"Soft" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... manly pride of unblenching courage. The progress of the music suggests to our imagination such magnificent groups as were designed by Paul Veronese, robed in the rich costume of days long past: we see passing at intervals before us, brocades of gold, velvets, damasked satins, silvery soft and flexile sables, hanging sleeves gracefully thrown back upon the shoulders, embossed sabres, boots yellow as gold or red with trampled blood, sashes with long and undulating fringes, close chemisettes, rustling trains, stomachers ...
— Life of Chopin • Franz Liszt
... up and down in the air with that tiny sword bobbing with them, he struggled to master the pain, but the effort was too great for him, and he kept moaning in spite of himself. A few feet from him sat a wounded Japanese sailor, who had been struck in the knee by a soft-nosed bullet. His trousers had been ripped up to put on a field dressing, and never have I before seen a more ghastly wound. The bullet had drilled into his knee-cap in a neat little hole, but the soft metal, striking the bony substance within, had splashed ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale
... almost wanting in sensibility, almost inhuman in his serenity. Newspaper articles which made most of us either wince or explode with anger did nothing more to the subject of their vilification than to set him off laughing—a comfortable, soft-sounding, and enjoying laughter which brought a light into his face and gently shook his considerable shoulders. He loved to produce at those moments the encomiums pronounced on his work at the War Office by those very newspapers only a few ...
— The Mirrors of Downing Street - Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster • Harold Begbie
... Lee at Appomattox Station, I went with my staff and a few others directly to Burkesville Station on my way to Washington. The road from Burkesville back having been newly repaired and the ground being soft, the train got off the track frequently, and, as a result, it was after midnight of the second day when I reached City Point. As soon as possible I took a dispatch-boat thence ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan
... years Rather would rest on the soft lap, I see, Of pleasure, after the fierce gusts of war. O Destiny! that callest me alone, Hapless, to keep the toilsome watch of state; Painful to age, unnatural to youth, Adverse to all society of friends, ...
— Count Julian • Walter Savage Landor
... moods" into which either the trials of real life, or the theatre, or a novel sometimes throws us. Especially if we weep! For it is then as if our tears broke through an inveterate inner dam, and let all sorts of ancient peccancies and moral stagnancies drain away, leaving us now washed and soft of heart and open to every nobler leading. With most of us the customary hardness quickly returns, but not so with saintly persons. Many saints, even as energetic ones as Teresa and Loyola, have possessed ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James
... wonder that anyone should scold him for it, every species of forbidden fruit that grows in the garden of life! How infantile really, when one thinks of it, and how humorously solemn the man's inordinate gravity over the touch of soft fabrics and the odour of rare perfumes! One seems to see him, a languid-limbed "revenant," with heavy-lidded drowsy eyes and voluptuous lips, emerging all swathed and wrapped in costly cerements out of the tomb of some ...
— Suspended Judgments - Essays on Books and Sensations • John Cowper Powys
... for her, or his surly mode of expressing it, any term that could indicate tenderness, even in a remote degree. She looked, therefore, at the woman earnestly, and as she did, her whole manner changed to one of melancholy and kindness. A soft and benign expression came like the dawn of breaking day over her features, her voice fell into natural melody and sweetness, and, approaching her companion, she took ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton
... too large and unwieldy for any attempt at exercise; but his broad, rosy face was turned toward the door, as he heard Enoch Sharp and his sister coming through the kitchen; and one of the frankest smiles you ever beheld, beamed from his soft brown eyes over the benevolent expanse ...
— The Old Homestead • Ann S. Stephens
... the living room of Tortha Karf's town apartment was still on; in it, a girl with bright red hair danced slowly to soft music against a background of shifting color. The four men who sat in a semicircle facing it sipped their drinks ...
— Time Crime • H. Beam Piper
... please, my dear young lady," said Rodin, with a playful smile. "I am a true Sybarite; I require absolutely warm clothes, a good stove, a soft mattress, a good piece of bread, a fresh radish, flavored with good cheap salt, and some good, clear water; and, notwithstanding this complication of wants, my twelve hundred francs have always more than sufficed, for I have been able ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue
... know why, but somehow I hoped this hay ride would shake up Belle's heart into being soft toward me. There are just eleven of us in the junior class in the Byrd Academy: Tony and Pink and Sam and the two Logan boys, while Roxanne and Mamie Sue and Belle and the two Willises, with me, make up the girls. Eleven is a sacred number, and I don't like for Belle and me ...
— Phyllis • Maria Thompson Daviess
... The present inhabitants of those countries, particularly in the hot region, so little comprehend the possibility of cutting hard stones (the emerald, jade, compact feldspar and rock-crystal), that they imagine the green stone is soft when taken out of the earth, and that it hardens after having been moulded by ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America V2 • Alexander von Humboldt
... withered half-breed woman, slipped in and out of the Forester's cabin tidying up bachelor confusion. The wind suffed through the evergreens in dream voices, pansy-soft to the touch. The slow-swaying evergreens rocked to a rhythm old as Eternity, Druid priests standing guard over the sacrament of love and night. From the purpling Valley came the sibilant hush of the River. Somewhere, ...
— The Freebooters of the Wilderness • Agnes C. Laut
... afraid they do, very much," said her mother, with a soft, little sigh. "I know if either of my daughters ever goes away to a home of her own, I shall miss her very much when she has left ...
— A Dear Little Girl's Thanksgiving Holidays • Amy E. Blanchard
... the soft lapse of the waves and singing? Yes, there are girls down by the landing with a banjo, and young men singing the songs of love, the modern songs of love dashed with college slang. The banjo suggests a little fastness; and this new generation carries off its sentiment with some ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... hardening over the exposed and delicate fibres. She anticipated for me the cold winds and beating rains of an adverse destiny. I knew she did, though she had never told me so in words. I read it in the anxious, wistful, prophetic expression of her soft, deep black eyes, whenever they rested on me. ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz
... had regaled themselves with the lavish collation, they joined the grown-up company who were dancing to the soft strains of three ...
— Rollo in Society - A Guide for Youth • George S. Chappell
... they find Doyle in the room below yours, and that paper in your room, and the busted fireplace here—I guess they won't look any farther for who did it. And say"—he leaned forward with an ugly grin—"mabbe you think I'm soft to be telling you all this? But don't you fool yourself. You don't know me—you don't know who I am. So tell 'em the TRUTH! They won't believe you anyway with evidence like that against you—and the neater the story the more they'll think it shows brains enough on your ...
— The Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard
... that road in spring. Presently he was in the same cart-track he had crossed on the night of his confession to Catherine; he lingered beside the same solitary fir on the brink of the ridge. A winter world lay before him; soft brown woodland, or reddish heath and fern, struck sideways by the sun, clothing the earth's bareness everywhere—curling mists—blue points of distant hill—a gray luminous ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... from his face as he twitched to his feet. He was trembling violently. In the shadow of the hood I saw a furred face, a quivering velvety muzzle, and great soft golden eyes which held intelligence ...
— The Door Through Space • Marion Zimmer Bradley
... Claire caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the strip of mirror over the chimney-piece, and at the sight a little thrill, half-painful, half-pleasant, passed through her veins. The soft bloom of her complexion, the dainty finish of her dress, differentiated her almost painfully from her companions, and she felt a pang of dread lest that difference should ever grow less. While she affected to read one of the magazines which lay ...
— The Independence of Claire • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... render it almost impossible to suppose that the same animal could bear wool so opposite in quality, compared to that which has been clipped from it: as the cold weather advances, the fleeces recover their soft quality." As in sheep of all breeds the fleece naturally consists of longer and coarser hair covering shorter and softer wool, the change which it often undergoes in hot climates is probably merely a case of unequal development; for even with those sheep ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. I. • Charles Darwin
... dull waxy luster, due to its slight hardness. Malachite, although soft, has, perhaps because of its opacity, a keen and sometimes almost ...
— A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public • Frank Bertram Wade
... Mrs. Tiralla herself had helped to harness the horse, and had stroked it tenderly whilst she did so. Jendrek had felt hot and cold and covetous as he listened to the soft words the beautiful woman had ...
— Absolution • Clara Viebig
... grown to a height of twelve or fourteen inches. The shoots are then pulled up by the roots, are tied into bundles, and the tops are cut off (Plate LI). The bundles are distributed about the fields at convenient distances, and the workers then transplant the young rice—three or four together—in the soft ooze, using the thumb and fore-finger of the right hand for that purpose (Plate LII). The preparation of the field is looked after by the men and boys, and oftentimes they aid in transplanting, ...
— The Tinguian - Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe • Fay-Cooper Cole
... Stearns, of Medford, Massachusetts, wrote as follows to Rosalie Hopper: "The Telegraph has announced that the precious life you were all so anxiously watching has 'passed on,' and that mysterious change we call death has taken it from your midst forever. It is such a beautiful day! The air is so soft, the grass so green, and the birds singing so joyously! The day and the event have become so interwoven with each other, that I cannot separate them. I think of his placid face, sleeping its last still ...
— Isaac T. Hopper • L. Maria Child
... rebellion, the words entered into Philippe's being like a caress; and he too almost forgot himself in the pleasure of listening to the sound of a soft voice and looking into eyes that are dear ...
— The Frontier • Maurice LeBlanc
... point where the snow lay lightly on their rocky top-knots and hid itself among the clouds. From the bridge, a rustic structure of entire pine-trees, we passed through an upper valley carpeted with the brightest soft green pasturage, until we reached the usual little cluster of dilapidated wooden tenements which constitute a village in these mountains. This was Soonamurg, and crossing another bridge, formed of two single giant pines, we came to a halt and pitched ...
— Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet • by William Henry Knight
... place the pretty, thoughtless Dutch girl looked among the spoils of far India, and Central America, and of Arabian and African worship and workmanship. But when the door opened, and Madame Jacobus, with soft, gliding footsteps entered, Hyde understood how truly the soul, if given the wherewithal, builds the habitation it likes best. Once possessed of marvellous beauty, and yet extraordinarily interesting, she seemed the very ...
— The Maid of Maiden Lane • Amelia E. Barr
... door at the left stood ajar. St. George looked in and saw a circle of bonnets and white curls clouded around the edge of the room, like witnesses. The Readers' Guild was about leaving; almost in the same instant, with that soft lift and touch which makes a woman's gown seem sewed with vowels and sibilants, they all arose and came tapping across the bare floor. At their head marched a woman with such a bright bonnet, and such a tinkle of ornaments on her gown that at first sight she quite looked like a lamp. ...
— Romance Island • Zona Gale
... who immediately began to play Red Indian or Australian black, and look for the trail—to wit, the thin wheel-marks left by the chair. But though he found those which had been made in coming plainly lining the soft sandy road, and ran in different directions toward home, there were ...
— The Vast Abyss - The Story of Tom Blount, his Uncles and his Cousin Sam • George Manville Fenn
... once and snatched him to her. But the stone Christling hampered her, lying so heavily in her arm. For a moment, fearing trickery, she had a mind to hurl it far out of doors into the night. . . . It would fall without much hurt into the soft sand of the towans. But on a second thought she held it forth gently ...
— News from the Duchy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... soft, like an early autumn day, rather than December as you know it. There was a haze in the air, but behind it the sun shone. You know what that French haze is, and what it does to the world, and how, through ...
— On the Edge of the War Zone - From the Battle of the Marne to the Entrance of the Stars and Stripes • Mildred Aldrich
... He is to encourage us to be free and kind, by proving that we are free and kind already. He passes our corporate life under review, to show that it is upheld by the very virtues of which he makes himself the advocate. "There is no object so soft," he says somewhere in his big, plain way, "there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel'd universe." Rightly understood, it is on the softest of all objects, the sympathetic heart, that the wheel of society turns easily and securely as on a perfect axle. There is no room, ...
— Familiar Studies of Men & Books • Robert Louis Stevenson
... experience, but I preserved sufficient presence of mind to make no demonstration. Dogs know well enough when a man or woman loves their kind, and I am sure this one was no exception, or he would never have behaved with such gentlemanly politeness. So soft was the touch of his fangs that I was only just conscious my hand was in his mouth by now and then the gentlest reminder. I knew animals too well to attempt to withdraw it, and so preserved a calm more wonderful than I could have ...
— The Reminiscences Of Sir Henry Hawkins (Baron Brampton) • Henry Hawkins Brampton
... and whose vices were the disgrace, of three nations. Barbara Palmer, Duchess of Cleveland, was there, no longer young, but still retaining some traces of that superb and voluptuous loveliness which twenty years before overcame the hearts of all men. There too was the Duchess of Portsmouth, whose soft and infantine features were lighted up with the vivacity of France. Hortensia Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, and niece of the great Cardinal, completed the group. She had been early removed from her native Italy to the court ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 1 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... one-sixteenth inch in diameter, and turn the flame to give its greatest effect, still keeping rather an excess of air or oxygen. See that the side of the joint already made is kept fairly hot—it need not be soft; interrupt any other work often enough to ensure this. Then, directing the flame chiefly on the thin rod, begin to melt and pull the glass over the edges of the gap. When the gap is closed get the lump very hot, so that all the glass is well melted together, and then, if necessary, ...
— On Laboratory Arts • Richard Threlfall
... the new headquarters, a crouched up figure, carrying a small package, his face hidden under his soft hat and up-turned collar, could have been seen slinking along until ...
— The Exploits of Elaine • Arthur B. Reeve
... United States. The cathedrals, the quaint architecture of the streets, the barred windows, and the picturesque dress of the working class, form an atmosphere of distinctive life and colour. Let us halt a moment in the plaza. The band is discoursing soft music, varied by some stirring martial air; the Mexican moon has risen, and now that the sunset colours pale, vies with the lamps of the well-lit promenade to illumine a happy but simple scene. Its rays shine through the feathery boughs of the palms, and glisten on the ...
— Mexico • Charles Reginald Enock
... "Soft-hearted Menelaus, why of life So tender? Hath thy house receiv'd indeed Nothing but benefits at Trojan hands? Of that abhorred race, let not a man Escape the deadly vengeance of our arms; No, not the infant in its mother's womb; ...
— The Iliad • Homer
... tongue, and then sounded the vowel. The child grasped the idea at once. Her fingers flew to her own mouth and throat, and she produced the sound so nearly accurate that it sounded like an echo. Next the sound of ah was made by dropping the jaw a little and letting the child feel that the tongue was soft and lying in the bed of the jaw with the teeth more widely separated. She in the same way arranged her own, but was not so successful as at first, but soon produced ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... telephone, the rural post, the gasoline engine. I have seen a machine plant as many potatoes in one day as a man, at hand work, could have planted in a week. While there is, indeed, real drudgery in the country, much that is looked upon as drudgery by people who long for easy ways and a soft life, is only good, honest, wholesome hard work—the kind of work that makes for fiber in a man or in a nation, the kind that most city ...
— Great Possessions • David Grayson
... his hand lightly and caressingly upon her head. The ruffles at his wrist, soft, fine, and perfumed, brushed her forehead and her eyes. "The path through your labyrinth to its beechen heart was hard to find," he continued, "but I can easily retrace it. No, trouble not yourself, child. Stay for a time where you are. ...
— Audrey • Mary Johnston
... he called the three Princes before him and said, "My sons, to-morrow let your wives bake me some soft white bread. I will eat of it, and in this way I will know which of you has the cleverest wife, and he who has the cleverest wife ...
— Tales of Folk and Fairies • Katharine Pyle
... on the tainted Ghetto air. And Miriam, her Madonna-like face wet with hot tears, burnt the praying-shawl she was weaving in secret love for the man who might one day have loved her, and went to condole with the mourners, holding Rachel's rugged hand in those soft, sweet fingers that no lover would ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... I found it more attractive than ever. The beauty of its site is best appreciated from the lower ground beyond its western suburb. And beautiful it is—the graceful cathedral, with its airy spire and twin towers, pencilled in soft, silvery gray against the dimpled green hills, every feature of the landscape in harmony with it, as if, indeed, made to be in harmony with it. Turning from the cathedral in an opposite direction, in order to make the circuit of the city, we realize ...
— The Roof of France • Matilda Betham-Edwards
... of the tribe) assimilating them to the raptores; the fissirostres come into analogy with the natatores in the slight development of their feet and their great powers of flight; the tenuirostres have the small mouths and long soft bills of the grallatores. Finally, the scansores resemble the rasores in their superior intelligence and docility, and in their having strong limbs and a bill entire at the tip. This parity of qualities becomes clearer when placed in ...
— Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation • Robert Chambers
... no vibration or grinding, as would have been the case in starting a steamer, but only a soft whirring, humming sound, that rose several degrees in pitch as the engines gained speed, and the fan-wheels revolved faster and faster until they sang in the air, and the Ariel rose without a ...
— The Angel of the Revolution - A Tale of the Coming Terror • George Griffith
... that fair clime, the lonely herdsman, stretched On the soft grass through half a summer's day, With music lulled his indolent repose, And in some fit of weariness if he, When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear A distant strain far sweeter than the sounds Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetched, Even from the blazing ...
— Early Bardic Literature, Ireland • Standish O'Grady
... in the middle of the road. He was too gentle and considerate to quote Voltaire and Rousseau at inopportune times, and she sustained and encouraged his mental independence. All of which is here voiced with one foot on the soft pedal, and with no thought of putting forth an argument to the effect that young gentlemen with liberal views should marry ladies who belong to ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 9 - Subtitle: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Reformers • Elbert Hubbard
... books on the opposite wall. Every volume there is an instrument which some melodist of the mind created and set vibrating with music, as a flower shakes out its perfume or a star shakes out its light. Only listen, and they soothe all care, as though the silken-soft leaves of poppies had been made vocal and poured into ...
— A Kentucky Cardinal • James Lane Allen
... see, Willie, I didn't know anything about them. None of us did. I thought I smelled something good in the pantry, and when Effie went upstairs I sneaked in to see. Sure enough, there was a bag of bananas, real soft and sweet, don't you know. I et one and then I et another and, before I knew it, they were all gone. Then Effie caught me as I was ...
— A Little Question in Ladies' Rights • Parker Fillmore
... hump was distinctly visible, sliding along the sea as if an isolated thing, and continually set in a revolving ring of finest, fleecy, greenish foam. He saw the vast, involved wrinkles of the slightly projecting head beyond. Before it, far out on the soft Turkish-rugged waters, went the glistening white shadow from his broad, milky forehead, a musical rippling playfully accompanying the shade; and behind, the blue waters interchangeably flowed over into the moving valley of his steady wake; and on either ...
— Great Sea Stories • Various
... Secundum artem: but although we sneer In health—when ill, we call them to attend us, Without the least propensity to jeer; While that "hiatus maxime deflendus" To be filled up by spade or mattock's near, Instead of gliding graciously down Lethe, We tease mild Baillie,[545] or soft Abernethy. ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron
... food; the compulsory task; the kind, yet heavy-handed, coarse-voiced mother. She was convinced that the grandmother had been different. In the corner where she had sat, there must have been warmth and welcome for the child. Perhaps there were mellow old tales, sweet old songs, soft strokings of the head, smuggled sweets—all ...
— The Precipice • Elia Wilkinson Peattie
... into the small hours, but she did not come. Once he had been trying to write, and had fallen, as usual, to brooding—there was a soft knock at the door. In an instant he had bounded from his chair, and turned the handle. It was one of the reporters from upstairs, who had run out of matches. Rutherford gave him a handful. The reporter went out, wondering what ...
— The Man Upstairs and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse
... not a ha'porth o' harm did the vagabone take at all at all. He held on by the birds' legs like a little nagur; he was but a shimpeen of a chap, and what with the flapping of their wings and the soft place he fell upon, barring a little thrifle of stunning, and it may be a small matter of fright, he was as comfortable as any one could expect under the circumstances; but it would have done your heart good to see the little gossoon jump up, shake his feathers, and ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, November 20, 1841 • Various
... down the corn-row she ran over in her mind the various things with which she had always associated happiness. Had she found a gold ring? No, it was not a gold ring—of that she felt sure. Was it a soft, curly plume for her hat? She had seen town people with them, and had indulged in day-dreams on the subject; but it was not a feather. Was it a bright-colored silk dress? No; as much as she had always wanted one, ...
— The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and - Selected Essays • Charles Waddell Chesnutt
... senior class on the morrow, stood feeding her canary on the little square porch of the Dinwiddie Academy for Young Ladies. The day had been hot, and the fitful wind, which had risen in the direction of the river, was just beginning to blow in soft gusts under the old mulberry trees in the street, and to scatter the loosened petals of syringa blossoms in a flowery snow over the grass. For a moment Miss Priscilla turned her flushed face to the scented air, while her eyes rested lovingly on ...
— Virginia • Ellen Glasgow
... I was at eight o'clock of a Wednesday evening in a restaurant full of the usual lights and buzz and glitter, among women in soft-hued gowns, and men in their hideous substitute for the same. Across the table sat my one-time guardian, dear old Peter Dunstan,—Dunny to me since the night when I first came to him, a very tearful, lonesome, small boy whose loneliness went away forever with his welcoming hug,—just arrived from ...
— The Firefly Of France • Marion Polk Angellotti
... grass and rolled in it. It was warm and soft and sweet-smelling; it soothed away the hurt of his aching muscles and the sting of his scratches. He rolled over on his back and cushioned his head in his hands. The sky seemed to be slipping along overhead like a broad blue river. The breeze ruffled ...
— David and the Phoenix • Edward Ormondroyd
... need hath he now of a tardy crown, His name from mocking jest and sneer to save When every plowman turns his furrow down As soft as though it fell ...
— The Poets' Lincoln - Tributes in Verse to the Martyred President • Various
... chubby and round, Which a cherub might have been proud of, in snowiest linen bound! Then—he hailed us, in infant accents, so innocent, fresh, and blithe— That our nest of human snakes was stirred to a conscience-stricken writhe! (In soft falsetto, as Child). Dear Pirates, I am so sorry—I did want to see you so. I'm afraid you'll be disappointed—but you mustn't come near, you know! I wish I could ask you on board to tea, for I feel so down in the dumps, But I can't invite you—for, if you came, you'd be certain ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 103, August 13, 1892 • Various
... the Morris chair for several long minutes, wishing that he were dead. Nobody made a sound. He rubbed his hands over the soft leather and tried to tell himself that he was ...
— Supermind • Gordon Randall Garrett
... blood, and was born blind. His first manifestation of interest in any thing was his fondness for sounds; the first indication of capacity, his power for imitating them. Musical sounds exerted a controlling interest over him; but all sounds, from the soft breathings of the flute to the harsh grating of the corn-sheller, appeared to afford him exquisite enjoyment. His power of judging of the lapse of time was as remarkable as his power of remembering and imitating sounds. ...
— Music and Some Highly Musical People • James M. Trotter
... training institutions which have sprung up, under public or private auspices, within the past quarter of a century. Thorwaldsen was not a man of great originative genius, and nothing at all of a potter, troubling himself little about hard or soft paste or this or the other glaze; but he infused the love of classic form into the bleakest corners of Scandinavia, and made her youth modellers of terra-cotta into shapes unexcelled by any imitators of the antique. The prize awaits him who should, upon such knowledge and discipline, graft a study ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, December 1878 • Various
... expressive, the eyes dark and very fine, not sparkling, but mild and full of feeling. The face reminds us of the character of "Still Waters," attributed to the Aurore Dupin of fifteen by the Lady Superior of the English convent. Her voice was soft and muffled, and the simplicity of her manner has been remarked on by those who sought her acquaintance, as a particular charm. Yet, like all reserved natures, she often failed to attract strangers at a first meeting. In general conversation she disappointed people, by not shining. ...
— Famous Women: George Sand • Bertha Thomas
... deposit in the niche prepared for it, this second ceremony being quite as solemn and imposing as the first. M. de Belmont officiated on the occasion, and during the requiem Mass the heart of the deceased was exposed on a catafalque in the middle aisle of the church, being covered by a soft white veil, the emblem of virginity. At the conclusion of the Holy Sacrifice, the prayers of the dead were solemly chanted, while the celebrant carried the cherished relic in his own hands to its final resting place, which was a kind of niche, cut ...
— The Life of Venerable Sister Margaret Bourgeois • Anon.
... my hand find'st thou it hard to rest on?" Then with gentle voice replied Maria; "O, in faith, my heart and soul, my Jovo, Dearer is to me thy soul, O dearest, Than my brothers, all the four together. Softer is thy hand to me to rest on, Than four cushions, softest of the soft ones."[9] ...
— Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic - Nations • Therese Albertine Louise von Jacob Robinson
... if it postponed a marriage, led naturally to a solemn engagement; and Arthur Wardlaw enjoyed the happiness of writing and receiving affectionate letters by every foreign post. Love, worthily bestowed, shed its balm upon his heart, and, under its soft but powerful charm, he grew tranquil and complacent, and his character and temper seemed to improve. Such virtue is there in ...
— Foul Play • Charles Reade
... sword. The gorgeous clothes, which had suited him so well in the prime of his manhood, hung somewhat loosely on his attenuated frame, but he looked a grand and imposing figure, with his white hair tied behind with a great black bow, and the fine jabot of beautiful point d'Angleterre falling in a soft ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... that letter intimidate you?" she pleaded, laying her soft white hand on his arm. "Oh, Mr. Kennedy," she added, bravely keeping back the tears, "avenge him! All the money in the world would be too little to ...
— The Exploits of Elaine • Arthur B. Reeve
... manly beauty; the face oval, the complexion clear and mantling; the forehead lofty and white; the nose aquiline and delicately moulded; the upper lip short. But it was in the dark brown eye that flashed with piercing scrutiny that all the character of the man came forth; a brilliant glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of ...
— The Portland Peerage Romance • Charles J. Archard
... ones had hardly reached the stage, when behind the scenes there became audible a very, very faint music of violins, which did not cease during the whole time that they were filing past—a soft and always even air, like the murmur of many subdued voices, the voices of all the mothers, and all the masters and mistresses, giving counsel in concert, and beseeching and administering loving reproofs. And meanwhile, the prize-winners passed one ...
— Cuore (Heart) - An Italian Schoolboy's Journal • Edmondo De Amicis
... now," replied the soft voice of a woman, as she came forward, and stood before him ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, XXII • various
... part, in spite of her. Her hand remains in his, and feels its soft persuasive pressure. She is a lost woman. It is only ...
— The Frozen Deep • Wilkie Collins
... she said in her clear soft voice. "Come and dance! for you I play, for you I sing too, if you will. Ah, the pretty song, 'En revenant d'Auvergne!'" And she began ...
— Marie • Laura E. Richards
... anointed is a prisoner now in the light grating of a bright kiosk, and never gazes on the world he conquered. Egypt and Syria, even farthest Ind, send forth their messengers to greet Alroy, the great, the proud, the invincible. And where is he? In a soft Paradise of girls and eunuchs, crowned with flowers, listening to melting lays, and the wild trilling of the amorous lute. He spares no hours to council; all is left to his prime favourites, of whom the leader is that juggling fiend ...
— Alroy - The Prince Of The Captivity • Benjamin Disraeli
... walls, the silence and seclusion are complete. The roar and rattle of Fleet Street and the Strand might be a thousand miles away, for scarce a murmur penetrates beyond the Temple gates. The quiet, stone-paved courts, the grassy nooks gemmed with a few choice blossoms, the soft-plashing fountains, overshadowed by sturdy elm-, plane-, or fig-trees, the cool stone archways leading from one court to another, the park-like expanse of the Temple Garden, bounded by the bustling ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36—New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885 • Various
... walked along in silence through the soft mud and deep ruts, each on his side of the road. Mikolai's eyes suddenly felt wet. The deuce, what was that? He rubbed them angrily, but they were wet the next moment again. Here, here they had driven last summer—only a few months ago—with hay and flowers ...
— Absolution • Clara Viebig
... have occasioned, and though I cannot but observe, that Count de Vergennes' letter is peculiarly explicit and precise, yet I must confess, I should not have been surprised if it had been conceived in terms still less soft. Would it not be well to transmit a copy of it to Congress? France has done, and is still doing so much for us, that gratitude, as well as policy, demands from us the utmost moderation and delicacy in our applications for aids; and considering the very singular plan of ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. VIII • Various
... a space between it and the window-pane. Through that space he could see across the yard to the fence running round the allotment, and beyond it to the dark line of the bush, rendered the darker at the moment by the soft sheen of the rising moon showing ...
— The Rider of Waroona • Firth Scott
... bearing, his voice, and especially his small, delicate face with the golden-blue eyes, the elegant, as it were coquettishly moulded little nose, the unchanging amiable smile on the crimson lips, the light curls of soft hair over the rather narrow, snow-white brow. Fustov's character was remarkable for exceptional serenity, and a sort of amiable, restrained affability; he was never pre-occupied, and was always satisfied with ...
— The Jew And Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev
... Doctor Splendiano was found near the Pyramid of Cestius, fast asleep, doubled up like a ball and squeezed into his wig, as if into a warm soft nest. When he was awakened, he rambled in his talk, and there was some difficulty in convincing him that he was still on the surface of the earth, and in Rome to boot. And when at length he reached his own house, he returned thanks to the Virgin and all the saints for his rescue, threw all ...
— Weird Tales. Vol. I • E. T. A. Hoffmann
... instinct of men saw to be essential too. That this regime forbids free thought is not an evil,—or rather, though an evil, it is the necessary basis for the greatest good; it is necessary for making the mold of civilization and hardening the soft fibre of ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various
... that now ensued between Goisvintha and Hermanric, and while each stood absorbed in deep meditation, the dark prospect spread around them began to brighten slowly under a soft, clear light. The moon, whose dull broad disk had risen among the evening mists arrayed in gloomy red, had now topped the highest of the exhalations of earth, and beamed in the wide heaven, adorned once more in her pale, accustomed hue. Gradually, ...
— Antonina • Wilkie Collins
... the hollow I have mentioned. The ground was low and soft, and gave us some hopes of finding water. We instantly set to work, digging with our bamboo spades. We dug and dug in the soft earth; but though it was somewhat moist, not a thimbleful of water appeared. ...
— In the Eastern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston
... of trimming. Many are of the paletot form, and have sleeves. They are edged with a narrow fur border, the collar being entirely of fur. For trimming mantles Canada sable is much employed. This fur is neither so beautifully soft and glossy, nor so rich in color as the Russian sable; but the difference in price is very considerable. In tone of color minx comes next to Canada sable. Squirrel will not be among the favorite furs this winter; it will be chiefly used ...
— The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 • Various
... the sword 'Life-luller,'" says Geirmund, "and one edge of it was blue with fire, and Bard and I said that it must have become soft, but he answered thus, that he would harden it in the blood of the sons of Sigfus ...
— Njal's Saga • Unknown Icelanders
... knees and was cowering against the wall, had lost consciousness probably for a minute or two. Then she heard that pleasant laugh again and the soft drawl of ...
— The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel • Baroness Orczy
... begged Gonzaga not to linger at her side, but to go lend what aid he could to that brave knight who stood so sorely in need of it. And Gonzaga had smiled a smile as pale as January sunshine, and his soft blue eyes had hardened in their glance. Not weakness now was it that held him there, well out of the dangerous turmoil. For he felt that had he possessed the strength of Hercules, and the courage of Achilles, he would not in that instant have moved a step to Francesco's ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini
... embodied the largest measure of Democratic strength. It united the two States of the North which with a solid vote from the South would control the country. One candidate suited the hard-money element; the other the soft-money element. One aimed to draw recruits; the other to ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine
... the whole purpose, although they should be arranged so as to fulfil the work of this Commandment and purify us daily more and more. Some have also indicated more things which should be avoided, such as soft beds and clothes, that we should avoid excessive adornment, and neither associate nor talk with members of the opposite sex, nor even look upon them, and whatsoever else may be conducive to chastity. In all these things no one can fix a definite rule and measure. Each one must ...
— Works of Martin Luther - With Introductions and Notes (Volume I) • Martin Luther
... Soft or firm elevations, usually large and prominent, and having their seat in the corium and subcutaneous tissue; as, for example, sebaceous tumors, gummata, and the ...
— Essentials of Diseases of the Skin • Henry Weightman Stelwagon
... Indian guava, a well-known fruit in the tropics, but only known here in the shape of guava jelly. The wood of the tree has a fine, close grain, and has been experimented with as a substitute for boxwood for engraving purposes, but it is too soft to ...
— Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture • William Saunders
... as to this workman, I shall do nothing unless I receive your commands. With respect to your stone work, it may be got much cheaper here than in England. The stone of Paris is very white and beautiful; but it always remains soft, and suffers from the weather. The cliffs of the Seine, from hence to Havre, are all of stone. I am not yet informed whether it is all liable to the same objections. At Lyons, and all along the Rhone, is a stone as beautiful ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson
... done with a soft sponge and with care. If there be any difficulty in removing the substance, gently rub it, by means of a flannel, [Footnote: Mrs Baines (who has written so much and so well on the Management of Children), ...
— Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children • Pye Henry Chavasse
... write, this old servant of an emigre sat under the trees opposite the school-room. He had gathered the village children about him. Night was coming on, but the spring air was soft and sweet. He spoke in a low voice, for the authorities of the village might have considered his words as somewhat of an incendiary nature. He ...
— The Son of Monte Cristo • Jules Lermina
... old people are hard and brittle; those of children soft and flexible; so I must sit and stand erect, that mine may not be bent out of shape. I must not wear tight clothing, or do anything that will crowd them out ...
— Object Lessons on the Human Body - A Transcript of Lessons Given in the Primary Department of School No. 49, New York City • Sarah F. Buckelew and Margaret W. Lewis
... and bushes, and with the advantage of higher ground, could cross their fire upon the fort and enfilade a part of it. Washington had meanwhile drawn his followers within the entrenchment; and the firing now began on both sides. Rain fell all day. The raw earth of the embankment was turned to soft mud, and the men in the ditch of the outwork stood to the knee in water. The swivels brought back from the camp at Gist's farm were mounted on the rampart; but the gunners were so ill protected that the ...
— Montcalm and Wolfe • Francis Parkman
... allows music to play upon him and to pour into his soul through the funnel of his ears those sweet and soft and melancholy airs of which we were just now speaking, and his whole life is passed in warbling and the delights of song; in the first stage of the process the passion or spirit which is in him is tempered like iron, and made useful, instead of brittle and useless. But, if he carries on the softening ...
— The Republic • Plato
... denuded, the water was least able to do it; and as the denuding power of the water increased, the land, being covered with vegetation, became more and more able to resist it. All this he has seen, going on at the present day, in the similar gullies worn in the soft strata of the South ...
— Health and Education • Charles Kingsley
... were off again, and soon arrived at the pitfall, where they found the lad, still lying where Humphrey had left him. They soaked the cake in the milk, and as soon as it was soft gave him some; after a time, he swallowed pretty freely, and was so much recovered as to be able to sit up. They then lifted him into the cart, and drove gently ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat
... name of an island further down the coast; and had White gone thither, he might even yet have found the lost. But he was a man unfitted in all respects to live in that age and take part in its enterprise. He was a soft, feeble, cowardly and unfaithful creature, yet vain and ambitious, and eager to share the fame of men immeasurably larger and worthier than he. He could draw pictures, but he could not do deeds; and now, after having ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne
... heard a sound as of crying and sobbing in his room, so she did not go in, but remained standing outside. A little while after it seemed to her as if he were praying earnestly, but she did not understand the words. The next evening she heard him playing a soft melody, as if on a violin which did ...
— The Visionary - Pictures From Nordland • Jonas Lie
... own natural weakness, and timorousness shall not overcome thee.—For it shall not be too hard for God. God can make the most soft spirited man as hard as an adamant, harder than flint, yea harder than the northern steel. "Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?" (Jer 15:12). The sword of him is [used] in vain that lays at a Christian, when he is in the way of his ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... running with the water, and knelt down and held the basin while Katie flew for a sponge and soft linen. ...
— Illustrated Science for Boys and Girls • Anonymous
... Irma's knee, folded in her soft arms, grew restless as the story lengthened, and began to prattle softly at ...
— The Blue Flower, and Others • Henry van Dyke
... in the Sandwich Islands-twenty-three years ago—that peaceful land, that beautiful land, that far-off home of solitude, and soft idleness, and repose, and dreams, where life is one long slumberous Sabbath, the climate one long summer day, and the good that die experience no change, for they but fall asleep in one heaven and wake up in another. And these boys have played baseball there!—baseball, ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine
... assure you I've lots of time, my time is entirely my own!" And the prince immediately replaced his soft, round hat on the table. "I confess, I thought Elizabetha Prokofievna would very likely remember that I had written her a letter. Just now your servant—outside there—was dreadfully suspicious that I had come to beg of you. I noticed that! Probably he has very strict instructions on that score; ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... soft caps pulled down over their ears, and woolen comforters untied and hanging down their backs. They invited the women to dance by pulling them by the cap ribbons that fluttered behind them. Some few, in hats and frockcoats ...
— Germinie Lacerteux • Edmond and Jules de Goncourt
... Misenum shone a palace fair Among the laurels by the summer sea; Long colonnades, and wondrous artistry, And all that should a gorgeous feast prepare. Oft saw it scenes of midnight revelry Where moved soft boys, their brows with ivy crowned, And silver-footed damsels, capering round, The thyrsus swung; with merry shouts of glee And rippling laughter, and the lyre's soft tone, It rang till fell the ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various
... all species of "soft tack" it was least to his liking. He nicknamed it "strike-me-blind," being firmly convinced that its continued use would rob him of his eyesight. Tea was not added to his dietary till 1824, but as early as 1795 he could regale himself on cocoa. For the rest, sugar, essence of malt, essence of ...
— The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore • John R. Hutchinson
... cut roughly to a point. The face, brown, thin, and bony, was unduly emphasized by a Roman nose, too large for the other features. But the face, as a whole, impressed the two people now regarding it as almost handsome. He was clad in a dark gray suit, and a soft felt hat lay ...
— The Pines of Lory • John Ames Mitchell
... the roving fancy flies, Till some lov'd object strikes her wand'ring eyes, Whose silken fetters all the senses bind, And soft ...
— An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African • Thomas Clarkson
... in many instances invisible in a kind of golden mist, or haze, which proved to be, not a transient phenomenon, but a permanent one, for never in that country has the sun been seen, nor is there any night. The haze seems to be self-luminous, giving a soft, yellow light, so diffused that shadows are unknown. The land is abundantly supplied with pools and rivulets, whose water is of a beautiful orange color and has a pleasing perfume somewhat like attar of rose. I observed all this without surprise ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce • Ambrose Bierce
... good-sized valise that was on the floor beside his chair. This person looked young, for the face, or as much of it as was not hidden by a very full black beard, was fair and smooth as that of a woman; while the hair which shaded his white brow was dark as night, soft and glossy as silk, hanging on short, curling masses about his ...
— Wild Bill's Last Trail • Ned Buntline
... be thoroughly whitewashed inside every spring, and kept clean of cobwebs, wasp's nests, and vermin; and it may be painted outside, a soft and agreeable color, in keeping with the other buildings of the farm. Its premises should be clean, and sweet. The grass around should be kept mowed close. Low trees, or shrubbery, should stand within a few yards of it, that the new swarms may light ...
— Rural Architecture - Being a Complete Description of Farm Houses, Cottages, and Out Buildings • Lewis Falley Allen
... knew what my hair was on end about. I was almost grateful to her for the way she put it, and meekly retired to the cloak room, where—I confess it—with a long-tailed girl's comb, and a soft brush, and a big looking-glass, I contrived to restore my truant locks to their former ...
— Tom, Dick and Harry • Talbot Baines Reed
... skinnes very soft and souple with the haire on. In cold weather or Winter they weare the furre side inward: and Summer outward. Other apparell they haue none ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I. • Richard Hakluyt
... over twenty years. "The doctor came over, saluted the flag by taking off his hat, and said it was the first time he had seen it on British soil in that period." Of a trip taken with Constables Shook and Cameron on snow-shoes Jarvis says, "The snow was soft, and despite the snow-shoes we sank deep at every step. The following afternoon we returned to camp, having been travelling forty-six hours without blankets and ...
— Policing the Plains - Being the Real-Life Record of the Famous North-West Mounted Police • R.G. MacBeth
... 'e said 'e'd writ before, An' 'ow the letters must lave gone astray; An' 'ow the stern ole father still was sore, But looked like 'e'd be soft'nin', day by day; 'Ow pride in Jim peeps out be'ind 'is frown, An' 'ow the ole fool 'opes to ...
— Digger Smith • C. J. Dennis
... proportion of the gable was built of stone and lime, yet that a small part towards the top, as was sometimes the case in these days, was constructed of turf, and that, should he effect an opening through the soft material, he might drop with safety upon the top of a peat-stack, and thus effect his escape to Creechope Linn, with every pass and cave of which he was intimately acquainted. In a word, his escape was effected ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XXIII. • Various
... Queen Iseult be carried on that cloak Within the castle. Place her there upon Soft pillows. Strew fresh flowers round about Her bed, and moisten all her robes and clothes With sweetest perfumes. Kneel ye down and pray When she doth speak to you, for she must be In some way sacred, since God loves ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various
... They recommend him as a paragon of genius and learning to all communities or societies who want a service in his kind. How happy both sides to this transaction are expected to feel, and how willing people are sometimes to add to the soft words a solid testimonial of gold, if only thus a dismissal can be effected! But are not the reports of the committees and the votes of the meetings false coin, nowhere current in the kingdom of God, circulate as ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 74, December, 1863 • Various |
