He did not hear stealthy footsteps behind him in the dim spruce wood . He did not even see Kilmeny as she came slowly around the curve of the wild cherry lane . Kilmeny had sought the old orchard for the healing of her heartbreak , if healing were possible for her . She had no fear of encountering Eric there at that time of day , for she did not know that it was the district custom to close the school for a funeral . She would never have gone to it in the evening , but she longed for it continually ; it , and her memories , were all that was left her now . Years seemed to have passed over the girl in those few days . She had drunk of pain and broken bread with sorrow . Her face was pale and strained , with bluish , transparent shadows under her large wistful eyes , out of which the dream and laughter of girlhood had gone , but into which had come the potent charm of grief and patience . Thomas Gordon had shaken his head bodingly when he had looked at her that morning at the breakfast table . `` She wo n't stand it , '' he thought . `` She is n't long for this world . Maybe it is all for the best , poor lass . But I wish that young Master had never set foot in the Connors orchard , or in this house . Margaret , Margaret , it 's hard that your child should have to be paying the reckoning of a sin that was sinned before her birth . '' Kilmeny walked through the lane slowly and absently like a woman in a dream . When she came to the gap in the fence where the lane ran into the orchard she lifted her wan , drooping face and saw Eric , sitting in the shadow of the wood at the other side of the orchard with his bowed head in his hands . She stopped quickly and the blood rushed wildly over her face . The next moment it ebbed , leaving her white as marble . Horror filled her eyes , -- blank , deadly horror , as the livid shadow of a cloud might fill two blue pools . Behind Eric Neil Gordon was standing tense , crouched , murderous .
Even at that distance Kilmeny saw the look on his face , saw what he held XXXXX his hand , and realized in one agonized flash of comprehension what it meant .
Behind around as before for in into over to with