`` This is better luck than I hoped for , '' said Ken , leaning back in his chair and looking at her with very unconcealed admiration in his eloquent eyes . `` I was sure someone would be hanging about and it was just you I wanted to see , Rilla-my-Rilla . '' Rilla 's dream castle flashed into the landscape again . This was unmistakable enough certainly -- not much doubt as to his meaning here . `` There are n't -- so many of us -- to poke around as there used to be , '' she said softly . `` No , that 's so , '' said Ken gently . `` Jem and Walter and the girls away -- it makes a big blank , does n't it ? But -- '' he leaned forward until his dark curls almost brushed her hair -- `` does n't Fred Arnold try to fill the blank occasionally . I 've been told so . '' At this moment , before Rilla could make any reply , Jims began to cry at the top of his voice in the room whose open window was just above them -- Jims , who hardly ever cried in the evening . Moreover , he was crying , as Rilla knew from experience , with a vim and energy that betokened that he had been already whimpering softly unheard for some time and was thoroughly exasperated . When Jims started in crying like that he made a thorough job of it . Rilla knew that there was no use to sit still and pretend to ignore him . He would n't stop ; and conversation of any kind was out of the question when such shrieks and howls were floating over your head . Besides , she was afraid Kenneth would think she was utterly unfeeling if she sat still and let a baby cry like that . He was not likely acquainted with Morgan 's invaluable volume . She got up . `` Jims has had a nightmare , I think . He sometimes has one and he is always badly frightened by it . Excuse me for a moment . ''
Rilla flew upstairs , wishing quite frankly XXXXX soup tureens had never been invented .
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