She could be whimsical -- even charmingly capricious . Sometimes innocent mischief glimmered out in the unfathomable deeps of her blue eyes . Sarcasm , even , was not unknown to her . Now and then she punctured some harmless bubble of a young man 's conceit or masculine superiority with a biting little line of daintily written script . She assimilated the ideas in the books they read , speedily , eagerly , and thoroughly , always seizing on the best and truest , and rejecting the false and spurious and weak with an unfailing intuition at which Eric marvelled . Hers was the spear of Ithuriel , trying out the dross of everything and leaving only the pure gold . In manner and outlook she was still a child . Yet now and again she was as old as Eve . An expression would leap into her laughing face , a subtle meaning reveal itself in her smile , that held all the lore of womanhood and all the wisdom of the ages . Her way of smiling enchanted him . The smile always began far down in her eyes and flowed outward to her face like a sparkling brook stealing out of shadow into sunshine . He knew everything about her life . She told him her simple history freely . She often mentioned her uncle and aunt and seemed to regard them with deep affection . She rarely spoke of her mother . Eric came somehow to understand , less from what she said than from what she did not say , that Kilmeny , though she had loved her mother , had always been rather afraid of her . There had not been between them the natural beautiful confidence of mother and child . Of Neil , she wrote frequently at first , and seemed very fond of him . Later she ceased to mention him . Perhaps -- for she was marvellously quick to catch and interpret every fleeting change of expression in his voice and face -- she discerned what Eric did not know himself -- that his eyes clouded and grew moody at the mention of Neil 's name .
Once she asked him naively , `` Are there many people like you out XXXXX the world ? ''
Of about as at between in into like to with