He had no expectation of seeing Kilmeny there , for he thought she would avoid the spot lest she might meet him . But he could not keep away from it , although the thought of it was an added torment , and he vibrated between a wild wish that he might never see it again , and a sick wonder how he could possibly go away and leave it -- that strange old orchard where he had met and wooed his sweetheart , watching her develop and blossom under his eyes , like some rare flower , until in the space of three short months she had passed from exquisite childhood into still more exquisite womanhood . As he crossed the pasture field before the spruce wood he came upon Neil Gordon , building a longer fence . Neil did not look up as Eric passed , but sullenly went on driving poles . Before this Eric had pitied Neil ; now he was conscious of feeling sympathy with him . Had Neil suffered as he was suffering ? Eric had entered into a new fellowship whereof the passport was pain . The orchard was very silent and dreamy in the thick , deep tinted sunshine of the September afternoon , a sunshine which seemed to possess the power of extracting the very essence of all the odours which summer has stored up in wood and field . There were few flowers now ; most of the lilies , which had queened it so bravely along the central path a few days before , were withered . The grass had become ragged and sere and unkempt . But in the corners the torches of the goldenrod were kindling and a few misty purple asters nodded here and there . The orchard kept its own strange attractiveness , as some women with youth long passed still preserve an atmosphere of remembered beauty and innate , indestructible charm . Eric walked drearily and carelessly about it , and finally sat down on a half fallen fence panel in the shadow of the overhanging spruce boughs . There he gave himself up to a reverie , poignant and bitter sweet , in which he lived over again everything that had passed in the orchard since his first meeting there with Kilmeny . So deep was his abstraction that he was conscious of nothing around him . 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 XXXXX have passed over the girl in those few days .
As Before about along around from into like that to