When he had released my dress he rose and our eyes met for a moment as I timidly thanked him . I saw that he was good to look upon -- tall and straight , with broad , stalwart shoulders and a dark , clean-cut face . He had a firm , sensitive mouth and kindly , pleasant , dark blue eyes . I never quite forgot the look in those eyes . It made my heart beat strangely , but it was only for a moment , and the next he had lifted his cap and passed on . As I went homeward I wondered who he might be . He must be a stranger , I thought -- probably a visitor in some of our few neighbouring families . I wondered too if I should meet him again , and found the thought very pleasant . I knew few men and they were all old , like Father , or at least elderly . They were the only people who ever came to our house , and they either teased me or overlooked me . None of them was at all like this young man I had met in the beech wood , nor ever could have been , I thought . When I reached home I stopped before the big mirror that hung in the hall and did what I had never done before in my life -- looked at myself very scrutinizingly and wondered if I had any beauty . I could only sorrowfully conclude that I had not -- I was so slight and pale , and the thick black hair and dark eyes that might have been pretty in another woman seemed only to accentuate the lack of spirit and regularity in my features . I was still standing there , gazing wistfully at my mirrored face with a strange sinking of spirit , when Father came through the hall , his riding whip in his hand . Seeing me , he laughed . `` Do n't waste your time gazing into mirrors , Isobel , '' he said carelessly . `` That might have been excusable in former ladies of Shirley whose beauty might pardon and even adorn vanity , but with you it is only absurd . The needle and the cookbook are all that you need concern yourself with . '' I was accustomed to such speeches from him , but they had never hurt me so cruelly before . At that moment I would have given all the world only to be beautiful .
The next Sunday I looked across the church , and XXXXX the Fraser pew I saw the young man I had met in the wood .
At as for if in into of through to with