She is the most beautiful woman I ever saw , he thought . How is it possible that I have lived in Rexton for six months and never heard of her or of that house ? Well , I daresay there 's some simple explanation of it all . The place may have been unoccupied until lately -- probably it is the summer residence of people who have only recently come to it . I 'll ask Mrs. Danby . She 'll know if anybody will . That good woman knows everything about everybody in Rexton for three generations back . Alan found Isabel King with his housekeeper when he got home . His greeting was tinged with a slight constraint . He was not a vain man , but he could not help knowing that Isabel looked upon him with a favour that had in it much more than professional interest . Isabel herself showed it with sufficient distinctness . Moreover , he felt a certain personal dislike of her and of her hard , insistent beauty , which seemed harder and more insistent than ever contrasted with his recollection of the girl of the lake shore . Isabel had a trick of coming to the manse on plausible errands to Mrs. Danby and lingering until it was so dark that Alan was in courtesy bound to see her home . The ruse was a little too patent and amused Alan , although he carefully hid his amusement and treated Isabel with the fine unvarying deference which his mother had engrained into him for womanhood -- a deference that flattered Isabel even while it annoyed her with the sense of a barrier which she could not break down or pass . She was the daughter of the richest man in Rexton and inclined to give herself airs on that account , but Alan 's gentle indifference always brought home to her an unwelcome feeling of inferiority . `` You 've been tiring yourself out again tramping that lake shore , I suppose , '' said Mrs. Danby , who had kept house for three bachelor ministers and consequently felt entitled to hector them in a somewhat maternal fashion . `` Not tiring myself -- resting and refreshing myself rather , '' smiled Alan . `` I was tired when I went out but now I feel like a strong man rejoicing to run a race . By the way , Mrs. Danby , who lives in that quaint old house away down at the very shore ? I never knew of its existence before . ''
Alan 's `` by the way '' was not quite so indifferent as he tried XXXXX make it .
at before if in into on than to until with