Only she 'd have to behave herself . '' `` Oh , Nan , do you think Mrs. Elliott would take her ? '' `` It would n't do any harm if you asked her , '' said Nan . At first Una did not think she could . She was so shy that to ask a favour of anybody was agony to her . And she was very much in awe of the bustling , energetic Mrs. Elliott . She liked her very much and always enjoyed a visit to her house ; but to go and ask her to adopt Mary Vance seemed such a height of presumption that Una 's timid spirit quailed . When the Hopetown authorities wrote to Mr. Meredith to send Mary to them without delay Mary cried herself to sleep in the manse attic that night and Una found a desperate courage . The next evening she slipped away from the manse to the harbour road . Far down in Rainbow Valley she heard joyous laughter but her way lay not there . She was terribly pale and terribly in earnest -- so much so that she took no notice of the people she met -- and old Mrs. Stanley Flagg was quite huffed and said Una Meredith would be as absentminded as her father when she grew up . Miss Cornelia lived half way between the Glen and Four Winds Point , in a house whose original glaring green hue had mellowed down to an agreeable greenish gray . Marshall Elliott had planted trees about it and set out a rose garden and a spruce hedge . It was quite a different place from what it had been in years agone . The manse children and the Ingleside children liked to go there . It was a beautiful walk down the old harbour road , and there was always a well-filled cooky jar at the end . The misty sea was lapping softly far down on the sands . Three big boats were skimming down the harbour like great white sea-birds . A schooner was coming up the channel . The world of Four Winds was steeped in glowing colour , and subtle music , and strange glamour , and everybody should have been happy in it .
But when Una turned in XXXXX Miss Cornelia 's gate her very legs had almost refused to carry her .
about at between from if in like of on to