Though , to be sure , '' added Aunt Jamesina perplexedly , `` Elizabeth always used to laugh when she said it . She always laughed so much that I do n't know how she ever came to decide on being a missionary . I 'm thankful she did -- I prayed that she might -- but -- I wish she had n't . '' Then Aunt Jamesina wondered why those giddy girls all laughed . Anne 's eyes shone all that day ; literary ambitions sprouted and budded in her brain ; their exhilaration accompanied her to Jennie Cooper 's walking party , and not even the sight of Gilbert and Christine , walking just ahead of her and Roy , could quite subdue the sparkle of her starry hopes . Nevertheless , she was not so rapt from things of earth as to be unable to notice that Christine 's walk was decidedly ungraceful . `` But I suppose Gilbert looks only at her face . So like a man , '' thought Anne scornfully . `` Shall you be home Saturday afternoon ? '' asked Roy . `` Yes . '' `` My mother and sisters are coming to call on you , '' said Roy quietly . Something went over Anne which might be described as a thrill , but it was hardly a pleasant one . She had never met any of Roy 's family ; she realized the significance of his statement ; and it had , somehow , an irrevocableness about it that chilled her . `` I shall be glad to see them , '' she said flatly ; and then wondered if she really would be glad . She ought to be , of course . But would it not be something of an ordeal ? Gossip had filtered to Anne regarding the light in which the Gardners viewed the `` infatuation '' of son and brother . Roy must have brought pressure to bear in the matter of this call . Anne knew she would be weighed in the balance .
From the fact that they had consented to call she understood that , willingly or unwillingly , they regarded her as a possible member XXXXX their clan .
about as at if in like of over that to