Kilmeny of the Orchard

“ I am very sorry for your sake.”

“ Yes, but what I mean is, would you like me better if I could speak like other people? ”

“ No, it does not make any difference in that way, Kilmeny. By the way, do you mind my calling you Kilmeny? ”

She looked puzzled and wrote, “ What else should you call me? That is my name. Everybody calls me that.”

“ But I am such a stranger to you that perhaps you would wish me to call you Miss Gordon.”

“ Oh, no, I would not like that,” she wrote quickly, with a distressed look on her face. “Nobody ever calls me that. It would make me feel as if I were not myself but somebody else. And you do not seem like a stranger to me. Is there any reason why you should not call me Kilmeny? ”

“ No reason whatever, if you will allow me the privilege. You have a very lovely name—the very name you ought to have.”

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