Oh , I know girls ! Charlie Sloane is wild about her , too , but I 'd never advise her to marry a Sloane . The Sloanes are good , honest , respectable people , of course . But when all 's said and done , they 're SLOANES . '' Marilla nodded . To an outsider , the statement that Sloanes were Sloanes might not be very illuminating , but she understood . Every village has such a family ; good , honest , respectable people they may be , but SLOANES they are and must ever remain , though they speak with the tongues of men and angels . Gilbert and Anne , happily unconscious that their future was thus being settled by Mrs. Rachel , were sauntering through the shadows of the Haunted Wood . Beyond , the harvest hills were basking in an amber sunset radiance , under a pale , aerial sky of rose and blue . The distant spruce groves were burnished bronze , and their long shadows barred the upland meadows . But around them a little wind sang among the fir tassels , and in it there was the note of autumn . `` This wood really is haunted now -- by old memories , '' said Anne , stooping to gather a spray of ferns , bleached to waxen whiteness by frost . `` It seems to me that the little girls Diana and I used to be play here still , and sit by the Dryad 's Bubble in the twilights , trysting with the ghosts . Do you know , I can never go up this path in the dusk without feeling a bit of the old fright and shiver ? There was one especially horrifying phantom which we created -- the ghost of the murdered child that crept up behind you and laid cold fingers on yours . I confess that , to this day , I can not help fancying its little , furtive footsteps behind me when I come here after nightfall . I 'm not afraid of the White Lady or the headless man or the skeletons , but I wish I had never imagined that baby 's ghost into existence . How angry Marilla and Mrs. Barry were over that affair , '' concluded Anne , with reminiscent laughter . The woods around the head of the marsh were full of purple vistas , threaded with gossamers . Past a dour plantation of gnarled spruces and a maple-fringed , sun-warm valley they found the `` something '' Gilbert was looking for .
`` Ah , here it is , '' he said XXXXX satisfaction .
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