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 can not think any music to-night , '' she wrote , `` I must go home , for my head aches and I feel very stupid . '' `` Very well , Kilmeny . Now , do n't worry , little girl . It will all come out all right . '' Evidently she did not share his confidence , 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 reproachfully , her eyes filling again . She seemed to be bidding him a mute farewell . With an impulse of tenderness which he could not control , Eric put his arm about her and kissed her red , trembling mouth . She started back with a little cry . A burning colour swept over her face , and the next moment she fled swiftly up the darkening lane . The sweetness of that involuntary kiss clung to Eric 's lips as he went homeward , half-intoxicating him . He knew that it had opened the gates of womanhood to Kilmeny . Never again , he felt , would her eyes meet his with their old unclouded frankness . When next he looked into them he knew that he should see there the consciousness of his kiss .
Behind her in the orchard that night XXXXX had left her childhood .
Eric Kilmeny colour consciousness entrance head lane right spirits to-night