Sometimes Leslie went to the lighthouse with them , and she and Anne wandered along the shore in the eerie twilight , or sat on the rocks below the lighthouse until the darkness drove them back to the cheer of the driftwood fire . Then Captain Jim would brew them tea and tell them `` tales of land and sea And whatsoever might betide The great forgotten world outside . '' Leslie seemed always to enjoy those lighthouse carousals very much , and bloomed out for the time being into ready wit and beautiful laughter , or glowing-eyed silence . There was a certain tang and savor in the conversation when Leslie was present which they missed when she was absent . Even when she did not talk she seemed to inspire others to brilliancy . Captain Jim told his stories better , Gilbert was quicker in argument and repartee , Anne felt little gushes and trickles of fancy and imagination bubbling to her lips under the influence of Leslie 's personality . `` That girl was born to be a leader in social and intellectual circles , far away from Four Winds , '' she said to Gilbert as they walked home one night . `` She 's just wasted here -- wasted . '' `` Were n't you listening to Captain Jim and yours truly the other night when we discussed that subject generally ? We came to the comforting conclusion that the Creator probably knew how to run His universe quite as well as we do , and that , after all , there are no such things as ` wasted ' lives , saving and except when an individual wilfully squanders and wastes his own life -- which Leslie Moore certainly has n't done . And some people might think that a Redmond B.A. , whom editors were beginning to honor , was ` wasted ' as the wife of a struggling country doctor in the rural community of Four Winds . '' `` Gilbert ! '' `` If you had married Roy Gardner , now , '' continued Gilbert mercilessly , `` YOU could have been ' a leader in social and intellectual circles far away from Four Winds . ' '' `` Gilbert BLYTHE ! '' `` You KNOW you were in love with him at one time , Anne . '' `` Gilbert , that 's mean -- ` pisen mean , just like all the men , ' as Miss Cornelia says . I NEVER was in love with him . I only imagined I was . YOU know that . You KNOW I 'd rather be your wife in our house of dreams and fulfillment than a queen in a palace . ''
Gilbert 's answer was not in words ; but I am afraid that both of them forgot poor XXXXX speeding her lonely way across the fields to a house that was neither a palace nor the fulfillment of a dream .
Anne BLYTHE Cornelia Gardner Gilbert Jim Leslie Redmond brilliancy lighthouse