"Fretfully" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... have been about 11:30 o'clock when Jim got out of bed and began to mope around the flat, tramp nervously up and down the private hall and scuffle through the closets, the cupboard and among the pots and pans, which fretfully clashed in a heap upon the floor when he sought to unhook his favorite, the upper story of the double boiler. I wondered what ailed him now. From the way the alleged murderer was rattling the crockery and the tinware, back in the kitchen, ...
— Cupid's Middleman • Edward B. Lent
... hand ascends to the small hamlet of Big Bone Lick, there is an interesting picture beneath the way-post: a girl in a blue calico gown, her face deep hidden in her red sunbonnet, sits upon a chestnut mount, with a laden market-basket before her; while by her side, astride a coal-black pony, which fretfully paws to be on his way, is a roughly dressed youth, his face shaded by a broad slouched hat of the cowboy order. They have evidently met there by appointment, and are so earnestly conversing—she with her hand resting lovingly, perhaps deprecatingly, upon his bridle-arm, ...
— Afloat on the Ohio - An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo • Reuben Gold Thwaites
... down thar whar the gals is at, playin'?" inquired Jim Cal fretfully. "Looks like to me ef I was a young feller an' not wedded I wouldn't hang around whar ...
— Judith of the Cumberlands • Alice MacGowan
... you the dreams I have!" he cried fretfully. "Silliest rotten stuff. I try to tell 'em to the woman here or her husband sometimes, but they won't listen. Shouldn't be surprised if they think I'm a bit off. They say I'm always talking to myself. I'm sure I'm not.—I wish I could get out of ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... come on agin an' dance," said Mopsey, fretfully. "Why don't you wait till I get through? After I kill Shiner, Dickey comes in an' we two have a reg'lar fight, an' we both run away. Then Shiner jumps up an' dances just as long as he can, an' down comes the curtain. In the next ...
— Left Behind - or, Ten Days a Newsboy • James Otis
... while, and then fretfully and everything about him, his eyes, hands and feet, seemed to start in different directions, as those of an animal which suddenly perceives the eye of man upon him. Jesus went straight to Judas, as though words trembled on His lips, but ...
— The Crushed Flower and Other Stories • Leonid Andreyev
... was evidently not sufficiently interested to pursue the subject. "Whoever he is," she said fretfully, "I hope he is not going to allow Amy to fancy herself ...
— Up the Hill and Over • Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
... Reuben answered, almost fretfully. "Let us try again. No. There's nothing the matter. Nothing in the world. ...
— Aunt Rachel • David Christie Murray
... interrupted fretfully. "Just that sort of thing has put many a man on the skids. I tell you a young fellow needs to start unhampered. If the fellows got onto it that my father had been in the pen because he was a defaulting bank cashier they would drop me like ...
— The Vision Spendid • William MacLeod Raine
... the proprietor jerked a thumb toward the open door beyond which the big rangy black pawed fretfully at the street. "Mebbe we might make a trade. I got one good as him 'er better. It's that sor'l standin' ...
— The Texan - A Story of the Cattle Country • James B. Hendryx
... know how to manage them," replied Mrs. Woodward fretfully. "Percy, leave those papers alone! I didn't tell you to turn them over. You're mixing them all up, tiresome boy! Don't touch them again! It's no use trying to discuss business with you children! I shall write and consult Aunt Harriet. Go away, both of you, now! I want to have ...
— The Luckiest Girl in the School • Angela Brazil
... and tell him we want to go home," urged fretfully one youth, a tentative dandy, with a sharp nose and blunt chin, who had been diligently arranging his vivid necktie for more than a half-hour at a little ...
— Santa Claus's Partner • Thomas Nelson Page
... care for this life," she said fretfully. "Death is always about you everywhere, and a girl can never go ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine
... danger. She staggered weakly into a big, dim church, by the door of which the parting happened to have taken place. Here she sank down in a heavy, death-like swoon in front of one of the side altars, with her baby wailing fretfully at her breast. When she came to herself again she was seated in the sacristy, and her hair and face were wet with the water they had flung over her. By her side stood a black-robed, kindly-faced cure and two or three women, who were trying to force some wine down her throat. By degrees her strength ...
— The Strand Magazine: Volume VII, Issue 37. January, 1894. - An Illustrated Monthly • Edited by George Newnes
... Starr, fretfully, "I don't see why you can't never learn to build a fire. Get me my ...
— Master of the Vineyard • Myrtle Reed
... declared the old Come-Outer fretfully. "I'm sane as ever I was and if you try to stop me I'll—Gracie, your Uncle Eben's v'yage is 'most over. He's almost to his moorin's and they're waitin' for him on the pier. I—I won't be long now. Just a little while, Lord! Give me just a little while to get my house in order. ...
— Keziah Coffin • Joseph C. Lincoln
... think it was something to worry about, if he had it," her mother retorted fretfully, but reassured nevertheless by the casual manner of Billy Louise. "I believe I could eat a little mite of toast and drink ...
— The Ranch at the Wolverine • B. M. Bower
... mother!" answered Becky fretfully. "Betty had on a gingham dress, and she said I couldn't get over the fences in my best one, and I didn't think it ...
— Betty Leicester - A Story For Girls • Sarah Orne Jewett
... idea of the trend matters were likely to take. His policy—cunning, Madam called it—did not please her. She immediately assured herself that "she wouldn't go against her own flesh and blood for anyone," and his wan face and general air of wretchedness further antagonized her. She asked him fretfully "what he had been doing to himself, for," she added, "it's mainly what we do to ourselves that makes us sick. Was it that everlasting wedding ...
— The Man Between • Amelia E. Barr
... 'No,' said Miss Meadows, fretfully; 'but you have not appeared as a bride. The straw bonnet—you see people cannot tell whether you are not incog, ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge
... answered fretfully. 'The only wonder is that I am alive, after all I have been made to suffer. Stronger men than I ever was fell and died at my side. You are too polite, Richard, to ask me where I have been; but if you wish to hear, I ...
— The Hallam Succession • Amelia Edith Barr
... useful in this garden," said the little Viscount, fretfully. "There are plenty of gardeners to destroy the insects, and if needful, we can have more. But the toad shall not remain. My mother would faint if she saw so hideous a beast among ...
— Frances Kane's Fortune • L. T. Meade
... It makes me tired. Cut along and get the book, can't you? Why waste all this time fussing?" burst out the invalid fretfully. "How am I ever going to get well, or think I am well, if you keep reminding me every minute that I am a helpless wreck? It is enough to discourage anybody. Why can't you treat me like other people? If you chose to ...
— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett
... was small, considering the job they intended, Drew thought. A cart pulled by two mules, lightly made and packed high, was the nucleus of their small caravan. Burros—two of them—were roped behind and, to Drew's surprise, a cow, bawling fretfully and intended, he later learned, to play foster mother to any unweaned foals which might be picked up. The cart was driven by a Mexican in leather breeches and jacket over a red shirt. Behind him rode the ...
— Rebel Spurs • Andre Norton
... discovered something in his countenance which I had not seen there before. His head hung down with an air of weariness, and his gaze, instead of darting fiercely to and fro, seemed to shift and hesitate as if with a lurking distrust of those about him. He appeared to be in ill-health, and shifted fretfully about in his seat as he talked. On my part, I regarded him with different eyes from the time when I had come before him as a captive in his hands, when I had viewed him as a powerful tyrant, invested with all the horror of his recent crimes, and especially of that never-to-be-forgotten atrocity ...
— Athelstane Ford • Allen Upward
... don't like it at all," said the orphan, fretfully; "and then the dogs bark at me in a ...
— Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks - Book Number Fifteen in the Jack Harkaway Series • Bracebridge Hemyng
... fretfully. "Is the night never to be gone? The hangings at the window are so heavy. And ...
— The Doomsman • Van Tassel Sutphen
... Victoire fretfully. "Isn't it bad enough to wait and wait, without your croaking like a ...
— Arsene Lupin • Edgar Jepson
... it," said the young man, fretfully. "He was an Enchanted Dog, and he promised I should have him when I could say what I am ready to say now. He should have kept his promise." But Aldegunda had taken the dog's cold head into her arms, and her tears fell ...
— Juliana Horatia Ewing And Her Books • Horatia K. F. Eden
... don't bore me with any more doctors!" he cried fretfully. "I have had enough of that kind of thing. The man can do nothing for me. I am knocked up with over exertion and excitement—that's all; my strength will come back to me sooner or later ...
— Fenton's Quest • M. E. Braddon
... to see Flossy gather her up to comfort her. It is so easy to dry a child's tears with a little love. But she rang for the nurse and fretfully exclaimed, ...
— The Love Affairs of an Old Maid • Lilian Bell
... the little whining voice under the veil fretfully cut him short. "I can't see very well. ...
— A Soldier of the Legion • C. N. Williamson
... street about the bank, now, and—I'd give a good deal to know where it comes from." The junior Nelson had heard similar echoes, but he held his tongue. "I never did like your way of doing business," the speaker resumed, fretfully. "We've overreached. You wanted it all ...
— Flowing Gold • Rex Beach
... the girls will bring in their money tomorrow; and it mortifies me to be behind the others." The daughter spoke fretfully. Mr. Walcott waved her aside with his hand, and she ...
— The Wedding Guest • T.S. Arthur
... lady, dressed for an outdoor walk, but her hands were pressed over her eyes as though she were in pain. A little boy lay tossing fretfully on the sofa, but his peevish cry ceased for a moment as they entered the room. Miss Gertrude seated herself beside him, and said, without approaching ...
— Christie Redfern's Troubles • Margaret Robertson
... crowded platform to take their seats in the great express train. A porter, laden with an incredible load of paraphernalia, trying to make his way through the press, happened to jostle Sir Angus McCurdie. He rubbed his shoulder fretfully. ...
— A Christmas Mystery - The Story of Three Wise Men • William J. Locke
... they git the chanst," Applehead retorted fretfully. "'N' if you don't wanta loose that there red mop uh yourn ye better keep yer eyes open, now I'm tellin' yuh!" He refilled his rifle magazine and took up his station beside Lite Avery where he could watch the Frying-pan through the bushes without ...
— The Heritage of the Sioux • B.M. Bower
... in his invalid chair drawn close to the window, heard the merry preparations for the journey, and fretfully declared "that people seem to be happy, with never a thought for a poor dog like me," while old Mr. Loughead, who, despite Doctor Bryce's verdict, had never seemed quite well enough in his own estimation for his departure from the "Higby hospital," on the contrary brightened up, ...
— Five Little Peppers Grown Up • Margaret Sidney
... see what business," said Mrs. Copley fretfully; "and you can't do anything here, in a strange place. You'd better get Mr. St. Leger ...
— The End of a Coil • Susan Warner
... gravely considering, could answer, the sick woman startled them all by saying, almost fretfully, in a surprisingly ...
— The Beloved Woman • Kathleen Norris
... themselves to the magic of his genius. The readers of Dickens voted him, with three times three, to the presidency of their republic of letters; the readers of Hawthorne were caught by a coup d'etat, and fretfully submitted to a despot whom they ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 • Various
... fretfully, and the spasmodic flare showed the rigid face torn with the emotions that were racking the soul laid bare before its God ...
— Joyce of the North Woods • Harriet T. Comstock
... The captain smoked fretfully for a time. "Dese tings 'ave to happen," he said at last. "What is it? Plagues of ants and suchlike as God wills. Dere was a plague in Trinidad—the little ants that carry leaves. Orl der orange-trees, all der mangoes! What does it matter? Sometimes ant armies ...
— The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories • H. G. Wells
... arbitrary creature!' she said fretfully; 'you prance about the world like Don Quixote, and expect me to play Sancho ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... wind was not to be forgotten. It turned into a tornado. Failing of its effort to tear off the roof of the dugout, it stormed tempestuously, fretfully; it raved, ...
— The Way of the Wind • Zoe Anderson Norris
... rain dripped again steadily, splashing the creeper that framed the casement. A few lights showing dimly in the windows on the opposite side of the quadrangle served only to intensify the gloom. The time dragged. Fretfully he drummed with his fingers on the leaded panes, his ears alert for any sound beyond the closed door. The echo of a distant organ stole into the room and the soft solemn notes harmonised with the melancholy pattering of the raindrops and the gusts of wind that moaned fitfully ...
— The Shadow of the East • E. M. Hull
... being killed, if that's what you mean," said the other. "It was rather a coincidence that I should have been discussing the matter last night at the very moment when his telephone bell rang—I wish to heaven you hadn't been in this," he said fretfully. ...
— The Clue of the Twisted Candle • Edgar Wallace
... of him—you must see that I can't," said Mrs. Preston, fretfully. "I can't expose my life without doing ...
— Only An Irish Boy - Andy Burke's Fortunes • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... down, by the window behind the sofa so that she could not see him. But before a minute had passed she called him and fretfully asked him to arrange the pillow. He began arranging it. She looked angrily ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... you when you're that way, girls," he said in a hopeless tone. "See how you worry sister!" for Lucy was calling fretfully, ...
— Joyce's Investments - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry
... ox, and blundering fretfully about the room]. How can I obey six different dictators, and not one gentleman among the lot of them? One of them orders me to make peace with the foreign enemy. Another orders me to offer all the neutral ...
— Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress • George Bernard Shaw
... fun. I ain't got no gen'leman friends, nor nothing. What's the use of havin' good clothes, and lookin' pretty and all, ef you don't get to go somewhere so that folks kin see you? I'm tired of bein' looked down on," she complained fretfully. "I ain't got a friend on this place 'cep'n ...
— Kildares of Storm • Eleanor Mercein Kelly
... almost left it resumed its efforts to penetrate the congealing flesh, while the mittened hands he beat upon his breast fell solidly on his wrappings without separate motion of the fingers. Once or twice the horse stamped fretfully, but a touch of hand and heel quieted him, for though the frozen flesh may shrink, unwavering obedience is demanded equally from man and beast enrolled in the service ...
— Winston of the Prairie • Harold Bindloss
... "Bill," said Cochrane fretfully, "I've just been given the dressing-down of my life! You're expecting to get out of the airlock in the morning and take a walk. But I've been talking to Earth. I've been given the devil for landing on a strange planet without ...
— Operation: Outer Space • William Fitzgerald Jenkins
... old man stared at Douglas; then he said fretfully, "I don't see why Grandma Brown had to go and make me drive the gregus old stage for a week. I deponed to her that I had to get up there and take care of you. When that preacher comes, you'll need me, Doug. There's ...
— Judith of the Godless Valley • Honore Willsie
... fretfully, "this is all beside the question. What is most urgent is to shield and save you now when the peril is ...
— The Passenger from Calais • Arthur Griffiths
... I'm mair astonished at her. She hasna sung a word since fayther's death. What for is she singing the noo? It's no kind o' her, and me wi' yoursel' and the books;" said David very fretfully; for he did not like to be ...
— A Daughter of Fife • Amelia Edith Barr
... douloureuse which I nightly followed to the club. In Pall Mall there were no dignified greetings to be exchanged now with well-groomed acquaintances. The only people to be seen were some late stragglers from the park, with a perambulator and some hot and dusty children lagging fretfully behind; some rustic sightseers draining the last dregs of the daylight in an effort to make out from their guide-books which of these reverend piles was which; a policeman and a builder's cart. Of course the club was a strange ...
— Riddle of the Sands • Erskine Childers
... She spoke fretfully. The twins exchanged meaning glances that were lost on their mother, who was used to their ways, ...
— Flamsted quarries • Mary E. Waller
... were happy enough," Isabel commented fretfully. "I don't believe you care at all about Corrie's going away. Of course you don't care about me. What are you putting on that ...
— From the Car Behind • Eleanor M. Ingram
... you would never come!" she sighed a little fretfully, standing for a moment with her whole ...
— Juggernaut • Alice Campbell
... pie," sang Annie in a low clear voice, without a moment's hesitation. She went through the old nursery rhyme once—twice. Then Nan interrupted her fretfully: ...
— A World of Girls - The Story of a School • L. T. Meade
... sounds within, and even see, in that moment, a rush of gliding forms, that makes one sure that a visitant is there, who has brought with him a wicked company; and then one has to wait in sadness, with now and then a timid knocking, even happy, it may be, if the soul sometimes call fretfully within, to say that it is occupied and cannot ...
— The Thread of Gold • Arthur Christopher Benson
... it is one o'clock, Emmie?' returned her husband rather shortly. He was tired and sore, poor man, and in no mood to hear of his daughter's sufferings. 'The deuce take the woman!' he said to himself fretfully, as Mrs. Ross meekly turned away without another word; but he was certainly not alluding to his wife when he spoke. 'From the days of Eve they have always been in some mischief or other'—from which it may be deduced that Mrs. Ross was not so far wrong when she thought her ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... so cross, I can't speak a word for you," said Lucy, fretfully, walking out of the room, while Walter, in his usual imperious way, began to shout for Diggory and his boots. ...
— The Pigeon Pie • Charlotte M. Yonge
... call it anything you like," she replied; "but don't stand in that way to say your task to me; put your feet together now, and fold your hands, and hold your head up. To think that you're the child's aunt, Laura, she continued fretfully, and should take no more heed to his manners. Now you just look straight at me, Peter, ...
— Fated to Be Free • Jean Ingelow
... into "David Copperfield" and "Little Dorrit," was quite as sordid, to what extent probably none knew so well as Dickens, pere et fils, for here it was that the father fretfully served out his sentence ...
— Dickens' London • Francis Miltoun
... Juliet put in fretfully. "They bark all the time at something. They bark when they're hungry and when they've eaten too much, and they bark at the sun and moon and stars, and when they're not barking, some or all of 'em are fighting. They ...
— Old Rose and Silver • Myrtle Reed
... about that," the Marquis said, fretfully, "but in any event I hope that no more people will come to Bellegarde upon missions which, compel me to have them hanged. First there was this Achon, and now you, Mr. Bulmer, come to annoy me.—Listen, monsieur," he went on, ...
— Gallantry - Dizain des Fetes Galantes • James Branch Cabell
... much more distant; got up quite fretfully from his seat, if he were sitting beside her, and took ...
— The Filigree Ball • Anna Katharine Green
... Perhaps his father's chair was not easy, or the one to which he was accustomed was more commodious, or Maurice was more clumsy than usual; for though Bertha also lent her aid, the count kept repeating, fretfully,— ...
— Fairy Fingers - A Novel • Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
... perplexed and troubled him, for so little are we Angels yet that in our aches and sorrows of the flesh it is not the comfort of Angels but the poor human pitiful touch of the fellow-creature that we most yearn for. Once, indeed, he asked her fretfully, "Tell me truly in the name of God, art thou a very woman ...
— A Child's Book of Saints • William Canton
... a poor answer, to say that I can do one thing well ... that I have one capacity largely. On points of the general affections, I have in thought applied to myself the words of Mme. de Stael, not fretfully, I hope, not complainingly, I am sure (I can thank God for most affectionate friends!) not complainingly, yet mournfully and in profound conviction—those words—'jamais je n'ai pas ete aimee comme j'aime.' The capacity of loving ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett
... fears, but still I must beware, Or when too late, these fears may take on life. All speak: Fear is a coward word and always flees When Action shows himself armed cap-a-pie And thus prepared to wage aggressive fight. Hence, honored sire let's throw it to the dogs! Francos, fretfully: Well, have it as thou wilt, and on thy heads Blame shall her thistled crown with pomp bestow If Failure thrusts her grim and wrinkled face With grinning smile to comment on our work. All: Thanks, ...
— 'A Comedy of Errors' in Seven Acts • Spokeshave (AKA Old Fogy)
... cried Mr. Hahn fretfully, wiping off the streaming perspiration. "I'll be blasted if you catch me going to the Tyrol again for the sake of ...
— Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
... in the morning, that she felt terribly shattered, and she was depressed in spirits to a degree such as they had never seen in her before. Her whole heart was with Flora; she was unhappy at being at a distance from her, almost fretfully impatient for letters, and insisting vehemently on Ethel's ...
— The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations • Charlotte Yonge
... a bit fretfully. "It may be too late. I'm going to see if we can't get away. Stay here and I'll crawl up to the top of the rock and ...
— The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians - or, Trailing the Yaquis • Willard F. Baker
... and glanced away. The ship was plunging heavily, and the livid waves were racing before the wind. The horizon was lit with a yellow brightness in the quarter to which she turned, and a pallid gleam defined her profile. Captain Jenness was walking fretfully to and fro; he glanced now at the yellow glare, and now cast his eye aloft at the shortened sail. While Staniford stood questioning whether she meant to say anything more, or whether, having discharged ...
— The Lady of the Aroostook • W. D. Howells
... can't help it,' said Bruce rather fretfully. 'I should be at the front if it weren't for my neurotic heart. The doctor wouldn't hear of passing me—at least one wouldn't. Any fellow who would have done so would be—not a careful man. However, I don't know that it wouldn't have been just as good to die for my country, and get some ...
— Love at Second Sight • Ada Leverson
... he said, fretfully, "No—I don't want a drink. Why should I take a drink? Did you think I was all shot to pieces ...
— The Glory Of The Conquered • Susan Glaspell
... had known that this was going to happen, I would never have troubled to cultivate their acquaintance," said Lady Grace fretfully. "I knew of course that that artful little minx was running after the man, but that he could ever be foolish enough to let himself be caught in such an obvious trap was a possibility that I never ...
— Greatheart • Ethel M. Dell
... her aunt until the worthy lady was somewhat disconcerted, and asked fretfully, "What do you mean by that ...
— The Earth Trembled • E.P. Roe
... Hootawa." His wife, beside whom I sat at table d'hote, retained traces of former beauty. She was thin, and still tight-laced; was somewhat acid in manner; censorious concerning the other visitors; singularly devoted to her tedious husband, and fretfully attached to the beautiful daughter, for whose pleasure and education they were visiting Rome. I gathered that ...
— Masques & Phases • Robert Ross
... indeed?" I exclaimed in genuine consternation. "You don't look as if you had," I continued by way of encouragement, but without effect, for she interrupted me, fretfully saying: ...
— The Doctor's Daughter • "Vera"
... and there he moved about for a while and then stood for a long time holding the fence with both hands and staring blankly into the darkness. At last he turned away, and went stumbling and blundering towards the rose garden. A spray of creeper tore his face and distressed him. He thrust it aside fretfully, and it scratched his hand. He made his way to the seat in the arbour, and sat down and whispered a little to himself, and then became very still with his arm upon the back of the seat and ...
— Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells
... old man fretfully. "Don't set down in the butter-scotch; it's just behind ye. It's all over town that you are goin' to marry Phrony Marlin ...
— The Wooing of Calvin Parks • Laura E. Richards
... man, lying on the bed fully clothed, even to his shoes. He twisted fretfully in his sleep; the body tried to rise, anticipating nature even when the mind could not. The man gagged several times and finally made it up to a sitting position before the vomit came. He was still asleep, but his reaction was automatic; he grabbed the bottom of his ...
— The Circuit Riders • R. C. FitzPatrick
... As the two stood fretfully debating, the door of the room again opened. There appeared an athletic, adventurous-looking officer in brilliant uniform who was smiling at something called after him from the antechamber. His blue coat was spick and span and very gay with double embroidery at the collar, ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... to see people sullenly hoard up things," said Zell snappishly. Then she dawdled about the house, yawning and saying fretfully, "I do wish I knew what ...
— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe
... the right place?" asked Mr. Damon, somewhat fretfully, of Abe, as they ate supper that night in the airship, sheltered as it ...
— Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice • Victor Appleton
... could feel near him in that fiendish blackness, "Is it you, sir? Is it you, sir?" till his temples seemed ready to burst. And he heard in answer a voice, as if crying far away, as if screaming to him fretfully from a very great distance, the one word "Yes!" Other seas swept again over the bridge. He received them defencelessly right over his bare head, with both his hands ...
— Typhoon • Joseph Conrad
... been able to get. I, like other foreign visitors coming to Russia after feeding up in other countries, am all agog to make people talk. But the sort of questions which interest me, with my full-fed stomach, are brushed aside almost fretfully by men who have been more or less hungry for two or three years ...
— The Crisis in Russia - 1920 • Arthur Ransome
... soon," she called fretfully, "I guess you'll find yourselves alone an' forsaken, like pelicans in the wilderness. Anybody must want to see ye to traipse up through that lot as I've been doin', an' git their best clo'es all ...
— Tiverton Tales • Alice Brown
... of the South. The grey hills and overgrown lanes of her old home haunted the Captain's wife by night and day, and home-sickness (that weariest of all sicknesses) began to take the light out of her eyes before their time. It preyed upon the Captain too. Now and then he would say, fretfully, "I should like an English resting-place, however small, before every-body is dead! But the children's prospects have to be considered." The continued estrangement from the old man was an abiding sorrow also, and they had hopes that, if only they could get ...
— The Peace Egg and Other tales • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... aloud!" demanded Betty, fretfully. "I want to hear it, too. It is such a sweet story, and I read it over every day to ...
— The Little Colonel's House Party • Annie Fellows Johnston
... stop talking, Susan, and let me explain what I mean," said Judy, almost fretfully. "It's to Waterloo I want to go, not to Kensington Gardens. Do you hear me—do you understand ...
— A Young Mutineer • Mrs. L. T. Meade
... good,' said the patient fretfully. She knew better herself what was wrong with her than anybody else could guess, and only longed passionately to be alone and free to think and cry over her ...
— Julia And Her Romeo: A Chronicle Of Castle Barfield - From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray • David Christie Murray
... that," she responded, half fretfully, half gratefully, as Mr. Gryce followed her mother into the adjoining room. "I've had a bad enough time of it without being blamed for what I didn't ...
— Initials Only • Anna Katharine Green
... the lounge and smoked with violence. Presently he saw the Evershams in the doorway talking to Robert Falconer, and he jumped up and hurried to join them. As he approached he heard the word Alexandria spoken fretfully by ...
— The Palace of Darkened Windows • Mary Hastings Bradley
... within himself for sources of rich streams of conversation. He found a dry soil. "What you goin' to talk about?" he demanded, fretfully. "I won't go a step farther till I know what I'm goin' to say when I ...
— The Best American Humorous Short Stories • Various
... if I didn't know my own mind," said Mr. Wilcox fretfully. Charles hardened his mouth. "You young fellows' one idea is to get into a motor. I tell you, I want to walk: I'm very ...
— Howards End • E. M. Forster
... quiet, submissive, and sad. She read thick, simply-written books—those in which the old script for sh is confused with that for t. Now and then, however, she rang up Polunin behind the old man's back, talking to him long and fretfully, with mingled love, ...
— Tales of the Wilderness • Boris Pilniak
... and pleased the most rigid. Then, too, Gisele is always doing and telling me things for my own good—In fine, my lads, my wife takes such a flattering interest in all my concerns that the one way out for any peace-loving magician was to contrive her rescue from my clutches," said Miramon, fretfully. ...
— Figures of Earth • James Branch Cabell
... really because I loved Jack—too much," the veiled woman still fretfully excused herself. "I should have been nobody, except for my looks. He married me for my looks, because I was strong and tall and fine, as a girl should be. He thought I could give him a splendid heir. You know how things ...
— A Soldier of the Legion • C. N. Williamson
... I can get just now," said George, fretfully; for he could not see anything very comical in the fact of being thus ...
— Ralph Gurney's Oil Speculation • James Otis
... sea-wall they have lately built along the Rada. The moon was up, but overdriven with dry smoky clouds, now thickening to blackness over the whole bay, now leaving intervals through which the light poured fitfully and fretfully upon the wrinkled waves; and ever and anon they shuddered with electric gleams which were not actual lightning. Heaven seemed to be descending on the sea; one might have fancied that some powerful charms were drawing down the moon with influence malign ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds
... who y' are now; y' are a Methody, like Seth; he's tould me on you," said Lisbeth fretfully, her overpowering sense of pain returning, now her wonder was gone. "Ye'll make it out as trouble's a good thing, like HE allays does. But where's the use o' talkin' to me a-that'n? Ye canna make the smart less wi' talkin'. ...
— Adam Bede • George Eliot
... maids and the faithful Emma; there were still the little closed carriage and the semi-annual trip to Coronado. Nor did Peter appear to have suffered financially in any way; although Mrs. Baxter had somewhat fretfully confided to the girls that his uncle had suggested that it was time that Peter stood upon his own feet; and that Peter accordingly had entered into business relations with a certain very wealthy firm of grain brokers. Susan could not imagine Peter as actively involved ...
— Saturday's Child • Kathleen Norris
... to become of me?" asked Mr. Fletcher, as fretfully as a sick child; for he knew where her short holiday would be passed, and his temper got ...
— Work: A Story of Experience • Louisa May Alcott
... old hands together, but his voice was quiet. "But why?" he demanded, almost fretfully. "If the people are fond of the boy, and I think they are, to—to carry him off, or injure him, would hurt the cause. Even the Terrorists, in the name of a republic, can do ...
— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... could be heard in the kitchen but the loud ticking of the yellow-faced clock, hung high above the old deal table, and the occasional murmur of voices in the sick girl's room. Unable any longer to sit and endure the suspense, the farmer rose, and began, fretfully, to walk to and fro. Finally he stopped at the window, and his gaze travelled across the great expanse of white, beautified by the pale light of the early moon, to the tin-clad church tower in the distance, which shone like burnished silver ...
— A Lover in Homespun - And Other Stories • F. Clifford Smith
... the darned thing?" he asked fretfully, turning to Luck, who was scowling abstractedly into ...
— The Phantom Herd • B. M. Bower
... course you don't," said the Hole-keeper, fretfully. "But you see I haven't any trowsers on, and I don't fancy having a lot of strange Billyweazles nibbling at my legs. In fact, if you don't mind, I'd like to ...
— Davy and The Goblin - What Followed Reading 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' • Charles E. Carryl
... England not killed already?' The Marquess showed the white rims of his eyes—' Injurious, desperate, bloody villain,' was his commentary; and Saint-Pol lifted up his hand to his master for leave to speak mischief. But King Philip said fretfully, 'Well, well, we can all speak of something, I suppose. He scorns me, he has always scorned me. He refuses me homage, he shamed my sister; and now he takes ...
— The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay • Maurice Hewlett
... Jimmy had existed a cordial amity, but now the aggrieved one remembered many things which tainted Jimmy with villainy and crassness. Stuart turned away, his hand heavy on the bit, so that Johnny Reb, unaccustomed to this style of taking pleasure sadly, tossed his head fretfully and widened his scarlet nostrils ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck
... wedding has turned Maureen's head," my grandmother went on fretfully. "I found her setting Luke's room in order. She would have it that he was coming home from school by the hooker from Galway. She has made his bed and put his room in order and she asked me at what hour ...
— The Story of Bawn • Katharine Tynan
... with those awful glasses," she said fretfully. "I feel as if I were being stared at ...
— The Unspeakable Perk • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... books what diseases other folks have got, Phyllie?" he asked fretfully when I told him about Tiny Tim and the "Christmas Carol." "Do you reckon that little boy had rheumatiz and didn't ...
— Phyllis • Maria Thompson Daviess
... strip of shade by the fence; but now the sun was beating down on her bare head. She sat with her arms hanging along her sides, the palms of her hands turned upwards. A baby hardly a year old twisted fretfully on her lap, fumbling at her breast with a little red hand. But she looked steadily over the baby's round head, a curiously intent expression in her dark eyes, as though she were looking at something so far away that she must concentrate all herself on ...
— Trapped in 'Black Russia' - Letters June-November 1915 • Ruth Pierce
... said Claire, fretfully, leading the way down the grillroom stairs, 'that you wouldn't let all London sponge on you like this. I keep telling you not to. I should have thought that if any one needed to keep what little money he ...
— Uneasy Money • P.G. Wodehouse
... the boys that are for you," advised Presson, fretfully, "not this year, when reformers have got 'em filled up with a lot of skittish notions. Humor those ...
— The Ramrodders - A Novel • Holman Day
... loved God, to barter himself away to some agreeable young woman who should be willing to bestow her person upon him, plus a couple of hundred thousand francs. Once or twice there was really a question of his making a match through the good offices of his mother, of whom he none the less said fretfully that she did not think much about him. But, on each occasion, the negotiations fell through—why we do not learn. Such information, maybe, he reserved for the various dames in Paris whose houses he still frequented. Madame ...
— Balzac • Frederick Lawton
... as if the girls were going to have their fun, too!" He laughed, but there was a nervous catch in his voice. He hadn't counted on any policeman taking part in the comedy. "Where the devil is Scott Circle, anyhow?"—fretfully. He tugged at the reins. "Best draw up at the next corner. I'll be hanged if I ...
— The Man on the Box • Harold MacGrath
... sure I don't want to,' replied Michael. 'But I say, Teena, I really don't believe this claret's wholesome; it's not a sound, reliable wine. Give us a brandy and soda, there's a good soul.' Teena's face became like adamant. 'Well, then,' said the lawyer fretfully, 'I ...
— The Wrong Box • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne
... don't care about that!" burst out Drusilla fretfully, "it's easy to explain anything, afterwards! But of course if you think more of gold and silver than you do of having me for ...
— Silver and Gold - A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp • Dane Coolidge
... river meadows, the little girl, secure in her seat on the pinto, rode to and fro along the southern edge of the herd, in front of the lowered foreheads and tossing horns of the cattle. Behind her came the blind black colt, switching his tail and whinnying fretfully; but, despite his pleading, the little girl, eager to win the reward she had been promised, never paused in her sentry duty. The pinto fretted, too, for she also was hungry. But the little girl held the short ...
— The Biography of a Prairie Girl • Eleanor Gates
... know what you mean," said Charity fretfully. "What are we going to have for dinner, Sunday? I could fricassee ...
— Nobody • Susan Warner
... O'Shanaghgan was almost tearful at the thought of parting with her beloved brother. Molly, delighted at being allowed to stay on at the Castle, was also present; but Nora's entrance on the scene caused Mrs. O'Shanaghgan to speak fretfully. ...
— Light O' The Morning • L. T. Meade
... over the coarse food on the table before them, when we looked in. The baby, it seems, was the cause of the row. He wanted it all. He was a very dirty and a very fierce baby, and the other two children were no match for him. The shoemaker grunted fretfully at his last, "Ach, he is all de time hungry!" At the sight of the policeman, the young imp set up such a howl that we beat a hasty retreat. The cellar "flat" was undoubtedly in violation of law, but it was allowed to pass. In the main hall, on the ground ...
— The Battle with the Slum • Jacob A. Riis
... she said fretfully. "But really it's too bad of Nora to say that I could have my old blue one done up. She never seems to care how her mother looks. If all this fuss is going to be made about Constance and I am to take her out, I must ...
— Lady Connie • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... little girl was lying on it, her hollow cheeks pink, her eyes bright. The sun poured in at the bare window and the room was hot and breathless. The swarming flies covered her face and arms. She brushed them away fretfully, and stretched out her hot hands for the flowers. "Oh, teacher," she cried, trying to strangle her cough, "I watched and I watched for you all day and I was ...
— The End of the Rainbow • Marian Keith |
