`` And I do n't think I should ever have got better at all , '' whispered Freda , slipping her hand into Margaret 's . `` I think we are going to be the two happiest girls in the world , '' said Margaret . `` And Freda , do you know what we are going to do when your summer vacation comes ? We are going to have a trip through the Rockies , yes , indeedy . It would have been nice going with Mrs. Boyd , but it will be ten times nicer to go with you . '' Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves Matthew was having a bad ten minutes of it . He had come into the kitchen , in the twilight of a cold , grey December evening , and had sat down in the wood-box corner to take off his heavy boots , unconscious of the fact that Anne and a bevy of her schoolmates were having a practice of `` The Fairy Queen '' in the sitting-room . Presently they came trooping through the hall and out into the kitchen , laughing and chattering gaily . They did not see Matthew , who shrank bashfully back into the shadows beyond the wood-box with a boot in one hand and a bootjack in the other , and he watched them shyly for the aforesaid ten minutes as they put on caps and jackets and talked about the dialogue and the concert . Anne stood among them , bright eyed and animated as they ; but Matthew suddenly became conscious that there was something about her different from her mates . And what worried Matthew was that the difference impressed him as being something that should not exist . Anne had a brighter face , and bigger , starrier eyes , and more delicate features than the others ; even shy , unobservant Matthew had learned to take note of these things ; but the difference that disturbed him did not consist in any of these respects . Then in what did it consist ? Matthew was haunted by this question long after the girls had gone , arm in arm , down the long , hard-frozen lane and Anne had betaken herself to her books . He could not refer it to Marilla , who , he felt , would be quite sure to sniff scornfully and remark that the only difference she saw between Anne and the other girls was that they sometimes kept their tongues quiet while Anne never did . This , Matthew felt , would be no great help . He had recourse to his pipe that evening to help him study it out , much to Marilla 's disgust . After two hours of smoking and hard reflection Matthew arrived at a solution of his problem . Anne was not dressed like the other girls ! The more Matthew thought about the matter the more he was convinced that Anne never had been dressed like the other girls -- never since she had come to Green Gables .
Marilla kept her clothed XXXXX plain , dark dresses , all made after the same unvarying pattern .
about among as beyond for in like since while with