"Old woman" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... "While the old woman was thus delivering herself, I fixed my eyes steadily upon her. She faltered and seemed unwilling to meet my glances, but gradually recovered her self-possession. The melancholy thought entered my mind that this poor old creature was not simply a dupe of her son's ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn
... unexpected possessions in the hands of the German and Austrian lower classes. To me it was pathetic to see an old woman tremblingly handing over treasures that had come down probably for two or three generations—treasures that had never been worn except on high days and festivals, weddings, and perhaps on the day of the local fair. Particularly sad is this self-sacrifice in view of the gigantic profits of ...
— The Land of Deepening Shadow - Germany-at-War • D. Thomas Curtin
... burning flood poured from her eyes and she threw herself, buried herself in the ex-dancer's arms: "Oh! godmother, how good you are! Yes, yes; don't leave me again—stay with me always. Life frightens and disgusts me. I see so much hypocrisy and lying!" And when the old woman had made herself a silky, embroidered nest in the house, which resembled a traveller's camp filled with the treasures of all lands, those two widely different natures took up ...
— The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alphonse Daudet
... this—when Maitland went to prison his child would have been defenceless but for me; he'd have had to go to the workhouse but for me; he hadn't a single relation in the world but me, on either father's or mother's side. And even at my age, old woman as I am, I'd rather beg my bread in the street, I'd rather starve and die, than touch a penny piece that had come from ...
— The Middle Temple Murder • J.S. Fletcher
... narrative goes on to say, "in a rear building where full daylight never shines—in a cellar-room where pure dry air is never breathed. A quick gentle girl of twelve years, she speaks to the visitor as he enters—'Mother does not see you, sir, because she's blind.' The mother was an old woman of sixty-five or seventy years, with six or seven others seated around. 'But you told me you and your mother and little sister lived by yourselves.' 'Yes, sir—here it is;'" and at the end of the passage the visitor discovers a narrow place, about five feet by three. The bed ...
— Humanity in the City • E. H. Chapin
... tightly, and, closing her heavy eyes, rocked back and forth till the half-waked boy slept again; and there old Keery found her mistress, in the morning, white as the cold drifts without, and a depth of settled agony in her quiet eyes that dimmed the old woman's only ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 • Various
... prevails among the people in middle life, and carries along into old age but little change; and old age is common there. Nearly every house has its old man or old woman, or both. Everybody, father and mother, and frequently grandfather and grandmother, is still on hand, looking as brisk and moving about as lively as the newer generations. After they pass their forty years, they never seem to grow any older for the next twenty or thirty, and the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 • Various
... old woman!" exclaimed Dick, approvingly. "I always said you was a deep un. I always says, if Peg can't find out how a thing is to be done, then ...
— Jack's Ward • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... Twopenny tried to exert herself, but certainly did very little real work. When Mrs Morley was seen accompanying her daughters, Mrs Rumbelow came up to her. "Please, marm, I beg your pardon, but that must not be. What is play to us is killing work for you. Let an old woman advise you, and don't go and knock yourself up. Mr Shafto commands here, and I am sure he will say I am right." It was not, however, without difficulty that the poor lady could be induced ...
— The Voyages of the Ranger and Crusader - And what befell their Passengers and Crews. • W.H.G. Kingston
... old woman. "Oh would gladly keep your son with him as a husband for his daughter, and if you do not bring the lad away with you this time, you will never have him back. This time Oh will show you a flock of doves, and one of them will be your son. Look closely ...
— Tales of Folk and Fairies • Katharine Pyle
... said Anson, stopping the old woman's garrulous flow, "I've got to be off f'r Summit, but I wish you'd jest look after this little one here till we git back. It's purty hard weather f'r her to be out, an' I don't ...
— A Little Norsk; Or, Ol' Pap's Flaxen • Hamlin Garland
... at Tehran, and had taken up my quarters opposite to a druggist's shop, when I was called up in a great hurry by an old woman, who informed me that her master, the druggist, had just been taken exceedingly ill, after having eaten more than usual; that the medicine which he had taken had not performed its office; and that his family wished to try what a talisman would do ...
— The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan • James Morier
... legend is told of the Sibylline Books. An old woman came to Tarquinius Superbus and offered to sell him, for an extravagant price, nine volumes. As the king declined to pay the sum demanded, the woman departed, destroyed three of the books, and then, returning, ...
— A General History for Colleges and High Schools • P. V. N. Myers
... any part of the world; two children at a birth is no uncommon thing, and elderly women, who have believed themselves long past the period of child-bearing, have repeatedly had as fine healthy strong children as ever were seen. And there has but one old woman, who was sickly before she came to the country, and one infant, died of a natural disease on the island, ...
— An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island • John Hunter
... an evening school in the village; that is to say, she was a ridiculous old woman of limited means and unlimited infirmity, who used to go to sleep from six to seven every evening, in the society of youth who paid two pence per week each, for the improving opportunity of seeing her do it. She rented a small cottage, and Mr. Wopsle had the room up stairs, where ...
— Great Expectations • Charles Dickens
... said) that the young Laird abroad was in great trouble since the previous evening. I asked, 'What trouble? Was it danger of life, for instance?'—asking it not seriously, but rather to compose her; for at first I set down her fears to an old woman's whimsies. Not that I would ...
— The Laird's Luck • Arthur Quiller-Couch
... we have often heard the death dirge sung in Montenegro. Sometimes in a house in passing; again, an old woman trudging to market will sing the death dirge of a relation, perhaps dead many years. But we never heard those piercing, wailing notes without having the picture of Medun recalled vividly to ...
— The Land of the Black Mountain - The Adventures of Two Englishmen in Montenegro • Reginald Wyon
... by return of post that she was delighted to think that Howard was coming. "I am getting an old woman," she said, "and fond of memories: and what I hear of you from your enthusiastic pupil Jack makes me wish to see my nephew, and proud of him too. This is a quiet house, but I think you would enjoy it; and it's a real kindness to me to come. ...
— Watersprings • Arthur Christopher Benson
... watching her as she took a key from its hiding-place and opening the big chest in the corner, searched in it for a while. When the old woman raised herself up and turned toward Allison again, there lay on the palm of her hand a gold ring. It was large and massive, and had evidently been rubbed and polished lately, for it shone bright in the light as she held it up to ...
— Allison Bain - By a Way she knew not • Margaret Murray Robertson
... theatre is large and finely decorated, the music admirable,) in the manner which Englishmen generally adopt, for fear of incommoding the ladies in front, when this fair Spaniard dispossessed an old woman (an aunt or a duenna) of her chair, and commanded me to be seated next herself, at a tolerable distance from her mamma. At the close of the performance I withdrew, and was lounging with a party of men in the passage, when, en passant, the lady turned round and called me, ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, Vol. 1 • Lord Byron, Edited by Rowland E. Prothero
... been cut. Following these marks, we came in sight of a village surrounded by fields of corn; but we remained concealed till we thought the people were asleep, and taking the inhabitants by surprise, we secured three men, two very handsome Indian girls, and an old woman, with a few fowls and a small quantity of maize. On bringing our prize to head-quarters, Sandoval was quite overjoyed. "Now," said he to Pedro de Ircio in the presence of Cortes, "was not Castillo in the right, when he refused to take hobbling people along with him, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr
... imitated a certain pathetic yet comical old woman he had heard singing at some camp-meeting, "The dear blessed Bible, the Fam-i-ly Bible," etc. He told me one day that this fondness for singing, especially amid extremely unpromising or gloomy circumstances, had on more ...
— A Canyon Voyage • Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
... frequent rebellions of the provinces had involved almost every person in the guilt of treason, almost every estate in the case of confiscation; and Gallienus often displayed his liberality by distributing among his officers the property of his subjects. On the accession of Claudius, an old woman threw herself at his feet, and complained that a general of the late emperor had obtained an arbitrary grant of her patrimony. This general was Claudius himself, who had not entirely escaped the contagion of the times. The emperor blushed ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon
... almost childish delight that Margaret felt at the thought of the actual journey itself was somewhat damped by the news that Mrs. Parkes was to accompany her. For her grandfather's estimable cook and housekeeper was a grim old woman who ruled the maids with a rod of iron, and who, even in the days of her childhood, had never had a kind look or a smile for Margaret. That, however, in Mr. Anstruther's opinion, had added to her recommendations, for it had been one of his rules that his granddaughter should ...
— The Rebellion of Margaret • Geraldine Mockler
... and the girl went out behind the shop. In a moment her mother waddled in, a huge old woman, a chiefess, who owned much land in her own right; and gave him her hand. Her monstrous obesity was an offence, but she managed to convey an impression of dignity. She was cordial without obsequiousness; affable, but ...
— The Trembling of a Leaf - Little Stories of the South Sea Islands • William Somerset Maugham
... half the distance when I met an old woman who was almost bent double with old age and rheumatism. We recognised each other in a minute. The old woman was Deborah Teague, the terror and yet the blessing of the whole neighbourhood. To her friends there could be no greater comfort than Deborah. She was acquainted ...
— Roger Trewinion • Joseph Hocking
... these, at least, may be obtained for you forthwith; but come, here's the chaise returned again, which has just taken your good little wife and children to my house, where they're all now expecting us. In fact, I haven't yet crossed my own threshold, for I picked up my old woman as I came along, and she has taken your folks back with her; so come along, Job, we'll talk matters over after dinner—come along, my dear fellow—come along, ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 365, March, 1846 • Various
... natives of that Island gave us a cordial reception. We hauled up our canoe and remained some time among them. After our agreeable visit was ended, we returned to the other Island, found the natives well, and that good care had been taken by the chief's mother, an old woman to whom the superintendence of things ...
— A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantucket, in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1824 • William Lay
... two Americans, the Seris were very much afraid of reprisals. For a good while they did not dare to come to the ranch of Senor Encinas, but at length one old woman came for the philosophical purpose of seeing if she would be killed. She was well treated and went away. Eventually confidence was restored, and about sixty of the savages were visiting on ...
— My Native Land • James Cox
... been treated with contempt, no parley being entered into nor conditions considered. Montgomery tried various expedients to have his messages received, but without success, until an old woman was found willing to carry them in. On her errand becoming known, she was arrested, imprisoned for a few hours and then drummed out of the city, thus receiving the most disgraceful dismissal possible in military discipline. The two letters of which she was the bearer were ...
— Famous Firesides of French Canada • Mary Wilson Alloway
... the attention we've given 'er, too," said Pyecroft. "What a greedy old woman!" To Moorshed: "Signal from the ...
— Traffics and Discoveries • Rudyard Kipling
... perhaps she ought to show it to a medical man. "But aren't you a medical man?" said she in an alarmed manner. "Certainly not," replied I. "Then why did you let me show you my leg?" said she indignantly, and pulling her clothes down, the poor old woman began to hobble off; presently two others joined her, and I heard hearty peals of laughter as she recounted her story. A stranger visiting these out-of-the-way villages is almost certain to be mistaken for a doctor. What business, they say to themselves, can any one else have there, ...
— Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino • Samuel Butler
... degrees he became aware that he was followed; and he endeavored to credit the feeling to imagination, to raw nerves. A ghostly rickshaw flitted by. The soft chugging of the coolie's bare feet became faint, ceased. A muttering old woman waddled past. ...
— Peter the Brazen - A Mystery Story of Modern China • George F. Worts
... to attempt the removal of the ancient "Hot Codlings" stand from the west-end of Temple Bar. The old woman who at present occupies the premises is resolved to resist to the utmost so unjust ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, October 2, 1841 • Various
... Lavender below?" said the thin old woman, who was propped up in bed, with some scarlet garment around her that made her resemble more than ever the cockatoo of which Sheila had thought on first seeing her. "Yes," said Sheila. "I want to see you alone: I can't bear him dawdling about a room, and staring ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 31. October, 1873. • Various
... fires she had seen; she had also seen accidental-death corpses, but never a suicide in the act; and here she regretted the failure of her experiences. This conversation of a good-looking girl amazed me. Presently Temple cried, 'A third house caught, and no engines yet! Richie, there's an old woman in her night-dress; we can't ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... fact is, that my old woman thinks since I smashed my shoulder, that it's high time for me to give up divin', and take to lighter work; but I didn't know you were comin' home to-day, sir. I thought you'd been home some days already, else I wouldn't have ...
— Under the Waves - Diving in Deep Waters • R M Ballantyne
... out. The humor lies in Estifania's having ordered the Old Woman to tell these tales of her; for though an intriguer, she is not represented as other than chaste; and as to the ...
— Literary Remains, Vol. 2 • Coleridge
... an old woman made her appearance at the door, and at a word from Pepita took our horses, while Pepita signed to ...
— Out on the Pampas - The Young Settlers • G. A. Henty
... at thirty bob a week; used to lend money to the clerks at high interest, and did very well; for when he pegged out he left the old woman a couple of thousand. His name was Trappem—John Trappem, but he was better known as 'Old Jack Trap.' When they came on board the Barcoo they put on no end of side, and they were 'Mrs., ...
— Chinkie's Flat and Other Stories - 1904 • Louis Becke
... he acquired the sobriquet of "Honest Abe." Says Mr. Arnold: "Of many incidents illustrating his integrity, one or two may be mentioned. One evening he found his cash overran a little, and he discovered that in making change for his last customer, an old woman who had come in a little before sundown, he had made a mistake, not having given her quite enough. Although the amount was small, a few cents, he took the money, immediately walked to her house, and corrected the error. At another time, ...
— The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln • Francis Fisher Browne
... Hollowell confessed, with a soft look in his face. "It's not for sale. Seven figures wouldn't touch it." He looked at it lovingly before he put it up, and then added: "Well, there's a figure for each, Rodney, and a big nest-egg for the old woman besides. There's nothing like it, old man. You'd better come in." And he put his hand affectionately ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... time the Irishman's heart was torn with conflicting feelings, and although, from the mere force of habit, he could jest with the old woman when she paid her daily visits, there was no feeling of fun in his bosom, but, on the contrary, a deep and overwhelming sorrow, which showed itself very evidently on his expressive face. He groaned aloud when he thought of Martin, whom he never expected again to see; and ...
— Martin Rattler • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... the seats or the mural decorations or what the theater looks like, but what you hear there. Don't you think that a theater gets to retain some of its traditions and its greatest associations? It sounds as though I were an old woman; but every time I go there, I seem to feel that the theater remembers, just as I do, the thrills that its walls ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble
... of the little kitchen loft, with its cobwebbed beams faded away, and she was looking into a squalid little room where an old woman, bent and feeble, sat working buttonholes with trembling fingers. Her eyes were restless and expectant; she listened eagerly to every sound. A step is at the door, a hand is on the latch. The old woman rises uncertainly, a great ...
— Sowing Seeds in Danny • Nellie L. McClung
... The good old woman, who had lived nearly all her life with her mistress, was broken-hearted; but she did not forget to persuade Caroline to take food, telling her she must be ready to cheer up the master when he should come in, and assuring her that the throbbing headache which disgusted her with ...
— Magnum Bonum • Charlotte M. Yonge
... nothing against them, though they strongly suspected that they were concerned in many crimes. We went down with them to that quarter, and the police soon found out the place where they lived, but on enquiry were assured that both men were ill, the old woman who came to the door declaring that they had been in bed for some days. However, the police insisted upon entering, and speedily brought them down. Sidi recognized them at once, and indeed they had scarcely lied in saying that they were ill, for the eyelids of one were ...
— At Aboukir and Acre - A Story of Napoleon's Invasion of Egypt • George Alfred Henty
... not meet with many clever people. And as for My numerous worshippers, you forget how often you have demonstrated that I was the delusion of an old woman." ...
— Jurgen - A Comedy of Justice • James Branch Cabell
... up with your everlasting 'certainly nots!' You're as tiresome as an old woman. I wish you'd stayed in ...
— Dorothy on a Ranch • Evelyn Raymond
... An old woman opened the door. She stared and stared, as well she might, to see the fine lady in silks and satins with a gold ring upon her finger, and nobody with her but one who looked like ...
— Twilight Land • Howard Pyle
... old woman Lives in yon house. The squeak of the cricket, The stir of the mouse, Are all she knows Of the earth ...
— Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes - Volume I. • Walter de la Mare
... presence. Elizabeth of England was accustomed to sneer at Fuentes because he had retreated before Essex in that daring commander's famous foray into Portugal. The queen called the Spanish general a timid old woman. If her gibe were true, it was fortunate for her, for Henry of France, and for the republic, that there were not many more such old women to come from Spain to take the place of the veteran chieftains who were destined to disappear so rapidly during this ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... hear his gay morning and evening song; and when you two are sitting beside me hand in hand upon the old bench at the front of our little hut, my youth comes back to me. I see myself sitting on the same bench with my dear old woman—it was our favorite seat when we were young. When Charles Henry leaves me, I not only lose him, but my whole past life ...
— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach
... a lion with his own spear; and right glad you village folks should be to see it, for it was a very fierce lion—just see his teeth and his claws—his claws!—they are enough to make a poor silly old woman like me shriek to look at them! And the body there, the dead body—the lion slew it. Alack! he's an Osiris[*] now, the body—and to think of it, but an hour ago he was an everyday mortal like you or me! Well, away with him to the embalmers. He'll soon swell in the sun ...
— Cleopatra • H. Rider Haggard
... that poor old woman into the dismals, and she has the pains of purgatory on her already. I shall ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Captain Frederick Marryat
... the voice, 'whativer are ye kicking up such a shindy out there for? Whativer d'ye want wid an old woman, and niver a livin' sowl in the house 'cept meself ...
— Willis the Pilot • Paul Adrien
... with your feet on the opposite cushions, your hat arranged aside with that air of undefinable grace characteristic of the Grand Seigneur, and, which is the last remnant of the feudal system, your reiterated orders to drive over an old woman. You did not even condescend to speak English, ...
— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli
... Estelle again, he found that she lived in the Caves of the Hospice de la Providence; he discovered that Jack was a fisherman, and was often away in the boats, sometimes for several nights together. At such times no one remained on guard except the old woman—by which term he meant Mrs. Wright. He also found out that Estelle had not been stolen. He heard the story of her loss of memory concerning certain vital points, and of the doctor's prophecy that some little thing would, without doubt, reveal the missing link, and restore ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various
... college acquaintances. He was consorting with the barbarian! He was a friend of this foreigner! They poured more insults upon him than they did upon the barbarian himself. Some took the stranger as a joke, and laughed and made funny remarks upon his appearance. Here and there an old woman, peeping through the doorway, would utter a loud cackling laugh, and pointing a wizened finger at the missionary would cry: "Eh, eh, look at him! Tee hee! He's got a wash basin on for a hat!" A Hoa was distressed at these remarks, but Mackay ...
— The Black-Bearded Barbarian (George Leslie Mackay) • Mary Esther Miller MacGregor, AKA Marion Keith
... Huckaback Fourth Voyage of Huckaback Fifth Voyage of Huckaback Sixth Voyage of Huckaback The Last Voyage of Huckaback The Scarred Lover The Story of Hudusi Tale of the English Sailor The Water-Carrier The Wondrous Tale of Han Story of the Old Woman ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat
... doorway sat an old woman who had such large teeth that the girl felt afraid of her ...
— The Beacon Second Reader • James H. Fassett
... Archbishop of Canterbury laid the foundation of a Bishop's Church at Inverness, a number of persons, amid the general interest and kindly feeling displayed by the inhabitants, were viewing the procession from a hill as it passed along. When the clergy, to the number of sixty, came on, an old woman, who was watching the whole scene with some jealousy, exclaimed, at sight of the surplices, "There they go, the whited sepulchres!" I received another anecdote illustrative of the same remark from an esteemed minister of ...
— Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character • Edward Bannerman Ramsay
... to come near her! No one to cheer her! No one to jeer her! No one to hear her! Not a thing to lift and hold! She is always awake, But her heart will not break: She can only quake, Shiver, and shake: The old woman is very cold. ...
— A Double Story • George MacDonald
... surgeon's shop, his acquaintance the girl brought him to an under-ground room in one of the narrow lanes off the street, which, save for the light of a great fire, would have been pitch dark at mid-day, and in which he found a little wrinkled old woman, as yellow as the smoke that filled the apartment. "Choose," said the hag, as she looked at the injured part, "one of two things—a cure slow but sure, or sudden but imperfect. Or shall I put back the hurt altogether till you get home?" ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller
... found frequently in the flinty gravel of that county. They esteemed such stones sacred to the elfin train, and termed them fairy loaves, forbearing to touch them, lest misfortunes should come upon them for the sacrilege. An old woman told me, that as she was trudging home one night from her field-work, she took up one of these fossils, and was going to carry it home with her; but was soon obliged to drop it, and take to her heels as quick as might be, from hearing a wrathful voice exclaim, ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 10, Issue 285, December 1, 1827 • Various
... hare hunter, but the hounds could never catch this hare; it always disappeared in a mill, running between the wings and jumping in at an open window, though they stationed two men and a dog at the spot, when it immediately turned into the old witch. And the old miller never suspected, for the old woman used to take him a peck of corn to grind a few days before any hunt, telling him she would call for it on the afternoon of the day of the hunt. So that when she arrived she ...
— Welsh Fairy-Tales And Other Stories • Edited by P. H. Emerson
... an old woman for rambling away from the subject in which you are interested—Navajo blankets. Ever since we planned to make a rug with a swastika in the centre, I nave been trying to evolve from my brain (and your Uncle John says my bump of inventiveness is abnormally large) a Navajo ...
— Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit - among the "Pennsylvania Germans" • Edith M. Thomas
... "What does this old woman want?" asked the engineer of Jaquis one evening when, returning to his tent, he found the fat Cree and her ...
— The Last Spike - And Other Railroad Stories • Cy Warman
... shuffling step approach the door, it was unlocked, and a gray old woman, with a huge horsehair wig upon her ...
— The Girl from Sunset Ranch - Alone in a Great City • Amy Bell Marlowe
... with Androvsky along the straight road which had always fascinated her spirit of adventure. They had ridden slowly, without looking at each other, without exchanging a word. She had felt dry and weary, like an old woman who had passed through a long life of suffering and emerged into a region where any acute feeling is unable to exist, as at a certain altitude from the earth human life can no longer exist. The beat of the horses' ...
— The Garden Of Allah • Robert Hichens
... ceremonious," cried Mr Wodehouse. "Take Lucy, my dear sir—take Lucy. Though she has her garden-gloves on, she's manager indoors for all that. Molly here is the one we coddle up and take care of. Put down your knitting, child, and don't make an old woman of yourself. To be sure, it's your own concern—you should know best; but that's my opinion. Why, Wentworth, where are you off to? 'Tisn't a fast, surely—is it, Mary?—nothing of the sort; it's ...
— The Rector • Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
... I should call it; he looked like a gentleman and spoke like one, and there he was, collecting pennies! I was watching him coming round to our table when a girl came in, a tall, dark young girl, with a tray of glasses. 'Hello!' says the Chief, 'that's not Rosa, is it?' The old woman nods and says, 'That's Rosa all right, Chief.' And he called out to the girl to come ...
— Aliens • William McFee
... hardly able to move. "Oh, tell me, Wolf, what brought you here! I am so glad to have helped you!" After a little time, when Wolf could speak, he told him in his own way, bit by bit, how Ralph had suspected him; and how the old woman had heard him speaking as she was looking out of an upper window; and how when Ralph asked the gold belt he could not give it; and how he was obliged himself to fly; and how he had been running for his life for hours. "Now let us fly," said ...
— The Gold Thread - A Story for the Young • Norman MacLeod
... replies old Glegg, who's mollified a lot, 'it's as the good book says: A soft answer turneth away wrath; but more speshully when the opp'sition's got your guns. I begins to see things different. Still, I hates to lose my Abby that a-way. Since my old woman dies, Abby, gents, has been the ...
— Wolfville Nights • Alfred Lewis
... old woman came to the door. In answer to his inquiries she stated that a gentleman had been living there three weeks, but that on the arrival of his daughter he ...
— Cord and Creese • James de Mille
... Emmy came for water, the old woman took her by the hand in silence and led her into the dim meat-cellar, a half-basement with one low window level with the grass. There was the pail, safe hidden ...
— The Desert and The Sown • Mary Hallock Foote
... her divine rights, if she had any,—and in fact Saint Bernard preferred her without them,—while she was scandalized at the greed of officials in her Son's Court. One day a rich usurer and a very poor old woman happened to be dying in the same town. Gaultier de Coincy did not say, as an accurate historian should, that he was present, nor did he mention names or dates, although it was one of his longest and best stories. Mary never loved bankers, and had no reason for taking ...
— Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres • Henry Adams
... not hush," pursued the old woman; "I will say my say, for I love ye both, and I loved my poor mistress who is dead and gone. Ah, sir, groan! it does you good. And now when this sweet damsel is growing up, now when you should think of saving a marriage ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... known that Mr Crosbie could have gained nothing by his wife's rank, and the barrister may be considered to have been not immoderately severe when he simply spoke of her afterwards as the silliest and most ignorant old woman he had ever met in his life. Eames with the lovely Miss Demolines on his arm was the last to move before the hostess. Mr Dobbs Broughton had led the way energetically with old Lady Demolines. There was no doubt about Lady Demolines,—as his wife had told him, because ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope
... or decayed by reason of his predecessor's living at a better Parsonage-house; namely, at Minal, sixteen or twenty miles from this place. At which time of Mr. Herbert's coming alone to Bemerton, there came to him a poor old woman, with an intent to acquaint him with her necessitous condition, as also with some troubles of her mind: but after she had spoke some few words to him, she was surprised with a fear, and that begot a shortness of ...
— Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George Herbert, - &C, Volume Two • Izaak Walton
... thought you were a man; but you are like an old woman who thinks the house must be on fire as soon as she sees smoke rising from her pot. See," he went on, "if I know anything more about this story than that doorpost there, may I never hope for salvation. I was at home long before," he added. Frederick stood ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various
... The old woman smiled wisely. "It was only the Troll's well-water," she said, and went home as fast as ...
— Soap-Bubble Stories - For Children • Fanny Barry
... the other. Now the Viscount was a right rich man: so had he a rich palace with a garden in face of it; in an upper chamber thereof he had Nicolette placed, with one old woman to keep her company, and in that chamber put bread and meat and wine and such things as were needful. Then he had the door sealed, that none might come in or go forth, save that there was one window, over against ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner
... I did not give my meaning clearly. A little story may help. The story of the worthy old woman of Goshen, a very moral old woman, who wouldn't let her shoats eat fattening apples in fall, for fear the fruit might ferment upon their brains, and so make them swinish. Now, during a green Christmas, inauspicious to the old, this worthy old woman fell into a moping decline, took to ...
— The Confidence-Man • Herman Melville
... is to Nottingham gone, With a link a down, and a day, And there he met a silly old woman Was weeping ...
— Halleck's New English Literature • Reuben P. Halleck
... think we wear silks and satins on board ship, I see, young gentleman, do you?" he said with a comical grin, eyeing my new coat and waistcoat. "You'll have to send these back to your grandmother, or the old woman who ...
— Paddy Finn • W. H. G. Kingston
... Ford was the most undemonstrative of women. But as Lizzie looked closer into her face, she read the signs of a grief infinitely more potent than her own. The formal kiss gave way: the young girl leaned her head on the old woman's shoulder and burst into sobs. Mrs. Ford acknowledged those tears with a slow inclination of the head, full of a certain grim pathos: she put out her arms and pressed them ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 89, March, 1865 • Various
... old woman, tottering out from among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and, peering under it in his face for a moment, exclaimed, "Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle! it is himself! Welcome home again, old neighbor! Why, where have you been ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey
... by the way, in parenthesis, that Ivan Ossipovitch, our dear mild governor, was rather like an old woman, though he was of good family and highly connected—which explains the fact that he remained so long among us, though he steadily avoided all the duties of his office. From his munificence and hospitality he ought rather to have been a marshal of nobility of the good old ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... applause of mature critics. He often exhibited all his powers of mimicry for the amusement of the little Burneys, awed them by shuddering and crouching as if he saw a ghost, scared them by raving like a maniac in St. Luke's, and then at once became an auctioneer, a chimney-sweeper or an old woman, and made them laugh till the tears ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 1 • Madame D'Arblay
... went round the room, which a stern voice checked with "Silence, there!" but which renewed itself when the old woman took the stand at the end of the clerk's long desk, while a policeman mounted a similar platform outside the rail, and gave his testimony against her. It was very conclusive, and it was not affected by the denials with which the poor woman gave herself away more and more. She had nothing ...
— The Minister's Charge • William D. Howells
... The simple old woman, comprehending only that they speak of her, drops a courtesy, looking furtively about her with troubled eyes, and fumbling over her beads; the "protest" has no meaning for her, although it ...
— A Golden Book of Venice • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull
... fervor, "I am too happy in being made the instrument of serving such a being as you are to take any offense at words wrung from the over-burdened heart. Come with me, fair Alice, and I will place you in safety." I conducted her to the cottage of an old woman, who had been my nurse. Though rough and frightful, she was kindly in her nature, and I knew would do any thing to ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 • Various
... gospel would be infamy. I think those to the sick should look also, A work unfit for younger ones to do. Wherefore he saith, The younger ones refuse; Perhaps because their weakness would abuse Them, and subject them unto great disgrace, When such a one as Amnon is in place. And since the good old woman this must do 'Tis fit she should be fed and clothed too, Out of the deacon's purse, let it so be; And let this ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... the very farthest corner of the courtyard she had begged for, somewhat apart from the others. It was quite dark inside when Sunni pushed open the door, but the old woman, slumbering light, started up from her charpoy with ...
— The Story of Sonny Sahib • Sara Jeannette Duncan
... to suppress insurrections, whereas the States individually certainly possessed this power and would execute it. Another thought it an insult to the majesty of the people to hold out the idea that it may be necessary to execute the laws at the point of the bayonet. "If an old woman," cried a disgusted member of the minority, "was to strike an excise officer with a broomstick, forsooth the military is to be called out to suppress ...
— The United States of America Part I • Ediwn Erle Sparks
... the work is so different from that of all the other figures in the chapel, that no solidarity can be seen between it and them. It would be too much to say that the others are as bad as this is good, but the difference between Rembrandt's old woman in our National Gallery and an average Royal Academy portrait of fifty years ago, is not more striking than that between the ...
— Ex Voto • Samuel Butler
... mind trying. I'm generally good to folks—when they're sick—and I aint a bit scared of dirty nor of dead ones. I laid out an old woman that died in ...
— The Making of Mary • Jean Forsyth
... took the letters!" she repeated piteously. "Punish me!" Her figure, bowed like an old woman's over the neck of her horse, seemed to crave ...
— Count Hannibal - A Romance of the Court of France • Stanley J. Weyman
... met some natives, and from one old woman learnt the names of some of the neighbouring streams, particularly the Warrego, which river they had crossed on their outward way. The first river he encountered was the Nive, and again he, as usual, flattered himself that he was at the head of Gulf waters, ...
— The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 • Ernest Favenc
... talked in a sad voice of the old woman's aches and pains, the egoism of vigorous youth spurred her on with nervous haste until her cheeks became suffused with color, and her eyes betrayed a certain impatience. This was courting day. They must reach Can Mallorqui ...
— The Dead Command - From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... drank freely. Conversing on the treaty, Talleyrand says, 'Mais vraiment, Monsieur Hamilton, ce n'est pas Men honnete, after making the Senate ratify the treaty, to advise the President to reject it.' 'The treaty,' says Hamilton, 'is an execrable one, and Jay was an old woman for making it; but the whole credit of saving us from it must be given to the President.' After circumstances had led to a conclusion that the President also must ratify it, he said to the same Talleyrand, 'Though the treaty is a most execrable one, yet when once we have come to a determination ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson
... our candidate (General Scott) as faithfully as he has always stood by our country, and I much doubt if we do not perceive a slight abatement of Judge Douglas' confidence in Providence as well as the people. I suspect that confidence is not more firmly fixed with the judge than it was with the old woman whose horse ran away with her in a buggy. She said she 'trusted in Providence till the britchen broke,' and then she 'didn't know what in airth ...
— Lincoln's Yarns and Stories • Alexander K. McClure |
