It had a very bad effect on Diana 's imagination . It blighted it . Mrs. Lynde says Myrtle Bell is a blighted being . I asked Ruby Gillis why Myrtle was blighted , and Ruby said she guessed it was because her young man had gone back on her . Ruby Gillis thinks of nothing but young men , and the older she gets the worse she is . Young men are all very well in their place , but it does n't do to drag them into everything , does it ? Diana and I are thinking seriously of promising each other that we will never marry but be nice old maids and live together forever . Diana has n't quite made up her mind though , because she thinks perhaps it would be nobler to marry some wild , dashing , wicked young man and reform him . Diana and I talk a great deal about serious subjects now , you know . We feel that we are so much older than we used to be that it is n't becoming to talk of childish matters . It 's such a solemn thing to be almost fourteen , Marilla . Miss Stacy took all us girls who are in our teens down to the brook last Wednesday , and talked to us about it . She said we could n't be too careful what habits we formed and what ideals we acquired in our teens , because by the time we were twenty our characters would be developed and the foundation laid for our whole future life . And she said if the foundation was shaky we could never build anything really worth while on it . Diana and I talked the matter over coming home from school . We felt extremely solemn , Marilla . And we decided that we would try to be very careful indeed and form respectable habits and learn all we could and be as sensible as possible , so that by the time we were twenty our characters would be properly developed . It 's perfectly appalling to think of being twenty , Marilla . It sounds so fearfully old and grown up . But why was Miss Stacy here this afternoon ? ''
`` That is what I want to tell you , Anne , if you 'll ever give me a chance XXXXX get a word in edgewise .
about as because if in into of on than to