Only -- if we decide to buy , it would be well to be moved in and settled before winter . '' Gilbert went out , and Anne put away Little Jem 's short dresses with trembling hands . She could not sew any more that day . With tear-wet eyes she wandered over the little domain where she had reigned so happy a queen . The Morgan place was all that Gilbert claimed . The grounds were beautiful , the house old enough to have dignity and repose and traditions , and new enough to be comfortable and up-to-date . Anne had always admired it ; but admiring is not loving ; and she loved this house of dreams so much . She loved EVERYTHING about it -- the garden she had tended , and which so many women had tended before her -- the gleam and sparkle of the little brook that crept so roguishly across the corner -- the gate between the creaking fir trees -- the old red sandstone step -- the stately Lombardies -- the two tiny quaint glass cupboards over the chimney-piece in the living-room -- the crooked pantry door in the kitchen -- the two funny dormer windows upstairs -- the little jog in the staircase -- why , these things were a part of her ! How could she leave them ? And how this little house , consecrated aforetime by love and joy , had been re-consecrated for her by her happiness and sorrow ! Here she had spent her bridal moon ; here wee Joyce had lived her one brief day ; here the sweetness of motherhood had come again with Little Jem ; here she had heard the exquisite music of her baby 's cooing laughter ; here beloved friends had sat by her fireside . Joy and grief , birth and death , had made sacred forever this little house of dreams . And now she must leave it . She knew that , even while she had contended against the idea to Gilbert . The little house was outgrown . Gilbert 's interests made the change necessary ; his work , successful though it had been , was hampered by his location . Anne realised that the end of their life in this dear place drew nigh , and that she must face the fact bravely . But how her heart ached ! `` It will be just like tearing something out of my life , '' she sobbed . `` And oh , if I could hope that some nice folk would come here in our place -- or even that it would be left vacant .
That itself would be better than having it overrun XXXXX some horde who know nothing of the geography of dreamland , and nothing of the history that has given this house its soul and its identity .
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