Now , when the die was cast , he was beset with doubts of his own wisdom . Anne looked at him remorsefully ; then she slipped down on the rug beside him and laid her glossy red head on his arm . `` Gilbert , I 've been rather hateful over this . I wo n't be any more . Please just call me red-headed and forgive me . '' By which Gilbert understood that , no matter what came of it , there would be no I-told-you-so 's . But he was not wholly comforted . Duty in the abstract is one thing ; duty in the concrete is quite another , especially when the doer is confronted by a woman 's stricken eyes . Some instinct made Anne keep away from Leslie for the next three days . On the third evening Leslie came down to the little house and told Gilbert that she had made up her mind ; she would take Dick to Montreal and have the operation . She was very pale and seemed to have wrapped herself in her old mantle of aloofness . But her eyes had lost the look which had haunted Gilbert ; they were cold and bright ; and she proceeded to discuss details with him in a crisp , business-like way . There were plans to be made and many things to be thought over . When Leslie had got the information she wanted she went home . Anne wanted to walk part of the way with her . `` Better not , '' said Leslie curtly . `` Today 's rain has made the ground damp . Good-night . '' `` Have I lost my friend ? '' said Anne with a sigh .
`` If the operation is successful and Dick Moore finds himself again Leslie will retreat into some remote fastness XXXXX her soul where none of us can ever find her . ''
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