only-with-thine-eyes isn't a really reliable
reason for embroidering doilies and hemstitching tablecloths. I don't
want to begin such work until I'm really engaged. It would be tempting
Fate."

"Mr. Blake is afraid to ask you to marry him, Phil. He is poor and can't
offer you a home such as you've always had. You know that is the only
reason he hasn't spoken long ago."

"I suppose so," agreed Phil dolefully. "Well"--brightening up--"if he
WON'T ask me to marry him I'll ask him, that's all. So it's bound to
come right. I won't worry. By the way, Gilbert Blythe is going about
constantly with Christine Stuart. Did you know?"

Anne was trying to fasten a little gold chain about her throat. She
suddenly found the clasp difficult to manage. WHAT was the matter with
it--or with her fingers?

"No," she said carelessly. "Who is Christine Stuart?"

"Ronald Stuart's sister. She's in Kingsport this winter studying music.
I haven't seen her, but they say she's very pretty and that Gilbert is
quite crazy over her. How angry I was when you refused Gilbert, Anne.
But Roy Gardner was foreordained for you. I can see that now. You were
right, after all."

Anne did not blush, as she usually did when the girls assumed that her
eventual marriage to Roy Gardner was a settled thing. All at once she
felt rather dull. Phil's chatter seemed trivial and the reception a
bore. She boxed poor Rusty's ears.

"Get off that cushion instantly, you cat, you! Why don't you stay down
where you belong?"

Anne picked up her orchids and went downstairs, where Aunt Jamesina was
presiding over a row of coats hung before the fire to warm. Roy Gardner
was waiting for Anne and teasing the Sarah-cat while he waited. The
Sarah-cat did not approve of him. She always turned her back on him.
But everybody else at Patty's Place liked him very much. Aunt Jamesina,
carried away by his unfailing and deferential courtesy, and the pleading
tones of his delightful voice, declared he was the nicest young man she
ever knew, and that Anne was a very fortunate girl. Such remarks made
Anne restive. Roy's wooing had certainly been as romantic as girlish
heart could desire, but--she wished Aunt Jamesina and the girls would
not take things so for granted. When Roy murmured a poetical compliment
as he helped her on with her coat, she did not blush and thrill as
usual; and he found her rather silent in their brief walk to Redmond.
He thought she looked a little pale when she c