. Oh, Anne, I know I’ve been kind of strict and harsh with you maybe⁠—but you mustn’t think I didn’t love you as well as Matthew did, for all that. I want to tell you now when I can. It’s never been easy for me to say things out of my heart, but at times like this it’s easier. I love you as dear as if you were my own flesh and blood and you’ve been my joy and comfort ever since you came to Green Gables.”