You see , Harriet 's engaged to that Johnson fellow out west . ` Tai n't generally known , but I knew it and that 's why I picked on her . I thought it probable that she 'd be willing enough to flirt with me for a little diversion , even if I was old . Harriet 's that sort of a girl . And I made up my mind that if that did n't fetch it nothing would and I 'd give up for good and all . But it did , did n't it , Anne ? '' `` I should say so . It was horrid of you , Jerome -- but I daresay it 's just as well you did or I 'd likely never have found out that I could n't get along without you . I did feel dreadful . Poor Octavia could tell you I was as cross as X . How did you come to think of it , Jerome ? '' `` A fellow had to do something , '' said Jerome oracularly , `` and I 'd have done most anything to get you , Anne , that 's a fact . And there it was -- courting fifteen years and nothing to show for it . I dunno , though , how I did come to think of it . Guess it was a sort of inspiration . Anyhow , I 've got you and that 's what I set out to do in the beginning . '' Young Si Mr. Bentley had just driven into the yard with the new summer boarder . Mrs. Bentley and Agnes were peeping at her from behind the parlour curtains with the keen interest that they -- shut in by their restricted farm life -- always felt in any visitor from the outside world lying beyond their boundary of purple misted hills . Mrs. Bentley was a plump , rosy-cheeked woman with a motherly smile . Agnes was a fair , slim schoolgirl , as tall as her mother , with a sweet face and a promise of peach blossom prettiness in the years to come .
The arrival of a summer boarder was a great event XXXXX her quiet life .
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