`` What do you mean -- exactly ? '' `` Do you like Billy ? '' asked Jane bluntly . `` Why -- why -- yes , I like him , of course , '' gasped Anne , wondering if she were telling the literal truth . Certainly she did not DISlike Billy . But could the indifferent tolerance with which she regarded him , when he happened to be in her range of vision , be considered positive enough for liking ? WHAT was Jane trying to elucidate ? `` Would you like him for a husband ? '' asked Jane calmly . `` A husband ! '' Anne had been sitting up in bed , the better to wrestle with the problem of her exact opinion of Billy Andrews . Now she fell flatly back on her pillows , the very breath gone out of her . `` Whose husband ? '' `` Yours , of course , '' answered Jane . `` Billy wants to marry you . He 's always been crazy about you -- and now father has given him the upper farm in his own name and there 's nothing to prevent him from getting married . But he 's so shy he could n't ask you himself if you 'd have him , so he got me to do it . I 'd rather not have , but he gave me no peace till I said I would , if I got a good chance . What do you think about it , Anne ? '' Was it a dream ?
Was it one XXXXX those nightmare things in which you find yourself engaged or married to some one you hate or do n't know , without the slightest idea how it ever came about ?
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