`` It 's the birthday of our happiness , '' said Anne softly . `` I 've always loved this old garden of Hester Gray 's , and now it will be dearer than ever . '' `` But I 'll have to ask you to wait a long time , Anne , '' said Gilbert sadly . `` It will be three years before I 'll finish my medical course . And even then there will be no diamond sunbursts and marble halls . '' Anne laughed . `` I do n't want sunbursts and marble halls . I just want YOU . You see I 'm quite as shameless as Phil about it . Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well , but there is more ` scope for imagination ' without them . And as for the waiting , that does n't matter . We 'll just be happy , waiting and working for each other -- and dreaming . Oh , dreams will be very sweet now . '' Gilbert drew her close to him and kissed her . I . The Hurrying of Ludovic Anne Shirley was curled up on the window-seat of Theodora Dix 's sitting-room one Saturday evening , looking dreamily afar at some fair starland beyond the hills of sunset . Anne was visiting for a fortnight of her vacation at Echo Lodge , where Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Irving were spending the summer , and she often ran over to the old Dix homestead to chat for awhile with Theodora . They had had their chat out , on this particular evening , and Anne was giving herself over to the delight of building an air-castle . She leaned her shapely head , with its braided coronet of dark red hair , against the window-casing , and her gray eyes were like the moonlight gleam of shadowy pools . Then she saw Ludovic Speed coming down the lane .
He was yet far from the house , XXXXX the Dix lane was a long one , but Ludovic could be recognized as far as he could be seen .
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