"Absently" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... for a few moments occupied herself with similar futilities, having taken on the air of a person who makes things neat, though she produced no such actual effect upon them. "Of course you will," she repeated, absently. "You'll be as strong as you ever were; maybe stronger." She paused for a moment, not looking at him, then added, cheerfully, "So that you can fly around and find something really good to ...
— Alice Adams • Booth Tarkington
... Asher replied absently, looking out with unseeing eyes at the lengthening woodland shadows, "a church or two more, some brick sidewalk, and a few stores and homes—just added on, not improved. I miss Jim Shirley everywhere. The older folks seem the same, but some of the girls are pushing baby-carriages ...
— Winning the Wilderness • Margaret Hill McCarter
... Virginia days in the midst of this turbulent, mad Paris. 'Tis a wild, bad place I have brought you to, Ned," he said, turning to the young gentleman, "but it must all end in good—surely, surely." Mr. Jefferson's happy mood seemed suddenly to cloud over, and he spoke absently and almost as if reassuring himself. "But come," he added, brightening up, "I will not talk of such things before we are fairly in the house! Welcome again, Mr. Morris! Welcome, Mr. Secretary!"—he turned to Calvert—"It seems strange, but most delightful, to have you ...
— Calvert of Strathore • Carter Goodloe
... there." Fairchild grasped the pudgy hand and left the office. For a moment afterward, old Henry Beamish stood thinking and looking out over the dingy roof adjacent. Then, somewhat absently, he pressed the ancient electric button for his more ...
— The Cross-Cut • Courtney Ryley Cooper
... the middle of the room; stood absently pushing back his hair; and his gaze, turned toward the window, ...
— V. V.'s Eyes • Henry Sydnor Harrison
... to be preferred, of course," says Mr. Desmond, absently stroking his own, which is all that can be desired. "But I never since I was born heard such an extraordinary story as yours. I give you my word,"—earnestly,—"my uncle is just the sort of man who, if any girl, no matter how hideous, were ...
— Rossmoyne • Unknown
... rejoined absently, the light bringing out the sharp stamp of worry between his brows as he turned ...
— The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 2 (of 10) • Edith Wharton
... meeting at two. Really," Olive spoke a little absently, herself; "I almost wish that ...
— The Brentons • Anna Chapin Ray
... Rosalind told it her eyes took on the look Belle had described to her father. There was silence after she finished. Jack lay with his head on his arms, looking out on the river; Maurice was drawing beech leaves in his note-book, the discontent all gone from his face; Belle absently plaited the hem of her dress; while Katherine twisted a wreath of honeysuckle around ...
— Mr. Pat's Little Girl - A Story of the Arden Foresters • Mary F. Leonard
... think so," replied the Captain of Marines. He finished his aperitif and stared absently at the ...
— The Long Trick • Lewis Anselm da Costa Ritchie
... sitting half way up the moor, an old cloak wrapped round her and its hood drawn over her head, for the wind was keen, blowing fresh from the bright blue bay, which stretched before her to the hazy horizon. Her eyes gazed absently over its azure surface, flecked with white, as though with scattered snowflakes, and dotted here and there with the grey sails of the boats which the herring fishery called out from their moorings under the ...
— Garthowen - A Story of a Welsh Homestead • Allen Raine
... Ole stood staring absently, and then took Fris by the sleeve and drew him up to the dead body. "He's rowed well!" he said. "The blood's come out at his finger-ends, look!" And he raised his son's hands to the light. "And there's a wrist, Fris! He could take up an old man like me and carry me like ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo
... said the caller, absently. "He is, certainly. A man's reputation for a little gaiety oughtn't to make a great difference to married people, of course. It's where young girls are in question. THEN it may be very, very dangerous. There are a great many things ...
— The Turmoil - A Novel • Booth Tarkington
... as maturity succeeded adolescence and decay succeeded maturity; it seemed intolerable that the ineffable charm of the girl's youth must be slowly filched away by the thefts of time. 'I was like that once! And Jack too!' she thought, as she gazed absently at the pair in front of the piano. And it appeared incredible to her that she was the mother of that tall womanly creature, that the little morsel of a child which she had borne one night had become a daughter ...
— Leonora • Arnold Bennett
... Sam absently. He was finding Widgery stiff reading. He had just got to the bit about Raptu Haeredis, which, as of course you know, is a writ for taking away an ...
— Three Men and a Maid • P. G. Wodehouse
... The whole house fears him like fire?" And he explained how he got the coat. She listened absently as they went silently down the main path of the garden, Vera with ...
— The Precipice • Ivan Goncharov
... assented absently. He was wondering where the daughter of the chief clerk got her high ...
— Salthaven • W. W. Jacobs
... of Culvera drummed absently on the table. "I think the senorita and I will be able to adjust the matter without any help from you. If you have any last messages for her I'll be glad to carry them, since I expect to see ...
— Steve Yeager • William MacLeod Raine
... hand into his outer breast-pocket, pulled out an envelope, and absently pitched it across the table. She looked at it and saw that it was postmarked the city and bore a ...
— Queed • Henry Sydnor Harrison
... we heard him going down the street again, absently running his night-stick along the fence palings, did ...
— Sight Unseen • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... retained his seat, but Chris Harford, Mrs. Devlyn's brother, had entered the box now and was assiduously paying his court. "Damned impertinence of the woman, forcing her relations upon them like that," he thought.—"Oh—er—no—that is, I think the Paris Opera-House is a beastly place," he said, absently, "a dull, heavy drab brown and dirty gilding, and all the women look hideous ...
— Beyond The Rocks - A Love Story • Elinor Glyn
... sat by the fire, where her husband had placed her, absently taking in the externalities—warm, somber, luxurious—which, in all human probability, was now her home for life. For life! Did that overpowering sense of the inevitable—so maddening to some, so quieting to others—cause all small things to sink to their ...
— Christian's Mistake • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
... was so deeply engaged in his reading that he stared at her with a faraway look in his eyes, as if he scarcely knew who she was. After a minute he said absently: "Bed-time, eh? Good-night. Good-night, my dear." Sometimes when he was a little less absorbed he put a sixpence or a shilling into her hand as he kissed her, and added: "There's something ...
— The Kitchen Cat, and other Tales • Amy Walton
... rock, or peak, at the end of the promontory which we had weathered with so much peril, between me and the majestic sight, and blotted it from my view. I still continued, however, to stare at the rock, absently enough, till presently it became edged with the fire of the growing light behind it, and then I started, as well I might, for I perceived that the top of the peak, which was about eighty feet high by one ...
— She • H. Rider Haggard
... he put the recommendation of the son and master on the same line as that of the coal. Mr Headley answered the business matters absently, and ended by saying he would think on ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte M. Yonge
... revolted him. He used to bring his newspaper to the table nearly every meal and would sometimes fling it down indignantly, crying, "Wrong! wrong! all wrong!" Then he and Addison would discuss current politics, while the rest of us listened, Theodora gravely, Halstead scoffing, and I often very absently, for as a boy I had other more trivial interests chiefly in mind. I recall that the old gentleman used frequently to exclaim, "You boys must begin to read the Constitution. Next after the Bible, the Constitution ought to be read in every family in ...
— When Life Was Young - At the Old Farm in Maine • C. A. Stephens
... every morning and her heart Followed his bow. But often she would sit, While he was playing, quite withdrawn apart, Absently fingering and touching it, The locket, which now seemed to her a bit Of some gone youth. His music drew her tears, And through the notes he ...
— Men, Women and Ghosts • Amy Lowell
... But he spoke absently, and his eye was following Laura. Amy thought he was thinking of his sister, and was sorry for him. He spoke no more, but she did not regret it, for she could not moralize in such a scene, and the sight and ...
— The Heir of Redclyffe • Charlotte M. Yonge
... a lady—" began the Girl, and broke off short. And going over to the book-shelf she took down a volume and began to finger the leaves absently. Presently she came back, and fixing her eyes upon him, she went on: "It made me think of it, what you said down to the saloon to-night about livin' so you didn't care what come after. Well, he made up his min', this Dent—Dantes—that one hour o' happiness with her was worth ...
— The Girl of the Golden West • David Belasco
... As I looked absently down the track, I reviewed the past winter months, the long days and evenings spent at my desk in the stuffy little lodgings to which I was limited by my narrow income, interrupted frequently by invasions ...
— A Village Ophelia and Other Stories • Anne Reeve Aldrich
... a white butterfly circling in the air attracted her gaze. She followed it absently with her eyes, and the butterfly, as if drawn by Berta's gaze, tracing capricious circles, left the terrace, flew swiftly to Berta's window and entered ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: Spanish • Various
... the Song of the Acorn!" Dick glanced half absently to her from the pamphlet folded on his finger, and then, with equal ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London
... and she gave him absently her customary answer. He pointed to a great striped tent of red and white linen, adorned with fluttering streamers and guarded by more sentries in shining mail; and she rode toward it in ...
— The Ward of King Canute • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
... The Mackhai absently, as he took up his paper, and the breakfast went on to the end, but to Max it was anything but ...
— Three Boys - or the Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai • George Manville Fenn
... ends," the wub said absently, staring around the room. "A nice apartment you have here, Captain. You keep it quite neat. I respect life-forms that are tidy. Some Martian birds are quite tidy. They throw things out of their nests and ...
— Beyond Lies the Wub • Philip Kindred Dick
... happily. "You're doing fine. You've had us out for more than two hours. We started with twenty-five in this group and still have twenty-one. Par for the course. What happens to a tourist who wanders absently around in the Kremlin and turns up in the ...
— Combat • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... Geoffrey absently took up a paper-knife. Still with his head down, he began shaving off the topmost layer of paper from the blotting-pad under his hand. Still with his head down, he abruptly broke the silence in ...
— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins
... her absently for a moment. "I suppose I had ought to hate you," she said, wearily; "you have made my life very black. Lucian Davlin will soon ...
— Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter • Lawrence L. Lynch
... and the air was keen with the pungent smell of sawdust and new boards. The whir and thud of the machinery down-stairs sent a faint quiver through the planks under his feet. "The mill will net a good profit this year," he said to himself, absently. "'Thalia can have pretty nearly anything she wants." And even as he said it he had a sudden, vague misgiving: if she didn't have everything she wanted, perhaps she would be happier? But the idea was too new and too subtle to follow up, so the result of that troubled hour ...
— The Way to Peace • Margaret Deland
... front veranda as he quitted the house, and absently picked a few sprays of jessamine that grew upon a trellis near by. She inhaled the odor of the blossoms and thrust them into the bosom of her white morning gown. The boys were dragging along the banquette a small "express wagon," which ...
— The Awakening and Selected Short Stories • Kate Chopin
... in some scientific subject when the nurse announced the arrival of a boy. "What—who?" stammered the professor absently. "Why interrupt ...
— Jokes For All Occasions - Selected and Edited by One of America's Foremost Public Speakers • Anonymous
... her mind drove her at last almost insensibly towards the low, wide wall facing the unquiet sea. Here she sat down, still absorbed in her thoughts, her gaze resting absently on the incoming tide below. She was conscious of a strange feeling of communion ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler
... turned away to hide the tears when Dr. Gerald continued absently: "As for me, Mistress Beresford, when I go home at night I take my only companion from the mantelshelf and leaning back in my old armchair say, 'Praise ...
— Penelope's Postscripts • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... him—once—when I was in London a year ago. I had not seen him for years." He let the rose swing back. "He has a magnificence! Do you know I study a good deal? They say that so do you. I have an inclination toward fifteenth-century Italian. I should place him there." He spoke absently, still staring at the rose. "A dash—not an ill dash, of course—of what you might call the Borgia ... good and evil tied ...
— Foes • Mary Johnston
... his considered view; he wished she weren't. Kissing her a little absently he walked to the door; then because he had always done so, ...
— Balloons • Elizabeth Bibesco
... immediately into the ladies' cabin, which was almost empty, and chose a berth for myself in the darkest corner. It was not far from the door, and presently two other ladies came down, with a gentleman and the captain, and held an anxious parley close to me. I listened absently and mechanically, as indifferent to the subject as if it could be of no consequence ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • Hesba Stretton
... seeking her in every square yard which his eye could reach, and here she was close to him all the time. The discovery awoke a throb of pleasure within him, and with a flush upon his dark face he rose and made his way towards her. She was absently turning over the leaves of her little Welsh hymn-book as he approached, and smiling unconsciously at a toddling child who was making journeys of discovery around the furze bushes. A quick, short "Oh!" escaped her as she saw him approach, her face brightened up—yes, certainly ...
— By Berwen Banks • Allen Raine
... "Yeah." Cash meditated, absently eyeing the burros. "Where it's green." He looked at the near hills, and at the desert, and at the dreary march of the starved animals. "It's a long way to green ...
— Cabin Fever • B. M. Bower
... your kind intentions," returned Richard, absently; "it's very good of you, I'm sure." His hopes of some scheme of present release had been excited by the old man's manner, and this faint and far-off prospect of a legateeship seemed but of ...
— Bred in the Bone • James Payn
... answered Father Blossom. "Mrs. Harley said that he had been acting queerly all that Winter—that he would go for days without speaking, and then fly into a rage if any one asked him a question." "He was always so good to his family," said Mother Blossom, smoothing Meg's hair absently. "He must have been ...
— Four Little Blossoms on Apple Tree Island • Mabel C. Hawley
... head. "Non, Monsieur," he answered, absently, and hastened on with the bottle he ...
— Kent Knowles: Quahaug • Joseph C. Lincoln
... for Sunday," replied Jem Agar's stepmother absently. She was thinking of her own son, and therefore did not hear the quick sigh which was almost a gasp; did not note the sudden ...
— From One Generation to Another • Henry Seton Merriman
... it," he answered, absently. "I see your uncle cannot find a four-wheeler. You must take my carriage. I am ...
— A Prince of Sinners • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... many here," said Dr. Ewen cheerfully, as he rose from his table crowded with books. "We're all pretty simple at Oxford. We ought to be of course—even our guests. It's a place of training." He dropped a Greek word absently, putting away his papers the while, and thinking of the subject with which he had just been busy. Constance opened the door again to make her escape, but the ...
— Lady Connie • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... dresser, took the multitude of pins out of her hair and tumbled it, a cloudy black mass, about her shoulders. Occupying the center of the dresser, in a leaning silver frame, stood a picture of Jack Barrow. She stood looking at it a minute, smiling absently. It was spring, and her landlady's daughter had set a bunch of wild flowers in a jar beside the picture. Hazel picked out a daisy and plucked away the ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... standing near the dressing-table, where she had been absently attending to the candles. She wheeled round and looked at Maggie, who was hospitably sitting on a low chair near the fire. She was sorry for the loneliness of this girl's life. She did not want her to ...
— The Sowers • Henry Seton Merriman
... Sue absently agreed to banns. But her mind for the moment was running on something else. A glow had passed away from her, and depression ...
— Jude the Obscure • Thomas Hardy
... mornings or afternoons, taking trunks out or putting them in. With the trunks set into the corridors and opened for them, they would spend the hours looking the contents over, talking to their neighbors, or rapt in long silences when they hesitated with things held off or up, and, after gazing absently at them, putting them back again. Sometimes they varied the process by laying things aside for sending home, and receipting for them at ...
— The Daughter of the Storage - And Other Things in Prose and Verse • William Dean Howells
... VARIATIONS ceased, and were followed by the crisp gaiety of the MINUET. The lights above his head were reflected in the shining ebony of the piano; regularly, every moment or two, he was struck by the appearance of Schwarz's broad, fat hand, which crossed his range of vision to turn a leaf; he meditated absently on a sharp uplifting of this hand that occurred, as though the master were dissatisfied with the rhythm—the 'cellist's fault, no doubt: he had been inexact at rehearsal, and, this evening, was too much taken up with ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson
... this head somewhat absently, for he evidently was debating within himself some very serious matter; but his answer was of a sort that Young found entirely satisfactory. In the heart of the city, he said, was the Treasure-house that Chaltzantzin had builded there; and within ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier
... and Andrea stooped to pick it up, their hands met. She straightened herself up and examined the beautiful weapon with some curiosity, retaining it in her hand while Andrea talked about the new novel, insinuating into his remarks general arguments upon love; and her fingers wandered absently over the chasing of the weapon, her polished nails seeming a repetition of the delicate gems that sparkled in ...
— The Child of Pleasure • Gabriele D'Annunzio
... queried absently, looking up from a book, one of the latest untranslated treatises on the new psychology from the pen of the eminent scientist, Dr. Freud of Vienna, "what ...
— The Dream Doctor • Arthur B. Reeve
... with the perpetual smiles playing about his grimness, Mr. Blunt appeared to me positively satanic. Mills' hand was toying absently with an empty glass. Again they ...
— The Arrow of Gold - a story between two notes • Joseph Conrad
... without some things, that's all," and the man stared absently at the steel wall. "I remember something about its orbit, since it is one thing that all I-P vessels have to steer clear of. Think I can figure it close enough so that we'll be able to find it in our little telescope, or even on our plate, since we'll be out of this atmosphere. And it might ...
— Spacehounds of IPC • Edward Elmer Smith
... Brown, turning to his writing-table when Atchison had gone, and absently picking up a bronze paper-weight which lay there—"put it into his head to fire a dinner at me the moment he ...
— The Brown Study • Grace S. Richmond
... harsh; they also would not recognize the talent she was conscious of. But she controlled herself, and rose from her seat before she made any answer. It seemed natural that she should pause. She went to the piano and looked absently at leaves of music, pinching up the corners. At last she turned toward Klesmer and said, with almost her usual air of proud equality, which in this interview ...
— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot
... me," he again urged. There was a moment's fateful silence, then, quite mechanically, I arose and prepared to accompany him. In the hall below I handed him his evening stick and gloves, which he absently took from me, and we presently traversed that street of houses much in the fashion of the Floud house and nearly all boasting some sculptured bit of ...
— Ruggles of Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson
... jangled. "Five thousand dollars," she kept repeating to herself, greeting the teachers absently—"five thousand dollars." And then on the porch she was suddenly aware of the awaiting boy. She eyed him critically: black, fifteen, country-bred, ...
— The Quest of the Silver Fleece - A Novel • W. E. B. Du Bois
... as her speech flowed on, he looked sidelong at her, in a trouble of fear and wonder; then, at length, absently, trying to put his mind elsewhere and to leave her voice as the muted murmur of a distant torrent. He succeeded fairly well in this, for Lorena combined admirably in herself the parts of speaker and listener, and ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson
... She answered absently: "It must be time to dress"; then she drew back a little and laid her hands on his shoulders. "My love—oh, my ...
— The Reef • Edith Wharton
... The fiddles and flutes began to play and suddenly it seemed to them as though all the people in the boxes were looking at them. She got up and walked quickly to the exit; he followed, and both walked absently along the corridors, down the stairs, up the stairs, with the crowd shifting and shimmering before their eyes; all kinds of uniforms, judges, teachers, crown-estates, and all with badges; ladies shone and shimmered ...
— The House with the Mezzanine and Other Stories • Anton Tchekoff
... and the suit beneath, were quite good; for, though they were the property of the late Henry Leek, they perfectly fitted Priam Farll and had recently belonged to him, Leek having been accustomed to clothe himself entirely from his master's wardrobe. The dandy absently drew forth the Telegraph, and the first thing that caught his eye was this: "A beautiful private hotel of the highest class. Luxuriously furnished. Visitor's comfort studied. Finest position in London. Cuisine a speciality. Quiet. Suitable for persons of ...
— Buried Alive: A Tale of These Days • Arnold Bennett
... just here that Lidgerwood, staring absently at the passing panorama of shifting hill shoulders framing itself in the open side-door of the tool-car, missed a point. If he had been less absorbed in the personal problem he could scarcely have failed to mark the searching scrutiny in the ...
— The Taming of Red Butte Western • Francis Lynde
... know," said Heath absently. "I never form definite opinions about people on a slight knowledge ...
— The Pointing Man - A Burmese Mystery • Marjorie Douie
... shoulders, Kononov-Ivan stood by the window—then stooped, looked askance at the sunset, at the fields, at the musical instrument. He reflected a moment, then muttered absently: ...
— Tales of the Wilderness • Boris Pilniak
... dragged up a chair and sat straddled across it, his arms on the back, looking at her with ardent eyes. She kept her own averted. She seemed to find it hard to begin what it was she wanted to say. She stood beside the dressing-table absently fingering the trinkets lying there. Among them was a portrait of Challoner in a silver frame. The pictured eyes seemed to be watching her as she stood trying to avoid the human ones. ...
— The Second Honeymoon • Ruby M. Ayres
... Both he and his friend had a curious appearance, and they looked behind them, meeting my gaze as I watched them going; and then they made to each other some laughing comment, of which I felt myself to be the inspiration. I was standing absently on the same spot, still in a mild puzzle over California and the record on stoves. Certainly I had overheard none of their secrets, if they had any; I could not even guess what might be their true opinion about admitting ...
— Red Men and White • Owen Wister
... the two trunks fell to the late recruit; and when he had set it down at the door of the designated state-room, he did half-absently what John Gavitt might have done without blame: read the tacked-on card, which bore the owner's name and address, written in a firm round hand: "Charlotte ...
— The Price • Francis Lynde
... so excited, so filled with their own thoughts that they hastened through the saloons, scarcely remarking the prince, who had stepped aside to allow them to pass. The queen-mother nodded absently and gave him a passing greeting, then turned again to Elizabeth, who had scarcely patience to conform her movements to the slow and measured steps of the queen-mother; she longed to look upon her husband's face ...
— Frederick the Great and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... was sitting in her favorite chair reading a magazine, looked up absently, then, staring incredulously at the newcomers, trotted across the room, both hands outstretched in welcome. "Why, Miss Harlowe and Miss Nesbit, I had given you up for to-night. Here are Miss Pierson and Miss Briggs, too. I'm so glad to see you. When did you arrive? ...
— Grace Harlowe's Second Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... She had thrown back her head and was gazing absently above. "Oh, yes, I am mindful of my duty," murmured she. "I have not forgotten the vow I made to my mother and sealed upon her dying lips with my last kiss! I have been a faithful daughter of my fatherland. I have given every thing—there remains nothing but myself, and oh, how gladly would ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... Charlotte smiled, absently. Presently she slipped into the best room and lighted the candles. "You expectin' of anybody to-night?" her mother asked, when she ...
— Pembroke - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... morning rode up to an inn, And one of them called for the drinks with a grin; They'd only returned from a trip to the North, And, eager to greet them, the landlord came forth. He absently poured out a glass of Three Star. And set down that drink with the rest on ...
— In the Days When the World Was Wide and Other Verses • Henry Lawson
... the doctor, absently, while his mind followed a new line of thought suggested by what might have been called Nostromo's return to life. "She died, the ...
— Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard • Joseph Conrad
... a restraining hand on the girl's arm. Miss Foster sat down absently not far from the window. The mingled lights of lamp and moon fell upon her, upon the noble rounding of the face, which was grave, a little austere even, but still sensitive and delicate. Her black hair, thanks to Mrs. Burgoyne's devices, rippled against the brow and cheek, almost hiding the ...
— Eleanor • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... to stand under the trees. The men had quieted down to sleep, but at one tent very near us a group of regimental officers sat in the light of a torch-basket, and by them were planted their colors. A quartet of capital voices were singing, and one who joined the chorus, standing by the flag, absently yet caressingly spread it at such breadth that we easily read on it the name of the command. ...
— The Cavalier • George Washington Cable
... want at this hour?" exclaimed Mr. Aubrey, absently, intently watching an anticipated move of his sister's, which would have decided the game in his favor. At length she made her long-meditated descent—but in ...
— Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. • Samuel Warren
... sits on the bench, leaning his arms on the table. His hat lies before him. He gazes absently and immovably out over ...
— Little Eyolf • Henrik Ibsen
... of my line," Scott answered, staring absently at the map of India on the wall. "It's rough on Martyn—very. 'Wonder what he'll do with his sister? 'Wonder what the deuce they'll do with me? I've no famine experience. This is the first I've heard of it. ...
— The Day's Work, Volume 1 • Rudyard Kipling
... Narumov of the Horse Guards. The long winter night passed away imperceptibly, and it was five o'clock in the morning before the company sat down to supper. Those who had won, ate with a good appetite; the others sat staring absently at their empty plates. When the champagne appeared, however, the conversation became more animated, and all took ...
— Best Russian Short Stories • Various
... ancient bronze bell continued swinging in the tower, its plaintive call reached something in the Padre's memory. Softly, absently, he began to sing. He took up the slow strain not quite correctly, and dropped it, and took it up again, always in ...
— Padre Ignacio - Or The Song of Temptation • Owen Wister
... not do," he answered, absently, staring at the straining canvas and listening to the roar of the storm. "A man would die in the open on a night ...
— A Daughter of the Snows • Jack London
... was occupied in this way as he was absently taking off his gown, when Mr. Landor startled him by entering the vestry and asking abruptly, 'Have you heard the ...
— Scenes of Clerical Life • George Eliot
... could you have pushed aside the creaking door, you might have seen an old woman, wrinkled and gray, sitting by the silent hearth, stirring the dull fire, or looking absently from ...
— The King's Daughter and Other Stories for Girls • Various
... fell to work among the bushes, absently stripping off the luscious red globes into the baskets, but her mind was far away and she took little part in the gay talk that went on around her. By and by, when the berries were all picked, ...
— The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit - Or, Over the Top with the Winnebagos • Hildegard G. Frey
... silly," said Nan absently, as her eyes wandered down the double line of shining rails to the spot where they disappeared in the distance. "I wonder if that mean old train is going to be ...
— Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach - Or Strange Adventures Among The Orange Groves • Annie Roe Carr
... such a tragic tone that Rose took another peep and did sympathize with Dandy, for Mac's elegance was quite gone. His tie was under one ear, his posy hung upside down, his gloves were rolled into a ball, which he absently squeezed and pounded as he talked, and his hair looked as if a whirlwind had passed over it, for his ten fingers set it on end now and then, as they had a habit of doing when he studied or talked earnestly. But he looked so happy and wide awake, in spite of his dishevelment, that ...
— Rose in Bloom - A Sequel to "Eight Cousins" • Louisa May Alcott
... out of a glass door that led to the columned veranda outside. Victoria, mindful of the girl's delicate look, hurried after her with a fur wrap. Felicia gratefully but absently kissed her hand, and Victoria left her to her ...
— The Mating of Lydia • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... the blurred sky line, answered absently, "Usual answer is 'Leave? It's all I can do to ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various
... almost absently. "All they have is a method of making their biggest ships indetectable until they're so close that it doesn't matter. When they do register on our detectors, it's too late. But the weapons they strike with are the same type as they've always ...
— The Highest Treason • Randall Garrett
... through the lane slowly and absently like a woman in a dream. When she came to the gap in the fence where the lane ran into the orchard she lifted her wan, drooping face and saw Eric, sitting in the shadow of the wood at the other side of the orchard with his bowed head ...
— Kilmeny of the Orchard • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... said the girl, absently viewing the steadily rising roof of her home. "Our ideas of humor were ever alien. I wonder if Prince ...
— Prince or Chauffeur? - A Story of Newport • Lawrence Perry
... up leisurely; the girl had relinquished the bridle and was guiding the mare with the slightest pressure of knee and heel. She sat at ease, head lowered, absently retying the ribbon on the hair at her neck. When it was adjusted to her satisfaction she passed a hat-pin through her sombrero, touched the bright, thick hair above her forehead, straightened out, stretching her legs in the stirrups. Then she drew off her right gauntlet, and very discreetly stifled ...
— A Young Man in a Hurry - and Other Short Stories • Robert W. Chambers
... walked around to the rear of the little building and, leaning against its shingled side, waited, gazing absently across the fields to the spires and roofs ...
— Fair Harbor • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... said Psmith absently. 'Of course, if in the vein, I might do something big in the way of oratory. I am a plain, blunt man, but I feel convinced that, given the opportunity, I should haul up my slacks to some effect. But—well, we shall see. We ...
— Psmith in the City • P. G. Wodehouse
... it absently, frowning down on the other greyer face in the grey dust. Again his hand unsteadily groped over the still heart, and lay there for ...
— The Lee Shore • Rose Macaulay
... not idly believe in such cruelty. They were forced into their belief by the demands of their understanding, and their assent was more meritorious than the weak protests of so-called enlightenment. Zachariah, pondering absently on what he had heard, was passing out of the chapel when a hand was ...
— The Revolution in Tanner's Lane • Mark Rutherford
... says the professor, absently. He is thinking! He has taken her hand, and held it, and dropped it again, all in a state ...
— A Little Rebel • Mrs. Hungerford
... silence with a cool, calculating stare which some men had termed insolent, absently tapping his teeth with the gold rim of a monocle which he carried but apparently never used for any other purpose; and it was at about this time that a long low car passed near the door of the restaurant, crossing the traffic stream ...
— Dope • Sax Rohmer
... strong motive—the saving of a life dearer to me than my own," Elsie responded, half absently, as if her thoughts were busy with ...
— The Two Elsies - A Sequel to Elsie at Nantucket, Book 10 • Martha Finley
... it,' said Anthea, absently beginning to build a card-house for the Lamb—'mixing up what you're saying, I mean. We ought to practise doing it so as to be ready for mysterious occasions. We're talking about THAT,' she said to Jane and Robert, frowning, and nodding towards the cupboard where the Phoenix ...
— The Phoenix and the Carpet • E. Nesbit
... moved his head sideways absently. Nostromo pointed after the Goulds' carriage, nearing the grass-grown gate in the old town wall that was like a wall ...
— Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard • Joseph Conrad
... answer or turn. He laid his book on the counter and passed out, his well-shod feet sounding flatly on the floor. On the staircase he paused and gazing absently at Dixon repeated: ...
— A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man • James Joyce
... prayer by drawing the man's portrait. Speedily she forgot how the doing so would in any way have strengthened her prayer. The excitement had left her brain dull. She did little more than stare mildly, and absently bend her head, while Robert said that he would go to Rhoda on the morrow, and speak ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... pardons," he said to the hostess absently. "It is a great pleasure to be here,—somehow I thought I knew that man. I am sure I ...
— Darkwater - Voices From Within The Veil • W. E. B. Du Bois
... word several times absently. Then he leaned forward and said with what was for him an approach to the confidential: "What a mess I have been making of my life! What waste! What folly! I've behaved like a child, an impulsive, irresponsible child. And now I must get to ...
— The Great God Success • John Graham (David Graham Phillips)
... murmured absently, counting stitches under her breath and then pulling a needle out of the ...
— The Emigrant Trail • Geraldine Bonner
... the front door, and when he held out his hand she lifted hers absently. He was a quick-witted young man and he understood. He raised it lightly to his lips, then let himself out. As he was walking rapidly toward Park Avenue, wondering if he should tramp for hours—he had never felt less like sleeping—he ...
— Black Oxen • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
... village, and make a mental note, almost absently, that people were getting to their feet now, some of them clinging together the way you and Martha were—and then back down into mental chaos you'd ...
— Eight Keys to Eden • Mark Irvin Clifton
... minutes," continues Nancy, stopping by the side window and twirling the curtain tassel absently. "I scan the surrounding country to see if anything compares with Beulah, and nothing does. No such river, no such trees, no such well, no such old oaken bucket, and above all no such Yellow House. All the other ...
— Mother Carey's Chickens • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... absently, and fixed his one eye on the bacon that Mac was cutting on the deal box into such ...
— The Magnetic North • Elizabeth Robins (C. E. Raimond)
... Blanco absently, "no one could regret more profoundly than the Grand Duke any accident or fatality which might befall his royal kinsman, yet even the holy saints cannot prevent evil chances!" He paused to sip his coffee. "At the right of 'Louis, the Dreamer,' as ...
— The Lighted Match • Charles Neville Buck
... Gerald sat a moment in the silence which is apt to follow with young people when they are unexpectedly left to themselves. She kept absently pushing the cards her father had given her up and down on the table between her thumb and forefinger, and Lanfear noted the translucence of her long, thin hand in the sunshine striking across the painted iron surface of the garden movable. The translucence ...
— Between The Dark And The Daylight • William Dean Howells
... too bad, too bad," said he, drawing the remnant of the shroud about him and leaning his jaw pensively on his hand. Then he put his left foot up on his knee and fell to scratching his anklebone absently with a rusty nail which he got out of ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... absently. "One thing I would do if I had the power," he began again, "I would not take prisoners. Why take prisoners? It's chivalry! The French have destroyed my home and are on their way to destroy Moscow, they have ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
... annoyed that her daughter said nothing of the events of the morning, and soon went out again; Rosine and her father sat dreamily, he by the window, smoking, and she with an unread magazine before her. She looked absently about the room, with happy eyes, trying to recall the details of the scene between her and Daniel; her glance fell on her father's weary face, and its melancholy expression struck her sharply. She got up, and standing behind him, laid her hand on his shoulder and said, with a little sigh of compassion ...
— Clerambault - The Story Of An Independent Spirit During The War • Rolland, Romain
... and sat leaning upon the table absently looking at the objects that lay before him, an open portfolio and writing materials, a bit of sealingwax, a small dictionary, neatly laid in order upon the dark red cloth. He did not know why he had allowed himself to be led to the place, but he felt a sense of rest in sitting there quietly ...
— Sant' Ilario • F. Marion Crawford
... me, I must confess," said Polly, drumming absently on the keys, while Jasper spread the sheet of music on the rack. "You know there must be two; one for dear Mr. King and one for the boys as guests of honor. Now how shall ...
— Five Little Peppers Midway • Margaret Sidney
... politely, and knelt down. The Bishop stretched out his hands absently, in an attitude of blessing; but the Nihilist did not look up. He took an American cloth parcel from the black bag and laid it at the Bishop's feet. Then, gradually withdrawing, he began ...
— 'That Very Mab' • May Kendall and Andrew Lang
... here in Lost Valley," said the girl quietly, "an' th' breed ain't dyin' out as I can see. Th' settlers need a new leader—now that Jim Last's gone." And she fell to playing absently with ...
— Tharon of Lost Valley • Vingie E. Roe
... the bald shoulders of sandstone which threw themselves against the sky, was the figure of a man. As the girl halted at the foot of the field, at last panting from her exertions, he was sitting on the rail fence, looking absently down on the outstretched panorama below him. It is doubtful whether his dreaming eyes were as conscious of what he saw as of other things which his imagination saw beyond the haze of the last far rim. Against the fence rested his abandoned hoe, and about him a number of lean hounds scratched ...
— The Call of the Cumberlands • Charles Neville Buck
... in what does not concern him?" said she, angrily, turning her head away. She stood a moment in thought, absently pushing forward the roll of linen with her foot. Then, shrugging her shoulders and raising her head, she said slowly, while still ...
— A Woodland Queen, Complete • Andre Theuriet
... looked absently at Rosy weeping in the hollow of her blue gingham arm, then went over to the blackboard and began writing, in fair, large characters, "A rolling stone gathers no moss," for the scholars to copy in their copy-books. The temptation and the opportunity were too ...
— Comfort Pease and her Gold Ring • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... touching Angelica's dark one across the little table; but when it came too close Angelica would dunt it sharply out of the way with her own, which was apparently the harder of the two, and Diavolo would put up his hand and rub the spot absently. He was too thoroughly accustomed to such sisterly attentions to be altogether conscious ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand
... "Thanks," Plemponi said absently. "Always doing that. Confusing them...." He dropped the tray where it belonged, shoved his hands into the chef's cleaning recess and waved them around, then came back, still looking absent-minded, and stopped before Trigger's chair. He studied her ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz
... gets before him as he walks. Completely absorbed, he puts her aside, absently but gently, as if she were a kitten he did not ...
— The Flutter of the Goldleaf; and Other Plays • Olive Tilford Dargan and Frederick Peterson |
