The house bounded it on one side ; on the three others it was enclosed by an old stone dyke , so overgrown with moss and grass and ferns that it looked like a high , green bank . On the right and left the tall , dark spruces spread their palm-like branches over it ; but below it was a little meadow , green with clover aftermath , sloping down to the blue loop of the Grafton River . No other house or clearing was in sight ... nothing but hills and valleys covered with feathery young firs . `` I wonder what sort of a person Miss Lewis is , '' speculated Diana as they opened the gate into the garden . `` They say she is very peculiar . '' `` She 'll be interesting then , '' said Anne decidedly . `` Peculiar people are always that at least , whatever else they are or are not . Did n't I tell you we would come to an enchanted palace ? I knew the elves had n't woven magic over that lane for nothing . '' `` But Miss Lavendar Lewis is hardly a spellbound princess , '' laughed Diana . `` She 's an old maid ... she 's forty-five and quite gray , I 've heard . '' `` Oh , that 's only part of the spell , '' asserted Anne confidently . `` At heart she 's young and beautiful still ... and if we only knew how to unloose the spell she would step forth radiant and fair again . But we do n't know how ... it 's always and only the prince who knows that ... and Miss Lavendar 's prince has n't come yet . Perhaps some fatal mischance has befallen him ... though THAT 'S against the law of all fairy tales . '' `` I 'm afraid he came long ago and went away again , '' said Diana . `` They say she used to be engaged to Stephan Irving ... Paul 's father ... when they were young . But they quarreled and parted . '' `` Hush , '' warned Anne . `` The door is open . ''
The girls paused XXXXX the porch under the tendrils of ivy and knocked at the open door .
At On against below if in into of over that