"Nervously" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... and leaned over the bulwarks. He was plainly disturbed. Chevenix waited for him nervously, ...
— Rest Harrow - A Comedy of Resolution • Maurice Hewlett
... that in his manner of grave courtesy which served to steady the girl. Probably never before in all her rough frontier experience had she been addressed thus formally. Her closely compressed lips twitched nervously, but ...
— Bob Hampton of Placer • Randall Parrish
... turned to go behind the counter. The girl was dancing nervously on her toes. "But say, Billy Little, I can't pay you for ...
— A Forest Hearth: A Romance of Indiana in the Thirties • Charles Major
... Ralph,' said she, nervously playing with her watchguard and tracing the figure on the rug with the point of her tiny foot—'I know what you mean: but I thought you always liked to be yielded to, and ...
— The Tenant of Wildfell Hall • Anne Bronte
... these words under her breath as they walked the few remaining steps to the Outlook. Bodman sat down upon the crumbling wall. The woman dropped her alpenstock on the rock, and walked nervously to and fro, clasping and unclasping her hands. Her husband caught his breath as the terrible moment ...
— Revenge! • by Robert Barr
... the log, Tayoga, show that there was some indecision, at first, and much talking. Two or three of the French officers had their hunting knives in their hands, and they carved nervously at the log, just as a man will often ...
— The Masters of the Peaks - A Story of the Great North Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler
... muttered oath and the words, 'You shall never win her. I'll see to that.' The tones were not loud but deep, and the wind seemed to carry the sounds directly to my ear," she whispered, laying a trembling little hand on his arm, and glancing nervously from ...
— Elsie's Womanhood • Martha Finley
... is heavy with the scent of stout. Mrs. M'Gann sits before the fire. She still peels potatoes. The Stranger is almost concealed behind grandfather clock number four, from the shelter of which he peers nervously at the window, which has returned to its original position. A heavy step ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, February 4, 1914 • Various
... of restless trouble would come; times when a sudden knock at the door would make Johanna shake nervously for minutes afterward; when Hilary walked about every where with her mind preoccupied, and her eyes open to notice every chance passerby; nay, she had sometimes secretly followed down a whole street some figure which, in its light jaunty step and long fashionably-cut ...
— Mistress and Maid • Dinah Craik (aka: Miss Mulock)
... triumph of Prussia in the War of 1870 revived and intensified military rivalry and military preparations on the part of all the powers of Europe. A new scramble for colonies and possessions overseas began, with the late comers nervously eager to make up for time lost. In this reaction Britain shared. Protection raised its head again in England; only by tariffs and tariff bargaining, the Fair Traders insisted, could the country hold its own. Odds and ...
— The Canadian Dominion - A Chronicle of our Northern Neighbor • Oscar D. Skelton
... could not bear it. The least noise makes him worse, even the chirping of the birds and squirrels in the trees overhead, irritates him; and only an hour ago, I had to lead the goat and her kid farther away to tether them; for, at every bleat they made, he started nervously, and moaned," said Jane, who had great faith in quietness, and soothing applications ...
— The American Family Robinson - or, The Adventures of a Family lost in the Great Desert of the West • D. W. Belisle
... Someone laughed nervously, and a voice sang out over my shoulder, "You might as well go the whole hog, Judge. The niggers won't be no good without the land ter work 'em on. Fling 'em into the pot—-they're as ...
— The Devil's Own - A Romance of the Black Hawk War • Randall Parrish
... gathering possible in the South. There is a loud rap: the hum of voices ceases. The individual who gives the signal stands at a small table at the end of the long narrow hall. One hand rests upon the table, with the other he nervously toys with a gavel. He is a tall, lean, lank, ungainly chap, whose cheek bones as prominent as an Indian's seem to be on the eve of pushing through his sallow skin. A pair of restless black eyes, set far ...
— Hanover; Or The Persecution of the Lowly - A Story of the Wilmington Massacre. • David Bryant Fulton
... no longer resist. The resignation, the courage of this child, who of his future kingly duties already knew the first—to die well—overcame him. His heart was bursting. He threw upon the table the crumpled parchment which for a moment he had been nervously holding in his hand, and fell sobbing in an arm-chair. Frederique, still suspicious, read the deed through from the first line to the very signature, then going up to a candle, she burned it till the flame scorched her fingers, shaking the ashes upon the table; ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11 • Various
... her skin would have matched the Hyperborean snows tidily enough. As for her eyes, the customary similes of the court poets were gigantic onyxes or ebony highly polished and wet with May dew. These eyes were too big for her little face: they made of her a tiny and desirous wraith which nervously endured each incident of life, like a foreigner uneasily acquiescent to the custom ...
— Chivalry • James Branch Cabell
... back, wondering. The other nervously produced material for a cigarette. Then he cleared his ...
— Bred of the Desert - A Horse and a Romance • Marcus Horton
... be able to do it, Serge," said Marcus, nervously, as he stood with his old companion looking admiringly at a pair of fiery-looking little steeds harnessed to a low chariot just big enough to afford room ...
— Marcus: the Young Centurion • George Manville Fenn
... shuddered. "Say," blurted Durkin, his face working nervously, "how the hell did that frog get so big? I thought I was seein' ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June, 1930 • Various
... phaeton Mr. Tippengray was not there. Ida Mayberry, eager to submit to his critical eye two lines of Browning which she had put into a sort of Greek resembling the partly cremated corpse of a dead language, and who for the past ten minutes had been nervously waiting for Master Douglas to close his eyes in sleep that she might rush down to Mr. Tippengray while he was yet strolling on the lawn by himself, had rushed down to him, and had made him forget everything else in the world in his instinctive effort ...
— The Squirrel Inn • Frank R. Stockton
... snatches, to the last particle. For once in her life Evelyn Desmond spoke the unvarnished truth, adorning nothing, extenuating nothing; and Honour listened in an enigmatical silence—a silence which held even after the last word had been spoken. Evelyn looked up at her nervously. ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver
... I'd die of fright," cried the little boy, who was very timid, glancing nervously around, as if he expected the ghost ...
— Elsie Dinsmore • Martha Finley
... Edna nervously smoothed out the lap of her dress as though she realized that she might be inflicting pain, but she raised her steady eyes and said with ...
— The Law-Breakers and Other Stories • Robert Grant
... the top button of his coat nervously, as his sister said this, and, partly turning himself towards ...
— Woman's Trials - or, Tales and Sketches from the Life around Us. • T. S. Arthur
... slowly, and with caution; for Monks started at every shadow; and Mr. Bumble, holding his lantern a foot above the ground, walked not only with remarkable care, but with a marvellously light step for a gentleman of his figure: looking nervously about him for hidden trap-doors. The gate at which they had entered, was softly unfastened and opened by Monks; merely exchanging a nod with their mysterious acquaintance, the married couple emerged into the wet ...
— Oliver Twist • Charles Dickens
... by the screaming arrival of several motorcycle patrolmen followed by three heavily laden patrol cars. Overhead, pursuit planes zoomed in and began darting about nervously above the field. ...
— Off Course • Mack Reynolds (AKA Dallas McCord Reynolds)
... nothing," replied the high priest nervously, "there is no one there. The place is vacant. Once it was used but not now for many years," and he moved on toward the gateway which led back into the palace. Here he and the priests halted while Tarzan with ...
— Tarzan the Terrible • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... her pretty little head and the hot blood rushed to her velvety cheeks, while her hands nervously clutched each other. ...
— The Son of Monte-Cristo, Volume II (of 2) • Alexandre Dumas pere
... knock at Philip's door, and Philip's sister was left behind to wonder nervously how Philip would behave and what he would say. She was still smarting under the boy's furious outburst of the night before when, through a calculated indiscretion of Delaine's, the notion that Anderson had presumed and ...
— Lady Merton, Colonist • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... peculiar to lads of his age, his head lowered, his thick lips pouting, and his eyebrows bent into a growing frown. Jeanne must have frightened him with the serious look she wore standing there in her black dress. She had not ceased holding her mother's hand, and was nervously pressing her fingers on the bare part of the arm between the sleeve and glove. With head lowered she awaited Lucien's approach uneasily, like a young and timid savage, ready to fly from his caress. But a gentle push from her mother prompted ...
— A Love Episode • Emile Zola
... steps in the tree-trunk like the blacks," Grizzel complained, as she proceeded rather nervously to climb the ladder. "I do hate this old tobbely old ...
— The Happy Adventurers • Lydia Miller Middleton
... an awfully wrong thing," she said nervously; "but I had only two definite ideas—one was to save Nesta, the other not to let ...
— Queensland Cousins • Eleanor Luisa Haverfield
... an attack of spirit rappings. A brisk series of sharp faint taps, of a kind I never heard before, resounded from all the furniture of the room. {265} While the disturbance continued, the spectre drummed nervously with his fingers on his knee. The sounds ended as suddenly as they had begun, and he expressed his regrets. "It is a thing I am subject to," he remarked; "nervous, I believe, but, to persons unaccustomed to ...
— In the Wrong Paradise • Andrew Lang
... livid face, a series of offensive epithets too coarse for publication. Having exhausted his vocabulary of vulgarity, a happy thought seemed to strike him. 'I want to assault you,' he said, and forthwith he nervously and gingerly tapped me as if he were playing with a hot coal. He then danced off to Members who were looking on, crying, 'This is the scoundrel who has caricatured me; witness, I assault him!' and ...
— The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Harry Furniss
... been affected by so many successive blows? It seemed likely; for, livid a moment before, her face had now turned scarlet. She trembled nervously from head to foot, and there was a gleam of insanity in her ...
— The Count's Millions - Volume 1 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau
... wheel, and he glared at his binnacle like a wild man. Now and then he gave a swift look around him, nervously, but the old man's assurance had some effect upon him. Yet once I ...
— Sweetapple Cove • George van Schaick
... interfered and stopped even the confiscation of the paper. The least monarchical of us must, I think, admit that here we have a good illustration of the distinction between a man sure of his reputation and a cur nervously alarmed for his. ...
— German Culture Past and Present • Ernest Belfort Bax
... he resumed nervously, "it was very absurd, but I did believe the girl's story—the old story, you know, of privation and suffering, and all that—and just thought I'd go home with the brat and see if what she said was ...
— Christmas - Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse • Various
... will be here presently," she said, as she entered the room. And then her eye fell on Miss Vila and glanced quickly at Mr. Buckingham, who was nervously fingering his stick. "Meanwhile," she added, with a mischievous look, "I will ask you to remain with us, as Mr. Wilding will be obliged to see you here. Lillie, you have the gentleman's card. It seems awkward to wait for the formality of Henry's ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, September, 1885 • Various
... anything," he answered. "Yes, there is one matter," he added nervously. "I see, Mr. Hare, that you are thinking of my boy Tom, not very kindly I am afraid. As you have been so good as to forgive me I hope that you won't be hard on Tom. He is not at all a bad sort of a lad if a little thoughtless, ...
— The Mahatma and the Hare • H. Rider Haggard
... her above all men. I strode to her. She half-lifted from her couch as if drawn upward to me. And then we looked with all our eyes, blue eyes and black, until Pilate's wife, a thin, tense, overwrought woman, laughed nervously. And while I bowed to the wife and gave greeting, I thought I saw Pilate give Miriam a significant glance, as if to say, "Is he not all I promised?" For he had had word of my coming from Sulpicius Quirinius, the legate of Syria. As well had Pilate and ...
— The Jacket (The Star-Rover) • Jack London
... tell you," said Morton nervously; "my back was turned, and it was half-way down the room when ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) - Ghost Stories • Various
... eyes fall to the floor. He toys nervously with his hat and backs out of the hall to the door. As he turns the knob he holds out his right-hand to ...
— T. De Witt Talmage - As I Knew Him • T. De Witt Talmage
... been wont to set himself up as an example of ghostly rectitude, and to reflect somewhat on the laxity of the Duke's administration. These reproofs the Duke cannot answer without laying himself open to the retort of being touched with jealousy. Then too Angelo is nervously apprehensive of reproach; is ever on the watch, and "making broad his phylacteries," lest malice should spy some holes in his conduct; for such is the meaning of "standing at a guard with envy": whereas "virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful" in that kind. The Duke ...
— Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson
... she asked calmly, yet nervously poising the little black jug with its big red dots. She was always so completely controlled, yet ...
— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence
... she looked up at him interrogatively, awaiting his pleasure. He stood a moment with his back to the fire, his hands twisting nervously ...
— The Crimson Tide • Robert W. Chambers
... Gordon, nervously, abandoning his former companion and joining her, "I was just saying, ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... M. Linders narrowly as he spoke, and saw a sudden gleam of fear or excitement light up his dull eyes for a moment, whilst his fingers clutched nervously at the sheet, but that was ...
— My Little Lady • Eleanor Frances Poynter
... eyes, looking for old comrades, encountered the unremembered eyes of strangers—for they were strangers—this tall young man, with his gray eyes, pleasantly fashioned mouth, and cleanly moulded cheeks; and this long-limbed girl, who sat, knees crossed, one long, slim foot nervously swinging above its shadow on ...
— The Danger Mark • Robert W. Chambers
... note of this paper, and had caught more than one stray word that stood out in larger and bolder characters than its neighbours, before his brother could fold it; for it is not an easy thing for a man to fold an elephantine sheet of cartridge when he is nervously anxious to fold it quickly, and is conscious that the eyes of an observant brother are ...
— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon
... a ring at the front door-bell. Letitia, wrought-up, nervously clutched my arm. For a moment a sort of paralysis seized me. Then, alertly as a young calf, I bounded toward the door, hope aroused, and expectation keen. It was rather dark in the outside hall, and I could not quite perceive the nature of our visitor. But I soon gladly realized that it was something ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume I. (of X.) • Various
... from the New Testament is tiresome to the last degree, and seriously prejudices the value of the 'Confessions' as considered from the artistic standpoint. But when he bemoans the loss of the friend of his youth, when he tells of his resolution to embrace an ascetic life, he is nervously animated, and is as psychologically ...
— A Mere Accident • George Moore
... woods without his breakfast, and Father John ate alone, smiling gently as he looked at the tightly closed door of Nada's bedroom. Even Oosimisk, the Leaf Bud, the sleek-haired Indian woman who cared for the house, was nervously expectant as she watched for Nada, and Mistoos, her husband, grunted and grimaced as he carried in from the edge of the forest many loads of soft evergreens on ...
— The Country Beyond - A Romance of the Wilderness • James Oliver Curwood
... went on nervously, taking long strides to her shorter ones, and occasionally changing sides in his embarrassment, "my brother Jim has been talking to you about my engagement to Frida, and trying to put you against her and me. He said as much ...
— From Sand Hill to Pine • Bret Harte
... came out a young woman with a pale face, and an anxious look. She glanced nervously up and down the street, not as one expecting to meet a friend, but as if she feared an enemy. After a moment's hesitation, she crossed the road and walked along with an indecisive air; more than once glancing behind her, as if ...
— Saint Bartholomew's Eve - A Tale of the Huguenot WarS • G. A. Henty
... to Dr. Jebb's to report. Mrs. Jebb opened the door, greeted him with a hearty handshake, and was more than usually cordial. Dr. Jebb was kind, but embarrassed. He offered Jim a chair and began nervously: ...
— The Preacher of Cedar Mountain - A Tale of the Open Country • Ernest Thompson Seton
... apartment, and, seeming unusually restless, wandered about from spot to spot, arranging and rearranging the little fancy articles upon the tables, looking out of the window into the garden, and at last running down-stairs suddenly as if she were pursued. No one who saw her could doubt that she was nervously anxious about something; yet her expression was one of joy and hope. Had she been able to penetrate her father's mind and behold the various emotions that excited it, she would not perhaps have been so gay and blithesome; but poor De Vlierbeck restrained ...
— The Poor Gentleman • Hendrik Conscience
... seemed spoiled. Carrie sat in mother's place looking sad and abstracted, and fingering her little silver cross nervously. Fred was downcast and out of spirits, returning only brief replies to Uncle Geoffrey's questions, and only waking up to snub Jack if she spoke a word. Oh, how I wished Allan would make his appearance and put us all right! It was quite a relief when I heard ...
— Esther - A Book for Girls • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... Garrison who was confused. Something caught at his throat. He stammered, but words would not come. He laughed nervously. ...
— Garrison's Finish - A Romance of the Race-Course • W. B. M. Ferguson
... was well acquainted with this little salon, where he had more than once seen Marsa seated at the piano playing her favorite airs. He remembered it all so well, and, nervously twisting his moustache, he longed for her to make her appearance. He listened for the frou-frou of Marsa's skirts on the other side of the lowered portiere which hung between the two rooms; ...
— Prince Zilah, Complete • Jules Claretie
... she looked nervously up and down the street, gathered her pretty skirts tight in her hand and with the fluttered flight of a scared bird darted across the park, dashed through her swinging gate, and so ...
— Kennedy Square • F. Hopkinson Smith
... he only answered, very testily and evasively, "No, thank you; I won't trouble you. The exhibition you have already given us of your skill in this kind more than amply suffices." And his fingers strayed nervously to his waistcoat pocket, as if he was half afraid, even then, Senor Herrera would ...
— An African Millionaire - Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay • Grant Allen
... "Oh," she replied nervously, "you know the King's attachment to him, and also the Queen's; they impose on him many important errands to London. We cannot expect—I should be ...
— The Ladies - A Shining Constellation of Wit and Beauty • E. Barrington
... at his window, grasping his flute nervously. And, as though in answer to his remonstrance, there was again that guttural, animal ...
— The Second Class Passenger • Perceval Gibbon
... get down to business," said Moses Block nervously. "Ve must go slow and careful-like. If we show our hands too soon, they will uprise ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon
... drawing-room, whose apparel made so vivid a setting for their unaccustomed costumes, each tried nervously to find a seat, desirous of hiding the emphatic blackness of his trousers. There seemed a sort of indecency in that blackness and in the colour of their gloves—a sort of exaggeration of the feelings; and many cast shocked looks of secret envy at 'the Buccaneer,' ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... broken only by the rustle of paper as one of the girls turned a page. Then, so suddenly that Mollie jumped nervously and Grace almost upset a box of chocolates at her elbow, Amy threw down her book ...
— The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point - Or a Wreck and a Rescue • Laura Lee Hope
... for. She glided noiselessly in and took her place at the Davenport; while Zillah, sitting by her father, buried her head in the bed-clothes, his feeble hands the while playing nervously with the long, straggling locks of her hair which scattered themselves over the bed. The letter was soon finished, for it contained little more than what has already been given, except the reiterated injunction that Guy should make all haste to reach Pomeroy Court. It was then sent off to ...
— The Cryptogram - A Novel • James De Mille
... they got out at Euston Square she seemed a trifle bewildered, and could only do implicitly as her husband bade her—clinging to his hand, for the most part, as if to make sure of guidance. She did indeed glance somewhat nervously at the hansom into which Lavender put her, apparently asking how such a tall and narrow two-wheeled vehicle could be prevented toppling over. But when he, having sent on all their luggage by a respectable old four-wheeler, got into the hansom beside her, and put his hand inside her arm, and ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 28. July, 1873. • Various
... We have hardly had time yet, Colonel, but Mr. Macdonald will make a copy of this for you and send it in a day or two," replied Mr. St. Clair, folding up the sketch, nervously, and placing it on his desk. The colonel quietly picked up the ...
— The Man From Glengarry - A Tale Of The Ottawa • Ralph Connor
... Hubert sat down, glancing nervously from the actor to the morning papers with which the table was strewn. There was not an evening paper there. Had he not seen them? At the end of about ten ...
— Vain Fortune • George Moore
... vast, vaulted chancel, and for the first time he knew fear at the thought of singing. It was a terrible thing, after all, to face this sea of staring, dancing people. As lightning reaches to steel, the gay poppies nodding so nervously above his mother's white, anxious face sought the courage place within, and urged him on. He felt himself back in Clothes-line Park, alone with his mother and ...
— Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley • Belle K. Maniates
... house be still? Ugh! What a dark night for Eric's lonely walk, (the bell rings in the court below. Katie draws back) The bell! So late—what can that mean? (she comes from the window and draws the curtain over the recess) Something wrong in the village—someone ill. (she crosses to fireplace, nervously) Perhaps poor Mrs. Tester has sent for me to read to her, or old Mr. Parsley wants me to witness another will—I've witnessed eight of them—he has only a few spoons to leave behind him—I can't go to-night. (A knocking at the ...
— The Squire - An Original Comedy in Three Acts • Arthur W. Pinero
... of society, entirely indifferent to her husband, and not always wise in the choice of her companions. Mme. Le Brun, always hard at work and always having great anxieties, at length found herself so broken in health, and so nervously fatigued that she longed to be alone with Nature, and in 1808 she went to Switzerland. Her letters written to the Countess Potocka at this time are added to her "Souvenirs," and reveal the very best of her nature. Feeling the need of continued repose, she bought ...
— Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. • Clara Erskine Clement
... having ordered a carriage to follow him to the Grand Central Station. It was ten minutes yet before the express was due. Nervously he puffed at his unlighted cigar, wishing he had a match; in fact, his nerves were never more unstrung. It was a happy surprise, and no doubt his youthful vanity was elated, that his father should have named his new palace car "Alfonso." At least it convinced him ...
— The Harris-Ingram Experiment • Charles E. Bolton
... in going our rounds this morning, and he told me he had found a threatening note, signed 'K.K.K,' tacked to his gate, and had torn it down immediately, hoping to conceal the matter from his wife, who, he says is growing nervously fearful for ...
— Elsie's Motherhood • Martha Finley
... would have given much, to rush at it, fling it to, and shoot the bolts; for I have had it repaired and strengthened, so that, now, it is far stronger than ever it has been. Like Tip, I continued my, almost unconscious, progress backward, until the wall brought me up. At that, I started, nervously, and glanced 'round, apprehensively. As I did so, my eyes dwelt, momentarily, on the rack of firearms, and I took a step toward them; but stopped, with a curious feeling that they would be needless. Outside, in the gardens, the dog ...
— The House on the Borderland • William Hope Hodgson
... nervously at his beard. "And now, Dick Yankton," he continued, confronting him squarely with both feet spread wide apart and his hands thrust to his elbows in his trouser pockets, "the question is, what's to be done with you? I just guess we'll make an example ...
— When Dreams Come True • Ritter Brown
... big car full o' town folks visitin' up at McKenzies due to be along here any min'it," cried Marmaduke nervously. "You better stay here ...
— In Orchard Glen • Marian Keith
... quickly, my good girl," cut in Sally, nervously; "and if any one asks for me when I am out—no matter who it is—say that I have lain down with a severe headache, and can not on any ...
— Jolly Sally Pendleton - The Wife Who Was Not a Wife • Laura Jean Libbey
... it's this way,' said the old lady, nervously. 'You know that I have a much larger income than I need, and that I am always ready to help the deserving.' 'I know, Miss Whichello! You give help where Mrs Pansey only gives advice. I know who is most thought ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume
... in a room with rows of books all round the walls, and a big writing-table in the centre. "Sit down, my boy." The schoolmaster went and picked out a long pipe, and filled it, clearing his throat nervously, with an occasional glance at the boy. "H'm—so this is you. This is Peer—h'm." He lit his pipe and puffed a little, found himself again obliged to sneeze—but at last settled down in a chair at the writing-table, stretched out his long legs, ...
— The Great Hunger • Johan Bojer
... been on the floor, and his hands nervously picking at the bit of wood he had been whittling as Mr. Bhaer came in, but when he heard the kind voice ask that question, he looked up quickly, and said in a more respectful tone than he had ...
— Little Men - Life at Plumfield With Jo's Boys • Louisa May Alcott
... nervously. The man had turned upon her so sharply that his crutches fell to the floor ...
— The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch • Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter
... Cuckoo washed away her sin of paint and powder, at first nervously, then with a certain zest that was almost violent, that splashed the water on floor and walls, and sent the shivering Jessie beneath the bed for shelter. Cuckoo scrubbed and scrubbed, then applied a towel, until her skin protested in patches. Finally, and with a disturbed heart, she approached ...
— Flames • Robert Smythe Hichens
... her lips tight, for she was afraid. However, his long, supple fingers closed over her wrist like steel and she got quickly and easily to her perch and clung nervously to him. ...
— Hidden Creek • Katharine Newlin Burt
... life before, slipped through the back window, while the crowd, led on by Kitty McQueen, seethed in front, and making a bolt for it to the "'Sosh," was back in a moment with a handful of small change. "Dinna toss ower lavishly at first," the smith whispered me nervously, as we followed Jess and ...
— Auld Licht Idylls • J. M. Barrie
... incapable of movement, and with a laugh Malcolm jumped down from the bank, seized the donkey by his bridle and drew him somewhat reluctantly to the side of the road. The girl's horse had been curveting and prancing nervously, so that it brought her to within a few paces of Malcolm, and he looked up, wondering what rich man's daughter was this who spoke in English to her horse ... only once before had he seen her ...
— The Book of All-Power • Edgar Wallace
... them that there would be a long strain upon them, and that any lack of common sense, as regards their own health, would certainly diminish the patient's chances of recovery. Nobody had his clearest judgment and his quickest observation at command, when nervously exhausted. Everything might depend on a moment's decision, a moment's swiftness of insight. The warning was not thrown away, but both sisters found ...
— The Daughters of Danaus • Mona Caird
... at me in blank despair. His face was white, his lips twitched nervously, his words ...
— My Sword's My Fortune - A Story of Old France • Herbert Hayens
... good counsel, and I sat fast—rather nervously, though—while Joeboy backed the horse. And I had cause for my nervous sensation. In fact, what followed proved that, in the darkness and confusion caused by our ignorance, Joeboy backed the horse along the edge of the precipice ...
— Charge! - A Story of Briton and Boer • George Manville Fenn
... every day, and it was not long before Pedro learned to know her hours for the hospital, and to watch and wait for her coming. If, for any reason, she was delayed in her daily visit to him, he fretted nervously until she appeared. Now this, to one in his condition, is dangerous, but how could poor, simple Pedro know it? So he gave himself to his one happiness of the moment, without suspicion of whither it was leading him. The nurses in the hospital soon noticed his interest in Apolinaria, but mistook ...
— Old Mission Stories of California • Charles Franklin Carter
... her staring, bloodshot eyes. He stood quite still, pitying her, and cursing the brutal poachers who had set the snare. Then, just before the torch gave its last flicker, the great animal turned and led her calf off through the woods, looking back nervously as she went. ...
— The Watchers of the Trails - A Book of Animal Life • Charles G. D. Roberts
... was deeply moved. His face was very white, he moistened his lips nervously from time to time, and his hands grasped convulsively the arms of his chair. Plainly, the task before him was far ...
— The Holladay Case - A Tale • Burton E. Stevenson
... hovered over Lovey Mary and patted her nervously on the back. "Don't, my dear, don't cry so. It's very sad—dear me, yes, very sad. You aren't alone to blame, though; I have been at fault, too. I— I—feel dreadfully ...
— Lovey Mary • Alice Hegan Rice
... feel somewhat apprehensive," said old Henry nervously, "of the state of the weather. I have had some conversation about it with an old gentleman on deck who professed to have sailed the Spanish main. He says you ought to put into ...
— Literary Lapses • Stephen Leacock
... widow, and he lived in the north of London, coming into the City every day to work in a bank. He was twenty years old and suffered from aspirations. I met him in a public billiard-saloon where the marker called him by his given name, and he called the marker "Bulls-eyes." Charley explained, a little nervously, that he had only come to the place to look on, and since looking on at games of skill is not a cheap amusement for the young, I suggested that Charlie should go ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... thirty—a picture by no means pleasing. He looked conceited, and almost savagely proud of the isolation in which he lived. There was a touch of exaggeration in his appearance—a dash of Werther, with a few flourishes of Jingle! Nervously sensitive to ridicule, self-conscious, suffering deeply from his inability to express himself through his art, Henry Irving, in 1867, was a very different person from the Henry Irving who called on me at Longridge ...
— The Story of My Life - Recollections and Reflections • Ellen Terry
... did see her once in the Champs-Elysees. I was walking with you and my father. A gentleman and lady came toward us; you became excited, quickened your steps, and clutched nervously at my father's arm, and I heard you say in a low voice, "Don't look at them; ...
— A Comedy of Marriage & Other Tales • Guy De Maupassant
... man?" Steve immediately asked, as he looked nervously around, and half raised his gun, as though he expected to see some ugly hobo advancing menacingly from the ...
— Chums of the Camp Fire • Lawrence J. Leslie
... said, nervously; "that is, I would have gone down to see you on the sly. You wouldn't expect me to fight the ...
— Facing the World • Horatio Alger
... fellow-master, and one of the committee for arranging the Speech-day entertainment. For the rest he was a nervously fussy little man, and met Mark with ...
— The Giant's Robe • F. Anstey
... at 'em!" implored Ashby, fingering his shotgun nervously. "Get out of my way. I don't want to ...
— The Young Engineers in Arizona - Laying Tracks on the Man-killer Quicksand • H. Irving Hancock
... it seems to me that your great trouble is not in yourselves but in social institutions. Which haven't yet fitted themselves to people like you two. It is the sense of uncertainty makes her, as you say, adhesive. Nervously so. If we were indeed living in a new age Instead of the moral ruins ...
— The Secret Places of the Heart • H. G. Wells
... still," said the woman, still tumbling the contents of the cup-board about nervously. "I shall find something pretty for you presently; then you must sit down quietly and play with it, and not go outside, not one step, do you hear? Pshaw! there is nothing but ...
— Veronica And Other Friends - Two Stories For Children • Johanna (Heusser) Spyri
... that her stick clicked like a girlish heel; but in the hall she paused, wondering nervously if Katy had put a match to the fire. The autumn air was cold and she had the reproachful vision of a visitor with elderly ailments shivering by her inhospitable hearth. She thought instinctively of the stranger ...
— Crucial Instances • Edith Wharton
... young people who wish to be married is also great, but very different. Theirs is to submit themselves fully and frankly to the physician's examination and advice. He may decide that it is safe to marry a person of stable temperament, but not one who is nervously unstable. ...
— The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book • Various
... I didn't have anything to do with it," he responded nervously. "I was always telling you that these things were quixotisms. It's the truth, you know I've said so ...
— The Reign of Greed - Complete English Version of 'El Filibusterismo' • Jose Rizal
... soldiers gathered up their dead and wounded, they went each their own way along the ravine, now blue with the evening fog. Those in the rear kept looking back at the enemy, suspiciously eyeing them, and nervously clutching with their hands the cold ...
— The Shield • Various
... she's been transformed into Button-Bright?" said Dorothy nervously. Then she looked steadily at the boy and asked: "Are you Ozma? Tell ...
— The Lost Princess of Oz • L. Frank Baum
... of shame rushed over the wronged, insulted, humiliated beauty. She longed to fly from the world. She asked her father to leave Grassmere and go to some other farm a hundred miles away. She asked him suddenly, nervously, and so impetuously that the old man looked up ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade
... delicious minnows and snails, and pausing a moment now and then to put their heads under and dabble in the mud for some particularly choice morsel. The lynxes crouched and waited, while their stubby tails twitched nervously, their long, narrow pupils grew still narrower, and their paws fumbled about among the dry pine-needles, feeling for the very best footing for the flying leap. The ducks came on, still prattling pleasantly over ...
— Forest Neighbors - Life Stories of Wild Animals • William Davenport Hulbert
... the feverishness of acquisitiveness, and the lust for power, often in their intensity defeat the purpose sought. The personality of Lorenzo waxed greater and mightier day by day in the nervously articulated constitution of Florence. The greatest genius of his age, he was not only the master of the Government, but the acknowledged chief of the Platonic Academy, the first of living poets, a most distinguished classical scholar, ...
— The Tragedies of the Medici • Edgcumbe Staley
... a vivid imagination, and are talking perfect nonsense." Tamara laughed nervously. "I refuse to be the least upset by ...
— His Hour • Elinor Glyn
... ended his story, Polly unclasped her hands which she had nervously clenched during the recital of the ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... sought to take the glass but closed instead nervously upon Saltash's wrist. He drank in response to Saltash's unspoken insistence, looking straight ...
— Charles Rex • Ethel M. Dell
... happen," commenced Mr. Parkinson, very nervously, "to remember sending Waters to me on Monday or Tuesday last, with a paper which had been served by some one on ...
— Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. • Samuel Warren
... looked about nervously. Of course every girl had this ideal in her brain, but she was not supposed to express it—except ...
— The Shield of Silence • Harriet T. Comstock
... to the Chamberlain's account of his success with the Californians and his glowing pictures of the country, nodding every few moments with emphatic approval. But as the story finished his wonderful eyes were two bubbling springs of humor, and Rezanov, who knew him well, recrossed his legs nervously. ...
— Rezanov • Gertrude Atherton
... true, and by ones I believe," she said stoutly. "Oh, there's queer things goes on. Doddridge Knapp or the devil, it's all one. But it's ill saying things of them that can be in two places at once." And the old dame looked nervously about her. "They've hushed things up in the papers, and fixed the ...
— Blindfolded • Earle Ashley Walcott
... to put against the door," stammered Billie nervously. "I might put out the light though." She started for the candle, but Laura put out a hand and ...
— Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island - The Mystery of the Wreck • Janet D. Wheeler
... and at least one other of the servants sat there every evening. A red silk screen was put before my bed to shield me from the candlelight, and I was supposed to be asleep when they came upstairs. But I never remember to have been otherwise than wide awake, nervously awake, wearily awake. This was the vexation. I was not a strong child, and had a very excitable brain; and the torture that it was to hear those maids gossiping on the other side of the dim red light of my screen I cannot well describe, but I do most distinctly remember. ...
— Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... waited until this manoeuvre had been successfully accomplished, coughed nervously, made as if to move in the direction of the important personage on the side bench, hesitated, and finally with an air of embarrassment once more announced his text. At once the Rector ...
— The Major • Ralph Connor
... hooted, and Katherine jumped as nervously as Betty would have done. Poor Betty! She must be almost at the landing by this time. At that very moment a little quavering voice rang ...
— Betty Wales Freshman • Edith K. Dunton
... nervously in the wings during the performance. When the curtain went down his new ...
— Charles Frohman: Manager and Man • Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman
... Reggie nervously, "not to dwell too much on that part of it? What I mean to say is, for heaven's sake don't let the mater know ...
— A Damsel in Distress • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
... she not something to do with the curse?" I inquired after a short pause, and nervously I remembered my father's experience on that subject, and I had never before dared to allude to it in the presence of any member of the family. My nervousness was fully warranted. The gloom on Alan's brow deepened, and after a very short "They say so" he turned ...
— The Lock and Key Library • Julian Hawthorne, Ed.
... crawled out of its sleeping furs and congregated near the edge of the trail. From this point it could view the up-Yukon course to its first bend several miles away. Here it could also see across the river to the finish at Fort Cudahy, where the Gold Recorder nervously awaited. Joy Molineau had taken her position several rods back from the trail, and under the circumstances, the rest of Forty Mile forbore interposing itself. So the space was clear between her and the slender line of the course. Fires had ...
— The God of His Fathers • Jack London
... the Major, nervously. "Geordie, my boy, I have by me one or two little poems which I wrote when I was about nineteen—trifles flung off on the inspiration of the moment. Perhaps, when you come to know your friend the editor better than you do now, you might induce him to ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 5, May, 1891 • Various
... seated, but the condition of the crisis compelled her to rise. She stood before him, her dark eyes downcast, her lips trembling, nervously drawing the fingers of one hand through the clasp of the other. She was tempted to yield to him, for she could imagine no happiness in life without him; but a rare sanity and integrity of mind made her perceive that he had pushed the matter to a false alternative. ...
— David Poindexter's Disappearance and Other Tales • Julian Hawthorne
... black nose of a Skye-terrier as the gentlemen entered. The two ladies were as far apart as they well could be in the spacious room, and had altogether an inharmonious air, Mr. Granger thought; but then he was nervously anxious that these two ...
— The Lovels of Arden • M. E. Braddon
... Hastings in bewitching Richard, did penance in St. Paul's. She was the wife of a London goldsmith, and had been mistress of Edward IV. Her beauty, as she walked downcast with shame, is said to have moved every heart to pity. On his accession, King Richard, nervously fingering his dagger, as was his wont to do according to the chronicles, rode to St. Paul's, and was received by procession, amid great congratulation and acclamation from the fickle people. Kemp, who was the Yorkist bishop during all these dreadful times, rebuilt St. Paul's Cross, ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury
... say something more, but a startled look came into her eyes, as she turned apprehensively toward the door. Nervously she thrust the cheque ...
— Jess of the Rebel Trail • H. A. Cody
... largely upon the case," replied the Doctor, nervously. "Some are born absent-minded, some achieve absent-mindedness, and some have absent-mindedness ...
— Coffee and Repartee • John Kendrick Bangs
... did think, Mr. Philip," said the gentleman alluded to, a very young-looking, apple-faced little man, with a timid manner, who stood in the background nervously rubbing his dry hands together—"I certainly did think that the squire looked aged when I saw him ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard
... down for a few moments?" she asked, a little nervously. "Your fire is so much better ...
— The Zeppelin's Passenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... not quite comfortable at this biography. He glanced nervously at me and was going to begin some kind of explanation, when Miss Doria cut him short. 'Remember our rule, Launcelot. No turgid war ...
— Mr. Standfast • John Buchan
... the mischief of the Parisian physiognomy were always mocking and impertinent in him. Jupillon's smile had the jovial expression imparted by a wicked mouth, a mouth that was almost cruel at the corners of the lips, which curled upward and were always twitching nervously. His face was pale with the pallor that nitric acid strong enough to eat copper gives to the complexion, and in his sharp, pert, bold features were mingled bravado, energy, recklessness, intelligence, impudence and all sorts of ...
— Germinie Lacerteux • Edmond and Jules de Goncourt
... Dolly looked nervously round, fearing that she had been inappropriate. Paul continued to ...
— Howards End • E. M. Forster
... carefully took the indicated seat, poised nervously on the edge of the chair. He sat very straight, leaning forward only a little to hand a thick folder of papers across the desk. Forth took it, but didn't open it. "What do you ...
— The Planet Savers • Marion Zimmer Bradley
... she said, her gloved fingers twitching nervously. "A man may be a king, and at the same ...
— The Seven Secrets • William Le Queux
... was made, he decided in his own mind that he would not speak to Ellinor on the subject of her lover's letter. So for the next few days she was kept in suspense, seeing little of her father; and during the short times she was with him she was made aware that he was nervously anxious to keep the conversation engaged on general topics rather than on the one which she had at heart. As I have already said, Mr. Corbet had written to her by the same post as that on which he sent the letter to her father, telling ...
— A Dark Night's Work • Elizabeth Gaskell
... (feeling herself to be a modern Cleopatra), that lover of hers was sitting on the cushions of a first-class carriage, flying along to Southampton; and while she had been lying among the cushions of her drawing room, waiting tremulously, nervously, ecstatically, for the dreary minutes to crawl on until the clock should chime the hour of nine, he was probably lighting his first pipe aboard the yacht Water Nymph. What did it matter that she had lifted her hot face from her cushions and had fled in wild haste to ...
— Phyllis of Philistia • Frank Frankfort Moore
... the tea was exhausted, but Mrs. Ruggles yet sat at her lonely table, as still as the sleepers around her. The clock struck ten: she nervously drew a soiled paper from her bosom. Eleven: she rose with hesitation and set the tallow candle behind the door. Then she softly entered the bed-room and stood before the window where Alice lay. The sky was clear again. The moon shone ...
— Not Pretty, But Precious • John Hay, et al.
... Majesty," said the Comptroller of Whole Holidays, looking nervously towards the Professor of Practical Jokes, ...
— All the Way to Fairyland - Fairy Stories • Evelyn Sharp
... splendid pair of animals, had, during their passage through the forest, shown every sign of fear; starting nervously, swerving, and going in sharp, sudden rushes, and always needing a constant strain on the reins to keep them from bolting. Once away from the trees, however, they settled down into a fast trot, and the seven miles ...
— A Jacobite Exile - Being the Adventures of a Young Englishman in the Service of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden • G. A. Henty
... the commandant's office Arthur Ridley stood for a moment and glanced nervously up and down the dirt road. In a hog-leather belt around his waist was six thousand dollars just turned over to him by Major Ponsford as the last payment for beef steers delivered at the fort according to contract ...
— Oh, You Tex! • William Macleod Raine
... over now," said Twiddel, philosophically, and yet rather nervously—"at least the amusing ...
— The Lunatic at Large • J. Storer Clouston
... answered, nervously arranging his long arms in the troublesome, starched sleeves. "In the troop I—used to belong to," he ventured to add, "they called me Sherlock Nobody Holmes, the fellers did, because I was interested in deduction and things ...
— Tom Slade with the Colors • Percy K. Fitzhugh
... Doctor Blecker's moustache worked nervously. Lizzy Gurney was not of his kind; now, more than ever, he would have cut every tie between her and Grey, if he could. But his wife ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. July, 1863, No. LXIX. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... beautiful behaviour she was unsurpassed—during the call on Mrs. Welland; but Newland knew (and his betrothed doubtless guessed) that all through the visit she and Janey were nervously on the watch for Madame Olenska's possible intrusion; and when they left the house together she had permitted herself to say to her son: "I'm thankful that ...
— The Age of Innocence • Edith Wharton
... have come off at beginning of Session; put off on account of counter attractions in Committee-Room No. 15; postponement no longer possible; and here we are, House throbbing with excitement, OLD MORALITY nervously clacking about Treasury Bench, bringing his chicks together under his wing. RANDOLPH brought his young beard ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, VOL. 100. Feb. 28, 1891 • Various
... still nervously resenting the memory of the mouth-crushing spade-bit, and the tearing rowels, flinched and sidled away as Collie tried to mount. Her glossy ears were flattened and the rims of her ...
— Overland Red - A Romance of the Moonstone Canon Trail • Henry Herbert Knibbs
... for me!" suddenly yelled the skipper, his fingers moving nervously, and his look continually turning to the banks of mist behind us. "When I sing 'Fire!' ...
— The Iron Pirate - A Plain Tale of Strange Happenings on the Sea • Max Pemberton |
