Just think of it -- that child ! '' `` Dora is seventeen , '' said Gilbert . `` Charlie Sloane and I were both mad about you when you were seventeen , Anne . '' `` Really , Gilbert , we must be getting on in years , '' said Anne , with a half-rueful smile , `` when children who were six when we thought ourselves grown up are old enough now to have beaux . Dora 's is Ralph Andrews -- Jane 's brother . I remember him as a little , round , fat , white-headed fellow who was always at the foot of his class . But I understand he is quite a fine-looking young man now . '' `` Dora will probably marry young . She 's of the same type as Charlotta the Fourth -- she 'll never miss her first chance for fear she might not get another . '' `` Well ; if she marries Ralph I hope he will be a little more up-and-coming than his brother Billy , '' mused Anne . `` For instance , '' said Gilbert , laughing , `` let us hope he will be able to propose on his own account . Anne , would you have married Billy if he had asked you himself , instead of getting Jane to do it for him ? '' `` I might have . '' Anne went off into a shriek of laughter over the recollection of her first proposal . `` The shock of the whole thing might have hypnotized me into some such rash and foolish act . Let us be thankful he did it by proxy . '' `` I had a letter from George Moore yesterday , '' said Leslie , from the corner where she was reading . `` Oh , how is he ? '' asked Anne interestedly , yet with an unreal feeling that she was inquiring about some one whom she did not know . `` He is well , but he finds it very hard to adapt himself to all the changes in his old home and friends .
He is going to sea again XXXXX the spring .
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