asked Anne interestedly , yet with an unreal feeling that she was inquiring about some one whom she did not know . `` He is well , but he finds it very hard to adapt himself to all the changes in his old home and friends . He is going to sea again in the spring . It 's in his blood , he says , and he longs for it . But he told me something that made me glad for him , poor fellow . Before he sailed on the Four Sisters he was engaged to a girl at home . He did not tell me anything about her in Montreal , because he said he supposed she would have forgotten him and married someone else long ago , and with him , you see , his engagement and love was still a thing of the present . It was pretty hard on him , but when he got home he found she had never married and still cared for him . They are to be married this fall . I 'm going to ask him to bring her over here for a little trip ; he says he wants to come and see the place where he lived so many years without knowing it . '' `` What a nice little romance , '' said Anne , whose love for the romantic was immortal . `` And to think , '' she added with a sigh of self-reproach , `` that if I had had my way George Moore would never have come up from the grave in which his identity was buried . How I did fight against Gilbert 's suggestion ! Well , I am punished : I shall never be able to have a different opinion from Gilbert 's again ! If I try to have , he will squelch me by casting George Moore 's case up to me ! '' `` As if even that would squelch a woman ! '' mocked Gilbert . `` At least do not become my echo , Anne . A little opposition gives spice to life . I do not want a wife like John MacAllister 's over the harbor .
No matter what he says , she XXXXX once remarks in that drab , lifeless little voice of hers , ` That is very true , John , dear me ! ' ''
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