She was certainly not in the least like Cecilia , who had always been his ideal of womanly beauty . Cecilia had been small and dark and vivacious -- Rosemary West was tall and fair and placid , yet John Meredith thought he had never seen so beautiful a woman . She was bareheaded and her golden hair -- hair of a warm gold , `` molasses taffy '' colour as Di Blythe had said -- was pinned in sleek , close coils over her head ; she had large , tranquil , blue eyes that always seemed full of friendliness , a high white forehead and a finely shaped face . Rosemary West was always called a `` sweet woman . '' She was so sweet that even her high-bred , stately air had never gained for her the reputation of being `` stuck-up , '' which it would inevitably have done in the case of anyone else in Glen St. Mary . Life had taught her to be brave , to be patient , to love , to forgive . She had watched the ship on which her lover went sailing out of Four Winds Harbour into the sunset . But , though she watched long , she had never seen it coming sailing back . That vigil had taken girlhood from her eyes , yet she kept her youth to a marvellous degree . Perhaps this was because she always seemed to preserve that attitude of delighted surprise towards life which most of us leave behind in childhood -- an attitude which not only made Rosemary herself seem young , but flung a pleasing illusion of youth over the consciousness of every one who talked to her . John Meredith was startled by her loveliness and Rosemary was startled by his presence . She had never thought she would find anyone by that remote spring , least of all the recluse of Glen St. Mary manse . She almost dropped the heavy armful of books she was carrying home from the Glen lending library , and then , to cover her confusion , she told one of those small fibs which even the best of women do tell at times . `` I -- I came for a drink , '' she said , stammering a little , in answer to Mr. Meredith 's grave `` good evening , Miss West . '' She felt that she was an unpardonable goose and she longed to shake herself . But John Meredith was not a vain man and he knew she would likely have been as much startled had she met old Elder Clow in that unexpected fashion . Her confusion put him at ease and he forgot to be shy ; besides , even the shyest of men can sometimes be quite audacious in moonlight . `` Let me get you a cup , '' he said smiling . There was a cup near by , if he had only known it , a cracked , handleless blue cup secreted under the maple by the Rainbow Valley children ; but he did not know it , so he stepped out to one of the birch-trees and stripped a bit of its white skin away . Deftly he fashioned this into a three-cornered cup , filled it from the spring , and handed it to Rosemary .
Rosemary took it and drank every drop to punish herself XXXXX her fib , for she was not in the least thirsty , and to drink a fairly large cupful of water when you are not thirsty is somewhat of an ordeal .
at because by for from in of on that though