Yet she , too , felt a keen pleasure in the beauty of the scene before them . Almost at their feet lay the sea , creaming and shimmering in the mellow sunshine . Beyond , on either hand , stretched rugged brown cliffs and rocks , here running out to sea in misty purple headlands , there curving into bays and coves that seemed filled up with sunlight and glamour and pearly hazes ; a beautiful shore and , seemingly , a lonely one . The only house visible from where the girls stood was a tiny grey one , with odd , low eaves and big chimneys , that stood down in the little valley on their right , where the cliffs broke away to let a brook run out to sea and formed a small cove , on whose sandy shore the waves lapped and crooned within a stone 's throw of the house . On either side of the cove a headland made out to sea , curving around to enclose the sparkling water as in a cup . `` What a picturesque spot ! '' said Mary . `` But what a lonely one ! '' protested Ida . `` Why , there is n't another house in sight . I wonder who lives in it . Anyway , I 'm going down to ask them for a drink of water . '' `` I 'd like to ask for a square meal , too , '' said Mary , laughing . `` I am discovering that I am hungry . Fine scenery is very satisfying to the soul , to be sure , but it does n't still the cravings of the inner girl . And we 've wheeled ten miles this afternoon . I 'm getting hungrier every minute . '' They reached the little grey house by way of a sloping , grassy lane . Everything about it was very neat and trim . In front a white-washed paling shut in the garden which , sheltered as it was by the house , was ablaze with poppies and hollyhocks and geraniums .
A path , bordered by big white clam shells , led through it to the front door , whose steps were slabs of smooth red sandstone XXXXX the beach .
In about as before by for from on that within