“Didn’t you—­love—­either of them?” asked Anne, a little hesitatingly.  It was not easy for her to speak to a stranger of the great mystery and transformation of life.

“Goodness, no. I couldn’t love anybody.  It isn’t in me.  Besides I wouldn’t want to.  Being in love makes you a perfect slave, I think.  And it would give a man such power to hurt you.  I’d be afraid.  No, no, Alec and Alonzo are two dear boys, and I like them both so much that I really don’t know which I like the better.  That is the trouble.  Alec is the best looking, of course, and I simply couldn’t marry a man who wasn’t handsome.  He is good-tempered too, and has lovely, curly, black hair.  He’s rather too perfect—­I don’t believe I’d like a perfect husband—­somebody I could never find fault with.”

“Then why not marry Alonzo?” asked Priscilla gravely.

“Think of marrying a name like Alonzo!” said Phil dolefully.  “I don’t believe I could endure it.  But he has a classic nose, and it would be a comfort to have a nose in the family that could be depended on.  I can’t depend on mine.  So far, it takes after the Gordon pattern, but I’m so afraid it will develop Byrne tendencies as I grow older.  I examine it every day anxiously to make sure it’s still Gordon.  Mother was a Byrne and has the Byrne nose in the Byrnest degree.  Wait till you see it.  I adore nice noses.  Your nose is awfully nice, Anne Shirley.  Alonzo’s nose nearly turned the balance in his favor.  But Alonzo!  No, I couldn’t decide.  If I could have done as I did with the hats—­stood them both up together, shut my eyes, and jabbed with a hatpin—­it would have been quite easy.”

“What did Alec and Alonzo feel like when you came away?” queried Priscilla.

“Oh, they still have hope.  I told them they’d have to wait till I could make up my mind.  They’re quite willing to wait.  They both worship me, you know.  Meanwhile, I intend to have a good time.  I expect I shall have heaps of beaux at Redmond.  I can’t be happy unless I have, you know.  But don’t you think the freshmen are fearfully homely?  I saw only one really handsome fellow among them.  He went away before you came.  I heard his chum call him Gilbert.  His chum had eyes that stuck out that far.  But you’re not going yet, girls?  Don’t go yet.”

“I think we must,” said Anne, rather coldly.  “It’s getting late, and I’ve some work to do.”

“But you’ll both come to see me, won’t you?” asked Philippa, getting up and putting an arm around each.  “And let me come to see you.  I want to be chummy with you.  I’ve taken such a fancy to you both.  And I haven’t quite disgusted you with my frivolity, have I?”

“Not quite,” laughed Anne, responding to Phil’s squeeze, with a return of cordiality.

“Because I’m not half so silly as I seem on the surface, you know.  You just accept Philippa Gordon, as the Lord made her, with all her faults, and I believe you’ll come to like her.  Isn’t this graveyard a sweet place?  I’d love to be buried here.  Here’s a grave I didn’t see before—­this one in the iron railing—­oh, girls, look, see—­the stone says it’s the grave of a middy who was killed in the fight between the Shannon and the Chesapeake.  Just fancy!”