'I hear you're actually engaged to Kenneth Ford now Rilla,' Mary Douglas, neé Vance, said, as Rilla walked out onto the verandah where Mary was talking to Di and Nan a week after Rilla's engagement had been announced to her family and friends. 'Yes, I am,' Rilla replied.

'I never picked Ken to fall for someone like you,' Mary said. 'He always struck me as being someone who would lead a young girl on to believe he liked her,'

'You know something, Mary,' Di said, coming to Rilla's rescue. 'I'm surprised Kitty Alec agreed to your marriage with Miller. Didn't she always say that you weren't going to marry him because you were a nobody without a name?' Mary flushed, knowing that she'd gone too far. Di continued. 'Maybe Miller only married you because he feels sorry for you, did you ever think of that? Maybe he doesn't love you, and only pretends to love you. What do you think, Mary? Do you think it's nice to hear things like that? Now you have an idea of how you made Rilla feel,' Rilla looked at Di with gratitude. She left her sisters with Mary, and wandered to Rainbow Valley.

Shirley was there, buried in a book on aviation, which Rilla knew he wouldn't move from until he'd finished it. Rilla smiled, as she passed him. He had the same absorbed look on his face that Walter had had when he was reading poetry. Rilla left him be, and wandered to the shore. She made her way to her favourite spot there and sat down, watching the sea, and thinking. Mary's words had stung her deeply, and Rilla was beginning to feel doubtful over Ken's devotion to her. Just as she was about to go and find him, a voice said 'You look like a mermaid sitting there, Rilla-my-Rilla,' and Ken came and sat down next to her. 'What's troubling you?' he asked, seeing a look of sadness on her face.

'I was just thinking,' Rilla replied. 'About what being engaged means,'

'It doesn't mean that you're my sole property,' Ken said. 'It means you belong to me as well as your family,'

'I know,' Rilla responded, watching as a wave crashed on the sand. 'it also means that you belong to me as well as your family,'

'I've belonged to you since the night of the dance at the light,' Ken said. 'I just didn't realize it until I came to Ingleside the night before I left for France,'

'did I ever tell you how I refused Fred Arnold a kiss on the grounds that I had promised you I would let no one but you kiss me?' Rilla asked, her doubts disappearing.

'No, you didn't,' Ken looked at his fiancée. 'What happened?'

'Fred came and asked me to marry him when he returned from France, and I refused. He then asked for a kiss and a promise to be friends, and I told him I could be friends, but that I couldn't kiss him because I had promised someone I would let no one kiss me until they returned. He guessed it was you, and left, hurt and upset. I thought I had told you,'

'No, you didn't,' Ken said. 'I would have remembered it if you had. Mother wants to know if we're planning on having a spree to announce our engagement, by the way,'

'Mother wanted to know that, too,' Rilla laughed. 'I told her I'd talk to you and see what we came up with,'

'I told mother that too,' Ken laughed. 'The question is, do you want a spree?'

'Not particularly,' Rilla answered. 'I mean, everyone I wanted to know that we're engaged knows,'

'I know what you mean,' Ken said. 'maybe we should just have a small get together in Rainbow Valley, with just your family, the Merediths, my family and Miss Cornelia,'

'if we're going to have her, Mary will want to come,' Rilla replied.

'We'll just tell her that we've only got limited space,' Ken said. He wasn't overly fond of Mary and she knew it.

'if we're going to have a get together, I want Gertrude and Robert to come,' Rilla said.