"Ma'am" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... "If you please, ma'am," he began, "the Terrace Hill carriage is here. I told the driver how't you wanted to go there. Shall I ...
— Bad Hugh • Mary Jane Holmes
... little girl indeed,' said the doctor; 'little, but well-formed. Halloa, Mrs Bangham! You're looking queer! You be off, ma'am, this minute, and fetch a little more brandy, or we shall ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens
... I'll carry you," said Roger Trew, lifting up the hen hornbill; but the bird fought so desperately that he was glad to put her down again. "We must tie your legs and put your nose in a bag, ma'am," said Roger, "or you will be doing ...
— In the Eastern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston
... their mooring, And all hands must ply the oar; Baggage from the quay is lowering, We're impatient—push from shore. 'Have a care! that case holds liquor— Stop the boat—I'm sick—oh Lord!' 'Sick, ma'am, damme, you'll be sicker Ere you've been an hour on board.' Thus are screaming Men and women, Gemmen, ladies, servants, Jacks; Here entangling, All are wrangling, Stuck together close as wax. Such the general noise and racket, Ere we ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, Vol. 1 • Lord Byron, Edited by Rowland E. Prothero
... "Go in, ma'am," he said; "wrap up warm, and put on thick shoes, and come quietly down to this door. I'll just slip in and quiet the servants, and ...
— Miscellanea • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... badly frightened, ma'am, I'm afraid," she said, in a voice which precisely matched the face; strong and somewhat harsh, ...
— The End of a Coil • Susan Warner
... "WELL, ma'am! I must say that was the slickest, pluckiest thing ever I saw anywheres. I don't know what would—I—I declare I don't know how ...
— Cy Whittaker's Place • Joseph C. Lincoln
... possessed the characteristic veneration of the bred and born New Englander for his native or imported school-ma'am, resented persistently their somewhat patronizing attitude toward the profession second only to the ministry in her stanch respect. A little of the simple grandeur of those childhood days when "the teacher ...
— Julia The Apostate • Josephine Daskam
... 'No, ma'am, I don't want any doctor. I had as lief die as not, I'm so miserable; beside, if I hadn't, Dr. Coachey would kill me, poking and preaching over me. Oh, if George ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... that he would tell Mary that evening that if Mrs. Jameson had been the heroine of any unconventional domestic drama it was an unmistakable fact that Jane Cupp would have "felt it her duty as a young woman to leave this day month, if you please, ma'am," quite six months ago. And there she was, in a neat gown and apron,—evidently a fixture because she liked her place,—her decent young face ...
— Emily Fox-Seton - Being The Making of a Marchioness and The Methods of Lady Walderhurst • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... "Yes, ma'am, I'll be careful," said Teddy, beginning very slowly to slide his feet down in the bed. Suddenly, the door-knob turned, and Teddy gave a start;—quick as a flash the Counterpane ...
— The Counterpane Fairy • Katharine Pyle
... "Thank you, ma'am," replied Mrs. Brobson, the chief nurse; "but I don't think as these gardings is anyways equal to the Tooleries—nor to Regent's Park even. When I were in Paris with Lady Fitz-Lubin we took the children to the Tooleries or the Bore de Boulong every day—but, law me! the Bore ...
— The Lovels of Arden • M. E. Braddon
... night's rest'll do you a lot of good, ma'am," he ventured. Then he added, "Beggin' pardon, ain't you ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... Leander on both cheeks. "He's done the best of all my nephews, Mrs. Collum, ma'am," she explained, "and he's never caused me a moment's anxiety since I first had the care of him, when he was first apprenticed to Catchpole's in Holborn, and ...
— The Tinted Venus - A Farcical Romance • F. Anstey
... ye'r ready. Servant, ma'am!" said he, taking off his hat as he saw Mrs. Shelby, who detained him a few moments. Speaking in an earnest manner, she made him promise to let her know to whom he sold Tom; while Tom rose up meekly, and his wife took the baby in her arms, her tears seeming suddenly turned to sparks ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VIII • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... met a stranger, for he was intimately acquainted with a man as soon as he saw him. Introductions were useless ceremonies to him, for he cared nothing about names. He called a woman "ma'am" and a man "mister," and if he could sell either of them a few goods, he never troubled himself or them with impertinent inquiries. Sometimes he had a habit of learning each man's name from his next neighbor, and possessing an excellent ...
— Western Characters - or Types of Border Life in the Western States • J. L. McConnel
... she is taking her music lesson, ma'am,' faltered the girl who had ventured diffidently to impart this information ...
— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon
... 'Oh, ma'am, but I don't want to leave you. That is just what I told Terence. "If master and mistress are willing that I shall marry you and stay on with them as before, I won't say no, Terence; but if they say that they would not take a married servant, then, Terence, we must ...
— Out on the Pampas - The Young Settlers • G. A. Henty
... kim for to seek your true-love, He from the ship is gone away: And you'll find him in London streets, ma'am, Valking vith ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 6, June 1810 • Various
... "No, ma'am." The old man in the entrance-hall behind her shook his head. In the thin, blown light of the candelabra which he held high, the worry and doubt of her deepened ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various
... "No, ma'am, she's alive and well—at least she's well for her, but she an't over strong. That's why I want to get work, that I may help her; and she wants me to be a clerk in a office, but I'd rather be a fireman. You couldn't make me a fireman, could ...
— Fighting the Flames • R.M. Ballantyne
... o' musk into a draw An' it clings hold like precerdents in law: Your gran'ma'am put it there,—when, goodness knows,— To jes' this-worldify her Sunday-clo'es; But the old chist wun't sarve her gran'son's wife, (For, 'thout new funnitoor, wut good in life?) An' so ole clawfoot, from the precinks dread O' the spare-chamber, slinks into ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 56, June, 1862 • Various
... catching her deftly. "Delighted, I'm sure, ma'am! It's a privilege to catch any one like you. Come on, old girl, and I'll clear the ...
— A Little Bush Maid • Mary Grant Bruce
... house, but there were no signs of them. The door was opened by Mrs. Backhouse, the farmer's wife, who held a fair-haired baby in her arms sucking a great crust of brown bread, and when Mr. and Mrs. Norton had shaken hands with her—"I'm sure, ma'am, I'm very pleased to see you here," said Mrs. Backhouse. "John told me you were come (only Mrs. Backhouse said 'coom'), and Becky and Tiza went down with their father when he took the milk this morning, hoping they would catch a sight of your children. They have been just wild to ...
— Milly and Olly • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... Billy Burr serenely, "it's not my donkey. That's why he won't go, ma'am! It's Dickie Lowe's donkey, but he's got a cold and he had to save up for to-night, ma'am, to sing in the Stainer. Whoa—there—get on, ...
— The Girls of St. Olave's • Mabel Mackintosh
... announced the policeman. "Open the door, ma'am; or step back into the further hall if you want me ...
— That Affair Next Door • Anna Katharine Green
... safely across. While she was in Fredericksburg, after the battle of the 13th, some soldiers of the corps who had been roving about the city, came to her quarters bringing with great difficulty a large and very costly and elegant carpet. "What is this for?" asked Miss Barton. "It is for you, ma'am," said one of the soldiers; "you have been so good to us, that we wanted to bring you something." "Where did you get it?" she asked. "Oh! ma'am, we confiscated it," said the soldiers. "No! no!" said the lady; "that will never do. Governments confiscate. Soldiers when they ...
— Woman's Work in the Civil War - A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience • Linus Pierpont Brockett
... Lynch's, and I'm wanting to spake to yerself, ma'am—about Miss Anty. She's very ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope
... full and the night was wet. The bell rang, the car stopped, and a lady entered. As she looked tired a nice old gentleman in the corner rose and inquired in a kind voice, "Would you like to sit down, ma'am? Excuse me, though," he added; "I think you are Mrs. Sprouter, the advocate of ...
— Good Stories from The Ladies Home Journal • Various
... my best, ma'am, but can't get much higher, I'm afraid, as six feet is about all men can do in these degenerate days," responded the young gentleman, whose head was about level ...
— Little Women • Louisa May Alcott
... listening for your bell ever so long, ma'am," said the girl; "you'll scarcely have ...
— The Lovels of Arden • M. E. Braddon
... "Yes, ma'am," choked Harry, drying his face on the sleeve of his gingham shirt. He sat down on a box before the door, the plate of food in his lap, and made an attempt to eat the daintily cooked meal, but every ...
— Stories Worth Rereading • Various
... her as if he were half daft then, but he answered: "Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am, certainly, ma'am, no danger at all, ma'am." Then he went on ordering the men: "A leetle more to ...
— The Jamesons • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... has been as fresh as paint. She is made of cast-iron, that's my belief," continued Dawson, who secretly adored her mistress; "but cast-iron is one thing and a fragile blossom like Miss Anna is another, as I made bold to tell my mistress the other day; 'for it stands to reason, ma'am,' I said to her, 'that a young creature like Miss Anna is not seasoned and toughened like a lady of your age, and I never did think much of ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... and roomy for a little craft like ours," said the mate, as he drew a stone bottle from a locker and poured out a couple of glasses of stout. "Try a little beer, ma'am." ...
— Many Cargoes • W.W. Jacobs
... couldn't do much more than get your bracelet back, ma'am," Mrs. Lawrence replied with acerbity. "Such a fuss and calling every one thieves, too! I'd be ashamed ...
— The Tempting of Tavernake • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... nothing, miss. I reckon it'll be a saving of trouble to take em now. I don't b'lieve a word about your ma'am giving 'em to you; and, more'n all, I don't b'lieve you've got ...
— Outpost • J.G. Austin
... wife of his still more excellent and faithful steward. And Flora wished all these excellent people, devoted to Anthony, she wished them all further; and especially the nice, pleasant-spoken Mrs Brown with her beady, mobile eyes and her "Yes certainly, ma'am," which seemed to her to have a mocking sound. And so this short trip—to the Western Islands only—came to an end. It was so short that when young Powell joined the Ferndale by a memorable stroke of chance, no more than seven months had elapsed since the—let us say the liberation of ...
— Chance - A Tale in Two Parts • Joseph Conrad
... from the face of one sister to the face of the other, reading their looks. "Uh-huh!" she snorted. "I mout 'a' knowed he'd be de ver' one to come puttin' sech notions ez dem in you chillens' haids. Well, ma'am, an' whut, pray, do he want?" Her words ...
— From Place to Place • Irvin S. Cobb
... on this feller," said Brown grimly. "It won't go off, ma'am, unless he makes a move ...
— The Day of the Dog • George Barr McCutcheon
... "Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Miss Devine. Will you tell the janitor, please, it's all right if I have to stay? He was cross because I was here Saturday afternoon doing this. He said it was a holiday, and when everybody else was gone I ...
— A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays • Willa Cather
... I went straight into his saloon. "Lady," says he, "the goil's nutty! You got a bughouse patient on your bands! This here talk about the white-slave traffic, ma'am... it's all the work o' these magazine muckrakers!" "Meaning myself, Mr. Leary?" said I, and he looked kind of puzzled. I don't think ...
— The Machine • Upton Sinclair
... money by slave-trading down in Carolina, ma'am. I reckon a man has to pray a deal to get himself out of that scrape; needs to pray pretty loud too, or the voice of women screaming for their babies would get to the throne afore him. He don't like us over and above well, 'cause we're Abolitionists. But there's ...
— A Romance of the Republic • Lydia Maria Francis Child
... "Please, ma'am," said the child, timidly, "I s'pose he hired 'em out." (This is an actual fact, and the name of the town where it occurred begins ...
— Harper's Young People, March 23, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... to-night and see what Ma'am Fontaine says," she thought. (Madame Fontaine told fortunes on the cards for all the servants in the quarter of the Marais.) "Since these two gentlemen came here, we have put two thousand francs in the savings bank. Two thousand francs in eight years! What luck! Would it be better ...
— Cousin Pons • Honore de Balzac
... please ma'am, I should wish to leave at my day month.' Mother leaned against the hatstand. The children could see her looking pale through the crack of the door, because she had been very kind to the cook, and had given her a ...
— The Phoenix and the Carpet • E. Nesbit
... who was uncomfortable somehow at the rencontre between the Captain and the object of his affection. "HE'S not in the profession, Mrs. C. This is my friend Captain Walker, and proud I am to call him my friend." And then aside to Mrs. C., "One of the first swells on town, ma'am—a ...
— Men's Wives • William Makepeace Thackeray
... you please, ma'am," asked Susan, lingering for a moment at the door, "may I ask how, all things considering, the dear young ...
— The Palace Beautiful - A Story for Girls • L. T. Meade
... one servant, ma'am. The woman has spared Miss Emily the trouble of dismissing her." He briefly alluded to Mrs. Ellmother's desertion of her mistress. "I can't explain it," he said when he had done. ...
— I Say No • Wilkie Collins
... fine day, ma'am," he remarked, seeking cover for his soul in conversation. "A little warm for the time," he continued, wiping his forehead with ...
— The Major • Ralph Connor
... I'm on deck, Ma'am; though, when I first went mate, I could sleep anyhow and anywhere. I sailed out of Boston to South America, in a topsail-schooner, with an old fellow by the name of Eaton,—just the strangest old scamp you ever dreamed of. I suppose by rights he ought to have been in ...
— The Atlantic Monthly , Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858 • Various
... "Sure, ma'am. That's his game. He t'rows phony fits. He eats a bit of soap and makes his mouth foam. Last week, he got pinched right ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1920 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... mile farther on her way home!' she said, as she paid the man his fare. The next moment she had knocked at the house-door. 'Is Miss Lockwood at home?' 'Yes, ma'am.' She stepped over the threshold—the ...
— The Haunted Hotel - A Mystery of Modern Venice • Wilkie Collins
... dollars, ma'am, if you'd get Belinda to plant anything"—which was not delicately put, perhaps, but was, after all, spoken in the only language that ...
— Virginia • Ellen Glasgow
... your sex dispose of the problems of life, ma'am," replied Mr. Constantine to Miss Flora Le Pettit, the heiress of Ignores Manor, when she supplied him with this moral as an epitaph oh the affair. Miss Le Pettit smiled on him amiably, but arched her already springing brows as well, for though everyone knew Mr. Constantine ...
— The White Riband - A Young Female's Folly • Fryniwyd Tennyson Jesse
... egg, and has a spoon in her hand with which she is going to crack it. The Virgin's mother is frowning and motioning it away; she is quite as well as can be expected; still she does not feel equal to taking solid food, and the nurse is saying, "Do try, ma'am, just one little spoonful, the doctor said you was to have it, ma'am." In the smaller picture by Carpaccio at Bergamo she is again to have an egg; in the larger she is to have some broth now, but a servant can be seen in the kitchen plucking a fowl ...
— Ex Voto • Samuel Butler
... supernatural appearance was enough for that. Then I was seized with a great fear lest, in his friendliness, he should expect me to shake hands. That was as if I should have thrust my fingers into this tap-room grate. Well, ma'am (your good health, Mrs. Pittis), the strange thing came up to me quite pleasant, with a beaming face, and said, in something of a voice like a hoarse blast pipe, 'Glad to see you, Mr. Spruce. How did you come ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 • Various
... "Not much, ma'am," replied the sheriff's officer, "when you are used to it. It is my unpleasant duty to arrest her for the sum of eighty-seven pounds, indorsed on this writ, issued at the suit ...
— The Experiences of a Barrister, and Confessions of an Attorney • Samuel Warren
... Wagley replied. 'Pray, ma'am' (to Mrs. Chuff), 'you who know the world and etiquette, will you tell me what a man ought to do in my case? Last June, his Grace, his son Lord Castlerampant, Tom Smith, and myself were dining at the Club, when I offered the odds against DADDYLONGLEGS for the Derby—forty ...
— The Book of Snobs • William Makepeace Thackeray
... "No, ma'am, he only bowed. You see some people are not so presuming as other people thought they were; for we are not the most attractive beings on the planet; therefore a gentleman can be polite and then forget us without breaking any of the Ten Commandments. Don't be offended with ...
— A Modern Cinderella - or The Little Old Show and Other Stories • Louisa May Alcott
... to interlard conversation with "sir," or "ma'am." In Europe these terms are relegated to the ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke
... o' musk into a draw, An' it clings hold like precerdents in law; Your gra'ma'am put it there,—when, goodness knows,— To jes this—worldify her Sunday-clo'es; But the old chist wun't sarve her gran'son's wife, (For, 'thout new funnitoor, wut good in life?) An' so ole clawfoot, ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various
... please, ma'am, Mrs. Livingstone and Miss Mabel are in the parlor," said a servant, suddenly ...
— 'Lena Rivers • Mary J. Holmes
... deal. "His name is Captain Costigan, ma'am," he said—"a Peninsular officer." In fact it was the Captain in a new shoot of clothes, as he called them, and with a large pair of white kid gloves, one of which he waved to Pendennis, whilst he laid the other sprawling over his heart and coat-buttons. ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... expect, ma'am, when they come to it without their notes? Stands to reason, if any man's going to preach earnest, earnest, mind you, he'll require some notes or heads jotted down, clear and easy to be got at, before him." This was the opinion of another elderly ...
— Ringfield - A Novel • Susie Frances Harrison
... Smith, flying up to me, caught my hand, and with a motion too quick to be resisted, ran away with me many yards before I had breath to ask his meaning; though I struggled as well as I could to get from him. At last, however, I insisted upon stopping. "Stopping, ma'am!" cried he, "why, we must run on, or we shall lose ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various
... not now, that's plain enough, or I'd make King's Forest sit up and take notice. Well, well, Miss Heathcote, just talk over with your brother what I've said to you. A man looks at some things different from a woman. Good-bye, ma'am, good-bye. Looks as if it ...
— At the Crossroads • Harriet T. Comstock
... know where to find you lads, if you're wanted," grinned Policeman Whalen. "I don't want a big crowd following. Mrs. Dexter, ma'am, I'll be looking for you ...
— The Grammar School Boys of Gridley - or, Dick & Co. Start Things Moving • H. Irving Hancock
... you needn't begin to sneeze yet awhile. I can sneeze for my own children, thank you, ma'am," returned Betty, sharply, for her usually amiable spirit had been ...
— St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 2, December, 1877 • Various
... his amazement; then he turned and roared to the gaping and snickering soldiers, "Get out of here, every doodle of you, and be—to you!" Keeping his back to the bed, he said, "I pray your pardon, ma'am, for disturbing you; our spies assured us that only Hessian officers ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford
... "Yes, ma'am, many," answered the young man, sadly. "The last was about a question of money—of ransom which I promised to the old lieutenant of the fort who aided me to make my escape. I told you he had a mistress, a poor Indian woman, who helped me, and was kind to me. Six ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray
... "Oh, ma'am, what will I do?" cried Kate. "Why, it's a rale fortune! I—must I let him throw it out the window? What all them jewels and gold would mean to me and Tim—the difference in our lives! If I won't have the bag some wicked tramp may find and sell ...
— The Port of Adventure • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson
... "Yes, ma'am; it's Johnny's birthday and I promised to take him up to the Bronx. Mr. O'Hara had his breakfast at seven, and I got through earlier than usual. He is so tidy that there ain't much to do except ...
— Life and Gabriella - The Story of a Woman's Courage • Ellen Glasgow
... an untruth. One of the dreadful things that made our dear Lord kill Ananias and Sapphira dead. Wasn't that awful? Mamma and papa didn't know what to do. A nickel didn't seem much pay for a lie, did it? So they made it a dollar. Yes, ma'am, one whole dollar. That's twenty nickels. Oh, it was so unhappy those days! I was gladder than ever that I was blind. I think I should have died to see the bad face of the one that did it while it was bad. But mamma says such ...
— Reels and Spindles - A Story of Mill Life • Evelyn Raymond
... that for a moment words failed him. Then he said, meekly, "Does your mother object to tobacco smoke, ma'am?" ...
— Quaint Courtships • Howells & Alden, Editors
... at her with a startled expression. "Why, I don't know. No, ma'am, I'm afraid a rig couldn't make it in this storm. It's halfway up the mountain—do you happen to know the young lady that was lost ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower
... here,' she said, kissing him. 'Oh, ma'am,' she went, on turning wildly to the lady of the house, 'do protect us, don't ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin, Young Folks' Edition • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... all right," said the old miner, too embarrassed to meet her eye. "Glad we could be some use to you, ma'am. But ef you'll take an old man's advice," he added, as he and his daughter started through the woods in the direction of Gold Run, "you won't go roaming around in these parts without a gun ...
— The Outdoor Girls in the Saddle - Or, The Girl Miner of Gold Run • Laura Lee Hope
... "Yes, ma'am," said Sally, who had sprung up in light and radiance, like a translated creature, at this unexpected turn of fortune, and performed the welcome orders with a celerity which showed how agreeable they were; and then, stooping ...
— The Pearl of Orr's Island - A Story of the Coast of Maine • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... and to permit my wife and family to reside here; for which it is hardly necessary to say, we are much indebted to her. She is exceedingly courteous, you perceive,' on this hint she bowed condescendingly, 'and will permit me to have the pleasure of introducing you: a gentleman from England, Ma'am: newly arrived from England, after a very tempestuous passage: Mr. Dickens, - the ...
— American Notes for General Circulation • Charles Dickens
... true or not, they sufficiently prove what the reputation of the man must have been. Thus, when a lady, afflicted with a curvature of the spine, told him that 'She had come straight from London that day,' Nash replied with utter heartlessness, 'Then, ma'am, you've been damnably warpt on the road.' The lady had her revenge, however, for meeting the beau one day in the Grove, as she toddled along with her dog, and being impudently asked by him if she knew the name of Tobit's dog, she answered quickly, 'Yes, sir, his ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton
... do it, ma'am,' replied the gardener. 'I look we shall have a merry Christmas, and I do like to see the room well ...
— Christmas, A Happy Time - A Tale, Calculated for the Amusement and Instruction of Young Persons • Miss Mant
... little on, draw the razor a couple of times over it—shave. Razor runs over the face like a steam-carriage along a railroad, you don't know how; beard disappears like grass before the sickle, or a regiment of Britishers before Yankee rifles. Great vartue in the sarve—uncommon vartue! Ma'am!" cried he to a lady who, like ourselves, was looking on from a short distance at this ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844 • Various
... a pity, ma'am,' said the landlady, 'her husband died only two months ago, and they say he was so handsome a man; indeed, he must have been, for here's his picture, which the poor lady ...
— Valerie • Frederick Marryat
... "Congratulate him for me. I didn't know the little milksop had it in him. You ought to thank Sissy, ma'am, for proving that he is not really stuffed with sawdust. ...
— The Madigans • Miriam Michelson
... stuff, ma'am," said J. Pinkney Bloom, enthusiastically, when the poetess had concluded. "I wish I had looked up poetry more than I have. I was raised in the ...
— Waifs and Strays - Part 1 • O. Henry
... at the window.) O, miss, your father has suddenly returned. I see him with Mr. Saunders, coming down the street. Mr. Saunders, ma'am! ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV - Poems and Plays • Charles and Mary Lamb
... ma'am?' I inquired, still preserving my external composure, in spite of her ghastly countenance and ...
— Wuthering Heights • Emily Bronte
... you you must stay; but I shall hope to see you again some day. Will you not be kind to this poor creature, ma'am? Forgive me, if I offended you last night, and favour me by accepting this, to show that we are friends." As he spoke, he slid his purse into the woman's hand. "I shall feel ever grateful for whatever you can ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... I'm sure, ma'am,' replied Susan. 'I saw it on the pincushion yesterday, before the young ladies went out; I have not seen it since. Perhaps Miss Mabel may ...
— Aunt Mary • Mrs. Perring
... not the watch you lost, Ma'am, this is a lady's watch," said Dr. Wise tersely, being convinced that the woman was an imposter, and that she had not lost a watch ...
— The Hilltop Boys on the River • Cyril Burleigh
... good deal, and he found to look at life from that standpoint was the most satisfactory way. He said it was no use mixing up sentiment and what you thought things ought to be with what things really were. "We've got to see the truth Ma'am, that's all," he said. Then he said, "these cotton wool ba-lambs" never saw the truth of anything from one year's end to another, and, "it ain't because it's too difficult, but because they have not got a red cent of ...
— Elizabeth Visits America • Elinor Glyn
... gentleman sprang to assist her; He picked up her glove and her wrister; "Did you fall, Ma'am?" he cried; "Did you think," she replied, "I sat down for the fun ...
— Toaster's Handbook - Jokes, Stories, and Quotations • Peggy Edmund & Harold W. Williams, compilers
... she must act her part, dressed in the morning and came down; but her looks were ghastly; she tasted no food, and as soon as possible left the breakfast-room. Her mother was going in quest of her when old nurse came with an anxious face to say,—'Ma'am, I am afraid Miss Edmonstone must be very ill, or something. Do you know, ma'am, her bed has not been slept in ...
— The Heir of Redclyffe • Charlotte M. Yonge
... little body that ever I see unclaimed! Nothin' standoffish about her, either. 'There!' says she. 'Look at you, going off with all that dandruff on your coat collar! Mamie, bring me that whisk broom.'—'Ma'am,' says I, when she'd finished the job and added a little pat to my necktie, 'my name is Hubbs. It's a homely name, and I'm a homely man; but if there's any chance of ever persuadin' you to be Mrs. Nelson Hubbs, I'll stick around this town until the crack of doom.'—'Now don't be ...
— Shorty McCabe on the Job • Sewell Ford
... refuse, ma'am," said the man, civilly enough, "but I'm a poor man, with a family, and can't afford to ...
— The Fatal Glove • Clara Augusta Jones Trask
... a liberty," he said in his rough way, "but your son and me's old friends, ma'am, and I've brought you a few strawberries ...
— Brownsmith's Boy - A Romance in a Garden • George Manville Fenn
... 'Well, ma'am, tell the truth and shame the devil; that's my motto. I'll not deny that Prissy and I were wondering at your absence. "What's become of Miss Ross?" she said to me only to-day at dinner, "for she has not been ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... as well as mortal hands can do it ma'am" he said with a tremor in his hoarse husky voice. "You're the first woman as has spoken a kind word to me since—since—I buried the one that 'ud have made my life different if ...
— The Doctor's Daughter • "Vera"
... stealing diamond rings," retorted the landlady, recovering herself. "I've long suspected there was something wrong about you and your husband, ma'am, and now I know it. I don't want no thieves nor jail birds in my house, and the sooner you pay your bill and leave, ...
— Paul the Peddler - The Fortunes of a Young Street Merchant • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... forward and took Judith's hand. She was horrified beyond words by what Judith had done, but Judith was her little sister. "Yes, ma'am," she said, to Miss Miller's question, speaking, for all her agitation, quickly and fluently as was her habit, though not very coherently. "Yes, ma'am, I know. Everybody was saying this morning that ...
— The Bent Twig • Dorothy Canfield
... my toes are on the ground (saving your presence,) for I depindid on Tim Jarvis to tell Andy Cappler, the brogue-maker, to do my shoes; and, bad luck to him, the spalpeen! he forgot it." "Where's your pretty wife, Shane?" "She's in all the woe o' the world, Ma'am, dear. And she puts the blame of it on me, though I'm not in the faut this time, any how: the child's taken the small pock, and she depindid on me to tell the doctor to cut it for the cow-pock, and I depindid on Kitty Cackle, the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume XIII, No. 369, Saturday, May 9, 1829. • Various
... you'd never come out of your dressing-room, ma'am," said the man who was waiting to turn the lights out. "Every ...
— Kidnapped at the Altar - or, The Romance of that Saucy Jessie Bain • Laura Jean Libbey
... all right now. He'll be sitting up in a day or so, the doctor says. Did you know him, ma'am?" ...
— The Vagrant Duke • George Gibbs
... "Please, ma'am, I'm hungry," Billy said. "Nothing has passed my lips for a whole week." He thought "a week" sounded far ...
— The Tale of Billy Woodchuck • Arthur Scott Bailey
... do! And I feel as much concerned about my beautiful young ladies as you do, ma'am. Never fear but I will look out for their interest," answered the ...
— Edna's Sacrifice and Other Stories - Edna's Sacrifice; Who Was the Thief?; The Ghost; The Two Brothers; and What He Left • Frances Henshaw Baden
... "I will, ma'am; don't be scared!" replied Bobby, confidently, as he dropped his club, and grasped the bridle of the horse, just as he was on the point of whirling round to escape by the way ...
— Now or Never - The Adventures of Bobby Bright • Oliver Optic
... her some supper, ma'am, and I'll chase the others off," he said. "The little girl's tired ...
— Lister's Great Adventure • Harold Bindloss
... a judge, ma'am, and so can't cross-question," he answered, with a quick blush but a defiant little nod, "and if you were, no one is obliged to incriminate himself. I was merely passing, and the movements of that scamp, Bissel, slightly awakened ...
— Without a Home • E. P. Roe
... "Nothing of the kind, ma'am. I apprehend no difficulty. I never had any. There are a few articles on which duty is charged. I have a case of cigars, for instance; I shall show them to the custom house officer, and pay the duty. If a person seems disposed ...
— Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1 (of 2) • Harriet Elizabeth (Beecher) Stowe
... I presume. Well, I'm pleased to see you, ma'am. Do you know, ma'am, I have reason to remember your name? It's associated with the brightest hours of my life. It was in your parlor, ma'am, that I first obtained Min's promise of her hand. Your ...
— The American Baron • James De Mille
... "Yes, ma'am," said Moore. He had never fully risen above former conditions of servitude when he ran errands and shovelled paths for Addington gentry. "You ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown
... "I think not, ma'am," answered Mr. Merrick. "We made these investigations at the time we still feared he would die, so as to communicate with any friends or relatives he might have. But after he passed the crisis so well and fell asleep, the hospital ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West • Edith Van Dyne
... me, gal," boasted Zachariah. "Wuzzin Ah in de wustest storm dis yere valley has seed sence dat ole Noah he climb up in dat ole ark an' sez, 'Lan' sakes, Ah wonder ef Ah done gone an' fergit anyt'ing.' Yes, MA'AM,—dat evenin' out to Marse Striker's—dat wuz a storm, gal. Wuz Ah skeert? No, SUH! Ah stup right out in de middle of it, lightnin' strikin' all 'round an' de thunder so turrible Marse Kenneth an' ever'body ailse wuz awonderin' ef de good Lord could hear 'em prayin' fo' mercy. Yas, ...
— Viola Gwyn • George Barr McCutcheon
... the tricks of his childhood. "Yes, ma'am," he replied. Then he blushed furiously, but the woman seemed to notice neither the provincial term nor his confusion. He found himself somehow, he did not know how, divested of his overcoat, and the vision had disappeared, having ...
— 'Doc.' Gordon • Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman
... see, I saved the baby, ma'am," Bob said, humbly. "The woman was sitting at the end and, if she had taken her share of the second bottle, the chances are she would have dropped the baby. It was a question of ...
— Held Fast For England - A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) • G. A. Henty
... "Not yet, Ma'am. And indeed he was hungry. He ate like a wolf. But when he heard about us all being beat by that furnace, down he went. There! He's shaking the grate now. You can hear him. He said the ashes had to be taken out from ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Mammy June's • Laura Lee Hope
... That's what I say to fellows; 'How can you waste your time, when you'll be dead before you know it anyhow, and not have had time to look about you, much less learn anything?' No, sir,—I beg your pardon, ma'am! A single life for me. My own time, my own ...
— Geoffrey Strong • Laura E. Richards
... Do you think I'm going to begin taking physic, at my time of life? Lord, ma'am! you amuse me—you do indeed!" She burst into a sudden fit of laughter; the hysterical laughter which is on the verge of tears. With a desperate effort, she controlled herself. "Please, don't make a fool of me again," she said—and ...
— I Say No • Wilkie Collins
... two months ve traipse all ofer," volunteered the latter. "Ye-es, Miss Sophy, ma'am, ve vork youst like niggers. Und it's only ven ve gets back real handy here, by de pig Falls, dat ve strike someting vhat look mighty good. Hugo here he build a good log-shack. He got de claim all fix an' vork on it some to vintertime. Nex spring he say he get ...
— The Peace of Roaring River • George van Schaick
... home, but at what a cost to his appetite when he had an invitation to dine at a boy friend's house! His hostess said, concernedly, when dessert was reached, "You refuse a second helping of pie? Are you suffering from indigestion, Johnny?" "No, ma'am; politeness." ...
— Best Short Stories • Various
... the plums of his pudding for the last, but who is so tedious in getting through the beginning, that his plate is taken away before he gets to his plums, so I often put off what I think the plums of my letters till "the post, ma'am," hurries it off without ...
— The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth
... clue," he said, shaking his head. "So you've taken that class, ma'am?"—a curious mixture of amazement and credulity in his voice. "What possessed you, if I may be so bold? They're a hard lot, ma'am. I know them, as I said, altogether too well. I've had enough to do with some of them; and I expect more work from them. They gain in wickedness in a most surprising ...
— Ester Ried Yet Speaking • Isabella Alden
... "Yes, ma'am," Seth replied hesitatingly; and he added as the woman stooped to caress Snip: "We're in a big hurry, an' if you'll give me the cakes I'll ...
— Aunt Hannah and Seth • James Otis
... think you have forgotten, ma'am, that little girls and boys Are fond of dolls, and tops, and sleds, and balls, and other toys; Why didn't you—I wonder, now!—just take it in your head To have such things all growing in ...
— Our Young Folks at Home and Abroad • Various
... to drive home alone, ma'am," he said, gruffly. "There seem to be a lot of rowdy parties along this road, and the man will be no use for an hour. If you will tell us where you are going, we will see you safely ...
— The Ball and The Cross • G.K. Chesterton
... thank you, ma'am," said Dick quickly, "but I should like some tea, I am so thirsty." And in five minutes Dick was sitting at the round table and telling Mrs. Grey a little bit of his story, while Pat finished a saucerful of ...
— Dick Lionheart • Mary Rowles Jarvis
... thank you, ma'am," replied Frank. "I have called to see you about something, and I want to see you alone," added he in a low tone; for he did not wish Tony, who was a great deal prouder than his mother, to know ...
— The Boat Club - or, The Bunkers of Rippleton • Oliver Optic
... literary man who was seated next her, author of a French dictionary which the Childses were printing at the time—'Do you not think it was a cruel and wicked act to murder the sainted and unfortunate Charles I.?' 'Why, ma'am,' stuttered the author, while the dinner-party were silent, 'I'd have p-p-poisoned him.' The gifted authoress talked no more that day. Naturally, as a lad, seeing so much of Bungay, I wished to be a printer, but Mr. Childs said there was ...
— East Anglia - Personal Recollections and Historical Associations • J. Ewing Ritchie
... "I never believes, ma'am, in nobody doing any good by getting a place," said Mr. Bunce. "Of course I don't mean judges and them like, which must be. But when a young man has ever so much a year for sitting in a big room down at Whitehall, and reading ...
— Phineas Finn - The Irish Member • Anthony Trollope
... he returned and, as he was this time alone, he bestowed his conversation upon us with great liberality. He prided himself on his intelligence; asked us if we knew the school-ma'am. He didn't think much of her, anyway. He had tried her, he had. He had put a question to her. If a tree a hundred feet high were to fall a foot a day, how long would it take to fall right down? She had not been able to solve the problem. ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 2 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... no! for in half an hour he had picked every one of the sweet peas Aunt Jane was so fond of, thrown all the tomatoes over the fence, and let the parrot out of his cage. The sight of Polly walking into the parlor with a polite "How are you, ma'am?" sent Aunt Jane to see what was going on. Neddy was fast asleep in the hammock, worn out with his cares; and Jocko, having unhooked his chain, was sitting on the chimney-top of a ...
— The Louisa Alcott Reader - A Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School • Louisa M. Alcott
... way. When he was goin' back to town yesterday I laid for him. You see, the Old Man—er, I mean—you know, ma'am, the Big Boss, he's a pretty sick man—an' it looks to us boys like things had ort to break pretty quick, one way er another. So, I says, 'Doc, how's he gittin' on?' an' the doc he says, jest like you done, 'good as could be expected.' When you come right ...
— The Gold Girl • James B. Hendryx
... laughed. "'Old Jack' is what we call him, ma'am! The other wouldn't be respectful. He's never 'Major Jackson' except when he's trying to teach natural philosophy. On the drill ground he's 'Old Jack.' Richard, he says—Old Jack says—that not a man since Napoleon has understood ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston
... Sally said the school-ma'am simply had to go to Winters', or some place else, but mother said possibly a stranger would have some ideas, and know some new styles, so Sally then thought maybe they had better try it a few days, and she could have ...
— Laddie • Gene Stratton Porter
... replied, knowing what was coming; "but your misfortunes are not my affair. We all have misfortunes, ma'am. But we must pay ...
— Little Classics, Volume 8 (of 18) - Mystery • Various
... ma'am," was the quick reply. "And see! I don't think she's as unhappy as we all thought last night, or she wouldn't be giving me ...
— The Forsaken Inn - A Novel • Anna Katharine Green
... letters; the sills of the wide windows were of metal, and bore the same legend. At the threshold a very prim, ceremonious little man, spare and straight, met Mrs. Munger with a ceremonious bow, and a solemn "How do you do, ma'am I how do you do? I hope I see you well," and he put a small dry hand into the ample clasp ...
— Annie Kilburn - A Novel • W. D. Howells
... have the merit of perfect novelty, ma'am," said Horace. "Would you object to see ...
— The New Magdalen • Wilkie Collins
... "Plaze, Ma'am, would you be wantin' some garters to-day? They are warranted by the very man as made 'em. My boy is layin' sick, and his father is dead, and all my health has been took away carin' for him, and a friend of mine, she has been in this business a long time, and says it's ...
— The Right Knock - A Story • Helen Van-Anderson |
