"Murmur" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... November, an English observer described the situation as follows: "The people generally are afraid, waiting and leaving everything to the King. . . . No one now counts in Greece but the King." [15] And the absence of any popular murmur at the rejection of the offer of Cyprus, to anyone who knows how deeply popular feeling is committed to the ultimate union of that Greek island with the mother country, speaks ...
— Greece and the Allies 1914-1922 • G. F. Abbott
... of the dying day threw their last rays over the placid bosom of the Avon, and the murmur of laughing voices floated up from the town to mingle, as it were, with the curling smoke from glistening chimney tops, William and I scampered down the hill, over the bridge, on by the old mill, and entered the open ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce
... possessed an amiable disposition, and explained to the soldier the nature of military discipline. The latter was soon convinced he had done wrong, and returned without a murmur to his duty. Does any soldier, who reads this, imagine himself tendering his resignation in the above manner with any prospect ...
— Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field • Thomas W. Knox
... is unaffected— Is her beauty therefore less? Is she gray or ill-complected? I should call her some success. Soft the murmur of the river, Bright the shore that lines the sea— Is the universe a flivver? No, ...
— Tobogganing On Parnassus • Franklin P. Adams
... thought of the absent bath, and then shuddered and listened for the roar of the river, now softened down into a murmur. ...
— The Queen's Scarlet - The Adventures and Misadventures of Sir Richard Frayne • George Manville Fenn
... all he could to cure others, his own health was very poor for several years. He suffered frequently from violent headaches that caused intense pain. Yet he was never heard to murmur or complain, but would say to us, when we tried to sympathise with him, "Never mind, by-and-by I shall get home, and when I see Jesus I shall have no more pain." About nine days before his departure he caught ...
— By Canoe and Dog-Train • Egerton Ryerson Young
... on the veranda, still gazing abstractedly at the landscape, gave a low and apparently unconscious murmur, as if enraptured with the view. Mr. Windibrook, recalled to an attempt at dignity, took up his hat and handkerchief. "When you have remembered yourself and your position, Miss Trixit," he said loftily, "the offer I ...
— From Sand Hill to Pine • Bret Harte
... pictures that so long as she lived would ever be recurring. She saw the moonlit waters, the black shadow of the proa, the moon-fire that ran down the far edge of the bellying sail, the silent natives: no sound except the slapping of the outrigger and the low sibilant murmur of water falling away from the sides—and the beating of her heart. ...
— The Ragged Edge • Harold MacGrath
... The wise youth was very comfortable. He liked the air of the Island, and he liked being petted. "A nice little woman! a very nice little woman!" Tom Bakewell heard him murmur to himself according to a habit he had; and his air of rather succulent patronage as he walked or sat beside the innocent Beauty, with his head thrown back and a smile that seemed always to be in secret communion with his marked abdominal prominence, showed that she was ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... first to pass under the lofty arcade of one of the terraced inclines. And then, as they followed the quay of the Gave, they all at once came upon the Grotto. And Marie, whom Pierre wheeled as near to the railing as possible, was only able to raise herself in her little conveyance, and murmur: "O most Blessed Virgin, Virgin ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... morning march began, Coeval with the birth and breath of man; Who that could view thee in that Asian clime, God-born, soul-nursed, the infant heir of time— Who that could see thee in that Asian court, Flit with the sparrow, with the lion sport, Talk with the murmur of the babbling rill And sing thy summer song upon the hill— Who that could know thee as thou wast inwrought The all in all of nature's primal thought, And see thee given by Omniscient mind, A native boon to lord, and brute, and wind, Could e'er have ...
— Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854) • Various
... their part in the hard-fought battle of Monterey with a constancy and courage equal to that of veteran troops and worthy of the highest admiration. The privations of long marches through the enemy's country and through a wilderness have been borne without a murmur. By rapid movements the Province of New Mexico, with Santa Fe, its capital, has been captured without bloodshed. The Navy has cooperated with the Army and rendered important services; if not so brilliant, ...
— State of the Union Addresses of James Polk • James Polk
... came up into the Strand, I saw before me what appeared to be the tail of a great concourse of people, and heard the murmur of their voices; and, mending my pace a little, I soon came up with them. I went along for a little, trying to hear what they were saying upon the affair, and to learn what the matter was; for by now the street was one pack of folk all moving together. Little by ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson
... you,' the mother would say many times a day, as she caught the girl-child in her arms. 'And I love you,' the girl-child would answer, resting for a moment against the warm shoulder. 'Little Flower,' the woman would murmur, 'thou art morning to me, thou art golden mid-day, thou art slumbrous nightfall to ...
— The Moccasin Maker • E. Pauline Johnson
... slopes of the round-topped hill. Here the whole scene burst suddenly upon them. Scarcely three miles away the Dervish army was advancing with the regularity of parade. The south wind carried the martial sound of horns and drums and—far more menacing—the deep murmur of a multitude to the astonished officers. Like the 21st Lancers—three miles away to their left, at the end of the long sandy ridge which runs westward from Surgham—the soldiers remained for a space spell-bound. ...
— The River War • Winston S. Churchill
... a general murmur of "oh, good!" through the room, and Angela was half way to the door before Miss Hale had given her permission. Everybody laughed as they heard her running down the stairs, two ...
— Polly's Senior Year at Boarding School • Dorothy Whitehill
... to quibble about differences in currency, but he furnished them with such explanations that they retired without a murmur. The Negroes demanded white shells such as are used for trading in the interior of Africa, but when he offered to send to Carthage for them they accepted money like ...
— Salammbo • Gustave Flaubert
... their characteristic light-heartedness the men caught up the famous old air and the march was resumed without a murmur. ...
— Canada • J. G. Bourinot
... Now—said I—if no arguments can persuade you to show me this favor, I beg you by our common faith, our common baptism, for the sake of Christ our Lord and Saviour, if you durst not listen as ambassadors, do it then as Christians. Here arose an indignant murmur among the councillors and at last, being exhorted by the burgomaster, and feeling themselves the unworthiness of the opposition, they took possession ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger
... died away. Mrs. Lessways had evidently opened the back door to somebody, and taken her at once into the sitting-room. The occurrence was unusual. Hilda went softly out on to the landing and listened, but she could catch nothing more than a faint, irregular murmur. Scarcely had she stationed herself on the landing when her mother burst out of the sitting-room, ...
— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett
... to be abridged, during our stay here, of their stated allowance of spirits to mix with water. But as this stoppage of a favourite article, without assigning some reason, might have occasioned a general murmur, I thought it most prudent to assemble the ship's company, and to make known to them the intent of the voyage, and the extent of our future operations. To induce them to undertake which with cheerfulness and perseverance, I took notice of the rewards offered by parliament ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 • Robert Kerr
... had gone; there was a touch of frost; the sky was clear and hard, the stars shone with sharp brilliance, some of them had long, slanting rays on either hand that looked like wings of light; a new moon glittered among them, keen and clean, and vindictive as a scimitar; in the quiet, the low murmur of the Broadwater pervaded the night. Judith watched her sister with unconsciously appraising eyes, noting the straight slenderness of her figure, ...
— Mount Music • E. Oe. Somerville and Martin Ross
... there on the slopes bright spots or glows of fire marked the occupied claim-sites. From the camp itself there came a murmur that sometimes swelled louder under the dull flare that hung over the lower end of the valley; reflection and diffusion from the gasoline lights and acetylene flares used by the owners of the eating-houses, the bars and gambling shacks, all open for business during miners' hours, which ...
— Rimrock Trail • J. Allan Dunn
... fears were centred in Raoul, and, heedless of the dropping bullets, I rode across to the spot where he lay. He was in terrible pain, stricken I feared unto death, but his wonderful courage remained unbroken, and he did not even murmur when, with the assistance of some trusty comrades, I carried him to one ...
— My Sword's My Fortune - A Story of Old France • Herbert Hayens
... you'll murmur with a sigh, And tell me it is time to fly: And I will vow, will swear to go, While still that sweet voice murmurs "No!" Till slumber seal our weary sight— And then, my ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... "I can't complain: Life anywhere—provided it is mine— Agrees with me; but I observe with pain That still the people murmur and repine. It hurts their sense of harmony, no doubt, To see ...
— Black Beetles in Amber • Ambrose Bierce
... the murmur of a summer sea, rising and falling, full of laughter low and sweet, and above is the music ...
— The Soul of a People • H. Fielding
... voices went and came, from garret to garret, telling that the spirit of slumber had not yet taken possession of the place. But these soon ceased. The wind moved the tall laburnums in the lane without a sound, and the murmur of running water alone broke the stillness, as the gurgle of the burn, and the rush of the distant mill-dam met and mingled in the air of ...
— Janet's Love and Service • Margaret M Robertson
... certain of not being disturbed, they were landed, and either removed to a more distant hiding-place or conveyed at once to their final destination. But all this involved immediate trouble and delay, and the men, who without a complaint or murmur would endure weeks of absence from their homes, the moment those homes came in sight grew irritable under control ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 26, July 1880. • Various
... straining for the slightest sound, the two men descended to the first floor of the house. They heard nothing to alarm them as they crept down, and not until they paused on the first landing to reconnoitre did they even catch the murmur of voices issuing from the guardroom below. So muffled was the sound that Crispin guessed how matters stood even before he had looked over the balusters into the hall beneath. The faint grey of the dawn was the only light that penetrated the gloom ...
— The Tavern Knight • Rafael Sabatini
... voice affected both of them. They stood there on the side of the moor, and became thrillingly conscious of the void waste of the night, without a feature for the eye, and except for the fainting whisper of the carriage-wheels without a murmur for the ear. And instantly, like a mockery, there broke out, very far away, but clear and jolly, the note of the mail-guard's horn. "Over the hills" was his air. It rose to the two watchers on the moor with the most cheerful ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XXI • Robert Louis Stevenson
... of a yawning canyon. The rhythm of the hoof-beats, the recurrent low whistle and crack of the whiplash, the occasional rattle of pebbles showering down to the depths, loosened by rioting wheels, have broken the sacred silence. Yet above all those nearby sounds there seems to be an indistinct murmur, which grows sweeter, more musical, as you gain the base of the mountains, where it rises above all harsher notes. It is the voice of the restless Tulameen as it dances and laughs through the rocky throat of the canyon, three hundred feet ...
— Legends of Vancouver • E. Pauline Johnson
... on ridge the wooded hills arise, Between whose breezy vistas gulfs of skies Pilot great clouds like towering argosies, And hawk and buzzard breast the azure breeze. With many a foaming fall and glimmering reach Of placid murmur, under elm and beech, The creek goes twinkling through long glows and glooms Of woodland quiet, poppied with perfumes: The creek, in whose clear shallows minnow-schools Glitter or dart; and by whose deeper pools The blue kingfishers and the herons haunt; That, often startled from ...
— Myth and Romance - Being a Book of Verses • Madison Cawein
... for goodness' sake keep your mouth shut. Be the strong, silent man; women love 'em. We revel in being clubbed and pulled into the cave by the hair; we may squeal a bit for the sake of appearances, but we cook the breakfast nest morning without a murmur! But just ask us to honour the cave by placing our foot over the threshold, and as sure as anything, you'll find yourself making the early cup ...
— The Hawk of Egypt • Joan Conquest
... George would rather beard a den of lions than face the company in the inn parlour on a wet evening, but he is a welcome guest in the kitchen, and Mrs McNab adores him to the extent of submitting to muddy boots without a murmur. He cracks jokes with her in a free-and- easy manner which strikes awe into the heart of tremblers like myself. It's my first visit to the Nag's Head, and I'm still in the stage of abject submission. She's a ...
— Big Game - A Story for Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... for quarrels arose among the men. Albert de Pierria who had been set over them as captain proved to be cruel and despotic. He oppressed the men in many ways, hanging and imprisoning at will those who displeased him. Soon the men began to murmur under his tyranny. Black looks greeted Albert de Pierria: he answered them with blacker deeds. At length one day for some misdeed he banished a soldier to a lonely island, and left him there to die of hunger. This was more than the colonists could well bear. Their ...
— This Country Of Ours • H. E. Marshall Author: Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall
... morning air arose a sound like the drone of some gigantic hive, or of the sea when the tide is making. Affonso Henriques recognized it for the murmur of the multitude. ...
— The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series • Rafael Sabatini
... the Quaestors, for when pure eloquence was needed men always resorted to you; and, in fact, when you were at hand and ready to help, there was no accurate division of labour among the various offices of the State.[89] No one could find an occasion to murmur aught against you, although you bore all the unpopularity which accompanies ...
— Theodoric the Goth - Barbarian Champion of Civilisation • Thomas Hodgkin
... murmur of the waterfall they had failed to detect the approach of two cavalry officers, who, walking their tired ...
— In the Clutch of the War-God • Milo Hastings
... when Romance left it. As for the time of the year, let us call it May. Oh yes, it is certainly May, and about twelve o'clock, and the DAUGHTER is singing at the spinet, while her MOTHER is at her needlework. Through the lattice windows the murmur of a stream can be heard, on whose banks—but we shall come to that directly. Let us listen now to what the DAUGHTER ...
— First Plays • A. A. Milne
... into shapes, and are therefore objects of contemplation only when associated with colours and sounds, as for instance, the smell of burning weeds in a description of autumnal sights, or the cool wetness of a grotto in the perception of its darkness and its murmur of waters. ...
— The Beautiful - An Introduction to Psychological Aesthetics • Vernon Lee
... from a slave who had travelled the road. Presently he was in the muddy Malian waters, and the sun was scattering the mist on the landward side. And then he became aware of a greater commotion than Poseidon's play with the ships off Pelion. A murmur like a winter's storm came seawards. He lowered the sail, which he had set to catch a chance breeze, and bade the men rest on their oars. An earthquake seemed to be tearing at the ...
— The Moon Endureth—Tales and Fancies • John Buchan
... makes me show so much courage. My own part in the matter is but pretence and hypocrisy. Were I to follow my own impulses I should moan, struggle, break out into passionate and bitter words, but God restrains my lips with bit and bridle, so that I dare not murmur under the blows dealt by His hand which I have learnt through His grace to ...
— The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales • Jean Pierre Camus
... Robin scowled, and his brawny fellows scowled likewise, and began to mutter and murmur against Jocelyn, who, leaning back to tree, strummed his lute ...
— The Geste of Duke Jocelyn • Jeffery Farnol
... clear: Unloose your zones, my maidens! and fling down To float awhile upon these bushes near Your blue transparent robes: take off my crown, And take away my jealous veil; for here To-day we shall be joyous while we lave Our limbs amid the murmur ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo
... the rivers shall sink in the ground, And every man cover his mouth From the thickening dust, in that drouth; Fierce famine shall come; and no sound Shall be borne on the desolate air. But a murmur of ...
— Conservation Reader • Harold W. Fairbanks
... A sharp murmur ran around the room. The believers were evidently rallying indignantly to the support of their sibyl, and cast upon Wynne glances of bitter reproach. He looked at Mrs. Staggchase, but it was impossible to judge from ...
— The Puritans • Arlo Bates
... but when Sunday came, it was made lively by groups of sailors, rich and idle citizens, and whole families of mercantile men who came to bathe or rest themselves, there enjoying the luxury both of the shade and of the sea. The mingled murmur of the voices both of men, women and children, enchanted with sunlight and with repose, united with the babbling of the waves which seemed to fall on the shore light and elastic as sheets of steel. Many boats either by sails or oars, were wafted around the extremity of Cape Notre-Dame de la Garde, ...
— International Weekly Miscellany, Vol. 1, No. 5, July 29, 1850 • Various
... terrors of the night without a murmur. But he had been aboard the yawl now about five days on a diet of bread and water. Nature was giving ...
— Ralph Granger's Fortunes • William Perry Brown
... the frantic tooting of a whistle, and mingled with it could be heard voices shouting in fear, but it was only a confused murmur of sound. No words ...
— Tom Swift and his Great Searchlight • Victor Appleton
... The continuous murmur of voices finally roused him, and he lay there blinking and listening, trying to recognize the deep bass voice that laughed and talked ...
— Flip's "Islands of Providence" • Annie Fellows Johnston
... either side towered aloft and shut out the snowy peaks, and at last their path led them amongst a dense forest of pines, through whose summits the wind sighed and the roaring torrent's sound was diminished to a murmur. ...
— The Crystal Hunters - A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps • George Manville Fenn
... and occasioned general consternation. Even the knight's anger yielded to superstitious fear, and as a terrific explosion shook the rafters overhead, and threatened to bring them down upon him, he fell on his knees, and essayed, with unaccustomed lips, to murmur a prayer. But he was interrupted; for amid the deep silence succeeding the awful crash, a mocking laugh was heard, and the villainous countenance of Blackadder, rendered doubly hideous by the white lightning, was seen at the casement. The sight restored Sir Thomas at once. Drawing his sword ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth
... slight palpitation of the membrane of the Colorado madura and is there a confused murmur in your brain like the sound of a hard working ...
— Get Next! • Hugh McHugh
... for it seemed that the wind scurried down the wide chimney and again blew up the gray ash until the embers glowed through a white coating. But the wind wrought more than this, for it brought down from the gray clouds a whispering murmur that drifted through the hall, and in that murmur were mingled the sounds of beating hoofs and ringing steel ...
— Nuala O'Malley • H. Bedford-Jones
... adventure was in her. Henry Fenn, weak, vacillating, chivalrous, adoring Henry Fenn, had not conquered her; and the fire in her blood, and the ambition in her brain, came over her as a spell. She slipped to her knees, putting her head upon her lover's breast, and cried passionately in a guttural murmur—"Yes, I'll go first, Tom—now, for God's sake, kiss me—kiss me and run." Then she sprang up: "Now, go—go—go, Tom—run before I take it back. Don't touch me again," ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White
... character of the Generals; they threw themselves into the war! And so they helped wonderfully to keep up the enthusiasm, or to rebuke the lukewarmness, or to check the despondency and apathy which at times settled over the people. Men were ashamed to doubt where women trusted, or to murmur where they submitted, or to do little where they did so much. If during the war, home life had gone on as usual; women engrossed in their domestic or social cares; shrinking from public questions; deferring to what their husbands or brothers ...
— Woman's Work in the Civil War - A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience • Linus Pierpont Brockett
... the bystanders; that was more than well-mannered restraint could stand. Out of the murmur of incredulous voices, ...
— Space Viking • Henry Beam Piper
... A murmur rippled the crowd, the police stood still and stared, and the next moment the bomb exploded in the boy's hand and his body lay on the stones a mangled heap of torn flesh and ...
— The Root of Evil • Thomas Dixon
... Le Malade, and the poem was received with a murmur of applause; but he followed it with L'Aveugle, which proved too great a strain upon the average intellect. None but artists or those endowed with the artistic temperament can understand and sympathize with him in the diabolical torture of that ...
— Two Poets - Lost Illusions Part I • Honore de Balzac
... encroachment upon their privileges or rights, and were, of course, pretty certain to consider even salutary control an attempt to assert a despotism. I believe history contains no record, whatever the annals of fiction may display, of a boy, with much spirit, submitting without a murmur to the authority of the schoolmaster: if such a prodigy of enlightened humility ever existed, he certainly did not live in the west. But a more important difficulty than either of these, was the almost entire want of money in the country; and without this there was but little encouragement ...
— Western Characters - or Types of Border Life in the Western States • J. L. McConnel
... lead into the great hall, gazing at its old grey walls frowning with age. At the distance of a small field, the Aire is seen gliding past the foot of the lawn on which the ruin stands, after it has left those precincts, sparkling over a weir with a pleasing murmur. We could fully enter into the feelings of the Poet ...
— Three Years in Europe - Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met • William Wells Brown
... the nest which Love, the worker of miracles, had built himself even under that tumultuous roof. Strollers in the halls or along the breezy verandas often paused to listen to the music of instrument or voice which came floating out from these sequestered rooms. Frequent laughter and the murmur of conversation proved that ennui was unknown, and a touch of romance inevitably enhanced the interest wakened by the beautiful young pair, always together, always happy, never weary of the dolce far ...
— Pauline's Passion and Punishment • Louisa May Alcott
... and delight, She blushed with love, and virgin-shame; And like the murmur of a dream, I heard her breathe my ...
— Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select Poems • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... over toward Santa Ana grew loud and louder, the nerve strain upon the —teenth became well-nigh intolerable. "For God's sake, can't we be doing something instead of lying here firing into a hornet's nest?" was the murmur that arose in more than one company along the impatient line; and the gruff voices of veteran sergeants could be heard ordering silence, while, moving up and down behind their men, the line officers cautioned against waste of ammunition ...
— Found in the Philippines - The Story of a Woman's Letters • Charles King
... no place to die in. We ain't got time." An angry murmur ran through the men about the door. "Take him up to the bunk-house," said the saloon-keeper to Tommy with a stream of oaths. "What d'ye want to come monkeyin' raound my house for with a sick man? How do you ...
— The Doctor - A Tale Of The Rockies • Ralph Connor
... a murmur of voices within, and then the withdrawing of bolts. After a few seconds the door turned on its rusty hinges and revealed two men both about ...
— Roger Trewinion • Joseph Hocking
... of murmur ran round the room, intended, perhaps, to express regret at his departure; but it was but a murmur, and might have meant that or ...
— The Warden • Anthony Trollope
... study floor, as if it were a figure in the carpet; and through the open window comes the fragrance of the wild-brier and the mock-orange. The birds are carolling in the trees, and their shadows flit across the window as they dart to and fro in the sunshine; while the murmur of the bee, the cooing of doves from the eaves, and the whirring of a little humming-bird that has its nest in the honeysuckle, send up a sound of joy to meet ...
— Home Life of Great Authors • Hattie Tyng Griswold
... the absence of inherited wealth supplied an impetus to labour; and the populated portions of these States became as a hive thronged with an active, money-seeking swarm, by which the idle and the inert were thrust aside before they became awake to their changed condition, or heard a murmur of the tide whose waves were encircling them about ...
— Impressions of America - During The Years 1833, 1834, and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume II. • Tyrone Power
... this time the noble mob was slowly heaving away, leaving at every angle of the counter either a murmur or a menace, as the waves leave foam or scattered seaweed on the sands, when they retire with the ebbing tide. In about ten minutes Moliere reappeared, making another sign to D'Artagnan from under the hangings. The latter hurried ...
— The Man in the Iron Mask • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... hysteria towards which he was bringing her. But against that she was fighting, most fiercely of all. Like the rising water in a gauge, it was leaping in sudden bounds within her. But to break into tears, to murmur incoherently between laughter and sobbing that it could not be helped, but she loved him, wildly, passionately, would give every shred of her body into his hands if he would but take it—against this, in the sweating of her whole strength, she was ...
— Sally Bishop - A Romance • E. Temple Thurston
... afterward I had a faint sensation of being borne away by the trade wind. Swank was beside me and I heard him murmur, "I'm glad I don't ...
— The Cruise of the Kawa • Walter E. Traprock
... as I looked out over the house, I clutched the lace that was still around my throat. It was warm after the chill air without, and my head swam. There was mystery in the swarming figures and the murmur. The breath of the roses that lay over the box rails, the gleaming of bared shoulders, the flash of jewels seemed to belong to some other world—a world where I was native, and from which I had too long been exiled. Surely in some other life I must ...
— The Bacillus of Beauty - A Romance of To-day • Harriet Stark
... her head and listened. The murmur of voices, as her brother and mother talked in low tones, did not disturb her, and the almost inaudible lowing of the cattle on the distant ranges was but a part of ...
— Cowmen and Rustlers • Edward S. Ellis
... repressed exclamation was lost in a general murmur and shuffle of feet. The Editor made a step forward, ...
— Within the Tides • Joseph Conrad
... this side, so after my noon meal I ascended one of the lower elevations in order to obtain my bearings. But I could discern neither chateau nor lake nor waterfall, and the sound of the torrent, far away to the left, came to my ears only as a faint distant murmur. ...
— Jacqueline of Golden River • H. M. Egbert
... middle, with one foot strangely turned out, and two fingers holding the tip of the loose sleeve (I suppose this pose, too, must once have charmed Orlov); she would glance about her with haughty nonchalance, as befits a beauty—and with a positive sniff, and a murmur of 'What next!' as though some importunate gallant were besieging her with compliments, she would go out again, tapping her heels and shrugging her shoulders. She used, too, to take Spanish snuff out of a tiny bonbonniere, ...
— A Desperate Character and Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev
... inarticulate murmur of compassion. She knelt by him, and held his hands in hers and ...
— The Creators - A Comedy • May Sinclair
... and made a great feast, and expected him all the day, but he did not come. And when it was night he sent to say that he was sick and could not come: and he prayed him to hold him excused. This he did to see whether they of Valencia would murmur against him. And the sons of Aboegib and all the people murmured greatly, and would fain in their hearts have risen against Abeniaf, but they durst not because of the Cid, with whom they would not fall out ...
— Chronicle Of The Cid • Various
... as I belong to this here Circle," said Mrs. Berry, "but anyway I guess I belong to the Square." A murmur of approval showed that they appreciated this view, referring as it did to that rectangular neighborhood surrounding Jonas's twenty acres. "I guess I belong to the Square. And I have just been thinking that as ...
— The Wrong Woman • Charles D. Stewart
... baffled and sour. A murmur of approval ran through the bystanders. My fellow-slaves congratulated each other and rejoiced, save ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White
... imperturbable but inwardly elated. It came in a demure murmur, eyelashes lowered with ...
— The Point Of Honor - A Military Tale • Joseph Conrad
... moment to gaze at the brilliant scene. The house was great and old, and both halls and stairway of fine proportions, and now, brilliant with glow of light and the moving colour of rich costumes, presented indeed a comely sight. And he had no sooner paused to look down than he heard near by a murmur of low exclamation, and close at his side a man broke forth in rough ecstacy ...
— His Grace of Osmonde • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... a covered passage between two shops, into a quiet cluster of squares and gardens, where only a subdued murmur of the uproar of the streets reached us. There were a sufficient number of passers-by to prevent it seeming lonely, but we could hear our own voices, and those of others, ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • Hesba Stretton
... finestra! sings Palmy-Leporello; the chorus answers: Deh vieni! Perche non vieni ancora? pleads Leporello; the chorus shouts: Perche? Mio amu-u-u-r, sighs Leporello; and Echo cries, amu-u-u-r! All the wooing, be it noticed, is conducted in Italian. But the actors murmur to each other in Davoser Deutsch, 'She won't come, Palmy! It is far too late; she is gone to bed. Come down; you'll wake the village with your caterwauling!' But Leporello waves his broad archdeacon's hat, and resumes a flood of flexible Bregaglian. He has a shrewd suspicion that the girl ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds
... splendour dimmed the stars; below us lay a mystery of sombre woods with a prospect of hill and dale beyond, and never a sound to disturb the all-pervading stillness save the soft, bubbling notes of a nightjar and the distant murmur of the brook that flowed in the valley at our feet, here leaping in glory, there gliding,—a smooth and placid mirror to Dian's beauty, a brook that wound amid light and shadow until it lost itself in the gloom of trees thick-clustered about ...
— Peregrine's Progress • Jeffery Farnol
... pompadour fashion, and an expression compounded of indifference and quizzical good humour. The good humour was in the ascendant as she watched the kindly Belgians crowd round her fellow-passenger, envelop her in their arms, murmur tearful farewells, and kiss her soundly on either cheek. The finely marked eyebrows lifted themselves as if in commiseration for the victim, and as the door closed on the last farewell she heaved an involuntary ...
— The Independence of Claire • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... more except the murmur of voices in the bar, for a hand shut the partly opened door that ...
— Ten Nights in a Bar Room • T. S. Arthur
... early daylight; some of these exhorted the people who knelt as they passed, to pray for her. She must have heard in her prison the sound of the bell, the chant of the clergy, the pause of awe, and then the rising, irregular murmur of the voices, that sound of prayer never to be mistaken. Pray for her! At last the city was touched to its heart. There is no sign that it had been sympathetic to Jeanne before; it was half English or more. But she was about to die: she had stood ...
— Jeanne d'Arc - Her Life And Death • Mrs.(Margaret) Oliphant
... Shifted the sails; and hauling to the stern One sheet, he slacked the other, to the left Steering, where Samian rocks and Chian marred The stillness of the waters; while the sea Sent up in answer to the changing keel A different murmur. Not so deftly turns Curbing his steeds, his wain the Charioteer, While glows his dexter wheel, and with the left He almost ...
— Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars • Lucan
... heart; Or with his pipe's awak'ning strains allure The lovely dames of Lydia to the dance. They on the verdant level graceful mov'd In vary'd measures; while the cooling breeze Beneath their swelling garments wanton'd o'er Their snowy breasts, and smooth Cayster's streams Soft-gliding murmur'd by. The hostile blade, ...
— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth
... road. When walking one had to step over their legs; or, if socially inclined, one could stand by and join in the conversation. When daylight faded the village was very dark—no lamp for the visitors—and very silent, only the low murmur of the sea on the shingle was audible, and the gurgling sound of a swift streamlet flowing from the hill above and hurrying through the village to mingle with the Branscombe lower down in the meadows. Such a profound darkness and quiet one expects in an inland agricultural village; here, where ...
— Afoot in England • W.H. Hudson
... from the city streets were so strange to their ears that, as Thad declared, they seemed to be near some boiler factory. Of course this was mostly because they had been off by themselves for months, and the night meant a time of solemn silence, save for the murmur of the wind through the trees, or the splash of the waves upon the shore, or against the side ...
— The House Boat Boys • St. George Rathborne
... might need her care at any time, and the widow looked at me as much as to say, "You cannot be expected to know anything about these matters, and have nothing to do but obey my directions." I consented without a murmur or the least show of resistance, for I admitted everything that could possibly be said, and lost all my spirit of independence in view of the impressive event that was coming. So I meekly took to the attic, and put up with the most forlorn and desolate quarters. One or ...
— That Mother-in-Law of Mine • Anonymous
... wonderment where I dwell I explore life with my hands; I recognize, and am happy; My fingers are ever athirst for the earth, And drink up its wonders with delight, Draw out earth's dear delights; My feet are charged with the murmur, The throb, ...
— The World I Live In • Helen Keller
... Within a few paces of her I stopped. She advanced a step toward me, and laid her hand gently on my bosom. Her touch filled me with strangely united sensations of rapture and awe. After a while, she spoke in low melodious tones, which mingled in my ear with the distant murmur of the falling water, until the two sounds became one. I heard in the murmur, I heard in the voice, these words: "Remember me. Come to me." Her hand dropped from my bosom; a momentary obscurity passed like a flying shadow over the bright daylight in the room. I looked for her ...
— The Two Destinies • Wilkie Collins
... stream, flowing gently, crept through the meadow. The flowing stream slipped away to the sea. The flowing of the stream caused a low murmur. The stream flows. The sun rises. Insects hum. The birds sing. The wind whistles. The bells are ...
— Graded Lessons in English • Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg
... past night he had touched bottom, as he thought: become ready to face anything. When Keith came in he would without murmur have accepted the advice: "Give yourself up!" He was prepared to pitch away the end of his life as he pitched from him the fag-ends of his cigarettes. And the long sigh he had heaved, hearing of reprieve, had been only half relief. Then, with incredible swiftness there had rushed through ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... would have to watch more than he could employ him. But it was necessary that the revolutionary flag should float clearly over the Empire under its proper name; and he therefore preferred to endure the presence of Carnot and Fouche in his cabinet, rather than to leave them without, to murmur or conspire with certain sections of his enemies. At the moment of his return, and during the first weeks of the resuscitated Empire, he probably reaped from this double selection the advantage that he anticipated; ...
— Memoirs To Illustrate The History Of My Time - Volume 1 • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... an immense, a limitless distance, came a something which grew and grew, and approached, and presently was recognizable as a sound —it had rather seemed to be a feeling, before. This sound was a mile away, now—perhaps it was the murmur of a storm; and now it was nearer—not a quarter of a mile away; was it the muffled rasping and grinding of distant machinery? No, it came still nearer; was it the measured tramp of a marching troop? But it came nearer still, and still nearer—and at last ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... silent, until the hush was broken by a low murmur:—"For Thou only art holy." Holmes had taken off his hat, unconscious that he did it; he put it on slowly, and walked on. What was it that Knowles had said to him once about mean and selfish taints on his divine soul? "For Thou only art holy:" if there ...
— Margret Howth, A Story of To-day • Rebecca Harding Davis
... murmur; I have become resigned at last; though for many weeks I have wrestled for strength, for patience. It was so exceedingly bitter to know that the time drew near when I should see you no more; to feel that I should stretch out my hands to you, and lean on you, and yet look no longer on the dear ...
— Macaria • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson
... bringing out from there. This grief for his home, which overcomes so many married seamen, did not deprive Captain MacW- of his legitimate appetite. In fact, the steward would almost invariably come up to me, sitting in the captain's chair at the head of the table, to say in a grave murmur, "The captain asks for one more slice of meat and two potatoes." We, his officers, could hear him moving about in his berth, or lightly snoring, or fetching deep sighs, or splashing and blowing in his bath-room; and we made our reports to him through the keyhole, ...
— The Mirror of the Sea • Joseph Conrad
... religion," Bedient added. "Hunger of the heart for higher things will bring spiritual expansion. Look at the better-born children to-day. I mean those who do not have every chance against them. I seem to catch a new tone in the murmur of this rousing generation. They have an expanded consciousness. It is ...
— Fate Knocks at the Door - A Novel • Will Levington Comfort
... was everything and did everything that his parents could have hoped for, except in one direction: he would have nothing said about marriage. He came home without a murmur; he never uttered a word of regret about his giving up a profession that he had fair hopes of advancement in; he adopted his new set of duties with cheerfulness, and entered with zest into the festivities of the season. For the leaf was beginning to fall, ...
— The Beautiful Wretch; The Pupil of Aurelius; and The Four Macnicols • William Black
... called: "Ulrich!" There was somebody there, near the house, there could be no doubt of that, and he opened the door and shouted: "Is it you, Gaspard?" with all the strength of his lungs. But there was no reply, no murmur, no groan, nothing. It was quite dark, and the ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 (of 8) - Boule de Suif and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant
... up alongside, and the professor's trunk was hoisted on board. As soon as the students saw the barge and the baggage, which indicated that the obnoxious old gentleman had been transferred to the Young America, a murmur of ...
— Dikes and Ditches - Young America in Holland and Belguim • Oliver Optic
... in an hour and a quarter. Take this for your protegees," and he slipped a cheque for fifty pounds into her hand. He saw her brightened eyes, and heard her murmur: "Oh! Uncle Jolyon!" and a real throb of pleasure went through him. That meant one or two poor creatures helped a little, and it meant that she would come again. He put his hand in at the window and grasped hers once more. The carriage rolled ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... said Gottfried, overcoming his grief, "and do not murmur! Especially, my son, do not grow angry, and ...
— Theobald, The Iron-Hearted - Love to Enemies • Anonymous
... was doubly striking from its dissimilarity with what had gone before: it was answering perfectly, and a murmur of applause had been gradually suppressed while Leontes gave his permission that Paulina should exercise her utmost art and ...
— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot
... murmur ran through the church at sight of the silver-shining figure of the bride. How handsome, how stately, how perfectly self-possessed and calm. Truly, if beauty and high-bred repose of manner be any palliation of low birth and obscurity, this American ...
— A Terrible Secret • May Agnes Fleming
... stands aloof from actual life, this is far truer of Rossetti. His world is a vague and languid region of enchantment, full of whispering winds, indistinct forms of personified abstractions, and the murmur of hidden streams; its landscape sometimes bright, sometimes shadowy, but always delicate, exquisitely arranged for luxurious decorative effect. In his ballad-romances, to be sure, such as, 'The King's Tragedy,' there is much dramatic vigor; yet ...
— A History of English Literature • Robert Huntington Fletcher
... a tender subject with Miss Grey. She could not bear to disturb by a word the harmless illusion of her friend, and yet the almost fierce truthfulness of her nature would not allow her to murmur a sentence ...
— The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877 • Various
... were nearly exhausted; and when the lantern, held aloft, revealed Harcourt's pale face,—when she knew that it was his arms that received her in her helplessness, and she heard him murmur, "I now believe there's a merciful God, and thank Him,"—in the strong reaction of ...
— From Jest to Earnest • E. P. Roe
... over every little twig and leaf, the tree throwing out its branches in a kind of ecstasy and bathing them in the passionately boisterous caresses of its two visitants; or he will have heard the deep glad murmur of some huge sycamore with ripening seed clusters when after weeks of drought the steady warm rain brings relief to its thirst; and he will have known that these creatures are but likenesses of himself, intimately and deeply-related to him in their ...
— Pagan & Christian Creeds - Their Origin and Meaning • Edward Carpenter |
