they know I was going to be married?"

"Oh, I told them. I was there last week. And they were so interested.
Two days ago Miss Patty wrote me a note asking me to call; and then she
asked if I would take her gift to you. What would you wish most from
Patty's Place, Anne?"

"You can't mean that Miss Patty has sent me her china dogs?"

"Go up head. They're in my trunk this very moment. And I've a letter
for you. Wait a moment and I'll get it."

"Dear Miss Shirley," Miss Patty had written, "Maria and I were very
much interested in hearing of your approaching nuptials. We send you
our best wishes. Maria and I have never married, but we have no
objection to other people doing so. We are sending you the china dogs.
I intended to leave them to you in my will, because you seemed to have
sincere affection for them. But Maria and I expect to live a good
while yet (D.V.), so I have decided to give you the dogs while you are
young. You will not have forgotten that Gog looks to the right and
Magog to the left."

"Just fancy those lovely old dogs sitting by the fireplace in my house
of dreams," said Anne rapturously. "I never expected anything so
delightful."

That evening Green Gables hummed with preparations for the following
day; but in the twilight Anne slipped away. She had a little
pilgrimage to make on this last day of her girlhood and she must make
it alone. She went to Matthew's grave, in the little poplar-shaded
Avonlea graveyard, and there kept a silent tryst with old memories and
immortal loves.

"How glad Matthew would be tomorrow if he were here," she whispered.
"But I believe he does know and is glad of it--somewhere else. I've
read somewhere that 'our dead are never dead until we have forgotten
them.' Matthew will never be dead to me, for I can never forget him."

She left on his grave the flowers she had brought and walked slowly
down the long hill. It was a gracious evening, full of delectable
lights and shadows. In the west was a sky of mackerel clouds--crimson
and amber-tinted, with long strips of apple-green sky between. Beyond
was the glimmering radiance of a sunset sea, and the ceaseless voice of
many waters came up from the tawny shore. All around her, lying in the
fine, beautiful country silence, were the hills and fields and woods
she had known and loved so long.

"History repeats itself," said Gilbert, joining her as she passed the
Blythe gate. "Do you remember our first walk