“You!  Ugly!” exclaimed Eric.  He was on the point of going off into a peal of laughter at the idea when a glimpse of her half averted face sobered him.  On it was a hurt, bitter look, such as he remembered seeing once before, when he had asked her if she would not like to see the world for herself.

“Kilmeny,” he said in astonishment, “you don’t really think yourself ugly, do you?”

She nodded, without looking at him, and then wrote,

“Oh, yes, I know that I am.  I have known it for a long time.  Mother told me that I was very ugly and that nobody would ever like to look at me.  I am sorry.  It hurts me much worse to know I am ugly than it does to know I cannot speak.  I suppose you will think that is very foolish of me, but it is true.  That was why I did not come back to the orchard for such a long time, even after I had got over my fright.  I hated to think that you would think me ugly.  And that is why I do not want to go out into the world and meet people.  They would look at me as the egg peddler did one day when I went out with Aunt Janet to his wagon the spring after mother died.  He stared at me so.  I knew it was because he thought me so ugly, and I have always hidden when he came ever since.”

Eric’s lips twitched.  In spite of his pity for the real suffering displayed in her eyes, he could not help feeling amused over the absurd idea of this beautiful girl believing herself in all seriousness to be ugly.

“But, Kilmeny, do you think yourself ugly when you look in a mirror?” he asked smiling.

“I have never looked in a mirror,” she wrote.  “I never knew there was such a thing until after mother died, and I read about it in a book.  Then I asked Aunt Janet and she said mother had broken all the looking glasses in the house when I was a baby.  But I have seen my face reflected in the spoons, and in a little silver sugar bowl Aunt Janet has.  And it is ugly—­very ugly.”

Eric’s face went down into the grass.  For his life he could not help laughing; and for his life he would not let Kilmeny see him laughing.  A certain little whimsical wish took possession of him and he did not hasten to tell her the truth, as had been his first impulse.  Instead, when he dared to look up he said slowly,

“I don’t think you are ugly, Kilmeny.”

“Oh, but I am sure you must,” she wrote protestingly.  “Even Neil does.  He tells me I am kind and nice, but one day I asked him if he thought me very ugly, and he looked away and would not speak, so I knew what he thought about it, too.  Do not let us speak of this again.  It makes me feel sorry and spoils everything.  I forget it at other times.  Let me play you some good-bye music, and do not feel vexed because I would not take your book.  It would only make me unhappy to read it.”

“I am not vexed,” said Eric, “and I think you will take it some day yet—­after I have shown you something I want you to see.  Never mind about your looks, Kilmeny.  Beauty isn’t everything.”