Alex and Eliza

I think kindness, out of all virtues, is the best quality to have.

I meant does it hurt when you hide every last shred of your individuality and self worth behind acres of silk and cups of powder and smiles that never, no matter how hard you try, reach your eyes?

And at last, the lonely young man who belonged to no one finally belonged to someone, forever, and the practical girl who would not settle for less than a love story for the ages found the lifelong romance she had yearned for all her life.

Mark my words, Alex. You are a man whose future lies before him for all to marvel at one day. And you, Colonel Hamilton, are mine, and I am yours always.

He had written her reams and reams of letters, as well as a poem that she kept folded in a locket around her neck. Her letters were full of love and anticipation, matching his for enthusiasm and tenderness. He was the luckiest man in the world.

And while a pretty face is nice to wake up to, and adoring face is so much more rewarding.

There are families whose greatness lies in their past, and in their legacies, Mrs. Schuyler answered. That is a quality much to be admired, for tradition is what binds us as a society. But there are some families, like some nations, whose greatness is a future development, and that quality, though harder to discern than the prestige of manor houses and coats of arms and titles of rank and office, is no less valuable, if, indeed, not more so.

I shall love you and give myself up for you, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up"- then Alex looked into Eliza's shining eyes and added a twist of his own-"and I shall serve you with tenderness and respect, and encourage you to develop the gifts that God has given you.

Altogether, the first glimpse of his bride-which should have come as no surprise to Alex, standing there looking so lean and handsome himself-nearly brought him to his knees.

Pretty clothes are like the colors of a flower’s petals. They tell the bee where to land. After that, it’s what’s inside that holds his interest,” said Peggy, still quoting their mother.

Yes, she had seen Alex's temper flare over his disappointment with a lack of his own regiment to command, but she saw that as merely the fighting spirit of an ambitious and confident leader. Yet, wasn't that what appealed most to her about him? A spirit and impetuousness that could match her own and challenge her to be better herself in this new democracy? A man who could honor her own values?

Medicine is a bit like love," Aunt Gertrude began. "There are the theatrical outer forms gone through by the players-the bandages and injections and extractions, the flowers and love notes and dances-but the real work is always happening out of sight. In here," she added, tapping herself on the heart.

And while a pretty face is nice to wake up to, an adoring face is so much more rewarding.

I didn’t accept him, Eliza thought but didn’t say, because he wasn’t you.

Eliza had never seen Alex quite so happy and relaxed. She shook her head and laughed at the incongruity of it all: Imagine General Washington's famous aide-de-camp taking the time to stop and admire the birds. "One day, Alex, when you tire of being a soldier, we will spend all of our days just like this, watching birds and taking in the sun, surrounded by children of our own. You'd like that, wouldn't you, my love?" "Eliza, you and the Pastures have already taken a perfectly fine soldier and turned him into a lovesick pup. And at this moment, on this very day, there's nothing and nowhere I'd rather be.

Punishing General Schuyler for the defeat is akin to punishing a mule for being a born a mule, when its parents were a horse and an ass: Some things were simply meant to be.

The moon slipped under a blanket of clouds

Never ever, ever make excuses for a scoundrel.

Have you ever seen a germ?" Aunt Gertrude asked without waiting for Eliza's reply. "Neither have I, yet I have no doubt they exist, because I have seen their effects on the body. Likewise I have never 'seen' love, yet I have witnessed again and again its transformative effect on human beings.

For Alex to be enveloped into one of New York State's blue-ribbon families helped put to bed a lifetime of doubts and depression about his own dubious birthright.

silly man. I know the man I am marrying is destined for great things, as the many remarkable things he has done thus far have brought himto such a high oint already. Mark my words, Alex. You are a man whose future lies before him for all to marvel at one day. And you, Colonel Hamilton, are mine, and I am yours always.

For some reason, Eliza had always thought Alexander Hamilton would be dark-haired, but he was in fact a ginger

A little education, Eliza reckoned, could sometimes be more dangerous than no education at all.

But that was the thing about Alex, a nameless orphan from the Caribbean, who had written his way up to General Washington’s side, he was nothing if not determined.

Alexander Hamilton, widely reputed to be the most eloquent man in the United States of America, had, for the first time in his life, been rendered speechless.

Alex, is there anything more beautiful than dropping a seed in the earth and then waiting for it to become something perfectly useful?

What Mrs. Schuyler is saying," General Schuyler added, "is that it is the Schuylers who would be honored by a union woth so brilliant and noble a personage as Colonel Hamilton.

ELIZABETH SCHUYLER HAMILTON stood next to her husband as he skimmed rocks across the Pastures’ frozen duck pond. A nearby flock of geese rose from the riverbank and squawked at the two of them, switching directions in midair at the sound of Alex’s sliding another rock across the ice.

A round table covered in a beautiful damask cloth was carried into the great hall for the ceremonial cutting of the cake. As was the custom, the cook had baked a piece of nutmeg inside. Whoever received the slice with the nutmeg was supposed to be the next to marry. Catherine Schuyler nearly fainted when it turned out to be Peggy.