It seemed just a few minutes . But , you see , we have five years ' lost conversations to catch up with , Marilla . '' Anne sat long at her window that night companioned by a glad content . The wind purred softly in the cherry boughs , and the mint breaths came up to her . The stars twinkled over the pointed firs in the hollow and Diana 's light gleamed through the old gap . Anne 's horizons had closed in since the night she had sat there after coming home from Queen 's ; but if the path set before her feet was to be narrow she knew that flowers of quiet happiness would bloom along it . The joy of sincere work and worthy aspiration and congenial friendship were to be hers ; nothing could rob her of her birthright of fancy or her ideal world of dreams . And there was always the bend in the road ! '' Chapter I The Shadow of Change `` Harvest is ended and summer is gone , '' quoted Anne Shirley , gazing across the shorn fields dreamily . She and Diana Barry had been picking apples in the Green Gables orchard , but were now resting from their labors in a sunny corner , where airy fleets of thistledown drifted by on the wings of a wind that was still summer-sweet with the incense of ferns in the Haunted Wood . But everything in the landscape around them spoke of autumn . The sea was roaring hollowly in the distance , the fields were bare and sere , scarfed with golden rod , the brook valley below Green Gables overflowed with asters of ethereal purple , and the Lake of Shining Waters was blue -- blue -- blue ; not the changeful blue of spring , nor the pale azure of summer , but a clear , steadfast , serene blue , as if the water were past all moods and tenses of emotion and had settled down to a tranquility unbroken by fickle dreams . `` It has been a nice summer , '' said Diana , twisting the new ring on her left hand with a smile . `` And Miss Lavendar 's wedding seemed to come as a sort of crown to it . I suppose Mr. and Mrs. Irving are on the Pacific coast now . '' `` It seems to me they have been gone long enough to go around the world , '' sighed Anne . `` I ca n't believe it is only a week since they were married . Everything has changed . Miss Lavendar and Mr. and Mrs. Allan gone -- how lonely the manse looks with the shutters all closed ! I went past it last night , and it made me feel as if everybody in it had died . ''
`` We 'll never get another minister as nice as Mr. Allan , '' said Diana , XXXXX gloomy conviction .
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