As Anne and Priscilla headed toward their new home in Halifax, Priscilla's happy chatter cheered up Anne, helping her forget her homesickness.
"The boardinghouse is a big, old-fashioned, stone house on St. John Street," said Priscilla.
"Your bedroom is at the front and overlooks old St. John's graveyard."
"That sounds gruesome," said Anne, shivering. "I think I'd prefer a room at the back of the house."
"No, you wouldn't," replied Priscilla. "The graveyard is a lovely place, and besides, it's not used anymore.
There are enormous trees and a big stone wall."
Before Anne went to sleep in her new room that night, she went to the window and looked out.
The moon was shining over the graveyard.
"I suppose the same moon is shining down on Green Gables," she mused.
"But I won't think about it. I'm not even going to have a good cry.
I'll be sensible and go straight to sleep!"
The next day Anne and Priscilla went to Redmond College and enrolled as students.
Gilbert and Charlie were nowhere to be seen.
"I never thought I'd be glad to see a Sloane," said Priscilla as they crossed the campus on the way home.
"But I'd welcome Charlie's goggle eyes almost ecstatically. At least they'd be familiar eyes."
"I know." Anne sighed. "I feel as insignificant as a leaf in a forest here."
"Anne, did you notice the girl who stood alone all morning—the pretty one with the brown suit and pink hat?" Priscilla asked.
"Yes," said Anne. "I noticed her particularly because she seemed as lonely and friendless as I felt.
I had you, of course, but she had no one."
"She looked as though she wanted to approach us, but she did not," added Priscilla.
After lunch Anne asked Priscilla if she wanted to take a stroll through St. John's graveyard.
"I don't know that a graveyard is a very good place to go to cheer myself up, but it has such beautiful trees," said Anne.
"I'll sit and shut my eyes and imagine I'm in the Avonlea woods."
But as they strolled through the graveyard, Anne couldn't stop looking around.
She was fascinated by the old gravestones.
"'Here lies the body of Albert Crawford,'" Anne read from a worn, gray slab.
"'He was a brave officer, the best of husbands, the best of fathers, the best of friends.
He died October 29, 1792, aged 84 years.'
He must have led an adventurous life, Priscilla!"
"Look, Anne." Priscilla gestured toward the end of the path.
"It's the girl we saw at Redmond College this morning! I've been watching her.
She has started to walk toward us and then turned back at least five times!
Maybe she's very shy. Let's go and meet her."
They walked toward the stranger, who was sitting under an enormous willow tree.
She was certainly very pretty, and still wore the fashionable brown suit and a pale pink hat with brown poppies.
Priscilla and Anne suddenly felt very self-conscious in their unfashionable clothes from the country.
For a moment both girls felt like turning back.
But it was too late to retreat.
The girl sprang up and came forward with an outstretched hand and a friendly smile.
"Oh, I've been dying to meet you girls.
I saw you at Redmond this morning," she said eagerly.
"Wasn't it awful there? I was wishing I had stayed home and gotten married instead!"
Anne and Priscilla both laughed at this surprising comment.
The brown-eyed girl laughed too. "Come," she said. "Let's sit down and get acquainted.
I know we're going to be friends—I knew when I saw you at Redmond, and I wanted to come and say hello."
"Why didn't you?" asked Priscilla.
"Because I simply couldn't make up my mind," the girl said sorrowfully.
"I can never make up my mind about anything."
"We thought you were too shy," said Anne.
"No, no. I'm not shy. My name's Philippa Gordon—Phil for short. Call me Phil."
"She's Priscilla Grant," said Anne, pointing.
"And she's Anne Shirley," said Priscilla, pointing in turn.
"And we're from the island," said both together.
"I'm from Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia," said Philippa.
"Bolingbroke!" exclaimed Anne. "That's where I was born."
"Well, we're old neighbors, aren't we?" Phil laughed.
"I don't know how you made up your mind to come to Redmond at all if you are really such an indecisive person," said Priscilla, amused.
"Oh, I didn't! My father wanted me to go to college.
I have heaps of brains," Phil chatted, "but it's such hard work to use them.
My mother wanted me to get married, but I'm too young!
Besides, how could I ever decide which man to marry?"
"Were there so many?" Anne laughed.
"Heaps. Boys like me a lot—they really do.
But there were only two boys that mattered—Alec and Alonzo.
The rest were all too young or too poor."
"Do you love either of them?" asked Anne.
"Oh no, I couldn't love anybody!" said Phil.
"Being in love makes you a perfect slave, I think!
I saw one handsome fellow this morning, though. His friend called him Gilbert."
Anne felt a prick of annoyance and decided it was time to leave.
"Don't go yet!" Phil said. "Let's meet tomorrow!"
Anne and Priscilla could not resist Phil's cheerfulness and made plans to meet their first new friend again the next day.