When it grew quite dark and Anna had gone lilting down the lane on her way to prayer meeting , Alma lighted her lamp , read Gilbert 's letter -- and answered it . Her handwriting was much like Anna 's . She signed the letter `` A. Williams , '' and there was nothing in it that might not have been written by her to Gilbert ; but she knew that Gilbert would believe Anna had written it , and she intended him so to believe . Alma never did a thing halfway when she did it at all . At first she wrote rather constrainedly but , reflecting that in any case Anna would have written a merely friendly letter , she allowed her thoughts to run freely , and the resulting epistle was an excellent one of its kind . Alma had the gift of expression and more brains than Exeter people had ever imagined she possessed . When Gilbert read that letter a fortnight later he was surprised to find that Anna was so clever . He had always , with a secret regret , thought her much inferior to Alma in this respect , but that delightful letter , witty , wise , fanciful , was the letter of a clever woman . When a year had passed Alma was still writing to Gilbert the letters signed `` A. Williams . '' She had ceased to fear being found out , and she took a strange pleasure in the correspondence for its own sake . At first she had been quakingly afraid of discovery . When she smuggled the letters addressed in Gilbert 's handwriting to Miss Anna Williams out of the letter packet and hid them from Anna 's eyes , she felt as guilty as if she were breaking all the laws of the land at once . To be sure , she knew that she would have to confess to Anna some day , when the latter repented and began to wish she had written to Gilbert , but that was a very different thing from premature disclosure . But Anna had as yet given no sign of such repentance , although Alma looked for it anxiously . Anna was having the time of her life . She was the acknowledged beauty of five settlements , and she went forward on her career of conquest quite undisturbed by the jealousies and heart-burnings she provoked on every side . One moonlight night she went for a sleigh-drive with Charlie Moore of East Exeter -- and returned to tell Alma that they were married ! `` I knew you would make a fuss , Alma , because you do n't like Charlie , so we just took matters into our own hands . It was so much more romantic , too . I 'd always said I 'd never be married in any of your dull , commonplace ways .
You might as well forgive me and be nice right off , Alma , XXXXX you 'd have to do it anyway , in time .
At because by for into like so than that to