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 scathing refusal; and she says his father and mother have taken turns watching him ever since for fear he’ll drown himself in the river; but Ruby says they needn’t be afraid; for in the Deportment of Courtship and Marriage it told how a rejected lover should behave and there’s nothing about drowning in. And she says Wilbur Blair is literally pining away for her but she’s perfectly helpless in the matter.”

Anne made an impatient movement.

“I hate to say it it seems so disloyal  but, well, I don’t like Ruby Gillis now. I liked her when we went to school and Queen’s together though not so well as you and Jane of course. But this last year at Carmody she seems so different so  so ”

“I know,” nodded Diana. “It’s the Gillis coming out in her she can’t help it. Mrs. Lynde says that if ever a Gillis girl thought about anything but the boys she never showed it in her walk and conversation. She talks about nothing but boys and what compliments they pay her, and how crazy they all are about her at Carmody. And the strange thing is, they, too ” Diana admitted this somewhat resentfully. “Last night when I saw her in Mr. Blair’s store she whispered to me that she’d just made a new ‘mash.’ I wouldn’t ask her who it was, because I knew she was dying to asked. Well, it’s what Ruby always wanted, I suppose. You remember even when she was little she always said she meant to have dozens of beaus when she grew up and have the very Rh