I do envy you , '' concluded Miss Lavendar candidly . `` But you are only seventeen at heart , '' smiled Anne . `` No , I 'm old ... or rather middle-aged , which is far worse , '' sighed Miss Lavendar . `` Sometimes I can pretend I 'm not , but at other times I realize it . And I ca n't reconcile myself to it as most women seem to . I 'm just as rebellious as I was when I discovered my first gray hair . Now , Anne , do n't look as if you were trying to understand . Seventeen CA N'T understand . I 'm going to pretend right away that I am seventeen too , and I can do it , now that you 're here . You always bring youth in your hand like a gift . We 're going to have a jolly evening . Tea first ... what do you want for tea ? We 'll have whatever you like . Do think of something nice and indigestible . '' There were sounds of riot and mirth in the little stone house that night . What with cooking and feasting and making candy and laughing and `` pretending , '' it is quite true that Miss Lavendar and Anne comported themselves in a fashion entirely unsuited to the dignity of a spinster of forty-five and a sedate schoolma'am . Then , when they were tired , they sat down on the rug before the grate in the parlor , lighted only by the soft fireshine and perfumed deliciously by Miss Lavendar 's open rose-jar on the mantel . The wind had risen and was sighing and wailing around the eaves and the snow was thudding softly against the windows , as if a hundred storm sprites were tapping for entrance . `` I 'm so glad you 're here , Anne , '' said Miss Lavendar , nibbling at her candy . `` If you were n't I should be blue ... very blue ... almost navy blue .
Dreams and make-believes are all very well XXXXX the daytime and the sunshine , but when dark and storm come they fail to satisfy .
as at before in like of on that to with