gh to himself at her.

"This is better luck than I hoped for," said Ken, leaning back in his
chair and looking at her with very unconcealed admiration in his
eloquent eyes. "I was sure someone would be hanging about and it was
just you I wanted to see, Rilla-my-Rilla."

Rilla's dream castle flashed into the landscape again. This was
unmistakable enough certainly--not much doubt as to his meaning here.

"There aren't--so many of us--to poke around as there used to be," she
said softly.

"No, that's so," said Ken gently. "Jem and Walter and the girls
away--it makes a big blank, doesn't it? But--" he leaned forward until
his dark curls almost brushed her hair--"doesn't Fred Arnold try to
fill the blank occasionally. I've been told so."

At this moment, before Rilla could make any reply, Jims began to cry at
the top of his voice in the room whose open window was just above
them--Jims, who hardly ever cried in the evening. Moreover, he was
crying, as Rilla knew from experience, with a vim and energy that
betokened that he had been already whimpering softly unheard for some
time and was thoroughly exasperated. When Jims started in crying like
that he made a thorough job of it. Rilla knew that there was no use to
sit still and pretend to ignore him. He wouldn't stop; and conversation
of any kind was out of the question when such shrieks and howls were
floating over your head. Besides, she was afraid Kenneth would think
she was utterly unfeeling if she sat still and let a baby cry like
that. He was not likely acquainted with Morgan's invaluable volume.

She got up. "Jims has had a nightmare, I think. He sometimes has one
and he is always badly frightened by it. Excuse me for a moment."

Rilla flew upstairs, wishing quite frankly that soup tureens had never
been invented. But when Jims, at sight of her, lifted his little arms
entreatingly and swallowed several sobs, with tears rolling down his
cheeks, resentment went out of her heart. After all, the poor darling
was frightened. She picked him up gently and rocked him soothingly
until his sobs ceased and his eyes closed. Then she essayed to lay him
down in his crib. Jims opened his eyes and shrieked a protest. This
performance was repeated twice. Rilla grew desperate. She couldn't
leave Ken down there alone any longer--she had been away nearly half an
hour already. With a resigned air she marched downstairs, carrying
Jims, and sat down on the veranda. It was, no doubt, a r