Rilla looked very sweet when she met Ken in the mingled moonlight and vine shadows of the big veranda . The hand she gave him was cold and she was so desperately anxious not to lisp that her greeting was prim and precise . How handsome and tall Kenneth looked in his lieutenant 's uniform ! It made him seem older , too -- so much so that Rilla felt rather foolish . Had n't it been the height of absurdity for her to suppose that this splendid young officer had anything special to say to her , little Rilla Blythe of Glen St. Mary ? Likely she had n't understood him after all -- he had only meant that he did n't want a mob of folks around making a fuss over him and trying to lionize him , as they had probably done over-harbour . Yes , of course , that was all he meant -- and she , little idiot , had gone and vainly imagined that he did n't want anybody but her . And he would think she had manoeuvred everybody away so that they could be alone together , and he would laugh to himself at her . `` This is better luck than I hoped for , '' said Ken , leaning back in his chair and looking at her with very unconcealed admiration in his eloquent eyes . `` I was sure someone would be hanging about and it was just you I wanted to see , Rilla-my-Rilla . '' Rilla 's dream castle flashed into the landscape again . This was unmistakable enough certainly -- not much doubt as to his meaning here . `` There are n't -- so many of us -- to poke around as there used to be , '' she said softly . `` No , that 's so , '' said Ken gently . `` Jem and Walter and the girls away -- it makes a big blank , does n't it ? But -- '' he leaned forward until his dark curls almost brushed her hair -- `` does n't Fred Arnold try to fill the blank occasionally . I 've been told so . '' At this moment , before Rilla could make any reply , Jims began to cry at the top of his voice in the room whose open window was just above them -- Jims , who hardly ever cried in the evening . Moreover , he was crying , as Rilla knew from experience , with a vim and energy that betokened that he had been already whimpering softly unheard for some time and was thoroughly exasperated . When Jims started in crying like that he made a thorough job of it .
Rilla knew that there was no use to sit still and pretend XXXXX ignore him .
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