`` Got homesick , and just came ! I wanted to surprise you all , '' he answered , laughing . `` I arrived only a few minutes ago . Just took time to hug my mother , and here I am . Where 's Anna ? '' The pent-up retribution of two years descended on Alma 's head in the last question of Gilbert 's . But she did not flinch . She stood straight before him , tall and fair and pale , with the red maple light streaming in through the open door behind her , staining her light house-dress and mellowing the golden sheen of her hair . Gilbert reflected that Alma Williams was really a very handsome girl . These two years had improved her . What splendid big grey eyes she had ! He had always wished that Anna 's eyes had not been quite so black . `` Anna is not here , '' said Alma . `` She is married . '' `` Married ! '' Gilbert sat down suddenly on a chair and looked at Alma in bewilderment . `` She has been married for a year , '' said Alma steadily . `` She married Charlie Moore of East Exeter , and has been living there ever since . '' `` Then , '' said Gilbert , laying hold of the one solid fact that loomed out of the mist of his confused understanding , `` why did she keep on writing letters to me after she was married ? '' `` She never wrote to you at all .
It was I XXXXX wrote the letters . ''
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