`` You are sending me on a nasty errand , '' he said , coolly . `` How do I know that Aunt Cynthia will be deceived after all , even if she be short-sighted . Buying a cat in a joke is a huge risk . And if she should see through the scheme I shall be in a pretty mess . '' `` Oh , Max , '' I said , on the verge of tears . `` Of course , '' said Max , looking meditatively into the fire , `` if I were really one of the family , or had any reasonable prospect of being so , I would not mind so much . It would be all in the day 's work then . But as it is -- '' Ismay got up and went out of the room . `` Oh , Max , please , '' I said . `` Will you marry me , Sue ? '' demanded Max sternly . `` If you will agree , I 'll go to Halifax and beard the lion in his den unflinchingly . If necessary , I will take a black street cat to Aunt Cynthia , and swear that it is Fatima . I 'll get you out of the scrape , if I have to prove that you never had Fatima , that she is safe in your possession at the present time , and that there never was such an animal as Fatima anyhow . I 'll do anything , say anything -- but it must be for my future wife . '' `` Will nothing else content you ? '' I said helplessly . `` Nothing . '' I thought hard . Of course Max was acting abominably -- but -- but -- he was really a dear fellow -- and this was the twelfth time -- and there was Anne Shirley !
I knew XXXXX my secret soul that life would be a dreadfully dismal thing if Max were not around somewhere .
Of after as if in into on that through to