Shall you be lonely when I 'm away ? '' `` Not with that light and that loveliness for company . Who lives in that house , Gilbert ? '' `` I do n't know . It does n't look -- exactly -- as if the occupants would be kindred spirits , Anne , does it ? '' The house was a large , substantial affair , painted such a vivid green that the landscape seemed quite faded by contrast . There was an orchard behind it , and a nicely kept lawn before it , but , somehow , there was a certain bareness about it . Perhaps its neatness was responsible for this ; the whole establishment , house , barns , orchard , garden , lawn and lane , was so starkly neat . `` It does n't seem probable that anyone with that taste in paint could be VERY kindred , '' acknowledged Anne , `` unless it were an accident -- like our blue hall . I feel certain there are no children there , at least . It 's even neater than the old Copp place on the Tory road , and I never expected to see anything neater than that . '' They had not met anybody on the moist , red road that wound along the harbor shore . But just before they came to the belt of birch which hid their home , Anne saw a girl who was driving a flock of snow-white geese along the crest of a velvety green hill on the right . Great , scattered firs grew along it . Between their trunks one saw glimpses of yellow harvest fields , gleams of golden sand-hills , and bits of blue sea . The girl was tall and wore a dress of pale blue print . She walked with a certain springiness of step and erectness of bearing . She and her geese came out of the gate at the foot of the hill as Anne and Gilbert passed . She stood with her hand on the fastening of the gate , and looked steadily at them , with an expression that hardly attained to interest , but did not descend to curiosity . It seemed to Anne , for a fleeting moment , that there was even a veiled hint of hostility in it .
But it was the girl 's beauty which made XXXXX give a little gasp -- a beauty so marked that it must have attracted attention anywhere .
Anne Copp Gilbert Tory accident bareness erectness gleams right sand-hills