She found , however , that revenge hurts nobody quite so much as the one who tries to inflict it . Gilbert walked airily off with Ruby Gillis , and Anne could hear them laughing and talking gaily as they loitered along in the still , crisp autumn air . They were evidently having the best of good times , while she was horribly bored by Charlie Sloane , who talked unbrokenly on , and never , even by accident , said one thing that was worth listening to . Anne gave an occasional absent `` yes '' or `` no , '' and thought how beautiful Ruby had looked that night , how very goggly Charlie 's eyes were in the moonlight -- worse even than by daylight -- and that the world , somehow , was n't quite such a nice place as she had believed it to be earlier in the evening . `` I 'm just tired out -- that is what is the matter with me , '' she said , when she thankfully found herself alone in her own room . And she honestly believed it was . But a certain little gush of joy , as from some secret , unknown spring , bubbled up in her heart the next evening , when she saw Gilbert striding down through the Haunted Wood and crossing the old log bridge with that firm , quick step of his . So Gilbert was not going to spend this last evening with Ruby Gillis after all ! `` You look tired , Anne , '' he said . `` I am tired , and , worse than that , I 'm disgruntled . I 'm tired because I 've been packing my trunk and sewing all day . But I 'm disgruntled because six women have been here to say good-bye to me , and every one of the six managed to say something that seemed to take the color right out of life and leave it as gray and dismal and cheerless as a November morning . '' `` Spiteful old cats ! '' was Gilbert 's elegant comment . `` Oh , no , they were n't , '' said Anne seriously . `` That is just the trouble . If they had been spiteful cats I would n't have minded them . But they are all nice , kind , motherly souls , who like me and whom I like , and that is why what they said , or hinted , had such undue weight with me . They let me see they thought I was crazy going to Redmond and trying to take a B.A. , and ever since I 've been wondering if I am . Mrs. Peter Sloane sighed and said she hoped my strength would hold out till I got through ; and at once I saw myself a hopeless victim of nervous prostration at the end of my third year ; Mrs. Eben Wright said it must cost an awful lot to put in four years at Redmond ; and I felt all over me that it was unpardonable of me to squander Marilla 's money and my own on such a folly .
Mrs. Jasper Bell said she hoped I would n't let college spoil me , as it did some people ; and I felt in my bones that the end of my four Redmond years would see me a most insufferable creature , thinking I knew it all , and looking down on everything and everybody in Avonlea ; Mrs. Elisha Wright said she understood XXXXX Redmond girls , especially those who belonged to Kingsport , were ` dreadful dressy and stuck-up , ' and she guessed I would n't feel much at home among them ; and I saw myself , a snubbed , dowdy , humiliated country girl , shuffling through Redmond 's classic halls in coppertoned boots . ''
If at because by since that through till to while