`` I intended to take that sign down today . '' `` Then -- then we are too late , '' said Anne sorrowfully . `` You 've let it to some one else ? '' `` No , but we have decided not to let it at all . '' `` Oh , I 'm so sorry , '' exclaimed Anne impulsively . `` I love this place so . I did hope we could have got it . '' Then did Miss Patty lay down her knitting , take off her specs , rub them , put them on again , and for the first time look at Anne as at a human being . The other lady followed her example so perfectly that she might as well have been a reflection in a mirror . `` You LOVE it , '' said Miss Patty with emphasis . `` Does that mean that you really LOVE it ? Or that you merely like the looks of it ? The girls nowadays indulge in such exaggerated statements that one never can tell what they DO mean . It was n't so in my young days . THEN a girl did not say she LOVED turnips , in just the same tone as she might have said she loved her mother or her Savior . '' Anne 's conscience bore her up . `` I really do love it , '' she said gently . `` I 've loved it ever since I saw it last fall . My two college chums and I want to keep house next year instead of boarding , so we are looking for a little place to rent ; and when I saw that this house was to let I was so happy . '' `` If you love it , you can have it , '' said Miss Patty .
`` Maria and I decided today XXXXX we would not let it after all , because we did not like any of the people who have wanted it .
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