Page:Tex; a chapter in the life of Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (IA texchapterinlife00mcke).pdf/31

 Leisure, when at last it came to him, was not to be long enjoyed: early in 1920, a further break in health compelled him to undertake a rest-cure, first at Crowborough and then in the Isle of Wight. He returned to Chelsea in the spring of 1921 and spent the summer and autumn working in London or staying with friends in the country, to all appearances better than he had been for some years, though in play and work alike he had now to walk circumspectly. Towards the end of the year he went to Cornwall for the winter and collapsed from angina pectoris on 5 December 1921.

In a life of nearly fifty-seven years Teixeira escaped almost everything that could be considered spectacular. Happy in the devotion of his wife and the love of his friends, unshaken in the faith which he had embraced

the celebrated life of Sir Christopher Wren by Mr. E. Clerihew and Mr. G. K. Chesterton:
 * [Footnote: and, until I brought it to his notice, he was unacquainted with

'Sir Christopher Wren Said, "I am going to dine with some men. If anybody calls Say I am designing St. Paul's."'

After reading it, Teixeira's nightly valediction as he left for his bridge club was: "I think yes, I think I shall design St. Paul's for an hour or two."]