A Lover and His Lass 
     
    
   
   
    
     room. That is the way they always pun- 
     
     ished me when I was a little girl. And 
     
     once, not so very long ago, when I was 
     
     a big girl, they did it.” 
     
    

    
     “ If they do I’ll get you out somehow,” 
     
     said Eric, laughing a little. 
     
    

    
     She allowed herself to smile, but it was 
     
     a rather forlorn little effort. She did not 
     
     cry any more, but her spirits did not come 
     
     back to her. Eric talked gaily, but she 
     
     only listened in a pensive, absent way, as 
     
     if she scarcely heard him. When he asked 
     
     her to play she shook her head. 
     
    

    
     “ I cannot think any music to—night,” 
     
     she wrote. “ I must go home, for my head 
     
     aches and I feel very stupid.” 
     
    

    
     “ Very well, Kilmeny. Now, don’t 
     
     worry, little girl. It will all come out all 
     
     right.” 
     
    

    
     Evidently she did not share his confi- 
     
     dence, for her head drooped again as they 
     
     walked together across the orchard. At 
     
     the entrance of the wild cherry lane she 
     
     paused and looked at him half reproach- 
     
    
   
   
    
     I49