CHAPTER VI

THE STORY OF KILMENY

EDNESDAY evening Eric went V R] to the orchard again; and again he was disappointed. He went home, determined to solve the mystery by open inquiry. Fortune favoured him, for he found Mrs. Williamson alone, sitting by the west window of her kitchen and knitting at a long gray sock. She hummed softly to herself as she knitted, and Timothy slept blackly at her feet. She looked at Eric with quiet affection in her large, candid eyes. She had liked Mr. West. But Eric had found his way into the inner chamber of her heart, by reason that his eyes were so like those of the lit- tle son she had buried in the Lindsay churchyard many years before. “ Mrs. Williamson,” said Eric, with an

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