It is not as if Kilmeny would ever change her mind . We have had some experience with a woman 's will ere this . Tush , Janet , woman , do n't be weeping . You women are foolish creatures . Do you think tears can wash such things away ? No , they can not blot out sin , or the consequences of sin . It 's awful how one sin can spread out and broaden , till it eats into innocent lives , sometimes long after the sinner has gone to his own accounting . Master , if you take my advice , you 'll give up the Lindsay school and go back to your own world as soon as may be . '' CHAPTER XVII . A BROKEN FETTER Eric went home with a white , haggard face . He had never thought it was possible for a man to suffer as he suffered then . What was he to do ? It seemed impossible to go on with life -- there was NO life apart from Kilmeny . Anguish wrung his soul until his strength went from him and youth and hope turned to gall and bitterness in his heart . He never afterwards could tell how he lived through the following Sunday or how he taught school as usual on Monday . He found out how much a man may suffer and yet go on living and working . His body seemed to him an automaton that moved and spoke mechanically , while his tortured spirit , pent-up within , endured pain that left its impress on him for ever . Out of that fiery furnace of agony Eric Marshall was to go forth a man who had put boyhood behind him for ever and looked out on life with eyes that saw into it and beyond . On Tuesday afternoon there was a funeral in the district and , according to custom , the school was closed . Eric went again to the old orchard .
He had no expectation XXXXX seeing Kilmeny there , for he thought she would avoid the spot lest she might meet him .
after as for in into of on through till within