`` I like you very much , Kilmeny , '' answered Eric , laughing a little ; but there was in his voice a tender note of which he was unconscious . Kilmeny was aware of it , however , and she picked up her violin with a pleased smile . He left her playing there , and all the way through the dim resinous spruce wood her music followed him like an invisible guardian spirit . `` Kilmeny the Beautiful ! '' he murmured , `` and yet , good heavens , the child thinks she is ugly -- she with a face more lovely than ever an artist dreamed of ! A girl of eighteen who has never looked in a mirror ! I wonder if there is another such in any civilized country in the world . What could have possessed her mother to tell her such a falsehood ? I wonder if Margaret Gordon could have been quite sane . It is strange that Neil has never told her the truth . Perhaps he does n't want her to find out . '' Eric had met Neil Gordon a few evenings before this , at a country dance where Neil had played the violin for the dancers . Influenced by curiosity he had sought the lad 's acquaintance . Neil was friendly and talkative at first ; but at the first hint concerning the Gordons which Eric threw out skilfully his face and manner changed . He looked secretive and suspicious , almost sinister . A sullen look crept into his big black eyes and he drew his bow across the violin strings with a discordant screech , as if to terminate the conversation . Plainly nothing was to be found out from him about Kilmeny and her grim guardians . CHAPTER X . A TROUBLING OF THE WATERS One evening in late June Mrs. Williamson was sitting by her kitchen window . Her knitting lay unheeded in her lap , and Timothy , though he nestled ingratiatingly against her foot as he lay on the rug and purred his loudest , was unregarded .
She rested her face XXXXX her hand and looked out of the window , across the distant harbour , with troubled eyes .
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