Sometimes it makes me feel as if I were asleep and wanted to wake and did n't know how . '' She turned and looked out over the bay . A dying gleam of sunset broke through a cloud and fell across her hair . For a moment she seemed the spirit of the shore personified -- all its mystery , all its uncertainty , all its elusive charm . She has possibilities , thought Reeves . Next day he began his picture . At first he had thought of painting her as the incarnation of a sea spirit , but decided that her moods were too fitful . So he began to sketch her as `` Waiting '' -- a woman looking out across the bay with a world of hopeless longing in her eyes . The subject suited her well , and the picture grew apace . When he was tired of work he made her walk around the shore with him , or row up the head of the bay in her own boat . He tried to draw her out , at first with indifferent success . She seemed to be frightened of him . He talked to her of many things -- the far outer world whose echoes never reached her , foreign lands where he had travelled , famous men and women whom he had met , music , art and books . When he spoke of books he touched the right chord . One of those transfiguring flashes he delighted to evoke now passed over her plain face . `` That is what I 've always wanted , '' she said hungrily , `` and I never get them . Aunt hates to see me reading . She says it is a waste of time . And I love it so . I read every scrap of paper I can get hold of , but I hardly ever see a book . ''
The next day XXXXX took his Tennyson to the shore and began to read the Idylls of the King to her .
Reeves art boat eyes face first lands right sketch walk