We 're eighteen , Diana . In two more years we 'll be twenty . When I was ten I thought twenty was a green old age . In no time you 'll be a staid , middle-aged matron , and I shall be nice , old maid Aunt Anne , coming to visit you on vacations . You 'll always keep a corner for me , wo n't you , Di darling ? Not the spare room , of course -- old maids ca n't aspire to spare rooms , and I shall be as ` umble as Uriah Heep , and quite content with a little over-the-porch or off-the-parlor cubby hole . '' `` What nonsense you do talk , Anne , '' laughed Diana . `` You 'll marry somebody splendid and handsome and rich -- and no spare room in Avonlea will be half gorgeous enough for you -- and you 'll turn up your nose at all the friends of your youth . '' `` That would be a pity ; my nose is quite nice , but I fear turning it up would spoil it , '' said Anne , patting that shapely organ . `` I have n't so many good features that I could afford to spoil those I have ; so , even if I should marry the King of the Cannibal Islands , I promise you I wo n't turn up my nose at you , Diana . '' With another gay laugh the girls separated , Diana to return to Orchard Slope , Anne to walk to the Post Office . She found a letter awaiting her there , and when Gilbert Blythe overtook her on the bridge over the Lake of Shining Waters she was sparkling with the excitement of it . `` Priscilla Grant is going to Redmond , too , '' she exclaimed . `` Is n't that splendid ? I hoped she would , but she did n't think her father would consent . He has , however , and we 're to board together . I feel that I can face an army with banners -- or all the professors of Redmond in one fell phalanx -- with a chum like Priscilla by my side . '' `` I think we 'll like Kingsport , '' said Gilbert . `` It 's a nice old burg , they tell me , and has the finest natural park in the world . I 've heard that the scenery in it is magnificent . ''
`` I wonder if it will be -- can be -- any more beautiful than this , '' murmured Anne , looking around her XXXXX the loving , enraptured eyes of those to whom `` home '' must always be the loveliest spot in the world , no matter what fairer lands may lie under alien stars .
In as at if of on over that to with