"Diffidently" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... don't need one! And frankly—I can't afford one." Shy as a girl, his eyes eluded the doctor's frank stare. "You see," he explained diffidently; "you see, I'm just engaged to be married—and though business is fairly good and all that—my being away from the office six or eight weeks is going to cut like the deuce into my commissions—and roses cost such a horrid price last Fall—and there seems to be a game law on ...
— Molly Make-Believe • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
... may be different," Carey suggested diffidently, at which Anthony shouted. "I don't care—all the girls I ever knew wanted to sit up nights," Carey ...
— The Indifference of Juliet • Grace S. Richmond
... itself rosily before Garth's mind's eye; but his instinct to take care of her made him oppose it. "There is me," he said diffidently; "travelling alone with me, I mean. Even in the North a girl is obliged to ...
— Two on the Trail - A Story of the Far Northwest • Hulbert Footner
... his turn Rust sought diffidently to penetrate the mystery surrounding Madame Gilbert, she overflowed with untruthful particulars. She resembles her master Dawson in this—it is unwise to believe one word which she wishes you to believe. Of her early life in Paris she spoke with emotion. ...
— The Lost Naval Papers • Bennet Copplestone
... beat away at the lather, and the rainbow bubbles curled over the edge of the bowl. "You said that you would devise me when the time had come for me to invest that money," he said, diffidently, and yet with a noble air of confidence ...
— The Debtor - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... don't think I know Mr. Siward well enough to do that," said Plank diffidently. He hesitated, colouring up. "He might misunderstand my going with you—as a liberty—which perhaps I might not have ventured on had he ...
— The Fighting Chance • Robert W. Chambers
... Chester, suddenly forgetting about his headache in his anxiety to know the explanation of the five cylinders. It was a small suburban town in which they lived, and if something had gone wrong it was a matter of common interest. "Can you tell me about it?" he asked—a little diffidently, for none knew better than he that things could not always be told, and that no lips were locked tighter than Red Pepper's when the secret was not his ...
— Red Pepper Burns • Grace S. Richmond
... this. He talked to George, and elicited the information that the latter meant to farm. Then he got up, followed by two of the others, and the remaining man with the English appearance turned to George diffidently. ...
— Ranching for Sylvia • Harold Bindloss
... lighted room. Her men stood there against the walls. The settlers came diffidently in across the sill, lean, poor men for the most part, their strained eyes and furrowed faces showing the effect of hardships. Not a man there but had seen himself despoiled, had swallowed the bitter dose ...
— Tharon of Lost Valley • Vingie E. Roe
... ever—since seeing him just now," affirmed Viner. "I know his face, but that's all I can say. I suppose," he continued, looking diffidently at the inspector, as if he half-expected to be laughed at for the suggestion he was about to make, "I suppose you don't believe that this unfortunate fellow may have some explanation of his possession of Mr. ...
— The Middle of Things • J. S. Fletcher
... Hardinge, very diffidently. He looks appealingly at the professor. "I know perfectly well she might do a great deal better," says he, with a modesty that sits very charmingly upon him. "But if it comes to a choice between me and your brother, I—I think I am the better man. By Jove, Curzon," growing ...
— A Little Rebel • Mrs. Hungerford
... meal Seaton and Crane held a short consultation, and the former called to the girls, asking them to join in the "council of war." There was a moment's silence before Crane said diffidently: ...
— The Skylark of Space • Edward Elmer Smith and Lee Hawkins Garby
... youngest but one, has gone, not at all docilely and diffidently, into the greatest possible danger, and come out of it. And here she is, wide awake and in full command of the Ostend-Dunkirk expedition. And instead of my seeing her off and all the way home, she is very thoroughly and competently ...
— A Journal of Impressions in Belgium • May Sinclair
... place in the country," he answered diffidently. "I'm a countryman, and Phillida thinks she'd ...
— The Thing from the Lake • Eleanor M. Ingram
... "Which will you have, Edward?" Edward: "I think I'd like a bit of chicken!" Aunt M. fiercely: "No, you won't, you'll have mutton!" That happened so often. Sometimes Alice Grosjean, the youngest of Aunt M.'s family, familiarly known as "Sloper," was there. When asked her preference she would say, diffidently, "I think I'll take a little mutton!" "Don't be a fool, Alice, you know you like chicken,"—and chicken ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward
... the jurors whom I liked, seemed to be thoughtfully weighing the evidence. He was not so well acquainted with Miss Lloyd as the two men who had just spoken in her behalf, and he made a remark somewhat diffidently. ...
— The Gold Bag • Carolyn Wells
... for you, boys," he said slowly, "and" (diffidently) "kinder sorry for myself, too. You see, I reckoned on goin' over to Skinner's to-morrow, to fill up the pork bar'l and vote for Mesick and the wagon-road. But Skinner can't let me have anything more until I've paid suthin' on ...
— In a Hollow of the Hills • Bret Harte
... always some exceptions. They knew pretty well that Varr was the man who was fighting them—in other words, locking them out. With him out of the way, they knew they could count on better terms from me." He added diffidently, "Mightn't one of them have ...
— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston
... all the delightful results that were to come from it; rest and ease for the woman; a wheel chair and the best of surgeons for the little girl; school and college for the boy. Then, after a long minute of silence, he said something else. He said it diffidently, and with a rush of bright color to his face—he was not used to treading quite so near to ...
— The Tangled Threads • Eleanor H. Porter
... had got to his feet again, Aunt Esther All diffidently touched his elbow. "Nicholas ...
— The Cruise of the Shining Light • Norman Duncan
... down at table, I looked, I suppose, a little diffidently: for I really then thought of my lady's anger at the Hall, when she would not have permitted me to sit at table with her; and Mr. B. saying, "Take your place, my dear; you keep our friends standing;" I sat down in my usual seat. And my lady said, "None ...
— Pamela (Vol. II.) • Samuel Richardson
... Clair, diffidently; "it is very kind of you to let me choose. Can some one bring ...
— At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern • Myrtle Reed
... etc.; and regularly at one o'clock just as we were sitting at Mess, Sergeant Brown would appear (though we never saw more of him than his legs) at the aperture that served as our door, and would call out diffidently in his high squeaky voice: "Isolation, when you're ready, Miss," and as regularly the whole Mess would go off into fits! This formula when translated meant that he was ready for me to take the rations to the Isolation hospital up ...
— Fanny Goes to War • Pat Beauchamp
... delight. In the meanwhile Hawtrey watched her with a rather curious expression. He was not quite sure he had meant Sally to have the things when he had purchased them, but he was quite contented now. The one gift he had somewhat diffidently offered Agatha since her arrival in Canada had been almost coldly ...
— Hawtrey's Deputy • Harold Bindloss
... of the fact. Then seeing she did not resume her seat on the steps, he ventured diffidently, "Will you ...
— The Good Comrade • Una L. Silberrad
... of dress is approached with reluctance and its description diffidently essayed. But the task has seemed mandatory as the manners of a people can not otherwise be fully understood. The stately, ceremonious intercourse of the sexes, the stiff and elaborate walk of Loudoun men and women of Colonial and ...
— History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia • James W. Head
... she had not loved them. Amongst them all, indeed, there had been never one whom she had liked with such a sincere affection as she now felt for this man, who seemed to love her so much, and who wrote to her so diffidently, ...
— Vera Nevill - Poor Wisdom's Chance • Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron
... not mind," she said a little diffidently, turning to her guests after she had seated herself, "I should like to have the gas lowered a trifle. It may seem a little sentimental, but I do not like to be looked at too ...
— The Pagans • Arlo Bates |
