She was standing under a beech tree in a field beyond the orchard , leaning on the longer fence , with her hands clasped against her cheek . In them she held a white Mary-lily from the orchard . She did not run to meet him while he was crossing the pasture , as she would once have done . She waited motionless until he was close to her . Eric began , half laughingly , half tenderly , to quote some lines from her namesake ballad : '' ` Kilmeny , Kilmeny , where have you been ? Long hae we sought baith holt and den , -- By linn , by ford , and greenwood tree ! Yet you are halesome and fair to see . Where got you that joup o ' the lily sheen ? That bonny snood o ' the birk sae green , And those roses , the fairest that ever was seen ? Kilmeny , Kilmeny , where have you been ? ' `` Only it 's a lily and not a rose you are carrying . I might go on and quote the next couplet too -- '' ` Kilmeny looked up with a lovely grace , But there was nae smile on Kilmeny 's face . ' `` Why are you looking so sober ? '' Kilmeny did not have her slate with her and could not answer ; but Eric guessed from something in her eyes that she was bitterly contrasting the beauty of the ballad 's heroine with her own supposed ugliness . `` Come down to the house , Kilmeny . I have something there to show you -- something lovelier than you have ever seen before , '' he said , with boyish pleasure shining in his eyes . `` I want you to go and put on that muslin dress you wore last Sunday evening , and pin up your hair the same way you did then . Run along -- do n't wait for me . But you are not to go into the parlour until I come . I want to pick some of those Mary-lilies up in the orchard . ''
When Eric returned to the house with an armful of the long stemmed , white Madonna lilies that bloomed in the orchard Kilmeny was just coming down the steep , narrow staircase with its striped carpeting XXXXX homespun drugget .
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