Angelina

“ On one wall was a large map of the world, and on the other an old print of Romans sacking Jerusalem, a picture which frightened Angelina every night of her life, when the dark came and the lamp illuminated the writhing limbs, the falling bodies, the tottering walls. From the windows the Square was visible, and at the windows Angelina spent a great deal of her time, but her present nurse—nurses succeeded one another with startling frequency—objected to what she called "window-gazing." "Makes a child dreamy," she said; "lowers her spirits." ”

“ The affection between her and Angelina was growing daily more tender—perhaps a little more maternal on her part. Drawn closer together by the now complete separation from every member of their own family, and by the disapproval and coldness of their Philadelphia friends, they were an inexpressible solace and help to each other. Identified in all their trials, as now in their labors, they worked together in a sweet unity of spirit, which lessened every difficulty and lightened every burden. ”

“ Angelina carried her parcel to the window, and then, after gazing at it for a long time, at last opened it. Her eyes grew wider and wider, her chubby fingers trembled. Nurse undid the wrappings of paper, slowly folded up the sheets, then produced, all naked and unashamed, a large rag doll.
"There! There's a pretty thing for you, Miss 'Lina."
She had her hand about the doll's head, and held her there, suspended.
"Give her me! Give her me!" Angelina rescued her, and, with eyes flaming, the doll laid lengthways in her arms, tottered off to the other corner of the room. ”

“ Angelina would have gone on loving Edwin forever and ever and ever if only Edwin had not grown so strange and different. Edwin would have adored Angelina through eternity if Angelina had only remained the same as when he first adored her.
It is a cheerless hour for you both when the lamp of love has gone out and the fire of affection is not yet lit, and you have to grope about in the cold, raw dawn of life to kindle it. God grant it catches light before the day is too far spent. Many sit shivering by the dead coals till night come. ”

“ With Angelina I should find charms in a desert. Here she appears like the goddess-nymph of this delicious country. Frequently as I look at her, I enquire, whether it is possible I can deserve her? and tremble lest the portion of happiness I enjoy, mixed and dashed as it is, (while so many of my countrymen are every way wretched) , should not be more than should fall to my lot. But these reflections weaken rather than fortify the mind. Oh! hasten hither with your Alexina!—and while your friendship adds to my felicity, let your example sustain my philosophy ”

“ Whilst the angry Welsh landlady was thus forming projects of revenge for the contempt with which she imagined that her high birth and her Tenby oysters had been treated, Angelina pursued her journey towards the cottage of her unknown friend, forming charming pictures, in her imagination, of the manner in which her amiable Araminta would start, and weep, and faint, perhaps with joy and surprise, at the sight of her Angelina. ”

“ They again will roll in her head with delight; her beautiful mouth ajar—her sweet breath—her heaving bosom—and such a bosom! How lovely she is! Oh! what a woman! how well formed for loving! Her limbs too! Those legs, those thighs, that smooth belly, and that heavenly spot, with the glossy threads—I'll devour her alive! But oh, my God! suppose that she will not come—"
"But she will come!" exclaimed a musical voice, and Angelina darted out from behind the tree, where she had been hidden, and flew into the arms of her lover. ”

“ There could be no doubting the wild tinge of insanity that colored Angelina's life. Every one of our contacts had been marked by a ruthless indifference to human life. She killed with coldness or with pleasure—as when she had shot me—but always with total disregard for people. ”

“ Angelina spoke with all the impressiveness of one in authority.
"You make me think of a trained nurse, Angelina. But what in the world are we to do?"
"Come with me," cried Angelina, and Martine, following her to the kitchen, noticed as she turned her head that there was a twinkle in Angelina's eye.
"Perhaps there's something in the refrigerator," thought Martine; "refrigerators always are full of things that can be warmed over. We might call it 'luncheon' instead of 'dinner,' and tell Mrs. Tilworth that's the way we do in Chicago. She will believe anything about Western people." ”

“ Don't look at the doll like that. Put the doll down." But this Angelina would not do. She clung to Rose with a ferocious tenacity. I do not think that one must blame Miss Emily for her exasperation. That doll had had a large place in her mind for many weeks. It were as though she, Miss Emily Braid, had been personally, before the world, defied by a rag doll. Her temper, whose control had never been her strongest quality, at the vision of the dirty, obstinate child before her, at the thought of the dancing, mocking gardens behind her, flamed into sudden, trembling rage. ”

“ For many days slavery was the only topic discussed between them, and then one morning Angelina entered the breakfast-room with a beaming countenance, and said:—
"It has all come to me; God has shown me what I can do; I can write an appeal to Southern women, one which, thus inspired, will touch their hearts, and lead them to use their influence with their husbands and brothers. I will speak to them in such tones that they must hear me, and, through me, the voice of justice and humanity." ”

“ Though he appeared to me of all beings in the world the most unsuitable to Angelina, yet, from the familiarity existing between the young people, I suspected he was my rival. Surely, thought I, Angelina could never sacrifice herself to one so much her inferior, to one so little capable of appreciating her perfections, did she not consider wealth as an equivalent for other deficiencies. The bare idea that such might be the case did injury to the sentiments I entertained of her, and I resolved to suspend all further investigation until I had questioned her father. ”

“ And the thought of Angelina Terry kept coming to her. Poor Angelina!
"She ain't 'poor Angelina,'" argued Mary to herself. "She's rich Angelina. Doesn't she live in a big house in the swell part of the city? I s'pose she has hundreds of dolls, much handsomer than Miranda, and lots of other toys. I guess she won't miss this one queer old doll. I guess she'd let me keep it if she knew I hadn't any of my own. I guess it ought to be my doll. Anyway, I'm going to keep her. I don't believe Angelina loves Miranda so much as I do." ”

“ Those who were most interested in her were glad that Angelina had made the change. She had not yet sufficient age and discretion to assume the role of mentor and patroness that she liked to assume before the younger girls now at the Mansion.
"It is no reflection upon our school," Julia had said cheerfully, "that we send Angelina to another; but we shall have younger girls in our next year's class, and Angelina herself will then be older, and possibly wiser, so that if she then tries to guide our pupils, it will not be a case of the blind leading the blind." ”

“ Angelina lost herself in reverie. She saw the rays of sun, the bedroom, a picture on the wall; she saw Petaca as a fort and imagined herself stealthily opening the gate, fleeing across fields to the lagoon; she would cross it in a dugout ... on the other side it was dark; she was alone, weeping. She felt her way through the bush and a hand reached toward her, the fingers transparent, evolving into a dog's paw ... finally, a dog trotted beside her.
"Mona, la Mona," she whispered.
"What did you say?" Fernando asked. ”

“ I feel that I have done what was required of me, and I am willing he should think of me as he does, so long as I enjoy the testimony of a good conscience."
We cannot wonder that Angelina drew upon herself, as Sarah had done, the arrows of ridicule; and that taunts and sneers followed her, as she walked alone in her simple dress to her humble place of worship. ”

“ And so tender, so true and sacred was the communion which had grown between them, that they could not be separated long.
Angelina continued, as her feeble health permitted, to do alone the work Sarah had shared with her. The sick, the poor, the sorrowing, were looked after and cared for as usual; but as she was already weighed down by declining years, the burdens she tried to bear were too heavy. Sarah used to say: "Angelina's creed is, for herself, work till you drop; for others, spare yourself." ”

“ All this was very exhausting to Aunt Emily. She was no nearer the child's heart.... Angelina maintained an impenetrable reserve. Old maids have much time amongst the unsatisfied and sterile monotonies of their life—this is only true of some old maids; there are very delightful ones—to devote to fancies and microscopic imitations. It was astonishing now how largely in Miss Emily Braid's life loomed the figure of Rose, the rag doll. ”

“ It would be too much to say that she knew it was her birthday, but she awoke, excited. She looked at the glimmering room, heard the sparrows beyond her windows, heard the snoring of her nurse in the large bed opposite her own, and lay very still, with her heart thumping like anything. She made no noise, however, because it was not her way to make a noise. Angelina Braid was the quietest little girl in all the Square. "You'd never meet one nigher a mouse in a week of Sundays," said her nurse, who was a "gay one" and liked life. ”

“ Julia looked rather sober during this recital.
“I am afraid that we are going to have trouble with Angelina. If she runs off whenever she has the notion, it is going, to be very hard for her mother. Do you think that Mrs. Rosa is improving?”
“It is rather too soon for any decided change to be seen. But the fresh air, and the exercise that she gets every day in the garden, is working wonders. Her color is better, and she seems much brighter.”
“I hope that the other children are more contented than Angelina. ”

“ Betty Williams!—a riband for you,” cried Angelina, in a louder tone.
Betty started—“Miss!—a riband!” She ran forward, and, in pushing by the doll, threw it backward: Mrs. Puffit caught it in her arms, and Betty, stopping short, curtsied, and said to the doll—“Peg pardon, miss—peg pardon, miss—tit I hurt you?—peg pardon. Pless us! ‘tis a toll, and no woman, I teclare.”
The milliner and Jesse now burst into uncontrollable, and, as Angelina feared, “unextinguishable laughter.” ”

“ Any interest, however, that Angelina may have taken in her aunts before Rose's arrival was now reduced to less than nothing at all.
"That doll that Edward gave the child," said Miss Emily to her sister, "is having a very bad effect on her. Makes her more moody than ever." ”

“ It is in France only where life is become a continual tragedy. Angelina," continued he, "beloved Angelina! I release thee from all those dear promises, which to have thee fulfill would once have been the happiness of my life; I cannot, I ought not to think more of thee, unless to wish and pray for thy felicity with some less unhappy man than thy devoted D'Alonville."—In such, and in yet more melancholy contemplations, the weary hours passed, unmarked by any sound that told their progress; for the great clock of the castle was spoiled from neglect, and some of its work had been carried away. ”

“ Angelina, writing to her dear Jane an account of some of the opposition to them, says:
"And now, thou wilt want to know how we feel about all these things. Well, dear, poor enough in ourselves, and defenceless; but rich and strong in the help which our Master is pleased to give from time to time, making perfect his strength in our weakness. This is a truly humbling dispensation, but when I am speaking I am favored to forget little I entirely, and to feel altogether hidden behind the great cause I am pleading. ”

“ Now Rose had come, and she could talk to Rose about it. "What she sees in that ugly old doll!" said the nurse to the housemaid. "You can take my word, Mary, she'll sit in that window looking down at the gardens, nursing that rag and just say nothing. It fair gives you the creeps ... left too much to herself, the poor child is. As for those old women downstairs, if I 'ad my way—but there! Living's living, and bread and butter's bread and butter!"
But, of course, Angelina's heart was bursting with affection, and there had been, until Rose's arrival, no one upon whom she might bestow it. ”

“ Angelina never hesitated to express her approval for her younger brother. Apparently she had no jealousy, although his good qualities were in shining contrast with her own.
“But I thought that you were working, too; don’t you go to the boarding-house regularly? ”
“Well, almost regularly,” said Angelina; “but I did n’t feel just like it to-day. I got a scolding yesterday for breaking some plates, and I just thought I’d show them to-day that I would n’t put up with it.”
“But that is n’t the way to treat people who have hired you. ”

“ Angelina’s Bird-Flower Where the little brown bird came from, neither Maria nor Louisa nor Angelina knew, but he doubtless lived near, for he came every day to the window of the old brown house where the little Italian girls lived, lonely without their mother. It was a year since she had died and the days were long for Maria, Louisa and Angelina after their father left for work at six in the morning.
Maria was always up at five. In the early winter, mornings are dark and it takes courage to get up in a cold room and light the lamp and make the fire and cook breakfast. ”