I have called -- I heard some foolish stories and I came here in a rage . I 've been a fool -- I know now they were n't true . Just excuse me and I 'll go away and kick myself . '' `` No , '' I said , finding my voice with a gasp , `` you must n't go until you 've heard the truth . It 's dreadful enough , but not as dreadful as you might otherwise think . Those -- those stories -- I have a confession to make . I did tell them , but I did n't know there was such a person as Cecil Fenwick in existence . '' He looked puzzled , as well he might . Then he smiled , took my hand and led me away from the door -- to the knob of which I was still holding with all my might -- to the sofa . `` Let 's sit down and talk it over ` comfy , ' '' he said . I just confessed the whole shameful business . It was terribly humiliating , but it served me right . I told him how people were always twitting me for never having had a beau , and how I had told them I had ; and then I showed him the porous plaster advertisement . He heard me right through without a word , and then he threw back his big , curly , gray head and laughed . `` This clears up a great many mysterious hints I 've been receiving ever since I came to Avonlea , '' he said , `` and finally a Mrs. Gilbert came to my sister this afternoon with a long farrago of nonsense about the love affair I had once had with some Charlotte Holmes here . She declared you had told her about it yourself . I confess I flamed up . I 'm a peppery chap , and I thought -- I thought -- oh , confound it , it might as well out : I thought you were some lank old maid who was amusing herself telling ridiculous stories about me . When you came into the room I knew that , whoever was to blame , you were not . '' `` But I was , '' I said ruefully .
`` It was n't XXXXX of me to tell such a story -- and it was very silly , too .
Avonlea Fenwick Gilbert Holmes chap farrago knob maid people right