Anne watched these romantic proceedings from her window with much
interest, and when she saw how triumphantly other handsome girls of
the neighbourhood walked by on the gorgeous arms of Lieutenant
Knockheelmann, Cornet Flitzenhart, and Captain Klaspenkissen, of the
thrilling York Hussars, who swore the most picturesque foreign
oaths, and had a wonderful sort of estate or property called the
Vaterland in their country across the sea, she was filled with a
sense of her own loneliness. It made her think of things which she
tried to forget, and to look into a little drawer at something soft
and brown that lay in a curl there, wrapped in paper. At last she
could bear it no longer, and went downstairs.
'Where are you going?' said Mrs. Garland.
'To see the folks, because I am so gloomy!'
'Certainly not at present, Anne.'
'Why not, mother?' said Anne, blushing with an indefinite sense of
being very wicked.
'Because you must not. I have been going to tell you several times
not to go into the street at this time of day. Why not walk in the
morning? There's young Mr. Derriman would be glad to--'
'Don't mention him, mother, don't!'
'Well then, dear, walk in the garden.'
So poor Anne, who really had not the slightest wish to throw her
heart away upon a soldier, but merely wanted to displace old
thoughts by new, turned into the inner garden from day to day, and
passed a good many hours there, the pleasant birds singing to her,
and the delightful butterflies alighting on her hat, and the horrid
ants running up her stockings.
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