`` I do n't want sunbursts and marble halls . I just want YOU . You see I 'm quite as shameless as Phil about it . Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well , but there is more ` scope for imagination ' without them . And as for the waiting , that does n't matter . We 'll just be happy , waiting and working for each other -- and dreaming . Oh , dreams will be very sweet now . '' Gilbert drew her close to him and kissed her . I . The Hurrying of Ludovic Anne Shirley was curled up on the window-seat of Theodora Dix 's sitting-room one Saturday evening , looking dreamily afar at some fair starland beyond the hills of sunset . Anne was visiting for a fortnight of her vacation at Echo Lodge , where Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Irving were spending the summer , and she often ran over to the old Dix homestead to chat for awhile with Theodora . They had had their chat out , on this particular evening , and Anne was giving herself over to the delight of building an air-castle . She leaned her shapely head , with its braided coronet of dark red hair , against the window-casing , and her gray eyes were like the moonlight gleam of shadowy pools . Then she saw Ludovic Speed coming down the lane . He was yet far from the house , for the Dix lane was a long one , but Ludovic could be recognized as far as he could be seen . No one else in Middle Grafton had such a tall , gently-stooping , placidly-moving figure . In every kink and turn of it there was an individuality all Ludovic 's own . Anne roused herself from her dreams , thinking it would only be tactful to take her departure . Ludovic was courting Theodora . Everyone in Grafton knew that , or , if anyone were in ignorance of the fact , it was not because he had not had time to find out .
Ludovic had been coming down that lane XXXXX see Theodora , in the same ruminating , unhastening fashion , for fifteen years !
In against as at beyond like of to with without