Where, oh, where were all the gracious and graceful speeches wherewith, in imagination, she had been wont to dismiss rejected suitors?
Gilbert released her hand gently.
"There isn't anything to forgive.

There have been times when I thought you did care.

I've deceived myself, that's all.

Goodbye, Anne." Anne got herself to her room, sat down on her window seat behind the pines, and cried bitterly.

She felt as if something incalculably precious had gone out of her life.