Ally

“ They heightened my consciousness of the indissoluble bond between him and his adopted sister. Ally's genius was fast developing in many ways. Her passion for study was as great as her passionate love of beauty. As no summer could satiate her heart with sunshine and flowers, so no knowledge could satiate her soul. When she was not drinking in nature or reproducing it in the wonderful tapestry-like embroidery, she was absorbed in study. ”

“ But 'tis my most unlucky star has ruled it, that I must be dependent on a man I fear. I live by love, Ally—by sympathy, confidence, communion! I can forgive—I hope to be forgiven. But Herries asks no forgiveness, and he grants none. He—he drives me to subterfuge, Ally. I swear against my proper nature!'
Alison never doubted that, first in Nancy's mind, as she spoke, and first in her own, was the thought of that eternal commerce with St. James's Square. It throve apace, like some ill weed with a fair leaf, but choking roots. ”

“ When, however, the first two or three of these letters were written, and their answers received, in those gay early days in the Potterrow, Alison was delighted, because they made her friend so happy.
'We are to make it a regular thing,' Nancy explained, 'and who knows, Ally, but that it may become one of the classic correspondences in our language? We are to have borrowed names chosen by him. How I love this fancy of Arcadian names in such a commerce; it gives the last delightful touch of romance. He is to be "Sylvander," and I "Clarinda." Now is not "Clarinda" a pretty name, Ally? ”

“ The Ally was there in power. The day of the rack, the thumbscrew and the stake, is long past: in place of these instruments of religious discipline we have—the Ally.
Mostly those on the firing line were ministers, though here and there a prominent woman leader pushed to the front. The rest were brothers and sisters, mainly sisters; who like other mortals, always backed their favorites in the race that was set before them all. ”

“ Do you believe it, Ally?'
'Sure, I believe it with all my heart and soul,' cried Alison, with kindling eyes.
'And there spoke an enthusiasm and a trusting warmth of nature that were never Archie's, dear,' said Mrs. Maclehose, laughing once more. 'No, you are not like him, love. 'Tis for a coldness of nature, a perpetual suspicion that I blame him. He's not a kindred soul, and we are ever tacitly at war. God knows poor Nancy is no saint. ”

“ But she's set on it, sure and fast, Ally; and maybe it's not just such a bad thing as it looks.' He stopped and coughed; nothing but his daughter's quick breathing answered him. 'He's not a bonny man, I will say,' he continued; 'but 'tisn't always the handsome faces and the fine manners that pay best in the end, Ally. Mr. Cheape is most handsome in his dealings if he's not so in his looks; and, on my soul, I think he would do well by a wife.' No answer yet. 'You would not help to ruin Jacky, would you, Ally?' urged the laird, pathetically.
'Indeed, no,' said Alison at last, in a low voice. ”

“ He is all the noblest generosity! Don't think my love is dead, Ally,' she added in something of her old tones. 'It lives, and it will live, purified. I'll tear the earthly part of it from my heart, and live in hopes that we may meet in heaven!' Soothed by this interesting and sanguine reflection, Nancy grew calmer. She took a little of her sleeping medicine, and Alison was just beginning to look forward to an hour of peace, when she awoke with a scream. ”

“ Now he ’haves himself as a man ought to do. ’Twon’t do, Miss Ally, ’deed it won’t, Miss Ally! to spile men folks. Men folks ’quire to be made to know their places. ’Deed, ’fore my Heavenly Marster, they do, honey.”
Doubtless Alice would have rebuked this freedom of speech, had she heard one word of it; but she did not. She only knew that Milly was twaddling some monotonous strain of monologue, as she carried the candle before her upstairs.
Arrived within her chamber Alice dismissed her maid, refusing all refreshment, and threw herself, exhausted and anxious, upon her bed. ”

“ So consent, for my sake as well as Alison's, and believe that you confer a favour by doing so.'
'You make the debtor seem generous,' said the laird, not unkindly, 'but I consent. Though the Lord only knows what I shall say to the wife when you're gone!'
'Ah, men must be brave—'tis their duty!' cried Nancy. 'And now, be wise too, and say not a word of this to a soul—not to Ally even, for her terror and indecision would discover themselves in a moment. ”

“ A slight frown ruffled her forehead, and the faintest flush rose on her cheek. ''Tis most provoking, Ally,' she said. 'I have run short. Will you run and ask your father, love, to pay the man for me, and I will this day write for more money to my cousin Herries, in Edinburgh, who manages my affairs. ”

“ But, Ally, you look scared: what is it, love?'
''Twas—'twas nothing much,' said Alison, struggling to rid herself of the disagreeable impressions of her walk. 'Only, Mr. Herries has such a strange servant-lass that he sent across the town with us; she behaved so—so odd.' Nancy laughed.
'Was that all?' she said flippantly. 'Gentlemen have often "strange servant lasses," dear, and I dare say Archie, for all his prim ways, is no better than his neighbours.'
Alison's cheeks suddenly flamed scarlet, and her eyes blazed, as she caught the innuendo. ”

“ Rosalie looked dubious, and her eyes travelled to the imposing-looking book-shelves.
67“I never found anyone quite to come up to Ally Krimjo,” she replied regretfully.
“You refuse my offer?”
“Not if you give me something interesting. But as a rule I don’t like biographies, because the people always die. Now, Ally Krimjo—”
“You’re quite right,” said Mr. Barringcourt grimly. “Ally Krimjo hasn’t died, so he deserves to live. Have you the Book of Divine Inspiration?” ”

“ And they’ll grow again, you know.”
“Isn’t it good we’re both saved?” said Ally [40] cosily. “Oh, Essie, keep your feet right on the hot soap-stone! Only, please don’t touch the back of my legs! They do smart a little. What you going to dream about? Are you awake? I’m going to dream I went into the garden and there—atop of a—big rose—I saw”—And Ally slipped away into dreamland, where Essie had gone before her. ”

“ The Achaeans soon experienced, as often happens, that a victorious and powerful ally is but another name for a master. ”

“ Yes! It was indeed as if Ally had been dropped out of the skies into Jim's hands. We were her only friends in the country,—so far as we knew, in the world,—and all that she could tell us of herself was that she was eleven years old, and that her name was Alice Fisher.
She was a marvelous child. Mrs. Bunker's homely words told the exact truth of her; they came to my mind constantly in the course of our first days at the parsonage. "She 's jest like a lamb, and yit there ain't nothin' stoopid about her." ”

“ Algy was not very clear about his tendencies, thought Polly, as she stood listening very seriously.
“Naturally you would have ancestral tendencies—every one has,” laughed Dodo; then Algy was ready to be presented.
“In these modern days, the young folks gen’ally take after themselves,” grunted Mr. Alexander. “All the same, ef this young feller is like his ancestors was, it’s a lucky thing they didn’t have rugs with fringes on ’em in the old times.”
Mr. Alexander’s remark was quite lost, however, because Algy was being introduced, and he never grasped more than one thing at a time. ”

“ It was this: "Just as we [Françoise and Alix] were parting, she [Alix] handed me the story of her life." I had already called my friend's attention to the anachronisms, and she was in keen distress, because totally unable to account for them. ”

“ No, Allyne, my boy, Fair’s troubles are not financial—and as for women——”
“Yes, that’s the difficulty,” broke in Allyne. “If it were almost any other man, one might say, ‘Find the lady in the puzzle’; but Fair is an iced edition of Sir Galahad. But whatever it is, he has a horror of some kind eating out that big, warm, pure heart of his. And, Travers, old man, we must get at the truth tonight and save him.” ”

“ And Allie found herself in her father's arms, and then released, as Mr. Burnam added, "Here, Charlie, this is your Cousin Alice."
With a sudden shyness, Allie put her hand into the one before her, as she glanced up at the boyish face which was looking down into her own. Something she read there, in the half-anxious expression of the brown eyes, made her forget her more formal salutation, and say cordially,—
"Are you the new brother that's come to live at our house? It's going to be splendid to have you there." ”

“ Allie was sitting alone in her room one evening, fagged out from a hard day. Some people were talking on the veranda outside her window, and she heard one say:
"The girl can look really stunning."
"Exactly. I don't understand where she gets her looks, for her parents are—impossible. ”

“ When the news of my misfortune reached the parsonage, Mrs. Allen and the Dominie each wrote me a loving and sympathizing letter. Mrs. Allen said:—
"Thee knows that we ourselves set little store by money, nevertheless we can sorrow with those who lose it. If it is best for thee to have riches, it is very easy for the Lord to lay them in thy hands."
Enclosed in the letter was a small bit of paper, on which Ally had printed in large and angular letters:—
"Dear Mr. ”

“ Of all the Girls that are so smart
There's none like pretty SALLY,
She is the Darling of my Heart,
And she lives in our Alley. ”

“ Everybody is as kind as possible,” said Alix. She could not, she knew, make Rosemary understand. Rosemary, fundamentally, could not take foreign countries seriously—could not believe that anyone lucky enough to be in England should have all their energies bent on leaving it. ”

“ Allys looked at him amazed, enchanted. Here was no boy to be played with, petted and coaxed from his beliefs—rather a man standing for what he held the right with the fire and strength of youth.
Adair caught Hilary on the other side, saying under breath: “Hold still, Rich! You must! The wild man from Borneo is right this time. It would be horribly bad form if you said a questioning word—and, anyway, the judges saw—what we did.”
Hilary turned upon Billy a look that made Allys hide her eyes, but nodded shortly, and strode away, not toward the stand. ”

“ Yet dearer still that Irish hill than all the world beside;
It's home, sweet home, where'er I roam, through lands and waters wide,
And if the Lord allows me, I surely will return
To my native Ballyshannon, and the winding banks of Erne. ”

“ That being done, his Excellency showed that it was his Majesty’s pleasure to make the late Govr and Captain John Allyn members of his council, and called upon them to take their oaths, which they did forthwith, and all this in that public and great assembly, nemine contradicente, and only one man said that they first desired that they might continue as they were. ”

“ The ‘College of God's Gift’ thus incorporated consisted of a master, warden (both of whom were to be of the name of Alleyn) , four fellows, six poor brothers, six poor sisters, and twelve poor scholars, its endowment, besides the Dulwich estate, comprising property in Lambeth and Bishopsgate, together with the Fortune Theatre, the freehold of which Alleyn had secured in 1610. During the five years covered by his diary, and possibly until his death, Alleyn personally managed the affairs of the college, his average yearly expenditure on all accounts amounting to 1,700l. ”

“ Thus a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that ever were written. ”

“ Whenever a new scholar came to our school, I used to confront him at recess with the following words: “My name's Tom Bailey; what's your name?” If the name struck me favorably, I shook hands with the new pupil cordially; but if it didn't, I would turn on my heel, for I was particular on this point. Such names as Higgins, Wiggins, and Spriggins were deadly affronts to my ear; while Langdon, Wallace, Blake, and the like, were passwords to my confidence and esteem. ”

“ ‘He said he would come in,’ the White Queen went on, ‘because he was looking for a hippopotamus. Now, as it happened, there wasn’t such a thing in the house, that morning.’
‘Is there generally?’ Alice asked in an astonished tone.
‘Well, only on Thursdays,’ said the Queen. ”

“ by his own journeyings he earned the right to say, ‘England is a family’, and to go on, typically mordant, ‘with the wrong members in control’. ”

“ How sharp a test of our childlike spirit our acceptance of them, when our own hearts are sore, is! How deep the peace which they bring when really believed! How far they go to solve the mystery of pain, and turn darkness into a solemn light! ”

“ Let's consider your age to begin with——how old are you?"
"I'm seven and a half exactly."
"You needn't say 'exactually,'" the Queen remarked: "I can believe it without that. Now I'll give you something to believe. I'm just one hundred and one, five months and a day."
"I can't believe that!" said Alice.
"Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes."
Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. ”

“ Usually they were my only visitors, but one morning just at daylight I was waked by a soft tramp of bare feet, and saw, silhouetted against the cream-coloured walls, a procession of eight tall negroes in linen tunics, who filed noiselessly across the atrium like a moving frieze of bronze. ”