He heard me right through without a word , and then he threw back his big , curly , gray head and laughed . `` This clears up a great many mysterious hints I 've been receiving ever since I came to Avonlea , '' he said , `` and finally a Mrs. Gilbert came to my sister this afternoon with a long farrago of nonsense about the love affair I had once had with some Charlotte Holmes here . She declared you had told her about it yourself . I confess I flamed up . I 'm a peppery chap , and I thought -- I thought -- oh , confound it , it might as well out : I thought you were some lank old maid who was amusing herself telling ridiculous stories about me . When you came into the room I knew that , whoever was to blame , you were not . '' `` But I was , '' I said ruefully . `` It was n't right of me to tell such a story -- and it was very silly , too . But who would ever have supposed that there could be real Cecil Fenwick who had lived in Blakely ? I never heard of such a coincidence . '' `` It 's more than a coincidence , '' said Mr. Fenwick decidedly . `` It 's predestination ; that is what it is . And now let 's forget it and talk of something else . '' We talked of something else -- or at least Mr. Fenwick did , for I was too ashamed to say much -- so long that Nancy got restive and clumped through the hall every five minutes ; but Mr. Fenwick never took the hint . When he finally went away he asked if he might come again . `` It 's time we made up that old quarrel , you know , '' he said , laughing . And I , an old maid of forty , caught myself blushing like a girl . But I felt like a girl , for it was such a relief to have that explanation all over . I could n't even feel angry with Adella Gilbert . She was always a mischief maker , and when a woman is born that way she is more to be pitied than blamed .
I wrote a poem in the blank book before I went to sleep ; I had n't written anything XXXXX a month , and it was lovely to be at it once more .
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