"Converse" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... went, that her son should keep his wife's company. Where it was most pleasing to the king and the queen to live was at Pontoise, because the king's chamber was above and the queen's below. And they had so well arranged matters that they held their converse on a spiral staircase which led down from the one chamber to the other. When the ushers saw the queen-mother coming into the chamber of the king her son, they knocked upon the door with their staves, and the king came running into his chamber, so that his mother ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume II. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... given to Gouverneur Morris by Washington, to which Otto refers, was in his own handwriting, dated October 13, 1789, and authorized him "in the capacity of private agent, and in the credit of this letter, to converse with His Britannic Majesty's ministers on these points, viz. whether there be any, and what objection to performing those articles of the treaty which remained to be performed on his part; and whether they incline to a treaty of commerce on any and what terms. This communication ought ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine
... scene should be found in a close tap-room, within a few yards of his home, where he drinks to a ruinous excess till a late hour,—breathing all the while a hot atmosphere of tobacco-smoke? Is it not possible to obtain the change of scene, and the relaxation of social converse, by mutual visits amongst friends similarly situated,—by a ramble to the suburbs,—or, in cases where the daily occupation affords too little opportunity for exercise, are there not places established for gymnastic exercises,—and might not others be formed ...
— The Infant System - For Developing the Intellectual and Moral Powers of all Children, - from One to Seven years of Age • Samuel Wilderspin
... Conversation books, Sententiae Pueriles, were in use; with easy books, such as Corderius's Colloquia, and so on, for boys were taught to SPEAK Latin, the common language of the educated in Europe. Waifs of the Armada, Spaniards wrecked on the Irish coast, met "a savage who knew Latin," and thus could converse with him. The Eclogues of Mantuanus, a Latin poet of the Renaissance (the "Old Mantuan" of Love's Labour's Lost), were used, with Erasmus's Colloquia, and, says Mr. Collins, "such books as Ovid's Metamorphoses" (and ...
— Shakespeare, Bacon and the Great Unknown • Andrew Lang
... others, was much struck with the appearance of the young Indian, and made a number of unsuccessful attempts to converse with him. Finding that the "confusion of tongues," or some other barrier, had made talking together impossible, in various ingenious ways he tried to direct the Indian's attention to himself, but without avail; ...
— The Cabin on the Prairie • C. H. (Charles Henry) Pearson
... able to converse, and very soon he found it difficult to sit still. Observant of his face and movements, the elder brother proposed that they should resume their walk together, and forth they went. But both were now taciturn, and they did not walk far ...
— The Crown of Life • George Gissing
... Harlan, "things are our way. Quinn, here, met Joe Barr, of the C-80, who said Converse an' four other fellers, all friends of Edwards, stopped at the ranch an' won't be back home till the storm stops. Harper saw Fred Neil going back to his ranch, so all we've got to figger on is the marshal, Barr, an' Jackson, an' they're all in Jackson's store. Lacey might cut ...
— Bar-20 Days • Clarence E. Mulford
... it assumes that, as a matter of course, the arbitral decision shall not be admitted to have the importance of a general decision on the permissibility or the converse under international law of German ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume IV (of 8) • Francis J. (Francis Joseph) Reynolds, Allen L. (Allen Leon)
... "crutch and toothpick brigade;" the big bows and short sticks of 1852; the frock-coats and weeping whiskers of 1853, with the corresponding inability to pronounce the "r" otherwise than as a "w," or to converse but with a languid, used-up drawl; the smaller ties and growing collars, when a wasting youth complains that "She is lost to him for ever" (she, the laundress!); the schoolboy's Spanish hat of 1860, that ...
— The History of "Punch" • M. H. Spielmann
... dinner, music at supper, music at weddings, music at funerals, music at night, music at dawn, music at work, music at play. He who felt not, in some degree, its soothing influence, was viewed as a morose unmusical being, whose converse ought to be shunned, and regarded with suspicion and distrust." That this was the general sentiment in England is also proved by the oft-quoted passage in "The Merchant of Venice," where Shakspere notes the magic effect of music ...
— Chopin and Other Musical Essays • Henry T. Finck
... were presented to each other. His satisfaction was mingled with surprise, and his surprise with anger. Mervyn, in his turn, betrayed considerable embarrassment. Wortley's thoughts were too earnest on some topic to allow him to converse. He shortly made some excuse for taking leave, and, rising, addressed himself to the youth with a request that he would walk home with him. This invitation, delivered in a tone which left it doubtful whether a compliment or menace were meant, augmented ...
— Arthur Mervyn - Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 • Charles Brockden Brown
... observed that she every day became more and more thoughtful and reserved. She seemed as if she had some secret subject of meditation, from which she could not bear to be distracted. When Helena was present, she exerted herself to converse in her usual sprightly strain; but as soon as she could escape, as she thought, unobserved, she would shut herself up in her own apartment, and ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. III - Belinda • Maria Edgeworth
... trotted on, Grumps trotted on too. When Crusoe examined a bush, Grumps sat down to watch him; and when he dug a hole, Grumps looked into it to see what was there. Grumps never helped him; his sole delight was in looking on. They didn't converse much, these two dogs. To be in each other's company seemed to be happiness enough—at least Grumps ...
— The Dog Crusoe and His Master - A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... of men. Lady Reay's visitors were all dressed in their best, and seemed full of delight at this pleasant incident in their monotonous life; but their ways of showing enjoyment were various and amusing. Some wanted only to look on; others were glad to talk to any English lady who could converse with them, while others again were much taken up with the sweetmeats and ices. The behaviour of two ladies amused me immensely. Their servant having awkwardly upset and broken a glass, spilling the ...
— The Last Voyage - to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' • Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey
... from thee. Sooner than endure thy converse any longer, they have thrown themselves on the mercy of Allah. They would rather face wild beasts and savage warriors than have thy sweet voice always ...
— The Valley of the Kings • Marmaduke Pickthall
... single choice flower, a graceful animal or sea-shell, as a token and representation of the whole kingdom of such things; to avoid jealously, in his way through the world, everything repugnant to sight; and, should any circumstance tempt him to a general converse in the range of such objects, to disentangle himself from that circumstance at any cost of place, money, or opportunity: such were, in brief outline, the duties recognised, the rights demanded, in this ...
— Young Lives • Richard Le Gallienne
... Father William," a young man did say, "And life must be hast'ning away; You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death: Now tell me ...
— Sweets for Leisure Hours - Amusing Tales for Little Readers • A. Phillips
... For converse among men, beautiful persons have less need of the mind's commending qualities. Beauty in itself is such a silent orator, that it is ever pleading for respect and liking, and, by the eyes of others is ever sending to their hearts for love. Yet even this hath this inconvenience ...
— Pearls of Thought • Maturin M. Ballou
... directed now towards boys, now towards girls. Later in life, when the homosexuality has developed fully, the memory of the inclination towards boys fades away, and her homosexual sentiments only are remembered. As a result, we often find that the homosexual woman—and the converse is equally true of the homosexual man—declares at first, when inquiries are made, that she has never experienced any inclination for members of the other sex; whereas, at any rate in a large proportion of cases, a stricter examination of her memory, or the reports of other ...
— The Sexual Life of the Child • Albert Moll
... to relate (he was sitting on the high shelf bedstead, his elbows on his knees, with sunken chest, the beautiful, intelligent eyes with which he looked at Nekhludoff glistening feverishly)—"they were not specially strict in that prison. We managed to converse, not only by tapping the wall, but could walk about the corridors, share our provisions and our tobacco, and in the evenings we even sang in chorus. I had a fine voice—yes, if it had not been for mother it would have been all right, even pleasant and interesting. Here I made the acquaintance ...
— Resurrection • Count Leo Tolstoy
... converse with her guard but he had not seemed inclined to talk with her and she had finally desisted. She could not but note that he had offered her no indignities, nor had he been either unnecessarily rough or in any way cruel. The fact ...
— The Chessmen of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... you to yonder clump of blossoming plants in the shade of the palm-grove. There you will find Charlie Christian looking timidly down into the gorgeous orbs of Otaheitan Sally as they hold sweet converse of things past, present, and to come. They have been so trained in ways of righteousness, that the omission of the world-to-come from their love-making, (not flirtation, observe), would be as ridiculous as the absence of reference ...
— The Lonely Island - The Refuge of the Mutineers • R.M. Ballantyne
... order, the senate decreed that Publius Scipio, acting according to the opinion of the ten deputies, should make peace with the Carthaginian people on what terms he pleased. The Carthaginians then returned thanks to the senate, and requested that they might be allowed to enter the city and converse with their countrymen who had been made prisoners and were in custody of the state; observing, that some of them were their relations and friends, and men of rank, and some, persons to whom they were charged with messages from their ...
— History of Rome, Vol III • Titus Livius
... different forms. Miemon, fool that he was, stuck to the date. Then said the magistrate—"Miemon, you are a liar. Moreover, you are a murderer. On the 13th day, on going up to the castle, this Gemba had converse with your lord. At that time Nakagawa Miemon was summoned to carry out a mission. As a man of whom report had been made you were noted well. At that time you had no wound.... Tie him up, and take him away." The yakunin fell on him from all sides. ...
— The Yotsuya Kwaidan or O'Iwa Inari - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 1 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville
... the society of Fairburn, for we were allowed to sit down on the deck close together, and to converse without interruption—not that at first we could bring ourselves to talk much, for our spirits were too depressed at our change of fortune. The rest of the crew were in still worse spirits, and sat brooding over their fate ...
— Mark Seaworth • William H.G. Kingston
... down a stack of lances; but the crash did not rouse them. He was obliged himself to interrupt their eager converse. ...
— The Man Without a Country and Other Tales • Edward E. Hale
... presence the tragic mystery by which at the end of His earthly labors, He procured us every blessing—no, over and above these sovereign acts of kindest benediction, He wishes to remain among us, and to converse with us, each and all, as a friend would converse with his friend. This is what He meant when He said by the mouth of His inspired writer, "my delights are to be with the children of men."(16) As a Shepherd, His chiefest pleasure, ...
— The Shepherd Of My Soul • Rev. Charles J. Callan
... is to be of use to you or not, depends wholly on your reason for wishing to learn to draw. If you desire only to possess a graceful accomplishment, to be able to converse in a fluent manner about drawing, or to amuse yourself listlessly in listless hours, I cannot help you: but if you wish to learn drawing that you may be able to set down clearly, and usefully, records of such things as cannot be described in words, either to assist your own ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin
... which is founded on facts. We came in here with as healthy a Ship's Company as need go to Sea, and after a stay of not quite 3 months left it in the condition of an Hospital Ship, besides the loss of 7 men; and yet all the Dutch Captains I had an opportunity to converse with said that we had been very lucky, and wondered that we had not lost half our people in that time.* (* Batavia bears an evil reputation for health to this day; but it must be remembered that the Endeavour lay there during the rainy or most ...
— Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World • James Cook
... handmaid and servant of the body, or from duties of a public nature, or from all other serious business whatever? What else is it, I say, that we do, but invite the soul to reflect on itself? oblige it to converse with itself, and, as far as possible, break off its acquaintance with the body? Now to separate the soul from the body, is to learn to die, and nothing else whatever. Wherefore take my advice; and let us meditate on this, ...
— The Academic Questions • M. T. Cicero
... you take your little friends into the parlor and converse with them, Polly?" asked Aunt Jane's prim voice. "Don't you know that it isn't polite to ...
— Half a Dozen Girls • Anna Chapin Ray
... industry. Take the converse case: instead of turning the agricultural labourers into peasant-proprietors, make over the factories to those who work in them. Abolish the master-manufacturers, but leave the landlord his land, the banker his money, the merchant his Exchange; maintain the swarm of ...
— The Conquest of Bread • Peter Kropotkin
... furniture expects a guest. Forego your dreams of riches and applause, Forget e'en Moschus' memorable cause; To-morrow's Caesar's birthday, which we keep By taking, to begin with, extra sleep; So, if with pleasant converse we prolong This summer night, we scarcely ...
— The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry • Horace
... and pacified kingdoms; that, which was first and chiefest, they gave letters of exchange for another life, by which the dead became rich in heaven; that, in fine, the Bonzas were the familiar friends of the stars, and the confidents of the saints; that they were privileged to converse with them by night, to cause them to descend from heaven, to embrace them in their arms, and enjoy them as long as they desired." These extravagancies set all the company in a laughter; at which the Bonza was so enraged, that he flew out ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden
... stepped back from the door, and Barbara could hear him in low converse with some of the women of the household. A moment later he returned, and without a word of warning threw his whole weight against the portal. The corpse slipped back enough to permit the entrance of the ...
— The Mucker • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... prove it to be but a bubble. Yet she breathes, she spoke, and oh, such words! Words, be at my command; I will address her, for this is not fancy: could fancy shew a moving soul of sorrow? See how the passion plays upon that face, as she thus stands with sad-eyed earnestness, maintaining converse with the hollow sky. Looked ever aught so fair yet so forlorn? Methinks there is a tear upon her cheek. Why comes it from the Eden of her eye? I must speak to her;" and with mixed fear and fervour he exclaimed: "May Heaven keep you from grave cause of ...
— The Advocate • Charles Heavysege
... The converse process of people being nicknamed from animals is also common and the metaphor is usually pretty obvious. An interesting case is shrew, a libel on a very inoffensive little animal, the shrew-mouse, Anglo-Sax. ...
— The Romance of Words (4th ed.) • Ernest Weekley
... proceeded, in a great Measure, from his Preferment; but more from his intrinsic Merit. Every Day he had familiar Converse with the King, his Royal Master, and his august Consort, Astarte. And the Pleasure arising from thence was greatly enhanc'd from an innate Ambition of pleasing, which, in regard to Wit, is the same, as Dress is to Beauty. His Youth, and graceful Deportment, had a greater Influence on Astarte, ...
— Zadig - Or, The Book of Fate • Voltaire
... gaiety of the French world had satisfied me, what was not my wonder and joy at discovering in it a reflective side; and for half an hour I remained in a leafy alcove listening to her refined converse,—dealing with books like "Corinne," and "La Chaumiere Indienne,"—La Fontaine, Moliere, Montesquieu,—and especially interesting me in the society which moved around us, which as she touched it with her wand of history and eloquence, ...
— The Young Seigneur - Or, Nation-Making • Wilfrid Chateauclair
... in the matter, I may as well say that the scheme of Deerfoot was as simple as difficult. He could converse readily with the Pawnee, Lone Bear; the latter knew the fate of Otto Relstaub; he had lied when asked for information; Deerfoot resolved to compel him, if possible, ...
— Footprints in the Forest • Edward Sylvester Ellis
... of his post; and the meal was eaten in an embarrassing silence. When it was finished, they rid themselves of its debris by simply removing to another place, where, though many eyes watched them curiously from all parts of the camp, they were allowed to converse unmolested. ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore
... They converse; they confess to each other; they conjure up the past, and repeople it; but note how differently do such remembrances affect the two. On Zanoni's face, despite its habitual calm, the emotions change and go. HE has acted in the past he surveys; ...
— Zanoni • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... disguise the fugitives met with no hindrance as they quitted the town for the open country, heading towards the south. Only when well clear of the houses did Frank and Muriel venture to converse in their own language. Wargrave narrated all that had happened to him since they had parted. Anyone watching them beyond earshot would have wondered at the joy that shone in the face of the young chela (disciple) clasping ...
— The Jungle Girl • Gordon Casserly
... the emblem of the sun on the new knight's breast he wondered if this might indeed be his brother. But being warned by his mother not to hold converse with strangers concerning private matters, he began to tell of the fight with Candramarte in the lists of London, when a cry from the sea caused them both to turn. On the prow of a boat stood the giant's daughter, pointing with her forefinger at the bodies which ...
— The Red Romance Book • Various
... deer-stealing, coney-catching Warwickshire lout, and cuffed him soundly. I wot there will be those who remember that this Will Shakespeare afterwards became a player and did write plays—which were acceptable even to the Queen's Majesty's self—and I set this down not from vanity to shew I have held converse with such, nor to give a seemingness and colour to my story, but to shew what ill-judged, misinformed knaves were they who did afterwards attribute friendship between my Lord and this Will Shakespeare, even to the saying that he made sonnets to my Lord. Howbeit, my ...
— New Burlesques • Bret Harte
... said: "You see what we have brought ourselves to by giving credit to our highborn Tories—to such men as Fenwick, Tate, Green, and Allgood. If you outlive misfortune, and return to live in the North, I desire you never to be seen in converse with such rogues in disguise, who promised to join us, and animated us to rise with them." The gentleman promised that he would observe his Lordship's counsels. "Ah!" said Lord Derwentwater, "I know you to be of an ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745. - Volume I. • Mrs. Thomson
... in Italy, but in Spain, France, and Germany, was greater than had ever been attained by any painter, while his social position was established among the highest in every court. "He had rivals in Venice," says Vasari, "but none that he did not crush by his excellence and knowledge of the world in converse with gentlemen." There is not a writer of the day who does not acclaim his genius. Titian was undoubtedly very fond of money, and had amassed a good fortune. He was constantly asking for favours, ...
— The Venetian School of Painting • Evelyn March Phillipps
... Dickens and Thackeray and Mrs. Stowe, in weekly and monthly numbers. Milton, in half-calf, stands upon the shelves of our library undisturbed, while we cut the leaves of "Festus;" and Keats and Byron and Shelley are all pushed aside that we may converse with Longfellow and Mrs. Browning. It is not, perhaps, that the later are the greater, but, being informed with the spirit of the age in which we have our life, moving among the facts which concern us, and conscious of ...
— Lessons in Life - A Series of Familiar Essays • Timothy Titcomb
... with my dear sire's consent, Each morn beheld my Gerald coming; Each day, in converse sweet, was spent; And, ere he went, dark eve was glooming: But one day, as he crossed the plain, I saw a cloud descend, like rain, And bear him, in its skirts, away— Oh! hour of grief, ...
— Successful Recitations • Various
... description of the poet. Words now can be used more freely because there are more of them. What was once an involuntary expression becomes voluntary. Not only can men utter a cry or call, but they can communicate and converse; they can not only use words, but they can even play with them. The word is separated both from the object and from the mind; and slowly nations and individuals attain to ...
— Cratylus • Plato
... There was nothing he could have dreaded so much at this time as a conversation about Phillida, and, of all people he most disliked to speak of her with Philip Gouverneur. He made no reply at all to Philip's blunt statement of the subject on which he proposed to converse. But Gouverneur was too much absorbed in holding himself to his plan of action to take note of ...
— The Faith Doctor - A Story of New York • Edward Eggleston
... distance, of a Buddhist bonze and of a Taoist priest coming towards that direction. Their appearance was uncommon, their easy manner remarkable. When they drew near this Ch'ing Keng peak, they sat on the ground to rest, and began to converse. But on noticing the block newly-polished and brilliantly clear, which had moreover contracted in dimensions, and become no larger than the pendant of a fan, they were greatly filled with admiration. The Buddhist priest picked it ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... a number of dialects of the same language, and these differ so widely that Kenyahs of widely separated districts cannot converse freely with one another; but, as with all the peoples, except the Sea Dayaks, nearly every man has the command of several dialects as well as of the ...
— The Pagan Tribes of Borneo • Charles Hose and William McDougall
... shock with which his father's death burst upon his mother. As he grew up, this became a deep-seated pity for the suffering, wide and bitter, among the common people. His mother's care, his step-father's converse, fostered that feeling, and the service in Ireland, with its lurid emphasis of the misery he had seen in England, determined him in quite a definite way. A valley of despair moaned in ...
— The Romance of a Pro-Consul - Being The Personal Life And Memoirs Of The Right Hon. Sir - George Grey, K.C.B. • James Milne
... pleasantly and rapidly than others had done, for the discussion as to the possibilities of Venus was continued in a quite delightful mixture of scientific disquisition and that converse which is common to most human ...
— A Honeymoon in Space • George Griffith
... seemed so ridiculous to Colander, the smooth, supercilious Londoner, that he deigned sometimes to converse with James, in order to quiz him. This very morning they had ...
— Peg Woffington • Charles Reade
... power,' said the king and his brother as soon as they could converse in private, 'we must release our sister from the tower in which she has languished so long.' They had only to cross the garden to reach the tower, which was built in a corner. It had been reared as high as possible, for it had been the intention of the late king and queen that ...
— Old-Time Stories • Charles Perrault
... This knowledge came to me instinctively, and so I distrusted her gentle voice and winning smile, and hardening my heart against her, I resolved to turn this new mood of hers to my own advantage, and learn what I could while she was willing to converse: ...
— The Gold Bag • Carolyn Wells
... contain My books, the best companions, is to me A glorious court, where hourly I converse With the old sages and philosophers; And sometimes, for variety, I confer With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels. 204 BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER: The Elder ...
— Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations • Various
... talks, I am as one who by a brooklet walks, Some sweet-tongued brooklet, which the whole long day, Holds converse with the birds along the way. When my ...
— Yesterdays • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... of Spoleto. At every step proof upon proof was given of reverence and affection, which time had not diminished. Etiquette and state ceremony were laid aside. The youthful and the aged alike would see their good shepherd, and he was anxious to salute his people, and converse with them all. Many a face, familiar to him of old, was recognized with pleasure, and even names ...
— Pius IX. And His Time • The Rev. AEneas MacDonell
... fearful that I shall change my mind on seeing your sister, and I am ready to stand by the proposal which I have made to you.—If, however, you feel so extremely delicately on my account," he continued, "I can see and even converse with Miss Mowbray at this fete of yours, without the necessity of being at all presented to her—The character which I have assumed in a manner obliges me to wear ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott
... in upon them at supper. The merry, rosy faces of young and old; the cheerful converse; the plain and abundant food. Here are vegetables from their own garden, and fruit from the trees ...
— Caesar's Column • Ignatius Donnelly
... how it is commonly written and reported, that amongst the rest of the sortes of spirites that followes certaine persons, there is one more monstrous nor al the rest: in respect as it is alleaged, they converse naturally with them whom they trouble and hauntes with: and therefore I would knowe in two thinges your opinion herein: First if suche a thing can be: and next if it be: whether there be a difference of sexes ...
— Daemonologie. • King James I
... torment them by day and night, asleep and awake, and in whatever circumstances they may be found. We permit no one to visit them, or employ them, or do them a favor, or give them a salutation, or converse with them in any form; but let them be avoided as a putrid member, and as hellish dragons. Beware, yea, beware of the wrath of God." With regard to Mr. Bird and his family, the Patriarch said: "We grant no permission to any one to receive them; but, on the contrary, we, by the word of the Lord ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. • Rufus Anderson
... the Preakness Stable, mean you? Marry, I know not. She is a Sanford and has a Sanford's wealth, but 'twas not for me. She adores a horse and worships a horseman. This I gathered from our too brief converse. I strove to win her ear with poesie, but she bade me cease. Her soul is not attuned to melody,—she'd none of mine. She preferred my Lady Truscott and ...
— Marion's Faith. • Charles King
... amid the cosmopolitan crowd, breasting the modern world, like some ocean headland, yet not truly of it, one of the great fighters and workers of mankind, with a laugh that pealed above the noise, blue eyes that seemed to pursue some converse of their own, and a hand that grasped and cheered, where other hands withdrew and repelled. This one man's will had now, for some years, made the pivot on which vast issues turned—issues of peace and war, of policy ...
— Marriage a la mode • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... in French, but the steward could not understand a word he said. Christy inquired if any of the ward-room officers spoke the polite language, for his friend might sometimes wish to converse ...
— Fighting for the Right • Oliver Optic
... afraid that he should show, in some way, his want of acquaintance with the etiquette of the dining table. But he had a better than ordinary education, and, having read diligently whatever books he could get hold of, possessed a fund of general information which enabled him to converse intelligently. Then his modest self-possession was of value to him, and enabled him to acquit himself ...
— Try and Trust • Horatio Alger
... tables uninvited, and, unknown, converse with the famous beauties. If Aurelia is at last engaged, (but who is worthy?) she will, with even greater care, arrange that wondrous toilette, will teach that lace a fall more alluring, those gems a sweeter light. But even then, as she rolls ...
— Prue and I • George William Curtis
... She wanted a companion, and he loves to converse, Heaven knows; and he is sure of one thing—he's almost certain, or as certain as we can be of anything in this life, that he will have the best pancakes that hands can make ...
— Samantha at the World's Fair • Marietta Holley
... and was sitting by the window that overlooked the garden. I descended and found this picture correct; the old lady had been wheeled forth into the world and had a certain air, which came mainly perhaps from some brighter element in her dress, of being prepared again to have converse with it. It had not yet, however, begun to flock about her; she was perfectly alone and, though the door leading to her own quarters stood open, I had at first no glimpse of Miss Tita. The window at which ...
— The Aspern Papers • Henry James
... we may rightly pray for. It is only that which we ought not to desire that we ought not to pray for. It is not right to pray that they may, as by a miracle, be restored to us; that is not the will of GOD. Nor is it right that we should seek by occult and forbidden ways to hold converse with them. But we may surely ask for them what S. Paul asked for his friend, that they may find mercy in that day, that they may have rest and peace and light and refreshment, the joy of Christ's Presence, and the gladness ...
— The Life of the Waiting Soul - in the Intermediate State • R. E. Sanderson
... indeed, I did not understand it till long afterwards, although I had an idea of what he would say. Had I been left with any other person, I should, of course, by conversation, have learnt much; but he never would converse, still less explain. He called me, Boy, and I called him, Master. His inveterate silence was the occasion of my language being composed of very few words; for, except to order me to do this or that, ...
— The Little Savage • Captain Marryat
... as the shepherd leaves his flock To feed upon the hillside, he meanwhile Finds converse in the warblings of the pipe Himself has fashioned for his vacant hour, So have I grown companion to myself, And to the wandering spirits of the air That smile and whisper round us in our dreams. Thus have I learned to search ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
... spirit of this preface, and you will at once guess at my purpose. I have written a preface because I wish you to know me thoroughly before you begin the reading of my Memoirs. It is only in a coffee-room or at a table d'hote that we like to converse with strangers. ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... copy for the "Review,"' are some of his more favourable verdicts. But in all cases the judgements were sharp and decisive; there was about them nothing of the celebrated 'This work might be very good if it was not extremely bad,' or its converse. These reports were, of course, in the highest degree confidential; and, especially of the unfavourable ones, Reeve made a point of forgetting all about the origin of them. On one occasion, when a reference was made to a work he had reported on a few weeks before, he wrote in reply, 'The numerous ...
— Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. - In Two Volumes. VOL. II. • John Knox Laughton
... words than the occasion prompted, and even required. He continued talking with Mrs. Phillips, and he threw an occasional remark toward Randolph; but now that all obstacles were removed from free converse with the divinity of the samovar he had less to say to her than before. Presently the elder woman, herself no whit offended, began to figure the younger one as ...
— Bertram Cope's Year • Henry Blake Fuller
... now unnaturally silent for five minutes, munching chestnuts; this enabled his guests to converse; but as soon as he had cleared his plate, he cut right across the conversation, with that savage contempt for all topics but his own which characterizes gentlemen of his age, and says he to Rolfe, "You know everything? Then what's ...
— A Terrible Temptation - A Story of To-Day • Charles Reade
... the main, the condition of those around him. But there is no evidence on the face of society now, or in its history, that an ignorant population, whether a laboring population or not, has ever escaped from a condition of poverty. And the converse of the proposition is undoubtedly true, that an intelligent laboring community will soon become a wealthy community. Learning is sure to produce wealth; wealth is likely to contribute to learning, but it does not necessarily produce it. Hence it follows that learning is ...
— Thoughts on Educational Topics and Institutions • George S. Boutwell
... the fulfilment of the typified redemption; perhaps it came from His being able to speak to them as He could not to any on earth. At all events, surely Moses and Elijah were not brought there for their own sakes alone, nor for the sake of the witnesses, but also for His sake who was prepared by that converse ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII • Alexander Maclaren
... ul Asnam saw himself in this great might and wealth, and he young in years, he inclined unto prodigality and to the converse of springalds like himself and fell to squandering vast sums upon his pleasures and left governance and concern for his subjects. The queen his mother proceeded to admonish him and to forbid him from his ill fashions, bidding him leave that manner of life and apply himself ...
— Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp • John Payne
... are more dressed than you were at dinner. That's awfully rude, isn't it? But then, you see, you're not my hostess now—you're a spirit, walking in the night. One can't be polite to spirits. Sit down, oh shade, and let us converse. ...
— Five Little Plays • Alfred Sutro
... with the greatest interest the questions of free government, as illustrated by the Declaration of Independence, and Washington's Farewell Address. In this connection, the Monroe doctrine also assumed great importance in his mind, and the converse thereof, the duty of this nation to refrain from war of conquest; and out of these meditations grew what he elaborated into his declaration as to the unwritten laws, or "The Four Pillars of our Republic," namely (1) the Third Term Tradition, (2) the Monroe Doctrine, (3) ...
— The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt • Oliver Remey
... judges, then, He boldly names true English gentlemen: For he ne'er thought a handsome garb or dress So great a crime, to make their judgment less: And with these gallants he these ladies joins, To judge that language, their converse refines. But if their censures should condemn his play, Far from disputing, he does only pray He may Leander's destiny obtain: Now spare him, drown him when ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II • Edited by Walter Scott
... But the converse need by no means be true. There is nothing in the nature of things to prevent an emigration of Turks increasing and multiplying on the plains where the Red Indians wandered; there is nothing to necessitate ...
— What I Saw in America • G. K. Chesterton
... with the orderly comfort of Crockerville. M. Haillot, acting manager of Abosu and Takwa, leads a caravan-life between the two. Fortunately for him the distance is inconsiderable. I here met Mr. Symonds, a Cornish miner, who has worked in Mexico, and who speaks Spanish fluently, enabling him to converse with M. Plisson. He was one of our fellow-passengers, and he rejoiced exceedingly to see me. He and his youngster, Mr. Mitchell, who suffers from chest-complaint, praised the prospects of the mine, but did not enjoy their pay being cut for passage and ...
— To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II - A Personal Narrative • Richard Francis Burton and Verney Lovett Cameron
... I often had occasion to converse with the Buddhists, and the accounts they gave me of Thibet excited my curiosity to such an extent that I resolved to make a journey into that still almost unknown country. For this purpose I set out upon a route crossing Kachmyr (Cashmere), which ...
— The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ - The Original Text of Nicolas Notovitch's 1887 Discovery • Nicolas Notovitch
... arrival in this distant part of the world, and for some time afterwards, our numbers were comparatively small; and while they resided nearly upon one spot, I could not only preach to them on the Lord's day, but also converse with them, and admonish them, ...
— An Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies, Established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island. • Richard Johnson
... taught her the secret, before this last good lady had been hanged for Sir Thomas Overbury's murder. Whether the witch had read the minister's thoughts or no, she came to a full stop, looked shrewdly into his face, smiled craftily, and—though little given to converse with clergymen—began a conversation. ...
— The Scarlet Letter • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... deserted. Lady Hurstmonceux had evidently left it that the father and daughter might converse with each other unembarrassed by the presence ...
— Self-Raised • Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
... lies interred in the grounds of the Asyle Helene. The King is a handsome man, rather above the average height, and, so far as his regularly formed features are concerned, he might belong to any nationality of Western Europe. He usually wears a somewhat severe expression, but the moment he begins to converse this at once disappears. His manner is quiet and earnest, although he often warms into enthusiasm, and he has the happy faculty of placing all with whom he comes into contact at perfect ease. He possesses a wide range of information, and speaks with evident knowledge on all ...
— Roumania Past and Present • James Samuelson
... born, but a kindly for gelding kids and sheep and for fencing in a sheep-cote. It is favourable for the birth of a boy, but such will be fond of sharp speech, lies, and cunning words, and stealthy converse. ...
— Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica • Homer and Hesiod
... general antithesis of light (as good) and darkness (as bad) is here plainly revealed again. Sometimes a little variation occurs. Thus, according to Cat. Br. vi. 5. 4. 8, the stars are women-souls, perhaps, as elsewhere, men also. The converse notion that darkness is the abode of evil appears at a very early date: "Indra brought down the heathen, dasyus, into the lowest darkness," it is said in the Atharva Veda (ix. ...
— The Religions of India - Handbooks On The History Of Religions, Volume 1, Edited By Morris Jastrow • Edward Washburn Hopkins
... chisel with childish delight. For a long time they conversed, and Sabine was surprised at the education and refinement of the young workman. Utterly fresh, and without experience, Sabine could not understand her new sensations. Andre held, one night, a long converse with himself, and was at last obliged to confess that he loved her fondly. He ran the extent of his folly and madness, and recognized the barrier of birth and wealth that stood between them, and was overwhelmed ...
— Caught In The Net • Emile Gaboriau
... work.' Christ implies that anything, no matter what are its other characteristics, that is 'on' Him, that is to say, directed towards Him under the impulse of simple love to Him, is a 'good work'; and the converse follows, that nothing which has not that saving salt of reference to Him in it deserves the title. Did you ever think of what an extraordinary position that is for a man to take up? 'Think about Me in what you do, and you will do good. Do anything, no matter ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Mark • Alexander Maclaren
... benches, as they were convenient, when the weather was fine, for those who waited for medicine or advice; and moreover, being a jocular, sociable man, he liked people to sit down there, and would often converse with them. Indeed, this assisted much to bring him into notice, and made him so well known among the humbler classes that none of them, if they required medicine or advice, ever thought of going to any one but Dr. Tadpole. He was very liberal and kind, and I believe there was hardly a poor person ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat
... to the royal wish. The King, sighing deeply, cast a hopeless glance at Portsmouth, not without its tinge of humour. He then sauntered slowly toward the windows of the great ball-room, followed subserviently by all the courtiers, save Buckingham, who was lost in converse with ...
— Mistress Nell - A Merry Tale of a Merry Time • George C. Hazelton, Jr.
... nobles of the land came to understand the peculiar language of Cuzco which was spoken at court; just as in Flanders all the nobles and persons of any rank speak French. Owing to this circumstance, as the Spaniards have learnt the language of the Incas, or of Cuzco, they are able to converse with all the principal natives of Peru, both those of the ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr
... into a Broadway stage going down, and being unable, on account of the noise, to converse further upon those spiritual conflicts of Billy's which so much interested me, amused ourselves with looking out until just as we reached the Astor House, when he asked me ...
— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various
... meantime Girdel continued to converse with the two gentlemen; Schwan went here and there, and Fanfaro, Caillette and Bobichel were waiting for the athlete's orders for ...
— The Son of Monte-Cristo, Volume II (of 2) • Alexandre Dumas pere
... perplexity; hither the priest bears his gifts, and when he hath lain down and sought slumber under the silent night on the spread fleeces of slaughtered sheep, sees many flitting phantoms of wonderful wise, hears manifold voices, and attains converse of the gods, and hath speech with Acheron and the deep tract of hell. Here then, likewise seeking an answer, lord Latinus paid fit sacrifice of an hundred woolly ewes, and [94-127]lay couched on the strewn fleeces they had ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil • Virgil
... converse with life's wintry gales, 25 Should man learn how to clasp with tougher roots The inspiring earth; how otherwise avails The leaf-creating sap that sunward shoots? So every year that falls with noiseless flake Should fill old scars up on the stormward side, 30 And make hoar age revered for age's sake, ...
— The Vision of Sir Launfal - And Other Poems • James Russell Lowell
... with the Sudberrys. On the former of these occasions Fred renewed his intercourse with Mr McAllister, and these two became so profoundly, inconceivably, deep and metaphysical, besides theological, in their converse, that they were utterly incomprehensible ...
— Freaks on the Fells - Three Months' Rustication • R.M. Ballantyne
... was, that Adrian made no pretences. He did not solicit the favourable judgment of the world. Nature and he attempted no other concealment than the ordinary mask men wear. And yet the world would proclaim him moral, as well as wise, and the pleasing converse every way of his disgraced ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... nominally responsible for the order of the room. I say nominally, as the law relating to absolute silence was never actually enforced; and as long as the members amused themselves in a reasonably quiet manner, and without turning the place into a bear-garden, they were allowed to converse over their games of chess or draughts, and exchange their opinions on the ...
— The Triple Alliance • Harold Avery
... fallen due, got a check cashed, and, having counted the money and secured it in my pocket-book, I walked out and stood upon the bank-steps, talking with a business-friend, who inquired after John Meavy. 'T was a pleasant theme to converse ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 40, February, 1861 • Various
... and compliment even better than you. You only seek his company and praise him in order to obtain honour through him for yourselves, nor do you really mind what sort of man he is, so long as a pope or an emperor converse with him. And I dare affirm that he cannot be a great man who tries to satisfy idle persons rather than the men of his own craft, nor can one who is in nowise singular and reserved or whatever you may be pleased to call it, be better than the ...
— Michael Angelo Buonarroti • Charles Holroyd
... your usual zeal, And makes your helmed valour down i' the mouth? Why dimly glimmers that heroic flame Whose reddening blaze, by civic spirit fed, Should be the beacon of a happy Town? Can the smart patter of a Bobby's tongue Thus stagnate in a cold and prosy converse, Or freeze in oathless inarticulateness? No! Let not the full fountain of your valour Be choked by mere official wiggings, or Your prompt consensus of prodigious swearing Be checked by the philanthropists' foaming wrath, Or ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101. Sep. 12, 1891 • Various
... had the neutral nature of a chameleon. Anyhow, he could always get on with viceroys and Cabinet Ministers and all the great men responsible for great departments, and talk to each of them on his own subject, on the branch of study with which he was most seriously concerned. Thus he could converse with the Minister for War about silkworms, with the Minister of Education about detective stories, with the Minister of Labor about Limoges enamel, and with the Minister of Missions and Moral Progress (if that be his correct title) ...
— The Man Who Knew Too Much • G.K. Chesterton
... another and none are neglected. She offers to each one who speaks the homage of her entire attention. She never makes an effort to be brilliant or entertain with her wit. She is far too clever for that. Neither does she volunteer information nor converse about her troubles or her ailments, nor wander off into details about ...
— Worldly Ways and Byways • Eliot Gregory
... William, the young man still cries, And life is swift hastening away You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death! Come tell me the ...
— Phebe, The Blackberry Girl • Edward Livermore
... that some things stated here grate harshly upon the ears of gentlemen from the South. The converse of this is equally true. I can take a rebuke, I trust, in a good temper, but I do not like to be stabbed in the house of my friends. I do not like to have doctrines and opinions imputed to me and my party which are only entertained ...
— A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention • Lucius Eugene Chittenden
... it yet happens that the friar in charge of the people among whom you travel, allows you but rarely to speak alone with the Indians. When you speak in his presence to any Indian who understands a little Castilian, if that religious is displeased to have you converse too long with that native he makes him understand, in the language of the country, not to answer you in Castilian but in his own language. The Indian obeys him; and, if you are not aware of that practice, you cannot guess his reason, inasmuch as you have not understood ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 28 of 55) • Various
... and converse pleasantly with him, foretells that your business will run smoothly, and there will be but little discord ...
— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller
... France, Spain, Holland, and Italy from 1642 to 1646, and we have Milton's word for it that when the traveller returned he was well acquainted with the French, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian languages. Andrew Marvell was a highly cultivated man, living in a highly cultivated age, in daily converse with scholars, poets, philosophers, and men of very considerable scientific attainments. In reading Clarendon and Burnet, and whilst turning over Aubrey's delightful gossip, it is impossible not to be struck with the width and variety of the learning as well as with the wit of the period. Intellectually ...
— Andrew Marvell • Augustine Birrell
... in the public characters, and the local and the foreign as well as home politics discussed in the newspapers. Long before Maria Bronte died, at the age of eleven, her father used to say he could converse with her on any of the leading topics of the day with as much freedom and pleasure ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte - Volume 1 • Elizabeth Gaskell
... said I, fixing my gaze on the leaves again. "And may I suggest that we might converse more easily if you would have the kindness to ...
— Peregrine's Progress • Jeffery Farnol
... word for head, skull. [Kabura or Kobbera, with such variations as Kobra, Kobbera, Kappara, Kopul, from Malay Kapala, head: one of the words on the East Coast manifestly of Malay origin.—J. Mathew. Much used in pigeon converse with blacks. 'Goodway cobra tree' 'Tree very tall.'] Collins, 'Port Jackson Vocabulary,' 1798 (p. 611), gives 'Kabura, ca-ber-ra.' Mount Cobberas in East Gippsland has its name from huge head-like masses of rock which rise from ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris
... period and country. She even asked me the sort of "figure" his fortune might really amount to, and professed a rage of envy when I told her what I supposed it to be. While we were so occupied Archie, on his side, couldn't do less than converse with Linda, nor to tell the truth did he betray the least inclination for any different exercise. They strolled away together while their elders rested; two or three times, in the evening, when the ballroom of the Kursaal was lighted and ...
— Louisa Pallant • Henry James
... happy time When you and I held converse dear together, There come a thousand thoughts of sunny weather, Of early blossoms, and the fresh year's prime; Your memory lives for ever in my mind With all the fragrant beauties of the spring, With od'rous lime and silver ...
— Poems • Frances Anne Butler
... is the converse of the former: for of itself it tends to cause sadness since it makes us dwell upon our defects; accidentally, however, it causes joy, for it makes us think of the hope we have of ...
— On Prayer and The Contemplative Life • St. Thomas Aquinas
... region! Babylon The mighty, the magnificent, to thee, With all the trappings of her bravery on, Seems but a river to the engulfing sea. What are its oracles but lies? 'Tis given Thy prophets only to converse with Heaven— The hidden to reveal, the dark to scan, And be the interpreters of God to man. The idols dumb that erring men invoke, Themselves are vanities, their power is smoke: But, while the heathen's pomp is insecure, Is transient, thine, O Sion! shall endure; For in thy temples, God, the only ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 • Various
... with our faces against these narrow openings, it was possible to hold converse with those on the inside almost as well as if we ...
— The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley • James Otis
... the city. In the fortress drums were beat and a bell rung backward. On all hands the watchmen sprang their rattles. Even in that limbo or no-man's-land where I was wandering, lights were made in the houses; sashes were flung up; I could hear neighbouring families converse from window to window, and at length I ...
— St Ives • Robert Louis Stevenson |
