"I think," said Anne softly, "that `the land where dreams come true'
is in the blue haze yonder, over that little valley."
"Have you any unfulfilled dreams, Anne?" asked Gilbert.
Something in his tone -- something she had not heard since that
miserable evening in the orchard at Patty's Place -- made Anne's
heart beat wildly. But she made answer lightly.
"Of course. Everybody has. It wouldn't do for us to have all
our dreams fulfilled. We would be as good as dead if we had
nothing left to dream about. What a delicious aroma that
low-descending sun is extracting from the asters and ferns.
I wish we could see perfumes as well as smell them. I'm sure
they would be very beautiful."
Gilbert was not to be thus sidetracked.
"I have a dream," he said slowly. "I persist in dreaming it,
although it has often seemed to me that it could never come true.
I dream of a home with a hearth-fire in it, a cat and dog, the
footsteps of friends -- and YOU!"
Anne wanted to speak but she could find no words. Happiness was
breaking over her like a wave. It almost frightened her.
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