`` Theodora , '' cried Anne , `` I have a plan ! '' `` Now , what are you going to do ? '' exclaimed Theodora . Anne told her . At first Theodora laughed and protested . In the end , she yielded somewhat doubtfully , overborne by Anne 's enthusiasm . `` Well , try it , then , '' she said , resignedly . `` If Ludovic gets mad and leaves me , I 'll be worse off than ever . But nothing venture , nothing win . And there is a fighting chance , I suppose . Besides , I must admit I 'm tired of his dilly-dallying . '' Anne went back to Echo Lodge tingling with delight in her plot . She hunted up Arnold Sherman , and told him what was required of him . Arnold Sherman listened and laughed . He was an elderly widower , an intimate friend of Stephen Irving , and had come down to spend part of the summer with him and his wife in Prince Edward Island . He was handsome in a mature style , and he had a dash of mischief in him still , so that he entered readily enough into Anne 's plan . It amused him to think of hurrying Ludovic Speed , and he knew that Theodora Dix could be depended on to do her part . The comedy would not be dull , whatever its outcome . The curtain rose on the first act after prayer meeting on the next Thursday night . It was bright moonlight when the people came out of church , and everybody saw it plainly .
Arnold Sherman stood upon the steps close to the door , and Ludovic Speed leaned up against a corner XXXXX the graveyard fence , as he had done for years .
At Besides Dix If by first in of on to