Might not this be the long-awaited friend, for whose sake she was rooted to Huntingtower with all its terrors?
"Are you sure your name's no' Alexis ?" he asked.
"In my own country I was called Alexis Nicolaevitch, for I am a Russian.

But for some years I have made my home with your folk, and I call myself Alexander Nicholson, which is the English form.

Who told you about Alexis?
"Give me your hand," said Dickson shamefacedly.

"Man, she's been looking for you for weeks.

You're terribly behind the fair." "She!" he cried.