`` I 'll take it , '' said Patty promptly and joyfully . `` Good . Go down to the Symphony Club rehearsal this afternoon and report it . You 've just ten minutes to get there , '' and Patty joyfully and promptly departed . Anna 's Love Letters `` Are you going to answer Gilbert 's letter tonight , Anna ? '' asked Alma Williams , standing in the pantry doorway , tall , fair , and grey-eyed , with the sunset light coming down over the dark firs , through the window behind her , and making a primrose nimbus around her shapely head . Anna , dark , vivid , and slender , was perched on the edge of the table , idly swinging her slippered foot at the cat 's head . She smiled wickedly at Alma before replying . `` I am not going to answer it tonight or any other night , '' she said , twisting her full , red lips in a way that Alma had learned to dread . Mischief was ripening in Anna 's brain when that twist was out . `` What do you mean ? '' asked Alma anxiously . `` Just what I say , dear , '' responded Anna , with deceptive meekness . `` Poor Gilbert is gone , and I do n't intend to bother my head about him any longer . He was amusing while he lasted , but of what use is a beau two thousand miles away , Alma ? '' Alma was patient -- outwardly . It was never of any avail to show impatience with Anna . `` Anna , you are talking foolishly . Of course you are going to answer his letter . You are as good as engaged to him .
Was n't XXXXX practically understood when he left ? ''
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