But they were n't because I wanted them . If I HAD N'T wanted them they would have been there by the dozen . And I could n't decide what to say to the conductor when he came around . As soon as I got one sentence of explanation mapped out in my mind I felt nobody could believe it and I must compose another . It seemed there was nothing to do but trust in Providence , and for all the comfort that gave me I might as well have been the old lady who , when told by the captain during a storm that she must put her trust in the Almighty exclaimed , ` Oh , Captain , is it as bad as that ? ' `` Just at the conventional moment , when all hope had fled , and the conductor was holding out his box to the passenger next to me , I suddenly remembered where I had put that wretched coin of the realm . I had n't swallowed it after all . I meekly fished it out of the index finger of my glove and poked it in the box . I smiled at everybody and felt that it was a beautiful world . '' The visit to Echo Lodge was not the least pleasant of many pleasant holiday outings . Anne and Diana went back to it by the old way of the beech woods , carrying a lunch basket with them . Echo Lodge , which had been closed ever since Miss Lavendar 's wedding , was briefly thrown open to wind and sunshine once more , and firelight glimmered again in the little rooms . The perfume of Miss Lavendar 's rose bowl still filled the air . It was hardly possible to believe that Miss Lavendar would not come tripping in presently , with her brown eyes a-star with welcome , and that Charlotta the Fourth , blue of bow and wide of smile , would not pop through the door . Paul , too , seemed hovering around , with his fairy fancies . `` It really makes me feel a little bit like a ghost revisiting the old time glimpses of the moon , '' laughed Anne . `` Let 's go out and see if the echoes are at home . Bring the old horn . It is still behind the kitchen door . '' The echoes were at home , over the white river , as silver-clear and multitudinous as ever ; and when they had ceased to answer the girls locked up Echo Lodge again and went away in the perfect half hour that follows the rose and saffron of a winter sunset .
Chapter VIII Anne 's First Proposal The old year did not slip away XXXXX a green twilight , with a pinky-yellow sunset .
If after as because behind in over since that with