re was romance for you, with a vengeance! Anne
laughed--and then sighed. The bloom had been brushed from one little
maiden dream. Would the painful process go on until everything became
prosaic and hum-drum?

Chapter IX

An Unwelcome Lover and a Welcome Friend

The second term at Redmond sped as quickly as had the first--"actually
whizzed away," Philippa said. Anne enjoyed it thoroughly in all its
phases--the stimulating class rivalry, the making and deepening of new
and helpful friendships, the gay little social stunts, the doings of the
various societies of which she was a member, the widening of horizons
and interests. She studied hard, for she had made up her mind to win the
Thorburn Scholarship in English. This being won, meant that she could
come back to Redmond the next year without trenching on Marilla's small
savings--something Anne was determined she would not do.

Gilbert, too, was in full chase after a scholarship, but found plenty
of time for frequent calls at Thirty-eight, St. John's. He was Anne's
escort at nearly all the college affairs, and she knew that their names
were coupled in Redmond gossip. Anne raged over this but was helpless;
she could not cast an old friend like Gilbert aside, especially when
he had grown suddenly wise and wary, as behooved him in the dangerous
proximity of more than one Redmond youth who would gladly have taken his
place by the side of the slender, red-haired coed, whose gray eyes were
as alluring as stars of evening. Anne was never attended by the crowd of
willing victims who hovered around Philippa's conquering march through
her Freshman year; but there was a lanky, brainy Freshie, a jolly,
little, round Sophomore, and a tall, learned Junior who all liked to
call at Thirty-eight, St. John's, and talk over 'ologies and 'isms, as
well as lighter subjects, with Anne, in the becushioned parlor of that
domicile. Gilbert did not love any of them, and he was exceedingly
careful to give none of them the advantage over him by any untimely
display of his real feelings Anne-ward. To her he had become again the
boy-comrade of Avonlea days, and as such could hold his own against
any smitten swain who had so far entered the lists against him. As a
companion, Anne honestly acknowledged nobody could be so satisfactory as
Gilbert; she was very glad, so she told herself, that he had evidently
dropped all nonsensical ideas--though she spent considerable time
secretly wondering