"Well, well, there's no need to cry so about it."
"Yes, there IS need!" The child raised her head quickly, revealing a tear-stained face and trembling lips.
"YOU would cry, too, if you were an orphan and had come to a place you thought was going to be home and found that they didn't want you because you weren't a boy.
Oh, this is the most TRAGICAL thing that ever happened to me!"
Something like a reluctant smile, rather rusty from long disuse, mellowed Marilla's grim expression.
"Well, don't cry any more. We're not going to turn you out-of-doors to-night. You'll have to stay here until we investigate this affair. What's your name?"
The child hesitated for a moment.
"Will you please call me Cordelia?" she said eagerly.
"CALL you Cordelia? Is that your name?"
"No-o-o, it's not exactly my name, but I would love to be called Cordelia. It's such a perfectly elegant name."