Sometimes he called himself a fool and vowed he would go no more to the Four Winds shore . Yet he inevitably went . He did not find in the shore the comfort and inspiration he had formerly found . Something had come between his soul and the soul of the wilderness -- something he did not recognize or formulate -- a nameless , haunting longing that shaped itself about the memory of a cold sweet face and starry , indifferent eyes , grey as the lake at dawn . Of Captain Anthony he never got even a glimpse , but he saw the old cousin several times , going and coming about the yard and its environs . Finally one day he met her , coming up a path which led to a spring down in a firry hollow . She was carrying two heavy pails of water and Alan asked permission to help her . He half expected a repulse , for the tall , grim old woman had a rather stern and forbidding look , but after gazing at him a moment in a somewhat scrutinizing manner she said briefly , `` You may , if you like . '' Alan took the pails and followed her , the path not being wide enough for two . She strode on before him at a rapid , vigorous pace until they came out into the yard by the house . Alan felt his heart beating foolishly . Would he see Lynde Oliver ? Would -- `` You may carry the water there , '' the old woman said , pointing to a little outhouse near the pines . `` I 'm washing -- the spring water is softer than the well water . Thank you '' -- as Alan set the pails down on a bench -- `` I 'm not so young as I was and bringing the water so far tires me . Lynde always brings it for me when she 's home . '' She stood before him in the narrow doorway , blocking his exit , and looked at him with keen , deep-set dark eyes . In spite of her withered aspect and wrinkled face , she was not an uncomely old woman and there was about her a dignity of carriage and manner that pleased Alan . It did not occur to him to wonder why it should please him . If he had hunted that feeling down he might have been surprised to discover that it had its origin in a curious gratification over the thought that the woman who lived with Lynde had a certain refinement about her .
He preferred her unsmiling dourness XXXXX vulgar garrulity .
Of as at before for near on than to with