`` Nillie , what is it you are meaning ? '' he said . `` I can not marry you , Mr. MacPherson , '' repeated Aunt Olivia . `` Why not ? '' Surprise was giving way to dismay . `` I do n't think you will understand , Mr. MacPherson , '' said Aunt Olivia , faintly . `` You do n't realize what it means for a woman to give up everything -- her own home and friends and all her past life , so to speak , and go far away with a stranger . '' `` Why , I suppose it will be rather hard . But , Nillie , Avonlea is n't very far away -- not more than twelve miles , if it will be that . '' `` Twelve miles ! It might as well be at the other side of the world to all intents and purposes , '' said Aunt Olivia obstinately . `` I do n't know a living soul there , except Rachel Lynde . '' `` Why did n't you say so before I bought the place , then ? But it 's not too late . I can be selling it and buying right here in East Grafton if that will please you -- though there is n't half as nice a place to be had . But I 'll fix it up somehow ! '' `` No , Mr. MacPherson , '' said Aunt Olivia firmly , `` that does n't cover the difficulty . I knew you would not understand . My ways are not your ways and I can not make them over . For -- you track mud in -- and -- and -- you do n't care whether things are tidy or not . ''
Poor Aunt Olivia had XXXXX be Aunt Olivia ; if she were being burned at the stake I verily believe she would have dragged some grotesqueness into the tragedy of the moment .
For at before except if in than that to with