“Not so very exactly,” little Anne said, reluctantly. “But you can’t be if you cry too much. It makes you feel as used up as anything to cry a great deal, I think.”
“Oh, it does! Is Anne crying a great deal, little Anne? Will you tell her that I beg her to put me entirely out of her mind, and that I am going on well?” cried Richard.
“Well, yes, I will,” little Anne said. “But I don’t think it will stop her worrying over you. I heard her tell Joan that the poem I found just hunted her—or something; she meant she kept thinking about it.”
“The poem you found? I don’t know it, little Anne. Where did you find it? Why does it haunt her?” asked Richard.
“Upstairs in your hall, quite long ago; about Fourth of July time. A poem you’d written yourself. It was sort of hard for Anne to read it. She thought first she had to copy it; then she didn’t. She made me put it back just ’xactly where I found it,” little Anne explained.
Richard gasped and fell back in his chair.
“That!” he exclaimed. “You found that and showed it to Anne! And it was not long after that she came to me—— Ah, now I understand, now I understand! That was how she knew! She tried so hard, dear little soul, she tried so hard to make me happy! I never quite saw why she acted as she did till now. Little Anne, little Anne, you have played an important part in my life. You have endowed me and impoverished me. I don’t see why it all had to be, but I’ve no doubt that I shall some day. Now tell me something else: Do you know whether Kit Carrington knows that Anne is with your sister, and that she will never marry me? For she never will, little Anne!”
“Oh, I know that!” cried little Anne. “I don’t know whether Kit does or not. Want me to tell him?”
Richard almost smiled; a gleam of amusement went over his unhappy face.
“Always ready to turn another beetle!” he said. “On the whole, yes, little Anne. Tell him all that you know. It will be told in a better way than if it were clearer. Anne will complete the story. And tell Kit that I asked you to tell him. Tell him that I am anxious to hear that Anne has stopped crying and is smiling at him. Tell him just that. And that I send him my blessing—will you, dear?”