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The conversation soon grew animated enough. Ludovic was a good
talker when he had somebody to draw him out. He was well read,
and frequently surprised Anne by his shrewd comments on men and
matters out in the world, of which only the faint echoes reached
Deland River. He had also a liking for religious arguments with Theodora,
who did not care much for politics or the making of history,
but was avid of doctrines, and read everything pertaining thereto.
When the conversation drifted into an eddy of friendly wrangling
between Ludovic and Theodora over Christian Science, Anne understood
that her usefulness was ended for the time being, and that she
would not be missed.
"It's star time and good-night time," she said, and went away quietly.
But she had to stop to laugh when she was well out of sight of the house,
in a green meadow bestarred with the white and gold of daisies.
A wind, odour-freighted, blew daintily across it. Anne leaned
against a white birch tree in the corner and laughed heartily, as she
was apt to do whenever she thought of Ludovic and Theodora. To her
eager youth, this courtship of theirs seemed a very amusing thing.
She liked Ludovic, but allowed herself to be provoked with him.
"The dear, big, irritating goose!" she said aloud.
"There never was such a lovable idiot before. He's just
like the alligator in the old rhyme, who wouldn't go along,
and wouldn't keep still, but just kept bobbing up and down."
Two evenings later, when Anne went over to the Dix place, she and
Theodora drifted into a conversation about Ludovic. Theodora, who was
the most industrious soul alive, and had a mania for fancy work
into the bargain, was busying her smooth, plump fingers with
a very elaborate Battenburg lace centre-piece. Anne was lying
back in a little rocker, with her slim hands folded in her lap,
watching Theodora. She realized that Theodora was very handsome,
in a stately, Juno-like fashion of firm, white flesh, large,
clearly-chiselled outlines, and great, cowey, brown eyes.
When Theodora was not smiling, she looked very imposing.
Anne thought it likely that Ludovic held her in awe.
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