`` He had to be punished . '' `` I like him best of them all , '' said unreasonable Diana . `` Well , he 's dead , and he 'll have to stay dead , '' said Anne , rather resentfully . `` If I had let him live he 'd have gone on persecuting AVERIL and PERCEVAL . '' `` Yes -- unless you had reformed him . '' `` That would n't have been romantic , and , besides , it would have made the story too long . '' `` Well , anyway , it 's a perfectly elegant story , Anne , and will make you famous , of that I 'm sure . Have you got a title for it ? '' `` Oh , I decided on the title long ago . I call it AVERIL 'S ATONEMENT . Does n't that sound nice and alliterative ? Now , Diana , tell me candidly , do you see any faults in my story ? '' `` Well , '' hesitated Diana , `` that part where AVERIL makes the cake does n't seem to me quite romantic enough to match the rest . It 's just what anybody might do . Heroines should n't do cooking , I think . '' `` Why , that is where the humor comes in , and it 's one of the best parts of the whole story , '' said Anne . And it may be stated that in this she was quite right . Diana prudently refrained from any further criticism , but Mr. Harrison was much harder to please . First he told her there was entirely too much description in the story . `` Cut out all those flowery passages , '' he said unfeelingly .
Anne had an uncomfortable conviction that Mr. Harrison was right , and she forced herself to expunge most XXXXX her beloved descriptions , though it took three re-writings before the story could be pruned down to please the fastidious Mr. Harrison .
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