revellers that night, and told
Gilbert unregretfully that her card was full when he came to ask her for
a dance. Afterwards, when she sat with the girls before the dying embers
at Patty's Place, removing the spring chilliness from their satin skins,
none chatted more blithely than she of the day's events.

"Moody Spurgeon MacPherson called here tonight after you left," said
Aunt Jamesina, who had sat up to keep the fire on. "He didn't know about
the graduation dance. That boy ought to sleep with a rubber band around
his head to train his ears not to stick out. I had a beau once who did
that and it improved him immensely. It was I who suggested it to him and
he took my advice, but he never forgave me for it."

"Moody Spurgeon is a very serious young man," yawned Priscilla. "He
is concerned with graver matters than his ears. He is going to be a
minister, you know."

"Well, I suppose the Lord doesn't regard the ears of a man," said Aunt
Jamesina gravely, dropping all further criticism of Moody Spurgeon.
Aunt Jamesina had a proper respect for the cloth even in the case of an
unfledged parson.

Chapter XXXVIII

False Dawn

"Just imagine--this night week I'll be in Avonlea--delightful thought!"
said Anne, bending over the box in which she was packing Mrs. Rachel
Lynde's quilts. "But just imagine--this night week I'll be gone forever
from Patty's Place--horrible thought!"

"I wonder if the ghost of all our laughter will echo through the maiden
dreams of Miss Patty and Miss Maria," speculated Phil.

Miss Patty and Miss Maria were coming home, after having trotted over
most of the habitable globe.

"We'll be back the second week in May" wrote Miss Patty. "I expect
Patty's Place will seem rather small after the Hall of the Kings at
Karnak, but I never did like big places to live in. And I'll be glad
enough to be home again. When you start traveling late in life you're
apt to do too much of it because you know you haven't much time left,
and it's a thing that grows on you. I'm afraid Maria will never be
contented again."

"I shall leave here my fancies and dreams to bless the next comer," said
Anne, looking around the blue room wistfully--her pretty blue room where
she had spent three such happy years. She had knelt at its window to
pray and had bent from it to watch the sunset behind the pines. She
had heard the autumn raindrops beating against it and had welcomed
the spring robins at its sill. She wondered i