Alexa

“ But within a month of its arrival masons were at work in the old church.
II.
Alexa was very dull indeed. It is a fine thing to earn your own living and be independent, but a little lonely flat in London is a poor place to spend Christmas in, and Alexa had no relations. She looked up from her book two days before the loneliest day of all, and saw that the sun was turning her green serge curtains a fine yellow.
"How pretty Ivychurch must be looking!" she said. "I will go and spend Christmas in the marshes." ”

“ Therefore in the days of your [42] youth look not upon the mimes to admire them, Alexa, and bring not your father’s gray hairs in sorrow to the dock.
But to return to seriousness and that symptom I spoke of. I have noticed lately in several young women of your age, though I am glad to say not in you, an unsalutary tendency to exalt the mummer. I have heard them chatter to each other about him in the drawing-room, here; I am told (Jane tells me in fact, she tells me unblushingly) that they buy his photographs, sometimes as many as three or four of one of him in different costumes ”

“ As they passed her, Alexandra was pleased to hear them speaking Bohemian to each other. Every few moments a boy would come running down the flagged walk and dash out into the street as if he were rushing to announce some wonder to the world. Alexandra felt a great tenderness for them all. ”

“ You feel that, properly, Alexandra’s house is the big out-of-doors, and that it is in the soil that she expresses herself best. ”

“ She had not been at Potlurg a week before Meg began to complain that she did not leave work enough to keep her warm. No doubt it gave her time for her book, but her eyes were not so good as they used to be, and she was apt to fall asleep over it, and catch cold! But when her mistress proposed to send her away, she would not hear of it So Alexa, who had begun to take an interest in her, set her to do things she had hitherto done herself, and began to teach her other things. Before three months were over, she was a necessity in the house, and to part with Dawtie seemed impossible. ”

“ Alexandra herself has changed very little. Her figure is fuller, and she has more color. She seems sunnier and more vigorous than she did as a young girl. But she still has the same calmness and deliberation of manner, the same clear eyes, and she still wears her hair in two braids wound round her head. It is so curly that fiery ends escape from the braids and make her head look like one of the big double sunflowers that fringe her vegetable garden. Her face is always tanned in summer, for her sunbonnet is oftener on her arm than on her head. ”

“ There was about Alexandra something of the impervious calm of the fatalist, always disconcerting to very young people, who cannot feel that the heart lives at all unless it is still at the mercy of storms ”

“ Jack seemed slender in black evening clothes, but he was a splendid athlete, and his body was hard as nails. Thus, when the soft pulpy form of Mrs. Alexander struck him back to back, it was not Jack who grunted and fell over.
Algy, being a “fragile darling,” and never prepared for emergencies, was lifted from his feet when Mrs. Alexander began to slip and gyrate, while endeavoring to balance in an upright position. The grip the lady maintained upon the only tangible thing at hand made Algy hop-skip-and-jump about like a Jack-on-a-stick. ”

“ But Alexander, dear," and she gave a little twist to the top button of his coat, "I don't love you, because you have never shown yourself capable of bold deeds or brave actions. I am woman enough to worship a man who can do things of that kind. The age of chivalry is not dead. There are heroes in this world, and though I'm awfully fond of you, Alexander, I'm going to wait until I meet my ideal." ”

“ Galas continued, raising his head, "Alexander, lord of Asia, bids me say that for thy walls, they shall become as the walls of Thebes, thy city shall be given to plunder, and the sea-gull shall build his nest in thy harbors. If ye would find mercy for your wives and your children, for yourselves and your possessions, ye must seek it now." ”

“ Alexandra offered innocently; "perhaps we don't systematize enough ourselves. It ought to be all so well arranged and regulated that a girl would know what she was expected to do, and know that you had a perfect right to call her down for wasting or slighting things. ”

“ Can you write it?"
"It is early to-morrow now," replied Alex. "Stay, good sister. I must to bed, and you should follow, or you will not be in trim to sing to the lady fair to-morrow. Come!"
"The bees make the honey, Alex; it would not answer if all were butterflies. You are one of those who think that folks were made to make your life pleasant."
"Bees can sting, I see," was Alexander's remark. "But give me a kiss, Lina; we don't forget our old home-love, do we? Let us hold together."
"I am willing, dear Alex; if I am crabbed at times, make excuses. These servants are a pest. ”

“ Alexandra sighed. "I have a feeling that if you go away, you will not come back. Something will happen to one of us, or to both. People have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find. What I have is yours, if you care enough about me to take it." ”

“ When the new Tsarina formed her personal Court, she named Olga as maid of honour, and when first the young girl entered on her duties, received her with such winning sweetness and graciousness, as to subdue utterly the proud heart, and cause it to transfer to the young and still lovely woman all its treasure of intense veneration, affection, and allegiance which it had held for the beloved Alexander. ”

“ THERE was a certain maiden of Alexandria whose name was Alexandra, and she left the city and shut herself up in a tomb until the end of her life; she used to receive her food and whatsoever she needed through a window, and no man and no woman saw her face, neither did she see the face of any man, for twelve years. ”

“ You can’t hide the quality of a man like him, Mrs. Alexander; it shows in a hundred ways that he doesn’t think of. They have had dealings with him, though he doesn’t know it—it’s been through agents. Mr. Warren, one of their best men, has, it seems, taken a fancy to him. I shouldn’t wonder if they’d take over the typometer as it stands, and work Alexander in with it. If Rondell Brothers really take up anyone——!” Girard did not need to finish. ”

“ Alexandra had had it made from a little photograph, taken for his friends just before he left Sweden; a slender man of thirty-five, with soft hair curling about his high forehead, a drooping mustache, and wondering, sad eyes that looked forward into the distance, as if they already beheld the New World.
After dinner Lou and Oscar went to the orchard to pick cherries—they had neither of them had the patience to grow an orchard of their own—and Annie went down to gossip with Alexandra’s kitchen girls while they washed the dishes. ”

“ Alexandra drew her shawl closer about her and stood leaning against the frame of the mill, looking at the stars which glittered so keenly through the frosty autumn air. She always loved to watch them, to think of their vastness and distance, and of their ordered march. It fortified her to reflect upon the great operations of nature, and when she thought of the law that lay behind them, she felt a sense of personal security. ”

“ Alexey Alexandrovitch was standing face to face with life, with the possibility of his wife’s loving someone other than himself, and this seemed to him very irrational and incomprehensible because it was life itself. ”

“ However, Alexandra, the daughter of Hyrcanus, and wife of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus the king, who had also brought Alexander [two] children, could not bear this indignity. Now this son was one of the greatest comeliness, and was called Aristobulus; and the daughter, Mariamne, was married to Herod, and eminent for her beauty also. This Alexandra was much disturbed, and took this indignity offered to her son exceeding ill, that while he was alive, any one else should be sent for to have the dignity of the high priesthood conferred upon him. ”

“ My mother, while father was at sea, had helped to nurse the sick people of Baltimore, and had herself died of the pestilence. Dr. Eccleston, a widower, assumed the care of Alexander and myself.
Alexander, springing up like Jack's bean-vine, yet growing in brawn and manliness as his height increased, was my elder by a number of years. He was much taller than I, yet I was growing too and had hopes of reaching, by the time I was sixteen, the chalk mark on our wall that showed Alexander to be five feet, ten inches high. ”

“ But there was Grace. Vigorously, and with a quick memory of Alexander's wet head appearing above the water of the pool, he remembered her. He blamed himself for his ingratitude to the nimble toes which would earn a little salary for her next year. "I do not think of her enough," he murmured. "Wrong of me. Nancy sees it, Alexander sees it. Yet I love her." Her success, he considered, would mean much to Theresa; college, perhaps—hope gleamed a little—she ought to go to college, and it might be managed. He must have courage. ”

“ She attends to every detail of business herself, and is at work over her books long after her boarders have retired to rest.
But the one of all the servants who interests us most is Alexander, Mrs. Almy's own slave. He is, like Rosalia, of mahogany color, with a broad forehead and intelligent eyes. His proud, impatient nature is little suited to his position, and every day brings some new account of his petulant outbreaks. ”

“ It’s too bad, really—if you rush off yachting like this, you won’t see Alexandra for months; she has remained later than usual this year, for the Archduchess is still in terrible distress over the death of her brother—a greater tragedy for Europe than for her, however! I wonder how you and Alexandra will like each other? How odd for you to meet for the first time at your age! She is most brilliantly educated, very clever, and a really remarkable linguist; speaks even Hungarian with fluency, and already has quite a knowledge of the world—foreign men are such an education ”

“ She asked me if I had heard about the lathe at Woolwich, and I said that I had heard rumors that there was such a lathe. She was quite overjoyed at the opportunity of giving me information, and asked me whether in the event of her showing me the prints I would keep the fact a great secret, because,” he laughed softly, “she did not think her father would like the print to leave his office!”
“You must be careful of this girl,” I said, “she may be detected.”
“There is no danger, my dear fellow,” said Alexander, “she is the shrewdest little woman in the world. ”

“ “Alexandra, my eldest, here, plays the piano, or reads or sews; Adelaida paints landscapes and portraits (but never finishes any) ; and Aglaya sits and does nothing. I don’t work too much, either. ”

“ And now one word about Alexander’s duplicity, which he called discretion. (If people could be got to call crimes by their right names, perhaps they would not commit them.) When Alexander was at home, having access to all Drusilla’s boxes, he secretly got possession of all the letters he had ever written to her and he destroyed them. His first subsequent letter was written from Richmond, to which he had come with his uncle and cousin for a sojourn of a few days previous to setting out with them on a tour of pleasure. ”

“ Alexandra never accompanied the Archduchess on her longer walks and rides. She was an accomplished horse-woman and a resigned pedestrian, but she had the frail physique of her race, and had been born of a hard-working fashionable mother with none of that profound sense of parental responsibility so ingrained in the European from queen to peasant. ”

“ I never saw anyone so anxious to do a thing perfectly. The great Bertini in Florence said of her—'She will certainly be greater than Angelica Kauffman.' ... 'Alexandra,' he said, 'will rank with men.' The egotism of the creature! You see there are others who admire her besides yourself."
"None more passionately."
"I thought so.—But look this way, Tityrus," said she, wheeling quickly and stepping forward. "How do you do, Alexandra!"
There she stood, pale and ill, but proud of carriage as ever.
"So you came after all? Here is Mr. Haviland, gladder even than I to see you!" ”

“ Alexander.
“You know very well that he never would have joined this party were it not that you insisted that he come. He knows I despise his airs and silly attentions, but you keep encouraging him. So it’s up to you to assume responsibility for his safety. He cannot take care of himself, as you can see.”
Thus arguing over the hapless Algy, the two arguers followed Jack back to the Painted Cave. ”

“ Curiously enough Alexandra has been many times confused with Alexander, a variety of American origin differing from the European sort both in color of skin and in season. Although of excellent quality Alexandra seems never to have found favor in America. Tree vigorous, healthy, productive; fruit large, round, marked with a deep suture; skin covered with a rough pubescence, pale, without any color except a few clusters of red dots on the side exposed to the sun; flesh white to the stone, tender, melting, juicy, richly flavored, vinous, sweet; quality very good ”

“ Alexander's Runner, Ladas.
Alexan'dra, daughter of Oronthea, queen of the Am'azons, and one of the ten wives of Elba'nio. It is from this person that the land of the Amazons was called Alexandra.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516) .
Alex'is, the wanton shepherd in The Faithful Shepherdess, a pastoral drama by John Fletcher (1610) .
Alfa'der, the father of all the Asen (deities) of Scandinavia, creator and governor of the universe, patron of arts and magic, etc.
Alfonso, father of Leono'ra d'Este, and duke of Ferrara, Tasso the poet fell in love with Leonora. ”