Miss Cox

“ Cox is a very careful and a very good woman and—ah! her place is a very respectable and comfortable one, and the order of travellers one meets, that is, one would meet if one went there, is quite proper indeed, but still, I thought, mind I do not say anything, I do not express any opinion Maria, I simply say, I thought, that they would have smoked for instance in the dinning-room or the bar, or on the verandah instead of in that very conspicuous manner just outside the kitchen door. ”

“ There stood the abashed Belle Tingley, her plate in one hand, the gilded vase in the other, and beside her was the tiny figure of Mademoiselle Picolet, who looked very stern indeed at The Fox.
"I might have expected you to be a ringleader in such an escapade as this, Miss Cox," she said, sharply, but in a low voice. ”

“ Ruth flushed, but Helen did not hear the gibe, being much interested in what Mary Cox was saying to her. Ruth walked beside the good-natured Jennie Stone.
"My, my!" chuckled that damsel, "aren't those Fussy Curls jealous? They had to take the teachers into their old club so as to be more numerous than the Upedes. But I guess Mary Cox will show 'em! She is a fox, and I guess she always will be!"
"Is that what they call Miss Cox?" asked Ruth, not a little troubled.
"Oh, she's foxy, all right," said this rather slangy young lady. "She will beat the Fussy Curls every time. ”

“ Twenty years ago there was such a landlady, rosy and plump and cheerful, wearing a flowered gown, a black silk apron and a cap with a purple pansy in it and broad and comfortable lappets, who, when her work was done, would sit in her small private room opposite the bar also hung with red curtains, making patchwork quilts or playing a demure rubber with the Scotch store-keeper, or Irish stage driver, or an occasional gentleman from town. Such was Mrs. Cox, widow of Captain Cox, able seaman, but bad lot, who died when they had been five years in Canada, leaving her with her one child. ”

“ Cox, delighted, instantly closed with the offer, and Lord Blayney shortly afterwards, as though overcome by the wine he had drunk, fell asleep.
His guests sat on drinking till at length their host awoke, when it became evident to them that, sobered by his nap, he was ready to view matters in a more cautious light. "Cox" he observed anxiously, "I will give you a good sum down to be off the bet I made just now." "Oh, no! no!" cried General Cox. "It is too late to withdraw it—you cannot show the white feather." ”

“ What did Cox know about suffering, or of the steps her husband found it necessary to take in order to effect his release? When Maroney took the forty thousand dollars, he had to ship it at once down the Alabama river, and now they could see how wise he was in so doing. He had displayed consummate ability in every movement he had so far made, and was it at all likely that he had lost his cunning? "He loves you," said she, "and would do any thing for you. [Pg 259] Your duty as a wife is plain and simple; do as your husband wishes you to do." ”

“ Cox; “it would be a lesson to her not to be deceitful again. And, by Jove, I'll get some money from her to escape with; I know she's got some, and if she hasn't she will have in a day or two. There's a little pub at Newstead, eight miles from here, where we could be as happy as fighting cocks with a fiver or two. And while we're there enjoying ourselves my wife'll be half out of her mind trying to account for your disappearance to Mrs. Berry.”
“It sounds all right,” said Mr. Piper, cautiously, “but she won't believe you. You don't look wild enough to have killed anybody.” ”

“ Mister Cox, Mister Cox, My feelings overpower me, That his lodger, his friendly lodger, Should once suspect that Bouncer is COX:
A dodger. BOUNCER:
As to who takes your coals, wood, and all that, It must have been — COX:
No! No! ’Twas not the cat! BOUNCER:
Rataplan, Rataplan, I’m a military man, Rough, honest, I hope, though unpolished, And I’ll bet you a hat, that as to the cat, The cat in the Army’s abolished! COX:
Rataplan, Rataplan, you’re a military man, Honest, I hope, though it doesn’t appear, And as to the cat, the treacherous cat, If it isn’t in the Army, don’t have it here. ”

“ After a long moment she spoke again, panting, her voice strained and scratchy. "Thank God you can hear me, Andy. I've called and called. I prayed that I didn't care what happened, just so long as you could be with me. And you are, you are. It's a miracle and I don't know how. But you're with me and I won't be afraid any more. I won't ... oh ... oh ..."
Andy suddenly understood. "Elsie," he cried frantically. "Where are you? Are you in the hospital? Is everything all right? Is the doctor there? Elsie!" ”

“ You can’t compare that sort of woman with a self-respecting, self-supporting girl—”
At this moment the door opened and Miss Cox entered. She wore a short-sleeved, low-neck, pink-satin blouse, a white-satin skirt, open-work stockings, and slippers so high in the heels that her ankles turned inward. Her hair was treated with henna and piled untidily on the top of her head. She was exactly what Klein had described—a self-respecting, self-supporting girl, but, on a superficial acquaintance, men of Cord’s group would have thought quite as badly of her as Klein did of fashionable women. ”

“ I would merely remark on this that there are only very slight traces of the story in these islands nowadays, while it abounds in Italy, which possesses one almost perfect version of the formula (Miss Cox, No. 142, from Sardinia) .
Mr. Newell, on the other hand (American Folk-Lore Journal, ii., 160) , considers Catskin the earliest of the three types contained in Miss Cox's book, and considers that Cinderella was derived from this as a softening of the original. ”

“ He was rejoiced to see lying beside him the bow and four arrows, and he noiselessly reached for the bow, and restored the arrows to his quiver.
Then he turned the big diamond that served as a knob for the door, and stepping cautiously over the unconscious Red Spirit, entered.
Titania, Dame Drusilda, Violet, and Daffodil were seated upon one of the divans, and they sprang up joyously when they saw him.
“Florimel!” cried Titania, and ran toward him.
“’Sh!” he warned, and closed the door softly after him. “The Red Spirit is supposed to be guarding you, but he has fallen asleep. ”

“ There is a namesake of yours in particular, Cox, the Statuary, who, everybody knows, is a first-rate maker of verses. He surely is the man of all the world for your purpose.' 'Alas, sir, I have heretofore borrowed help from him, but he is a gentleman of so much reading that the people of our town cannot understand him.'
"I confess to you, my dear, I felt all the force of the compliment implied in this speech, and was almost [pg 70] ready to answer, Perhaps, my good friend, they may find me unintelligible too for the same reason. ”

“ After having answered nearly four million calls, Miss Theresa Cox, chief telephone operator at the Minnesota State House, has fallen victim of Cupid, and given up her job. For ten years, ever since the capitol was completed, Miss Cox has guarded the switchboard day in and day out, the personification of efficiency and amiability, and long years ago gained the reputation of being a model telephone girl. ”

“ Cox? Mrs. Cox, well-to-do and popular herself, fresh, blooming and hearty, a young woman yet, and just the woman one would say, for him, and above all, the woman who thought most of him and ran to change her cap—the black one with the knot of rusty widow's crape—for the smart new one that held the velvet pansy when she saw the team coming. There's where he should have chosen the second time, there was the woman he should have noticed instead of poor, proud, foolish Charlotte Dexter, whom he half feared as a “lady born,” and who held in her heart, had he only knew it, the image of Mr. ”

“ He looked at his watch—it was past eight o’clock. The sea was glittering and bespangled with sunlight. He found among his scanty belongings a bathing suit, and, wrapped in his overcoat, hurried down-stairs.
“Breakfast in half an hour, Mrs. Cox,” he called out.
She stood at the door, watching him as he stepped across the pebbles and plunged in. For a few moments he swam. Then he turned over on his back. The sunlight was gleaming from every window of St. David’s Hall. He even fancied that upon the terrace he could see a white-clad figure looking towards him. ”

“ She was a year younger than I was but very well up in her classes, and she had a genius for mimicry that was irresistibly funny. She had some stunts that endeared her to all the girls. She could do a dog fight or cats on the back fence; and could go so like a mosquito that you were certain you would be bitten in a moment. She was something of a ventriloquist, which made these accomplishments especially delightful.
Mary and I were put into Algebra at the same time, and to our joy Miss Cox was to teach us. [107] Mary had found out Miss Cox, too. ”

“ Cox. [Pushing back his chair.] You'll excuse me, sir—but I don't like joking upon such subjects. Box. I'm perfectly serious, sir. I've been defunct for the last three years! Cox. [Shouting.] Will you be quiet, sir? Box. If you won't believe me, I'll refer you to a very large, numerous, and respectable circle of disconsolate friends. Cox. My dear sir—my very dear sir—if there does exist any ingenious contrivance whereby a man on the eve of committing matrimony can leave this world, and yet stop in it, I shouldn't be sorry to know it. ”

“ Cox is an earnest worker and her method is interesting. Each picture is the result of many sketches and the study of many models, representing in a composite way the perfections of all. For the Virgin in her 'Annunciation' a model was first posed in the nude, and then another draped, the artist sketching the figure in the nude, draping it from the second model. The hands are always separately sketched from a model who has a peculiar grace in folding them naturally. ”

“ Cox is giving up the Inn. Her niece, the girl you mention, is going to be married—indeed, it is one of those gentlemen—the Mr. Foxleys—whom she is to marry, and they will take the Inn out of Mrs. Cox's hands.”
The farmer was as surprised as she had been.
“Well,” he ejaculated “didn't I say I'd never seen their ekil? Milly's going to marry one of the Mr. Foxleys? Which—”
“It is Mr. Joseph,” returned Miss Dexter, staring down at the apple in her lap. “The youngest one, you know. He is a very merry young gentleman and always has something to say. ”

“ I should set him down as a gentleman connected with the printing interest.
BOUNCER: Yes sir. Good morning. (Going.)
No. 3. Duet (Cox and Bouncer) , "Stay, Bouncer, Stay" COX: (recit.)
Stay, Bouncer, stay! To me it has occurred That now’s the time with you to have a word. BOUNCER: (aside)
What can he mean? I tremble — Ah! I tremble! COX:
Listen! BOUNCER:
With pleasure. COX:
Now, coals is coals, as sure as eggs is eggs, Coals haven’t souls, no more than they have legs; But, as you will admit, the case is so, Legs or no legs, my coals contrive to go! ”

“ There are, however, some original pieces, by Cox himself, which were the most popular favourites; being characters created by himself, for himself, from ancient farces: such were The Humours of John Swabber, Simpleton the Smith, &c. These remind us of the extemporal comedy and the pantomimical characters of Italy, invented by actors of genius. This Cox was the delight of the city, the country, and the universities: assisted by the greatest actors of the time, expelled from the theatre, it was he who still preserved alive, as it were by stealth, the suppressed spirit of the drama. ”

“ Things needed touching up a bit, and he was getting busy.
“Where are those lazy ’prentices of mine?” he roared, in rumbling tones, as he pumped the bellows, while the flames in the forge leaped higher and higher. “Spry, Flash, Nimble, Twist, and the rest of you—where are you, I say? Has my voice grown so weak, you rogues, that you cannot hear me? Come hither this instant!”
From all directions in response to the angry summons came imps in red attire that fitted their lithe, supple bodies as snugly as the skins of eels. ”

“ Mary Cox warned them to have the spreads ready to smooth up over the contraband goodies, should the French teacher get wind of the orgy.
"Forewarned is forearmed," urged Mary Cox. "We know what old Picolet is!"
"But 'four-armed' doesn't always mean 'fore-handed'," chuckled Jennie Stone.
"Nor quadrumanous!" snapped the Fox. "If you had four hands, Heavy, there would be little chance for any of the rest of us at Helen's party. My goodness me! how you would mow the good things away if you had four hands instead of two." ”

“ Ames' face came into sharp focus on the screen, the light coalescing about her hair.
A warm, motherly widow of nearly eighty, Mrs. Ames had been the residence's owner for a decade, and had taken a great deal of vicarious pleasure in Ann's romance with the captain. "It's so different," she said once to Hunter, "your faith in each other, the way you work together for a goal you both want. If the rest of us could only learn to have some honest affection for each other. But, there, I'm an old woman, living too much in the past." ”

“ You remember the morning you took leave of me, I had to walk a mile to meet the coach. John Cox, my sister Jane's intended husband, came to start me off, and he carried my box on his shoulder as we walked across the fields and down to the crossroads where the coach takes up passengers. John told me he and Jane were soon to be married, and he said her belly was so big that it looked beautiful. I asked him what made it so big and he laughed as he said: "Why, Susey, because I have made a baby inside of it to be sure, you little goose!" ”