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AROUND THE BEND
 

thoughtfully. “The possibilities of making new friends help to make life very fascinating. But no matter how many friends I make they’ll never be as dear to me as the old ones . . . especially a certain girl with black eyes and dimples. Can you guess who she is, Diana?”

“But there’ll be so many clever girls at Redmond,” sighed Diana, “and I’m only a stupid little country girl who says ‘I seen’ sometimes . . . though I really know better when I stop to think. Well, of course these past two years have really been too pleasant to last. I know somebody who is glad you are going to Redmond anyhow. Anne, I’m going to ask you a question . . . a serious question. Don’t be vexed and do answer seriously. Do you care anything for Gilbert?”

“Ever so much as a friend and not a bit in the way you mean,” said Anne calmly and decidedly; she also thought she was speaking sincerely.

Diana sighed. She wished, somehow, that Anne had answered differently.

“Don’t you mean ever to be married, Anne?”

“Perhaps . . . some day . . . when I meet the right one,” said Anne, smiling dreamily up at the moonlight.

“But how can you be sure when you do meet the right one?” persisted Diana.

“Oh, I should know him . . . something would tell me. You know what my ideal is, Diana.”

“But people’s ideals change sometimes.”

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