Jem and Walter will take me out once out of charity . So you ca n't expect me to look forward to it with your touching young rapture . '' `` Did n't you have a good time at your first party , though , Miss Oliver ? '' `` No . I had a hateful time . I was shabby and homely and nobody asked me to dance except one boy , homelier and shabbier than myself . He was so awkward I hated him -- and even he did n't ask me again . I had no real girlhood , Rilla . It 's a sad loss . That 's why I want you to have a splendid , happy girlhood . And I hope your first party will be one you 'll remember all your life with pleasure . '' `` I dreamed last night I was at the dance and right in the middle of things I discovered I was dressed in my kimono and bedroom shoes , '' sighed Rilla . `` I woke up with a gasp of horror . '' `` Speaking of dreams -- I had an odd one , '' said Miss Oliver absently . `` It was one of those vivid dreams I sometimes have -- they are not the vague jumble of ordinary dreams -- they are as clear cut and real as life . '' `` What was your dream ? '' `` I was standing on the veranda steps , here at Ingleside , looking down over the fields of the Glen . All at once , far in the distance , I saw a long , silvery , glistening wave breaking over them . It came nearer and nearer -- just a succession of little white waves like those that break on the sandshore sometimes . The Glen was being swallowed up .
I thought , ` Surely the waves will not come near Ingleside ' -- but they came nearer and nearer -- so rapidly -- before I could move or call they were breaking right at my feet -- and everything was gone -- there was nothing but a waste of stormy water where the XXXXX had been .
Glen Ingleside Oliver Rilla Walter first girlhood night right sandshore