The spell of the dusk was broken for her . `` I must go home , '' she exclaimed , with a rather overdone carelessness . `` Marilla had a headache this afternoon , and I 'm sure the twins will be in some dreadful mischief by this time . I really should n't have stayed away so long . '' She chattered ceaselessly and inconsequently until they reached the Green Gables lane . Poor Gilbert hardly had a chance to get a word in edgewise . Anne felt rather relieved when they parted . There had been a new , secret self-consciousness in her heart with regard to Gilbert , ever since that fleeting moment of revelation in the garden of Echo Lodge . Something alien had intruded into the old , perfect , school-day comradeship -- something that threatened to mar it . `` I never felt glad to see Gilbert go before , '' she thought , half-resentfully , half-sorrowfully , as she walked alone up the lane . `` Our friendship will be spoiled if he goes on with this nonsense . It must n't be spoiled -- I wo n't let it . Oh , WHY ca n't boys be just sensible ! '' Anne had an uneasy doubt that it was not strictly `` sensible '' that she should still feel on her hand the warm pressure of Gilbert 's , as distinctly as she had felt it for the swift second his had rested there ; and still less sensible that the sensation was far from being an unpleasant one -- very different from that which had attended a similar demonstration on Charlie Sloane 's part , when she had been sitting out a dance with him at a White Sands party three nights before . Anne shivered over the disagreeable recollection . But all problems connected with infatuated swains vanished from her mind when she entered the homely , unsentimental atmosphere of the Green Gables kitchen where an eight-year-old boy was crying grievously on the sofa . `` What is the matter , Davy ? '' asked Anne , taking him up in her arms . `` Where are Marilla and Dora ? '' `` Marilla 's putting Dora to bed , '' sobbed Davy , `` and I 'm crying 'cause Dora fell down the outside cellar steps , heels over head , and scraped all the skin off her nose , and -- '' `` Oh , well , do n't cry about it , dear .
Of course , you are sorry XXXXX her , but crying wo n't help her any .
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