from Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge

I shall live and die here. Perhaps I shall never be well but this place will give me periods of respite that I would not have found in any other, and though I am able to do nothing else in this life, except only seek, my life seeming to others a vie manquee, yet it will not be so, because what I seek is the goodness of God that waters the dry places. And water overflows from one dry patch to another, and so you cannot be selfish in digging for it. 

from That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern

"Would you like a whiskey, Jamesie?" she asked.
"Now you're talking, Kate. But you should know by now that 'wilya' is a very bad word."
"Why bad?"
"Look at yer man," he pointed to where Ruttledge had already taken glasses and a bottle of Powers from the cupboard and was running water into a brown jug.
"I'm slow."
"You're not one bit slow, Kate. You just weren't brought up here. You nearly have to be born into a place to know what's going on and what to do."