`` Not if I say it slow and solemn , like the minister ? '' queried Davy gravely . `` No , not even then . '' `` Well , I wo n't . Ludovic Speed and Theodora Dix live in Middle Grafton and Mrs. Rachel says he has been courting her for a hundred years . Wo n't they soon be too old to get married , Anne ? I hope Gilbert wo n't court YOU that long . When are you going to be married , Anne ? Mrs. Lynde says it 's a sure thing . '' `` Mrs. Lynde is a -- '' began Anne hotly ; then stopped . `` Awful old gossip , '' completed Davy calmly . `` That 's what every one calls her . But is it a sure thing , Anne ? I want to know . '' `` You 're a very silly little boy , Davy , '' said Anne , stalking haughtily out of the room . The kitchen was deserted and she sat down by the window in the fast falling wintry twilight . The sun had set and the wind had died down . A pale chilly moon looked out behind a bank of purple clouds in the west . The sky faded out , but the strip of yellow along the western horizon grew brighter and fiercer , as if all the stray gleams of light were concentrating in one spot ; the distant hills , rimmed with priest-like firs , stood out in dark distinctness against it . Anne looked across the still , white fields , cold and lifeless in the harsh light of that grim sunset , and sighed .
She was very lonely ; and she was sad at heart ; XXXXX she was wondering if she would be able to return to Redmond next year .
across along behind by for if in like of to