Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 16: Diana Is Invited to Tea, with Tragic Results Summary & Analysis

It’s a brilliant October day, and Marilla has to go to an Aid Society meeting in a nearby town. Anne will have to get supper for Matthew and Jerry the farmhand. In the meantime, she’s allowed to invite Diana over for afternoon tea. She can even use the leftover raspberry cordial she’ll find in the cupboard. Anne rushes over to Orchard Slope to tell Diana, and shortly after Marilla drives off in the buggy, Diana appears at Green Gables in her second-best dress. The girls sit in the sitting room, asking about each other’s families and farm crops, until Anne forgets to be formal, and they decide to pick apples in the orchard. They spend most of the afternoon there, Diana catching Anne up on all the Avonlea school gossip.

When Diana mentions Gilbert Blythe, Anne changes the subject by suggesting they go inside and have some raspberry cordial. But when she looks in the pantry where Marilla had said the cordial would be, she doesn’t see it. Then she finds a bottle of red liquid hidden on the top shelf and offers Diana a tumbler full, declining to drink any herself, since she’s too full of apples. By the time Anne gets back from the kitchen, Diana has drunk two additional glasses of the raspberry cordial. Anne goes off on a long digression about her various cooking fiascoes, and by the time she’s finished, Diana has risen from the table shakily, holding her head. She tells Anne she feels “awful sick” and must go home. Anne fails to dissuade her and finally accompanies her dizzy friend back to the Barrys’, weeping with disappointment as she walks home to ready Matthew’s tea.

Two days later, Anne returns from an errand to Mrs. Lynde’s in tears. She confesses to Marilla that Mrs. Barry told Mrs. Lynde that Anne had sent Diana home in bad shape the other day—Diana was drunk. Anne is a terrible little girl, Mrs. Barry went on, and Diana will never be allowed to play with her again. Marilla, baffled, goes to the pantry to investigate. When she sees the bottle Anne had poured, she is shocked to recognize her three-year-old currant wine. She remembers that she’d actually put the raspberry cordial in the cellar. She tries not to laugh as she explains the matter to Anne.

Anne recoils at facing Mrs. Barry, so Marilla agrees to speak to her instead. When Marilla returns from Orchard Slope, however, she’s furious. Mrs. Barry refused to believe Marilla, and she criticized her for making such strong wine. Marilla had retorted that a greedy child like Diana ought to be spanked for drinking three glasses of anything. That evening, Anne sneaks over to Orchard Slope and timidly begs Mrs. Barry’s forgiveness. Mrs. Barry isn’t as easily softened as Mrs. Lynde, however, and suspects Anne is making fun of her by using big words like “intoxicate.” That night, Marilla has a good laugh while telling the whole story to Matthew, but when she checks on Anne in her bedroom, she can’t help but kiss the tear-stained sleeping face.