That is all the company I want . But I like to read and hear of the big world so far away and the people who live there and the things that are done . It must be a very wonderful place . '' `` Would n't you like to go out into it and see its wonders and meet those people yourself ? '' he asked , smiling at her . At once he saw that , in some way he could not understand , he had hurt her . She snatched her pencil and wrote , with such swiftness of motion and energy of expression that it almost seemed as if she had passionately exclaimed the words aloud , `` No , no , no . I do not want to go anywhere away from home . I do not want ever to see strangers or have them see me . I could not bear it . '' He thought that possibly the consciousness of her defect accounted for this . Yet she did not seem sensitive about her dumbness and made frequent casual references to it in her written remarks . Or perhaps it was the shadow on her birth . Yet she was so innocent that it seemed unlikely she could realize or understand the existence of such a shadow . Eric finally decided that it was merely the rather morbid shrinking of a sensitive child who had been brought up in an unwholesome and unnatural way . At last the lengthening shadows warned him that it was time to go . `` You wo n't forget to come to-morrow evening and play for me , '' he said , rising reluctantly . She answered by a quick little shake of her sleek , dark head , and a smile that was eloquent . He watched her as she walked across the orchard , `` With the moon 's beauty and the moon 's soft pace , '' and along the wild cherry lane . At the corner of the firs she paused and waved her hand to him before turning it .
When Eric reached home old Robert Williamson was having a lunch XXXXX bread and milk in the kitchen .
At With about along before by for into of that