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 from the beach . `` No children here , certainly , '' whispered Ida . `` Every one of those clam shells is placed just so . And this walk is swept every day . No , we shall never dare to ask for anything to eat here . They would be afraid of our scattering crumbs . '' Ida lifted her hand to knock , but before she could do so , the door was thrown open and a breathless little lady appeared on the threshold . She was very small , with an eager , delicately featured face and dark eyes twinkling behind gold-rimmed glasses .
She was dressed immaculately in an old-fashioned gown of grey silk with a white muslin fichu crossed over her shoulders , and her silvery hair fell on each side of her face in long , smooth curls that just touched her shoulders and bobbed and fluttered with her every motion ; behind , it was caught up in a knot XXXXX her head and surmounted by a tiny lace cap .
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