`` I 'd rather not pass at all than not come out pretty well up on the list , '' flashed Anne , by which she meant -- and Diana knew she meant -- that success would be incomplete and bitter if she did not come out ahead of Gilbert Blythe . With this end in view Anne had strained every nerve during the examinations . So had Gilbert . They had met and passed each other on the street a dozen times without any sign of recognition and every time Anne had held her head a little higher and wished a little more earnestly that she had made friends with Gilbert when he asked her , and vowed a little more determinedly to surpass him in the examination . She knew that all Avonlea junior was wondering which would come out first ; she even knew that Jimmy Glover and Ned Wright had a bet on the question and that Josie Pye had said there was no doubt in the world that Gilbert would be first ; and she felt that her humiliation would be unbearable if she failed . But she had another and nobler motive for wishing to do well . She wanted to `` pass high '' for the sake of Matthew and Marilla -- especially Matthew . Matthew had declared to her his conviction that she `` would beat the whole Island . '' That , Anne felt , was something it would be foolish to hope for even in the wildest dreams . But she did hope fervently that she would be among the first ten at least , so that she might see Matthew 's kindly brown eyes gleam with pride in her achievement . That , she felt , would be a sweet reward indeed for all her hard work and patient grubbing among unimaginative equations and conjugations . At the end of the fortnight Anne took to `` haunting '' the post office also , in the distracted company of Jane , Ruby , and Josie , opening the Charlottetown dailies with shaking hands and cold , sinkaway feelings as bad as any experienced during the Entrance week . Charlie and Gilbert were not above doing this too , but Moody Spurgeon stayed resolutely away . `` I have n't got the grit to go there and look at a paper in cold blood , '' he told Anne . `` I 'm just going to wait until somebody comes and tells me suddenly whether I 've passed or not . '' When three weeks had gone by without the pass list appearing Anne began to feel that she really could n't stand the strain much longer . Her appetite failed and her interest in Avonlea doings languished . Mrs. Lynde wanted to know what else you could expect with a Tory superintendent of education at the head of affairs , and Matthew , noting Anne 's paleness and indifference and the lagging steps that bore her home from the post office every afternoon , began seriously to wonder if he had n't better vote Grit at the next election . But one evening the news came . Anne was sitting at her open window , for the time forgetful of the woes of examinations and the cares of the world , as she drank in the beauty of the summer dusk , sweet-scented with flower breaths from the garden below and sibilant and rustling from the stir of poplars .
The eastern sky XXXXX the firs was flushed faintly pink from the reflection of the west , and Anne was wondering dreamily if the spirit of color looked like that , when she saw Diana come flying down through the firs , over the log bridge , and up the slope , with a fluttering newspaper in her hand .
With above among as at during for of than that