All this was astonishing enough . But what puzzled Mrs. Griggs completely was the fact that a woman 's dress was hanging over a chair before the mirror -- a pale blue , silken affair . And on the floor beside it were two little blue satin slippers ! Good Mrs. Griggs did not leave the room until she had thoroughly explored it , even to shaking out the blue dress and discovering it to be a tea-gown -- wrapper , she called it . But she found nothing to throw any light on the mystery . The fact that the simple name `` Alice '' was written on the fly-leaves of all the books only deepened it , for it was a name unknown in the Dale family . In this puzzled state she was obliged to depart , nor did she ever find the door unlocked again ; and , discovering that people thought she was romancing when she talked about the mysterious west gable at Golden Milestone , she indignantly held her peace concerning the whole affair . But Mrs. Griggs had told no more than the simple truth . Jasper Dale , under all his shyness and aloofness , possessed a nature full of delicate romance and poesy , which , denied expression in the common ways of life , bloomed out in the realm of fancy and imagination . Left alone , just when the boy 's nature was deepening into the man 's , he turned to this ideal kingdom for all he believed the real world could never give him . Love -- a strange , almost mystical love -- played its part here for him . He shadowed forth to himself the vision of a woman , loving and beloved ; he cherished it until it became almost as real to him as his own personality and he gave this dream woman the name he liked best -- Alice . In fancy he walked and talked with her , spoke words of love to her , and heard words of love in return . When he came from work at the close of day she met him at his threshold in the twilight -- a strange , fair , starry shape , as elusive and spiritual as a blossom reflected in a pool by moonlight -- with welcome on her lips and in her eyes . One day , when he was in Charlottetown on business , he had been struck by a picture in the window of a store . It was strangely like the woman of his dream love . He went in , awkward and embarrassed , and bought it . When he took it home he did not know where to put it . It was out of place among the dim old engravings of bewigged portraits and conventional landscapes on the walls of Golden Milestone . As he pondered the matter in his garden that evening he had an inspiration .
The sunset , flaming on the windows of the west gable , kindled them XXXXX burning rose .
As about before into on than to under until with