"Curtness" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... girl who had tempted him to his first dance in many months. He had seen Pollard's team, but he had not seen Pollard or his niece. Broderick watched him, smiling a little. "Have a drink, Buck?" he asked, seeming not to have noticed the other's curtness of word and manner. "I've ...
— Six Feet Four • Jackson Gregory
... you conclude?" said Rastignac, with that curtness of speech which to a prolix speaker is a warning to ...
— The Deputy of Arcis • Honore de Balzac
... quick, restless movements suggested nervous energy, but when advisable, he could assume the bovine stolidity which, though foreign to his real nature, the Canadian bushman occasionally adopts for diplomatic purposes. Thurston, however, still retained certain traits of the Insular Briton, including a curtness of speech and ...
— Thurston of Orchard Valley • Harold Bindloss
... had fallen into of always calling Cynthia Molly's sister in speaking to the latter. From any one else it would have been a matter of indifference to her, and hardly to be noticed; it vexed both ear and heart when Roger used the expression; and there was a curtness of manner as well as of words ...
— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... hands on the shoulders of General Loring's aide had undoubtedly—the weight of the body being thrown forward—the appearance of an assault. Stafford's foot slipped upon the freezing snow. Down he came to the earth, Cleave upon him. A voice behind them spoke with a kind of steely curtness, "Stand up, and let me see ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston
... of, say, twenty minutes work per diem for the adjutant, and leaving the poor sergeant-major enough to occupy and worry him for ten or eleven hours. 'Sergeant-major, publish these orders,' Lieutenant Harch would say, in tones of authority exceeding in peremptory curtness anything I have ever heard since from the commander of a grand army; and then, scraping a match—my match—upon the wall, he would begin attending to his 'military duties' by lighting a cigar—my ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... her hand and Stanley Fyles took it. Her good-bye came with a curtness that might well have inspired consternation. But the policeman replied to it without any such feeling, and passed on with his faithful Peter ...
— The Law-Breakers • Ridgwell Cullum
... have relieved my mind of a sufficient load for the time being. If I can remember anything else that might interest you, you may count upon me to address you again. Permit me in the meantime to subscribe myself with all proper curtness, ...
— Punch, or The London Charivari, Volume 101, October 31, 1891 • Various
... departure of the ladies, Sir Willoughby had practised a studied curtness upon Vernon ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... have been a scene with Ned. Aunt Frank was depressed, fitfully talkative. Milly scarcely spoke, but in the curtness with which she turned her sullen head when poor Ethel asked some question, I wasn't slow in finding ...
— The Bacillus of Beauty - A Romance of To-day • Harriet Stark
... trouble to me in half-a-dozen words; I solved it for him in even fewer. Thomas and I quite understood each other, and there was no want of sympathy and fellow-feeling between us. To the small crowd, however, this was the extreme of brutal curtness. They now thought I was of the English carabinieri, and that Thomas was being led off to his ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Dec. 12, 1917 • Various
... that are astern of us. I have my orders to engage the Real, and you see I am bearing down for that purpose." The lieutenants remarked that he could do so with safety. To this he rejoined, with a curtness that testifies to the uneasiness of his mind, "I did not send for you to ask your opinions, but only to observe that not one of our ships is coming down to my assistance, in order to cut those five sail off, and in case those five sail should oblige me to haul my ...
— Types of Naval Officers - Drawn from the History of the British Navy • A. T. Mahan
... abruptness in Philip's tone, if not in his words, which made Kinraid look in his face with surprise, and answer with equal curtness. ...
— Sylvia's Lovers, Vol. II • Elizabeth Gaskell
... tips—strong black coffee—cognac," he ordered with the curtness of an army officer snapping commands at a trooper. His voice was rich and cultivated, but had a very distinctly foreign quality in spite of the fact that his ...
— The Pirate of Panama - A Tale of the Fight for Buried Treasure • William MacLeod Raine
... cheeks, and a certain icy curtness in Leo's tone, warned her companion that she was ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson
... Curtness in letter-writing does not necessarily indicate oddity. It often is the most judicious method of avoiding interminable correspondence. When one of Bishop Thorold's clergy wrote to beg leave of absence from his duties ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell
... representative of the class Carlyle was fond of describing as the alors celebre. Prompted by this desire, Milton must have written to Marvell hinting, as he well knew how to do, his surprise at the curtness of his friend's former communication, and Marvell's reply to this letter has come down to us. It is Marvell's glory that long before Paradise Lost he recognised the essential greatness of the blind secretary, and his ...
— Andrew Marvell • Augustine Birrell
... could not avoid seeing the mischievous character of many of the resolutions thus tumultuously passed, and though his royal assent to them was asked in language unceremonious and almost peremptory in its curtness, Louis could not bring himself, or perhaps did not venture, to refuse his sanction to them. He had laid down a rule for himself to refuse no concession except such as on religious grounds his conscience might revolt from; and on the 18th he signified his formal acceptance of the resolutions, ...
— The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France • Charles Duke Yonge
... seemed to be a bit on edge. She snapped out her orders with a curtness that brought a jerkily quick response from forty waving Indian clubs. As she stood straight and slim in her gymnasium suit, her cheeks flushed with exercise, she looked quite as young as any of her pupils. But if she appeared young, she also appeared determined. No ...
— Just Patty • Jean Webster
... carved from marble. Few people had ever seen the stern lines of that face relax in light-hearted laughter since the death of his young wife, which had occurred a few years after the birth of Adrien. None, outside his immediate family circle, had ever known the curtness of his speech to be softened unless in sarcasm; and his habitual expression was one ...
— Adrien Leroy • Charles Garvice |
