I know now I don't."

"You have ruined my life," said Roy bitterly.

"Forgive me," pleaded Anne miserably, with hot cheeks and stinging eyes.

Roy turned away and stood for a few minutes looking out seaward. When he
came back to Anne, he was very pale again.

"You can give me no hope?" he said.

Anne shook her head mutely.

"Then--good-bye," said Roy. "I can't understand it--I can't believe
you are not the woman I've believed you to be. But reproaches are idle
between us. You are the only woman I can ever love. I thank you for your
friendship, at least. Good-bye, Anne."

"Good-bye," faltered Anne. When Roy had gone she sat for a long time in
the pavilion, watching a white mist creeping subtly and remorselessly
landward up the harbor. It was her hour of humiliation and self-contempt
and shame. Their waves went over her. And yet, underneath it all, was a
queer sense of recovered freedom.

She slipped into Patty's Place in the dusk and escaped to her room. But
Phil was there on the window seat.

"Wait," said Anne, flushing to anticipate the scene. "Wait til you hear
what I have to say. Phil, Roy asked me to marry him-and I refused."

"You--you REFUSED him?" said Phil blankly.

"Yes."

"Anne Shirley, are you in your senses?"

"I think so," said Anne wearily. "Oh, Phil, don't scold me. You don't
understand."

"I certainly don't understand. You've encouraged Roy Gardner in every
way for two years--and now you tell me you've refused him. Then you've
just been flirting scandalously with him. Anne, I couldn't have believed
it of YOU."

"I WASN'T flirting with him--I honestly thought I cared up to the last
minute--and then--well, I just knew I NEVER could marry him."

"I suppose," said Phil cruelly, "that you intended to marry him for his
money, and then your better self rose up and prevented you."

"I DIDN'T. I never thought about his money. Oh, I can't explain it to
you any more than I could to him."

"Well, I certainly think you have treated Roy shamefully," said Phil in
exasperation. "He's handsome and clever and rich and good. What more do
you want?"

"I want some one who BELONGS in my life. He doesn't. I was swept off
my feet at first by his good looks and knack of paying romantic
compliments; and later on I thought I MUST be in love because he was my
dark-eyed ideal."

"I am bad enough for not knowing my own mind, but you are worse," said
Phil.

"_I_ DO know my own mind," protested Anne. "The t