old friend.

Ludovic was tall and somewhat ungainly, but his unhesitating placidity
gave him the appearance of a dignity that did not otherwise pertain to
him. He had a drooping, silky, brown moustache, and a little curly tuft
of imperial,--a fashion which was regarded as eccentric in Grafton,
where men had clean-shaven chins or went full-bearded. His eyes were
dreamy and pleasant, with a touch of melancholy in their blue depths.

He sat down in the big bulgy old armchair that had belonged to
Theodora's father. Ludovic always sat there, and Anne declared that the
chair had come to look like him.

The conversation soon grew animated enough. Ludovic was a good talker
when he had somebody to draw him out. He was well read, and frequently
surprised Anne by his shrewd comments on men and matters out in the
world, of which only the faint echoes reached Deland River. He had also
a liking for religious arguments with Theodora, who did not care much
for politics or the making of history, but was avid of doctrines, and
read everything pertaining thereto. When the conversation drifted
into an eddy of friendly wrangling between Ludovic and Theodora over
Christian Science, Anne understood that her usefulness was ended for the
time being, and that she would not be missed.

"It's star time and good-night time," she said, and went away quietly.

But she had to stop to laugh when she was well out of sight of the
house, in a green meadow bestarred with the white and gold of daisies.
A wind, odour-freighted, blew daintily across it. Anne leaned against a
white birch tree in the corner and laughed heartily, as she was apt to
do whenever she thought of Ludovic and Theodora. To her eager youth,
this courtship of theirs seemed a very amusing thing. She liked Ludovic,
but allowed herself to be provoked with him.

"The dear, big, irritating goose!" she said aloud. "There never was such
a lovable idiot before. He's just like the alligator in the old rhyme,
who wouldn't go along, and wouldn't keep still, but just kept bobbing up
and down."

Two evenings later, when Anne went over to the Dix place, she and
Theodora drifted into a conversation about Ludovic. Theodora, who was
the most industrious soul alive, and had a mania for fancy work into
the bargain, was busying her smooth, plump fingers with a very elaborate
Battenburg lace centre-piece. Anne was lying back in a little rocker,
with her slim hands folded in her lap, watching Theodora.