And if you couldnt be loved the next best thing was to be let alone.

Anne laughed.I dont want sunbursts or marble halls I just want you.

Perhaps after all romance did not come into ones life with pomp and blare like a gay knight riding down perhaps it crept to ones side like an old friend through quiet ways perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music perhaps . . . perhaps . . . love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.

... I grew up out of that strange dreamy childhood of mine and went into the world of reality. I met with experiences that bruised my spirit - but they never harmed my ideal world. That was always mine to retreat into at will. I learned that that world and the real world clashed hopelessly and irreconcilably and I learned to keep them apart so that the former might remain for me unspoiled. I learned to meet other people on their own ground since there seemed to be no meeting place on mine. I learned to hide the thoughts and dreams and fancies that had no place in the strife and clash of the market place. I found that it was useless to look for kindred souls in the multitude one might stumble on such here and there but as a rule it seemed to me that the majority of people lived for the things of time and sense alone and could not understand my other life. So I piped and danced to other peoples piping - and held fast to my own soul as best I could.

Im so glad youre here Anne said Miss Lavendar nibbling at her candy. If you werent I should be bluevery bluealmost navy blue. Dreams and make-believes are all very well in the daytime and the sunshine but when dark and storm come they fail to satisfy. One wants real things then. But you dont know thisseventeen never knows it. At seventeen dreams do satisfy because you think the realities are waiting for you further on.

Listen to the trees talking in their sleep she whispered as he lifted her to the ground. What nice dreams they must have

She had dreamed some brilliant dreams during the past winter and now they lay in the dust around her. In her present mood of self-disgust she could not immediately begin dreaming again. And she discovered that while solitude with dreams is glorious solitude without them has few charms.

Why must people kneel down to pray If I really wanted to pray Ill tell you what Id do. Id go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep deep woods and Id look up into the skyupupupinto that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then Id just feel a prayer.

Even when Im alone I have real good company dreams and imaginations and pretendings. I like to be alone now and then just to think over things and taste them. But I love friendships and nice jolly little times with people.