But he admired Anne immensely , and was puffed up with pride over the prospect of driving to White Sands with that slim , upright figure beside him . Anne , by dint of talking over her shoulder to the girls and occasionally passing a sop of civility to Billy -- who grinned and chuckled and never could think of any reply until it was too late -- contrived to enjoy the drive in spite of all . It was a night for enjoyment . The road was full of buggies , all bound for the hotel , and laughter , silver clear , echoed and reechoed along it . When they reached the hotel it was a blaze of light from top to bottom . They were met by the ladies of the concert committee , one of whom took Anne off to the performers ' dressing room which was filled with the members of a Charlottetown Symphony Club , among whom Anne felt suddenly shy and frightened and countrified . Her dress , which , in the east gable , had seemed so dainty and pretty , now seemed simple and plain -- too simple and plain , she thought , among all the silks and laces that glistened and rustled around her . What were her pearl beads compared to the diamonds of the big , handsome lady near her ? And how poor her one wee white rose must look beside all the hothouse flowers the others wore ! Anne laid her hat and jacket away , and shrank miserably into a corner . She wished herself back in the white room at Green Gables . It was still worse on the platform of the big concert hall of the hotel , where she presently found herself . The electric lights dazzled her eyes , the perfume and hum bewildered her . She wished she were sitting down in the audience with Diana and Jane , who seemed to be having a splendid time away at the back . She was wedged in between a stout lady in pink silk and a tall , scornful-looking girl in a white-lace dress . The stout lady occasionally turned her head squarely around and surveyed Anne through her eyeglasses until Anne , acutely sensitive of being so scrutinized , felt that she must scream aloud ; and the white-lace girl kept talking audibly to her next neighbor about the `` country bumpkins '' and `` rustic belles '' in the audience , languidly anticipating `` such fun '' from the displays of local talent on the program . Anne believed that she would hate that white-lace girl to the end of life . Unfortunately for Anne , a professional elocutionist was staying at the hotel and had consented to recite . She was a lithe , dark-eyed woman in a wonderful gown of shimmering gray stuff like woven moonbeams , with gems on her neck and in her dark hair . She had a marvelously flexible voice and wonderful power of expression ; the audience went wild over her selection .
Anne , forgetting all XXXXX herself and her troubles for the time , listened with rapt and shining eyes ; but when the recitation ended she suddenly put her hands over her face .
about by for in like near on over through until