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 just be beautifully silent together. And then the moon would rise and I would look around me and there would be no Hester Gray and no little vine-hung house, and no roses  only an old waste garden starred with June lilies amid the grasses, and the wind sighing, oh, so sorrowfully in the cherry trees. And I would not know whether it had been real or if I had just imagined it all.”

Diana crawled up and got her back against the headboard of the bed. When your companion of twilight hour said such spooky things it was just as well not to be able to fancy there was anything behind you.

“I’m afraid the Improvement Society will go down when you and Gilbert are both gone,” she remarked dolefully.

“Not a bit of fear of it,” said Anne briskly, coming back from dreamland to the affairs of practical life. “It is too firmly established for that, especially since the older people are becoming so enthusiastic about it. Look what they are doing this summer for their lawns and lanes. Besides, I’ll be watching for hints at Redmond and I’ll write a paper for it next winter and send it over. Don’t take such a gloomy view of things, Diana. And don’t grudge me my little hour of gladness and jubilation now. Later on, when I have to go away, I’ll feel anything but glad.”

“It’s all right for you to be glad you’re going to college and you’ll have a jolly time and make heaps of lovely new friends.”

“I hope I shall make new friends,” said Anne Rh