"Pertly" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... deliberate and careful by nature that there was no risk of his knocking down the china, or treading on the cat's tail, or on the train of Miss Unity's gown. Nancy did all these things frequently, however hard she tried to be good, and was, besides, very restive under reproof and ready to answer pertly. ...
— The Hawthorns - A Story about Children • Amy Walton
... Mr. Persico about my style of governing. He seemed interested in what I had to say about appeals to the conscience, but said my youthful enthusiasm would get cooled down when I knew more of the world. I told him, very pertly, that I hoped I should never know the world then. He laughed and asked, "You expect to make out of these stupid children such characters, such hearts as yours?" "No—but better ones." He shook his head and said ...
— The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss • George L. Prentiss
... think," said Amy, pertly, tossing her curls, "that when papa has so much to do he'd just go and do it, not stand here talking and wasting time. It's the same thing week ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various
... guess we've still got a sting in our tail," Cappy answered pertly. "Slap on your libels. We'll lift 'em all, and to-morrow we'll expect eighteen thousand dollars from you, or I'm afraid, Matthew, my boy, you're going to lose that ship with her cargo of steel rails, and we'll collect ...
— Cappy Ricks • Peter B. Kyne
... upon her flight Pilfers pulse and pilfers maize Before the very sower's sight, And at his anger pertly says, 'Sower, sower, more seed sow, As that sown can ...
— Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know • Various
... precious cluster, Five bold sparrows pertly stood, Pecking at the grapes beside them, Chattering in a ...
— Our Young Folks at Home and Abroad • Various
... her door, positive that she was going to die, and brought offerings in the shape of flowers, early apples, and pet animals which he thought might distract her. Austin, who shared his room, insisted that he could not sleep because Thomas groaned and sighed so all night; Molly pertly asked him why he did not try rabbits, as kittens did not seem to appeal to Sylvia, and his mother bantered him half-seriously for thinking of "any one so far above him" whose heart, moreover, was buried "in the grave." Austin's somewhat expurgated version of Sylvia's story put an end to the ...
— The Old Gray Homestead • Frances Parkinson Keyes
... most accomplished verse-writers had far better write prose, for their own sakes as for the world's—don't you think so? Which I say, because I sighed aloud over many names in your list, and now have taken pertly to write out the sigh at length. Too charmingly you are sure to have written—and see the danger! But Miss Fanshawe is well worth your writing of (let me say that I am sensible warmly of that) as one of the most witty of our wits in verse, men or women. I have only seen manuscript copies ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon
... doctor, chambermaid, mine host and hostess, and others, whose tones I did not recognise, clamoured to be heard. Some, foremost amongst whom were Francois, Jacques, and a boy, were in favour of the coffin being opened; whilst others, notably the doctor and chambermaid (who pertly declared she had seen quite enough of my ugly face), ridiculed the notion and said the sooner I was buried the better it would be. The weather had been more than usually hot that day, and the corpse, which was very much swollen—for, like all gourmands, I had ...
— Byways of Ghost-Land • Elliott O'Donnell
... the bell violently and asked for a railway guide. On being told that there was not one in the house, she scolded her maid so unreasonably that the girl said pertly that if she were to be spoken to like that she should wish to leave when her month was up. This check brought Henrietta to her senses. She went upstairs and put on the first cloak at hand, which was fortunately a heavy ...
— An Unsocial Socialist • George Bernard Shaw
... Near it, with a pertly cocked head and magnificently red feathers, stood a small rooster. Luke took the ...
— Andy the Acrobat • Peter T. Harkness
... customer in general, Mr. Hawkins; but I suppose if the gent wants to speak to you, there'll be no objection to your making free with the parlour, promiscuous," answered the damsel, with supreme condescension. "And if the gent has any orders to give, I'm ready to take 'em," she added, pertly. ...
— Run to Earth - A Novel • M. E. Braddon
... that—and handed her into it. To see her seat herself inside, with her laughing eyes brighter than diamonds, and her hand—surely she had the prettiest hand in the world—on the ledge of the open window, and her little finger provokingly and pertly tilted up, as if it wondered why Joe didn't squeeze or kiss it! To think how well one or two of the modest snowdrops would have become that delicate bodice, and how they were lying neglected outside the parlour window! ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens
... any effort to find out anything at ALL?" she asked pertly enough, but with such obvious good-nature that he could not but have pleasure in her speech. "Why, of course he did it! ...
— The Damnation of Theron Ware • Harold Frederic
... enquiries. She would like to know where they are going to take little Nicholas; and when they will let her go and see Daddy Bob and mother? "Now, you can take me; I know you can!" she says, looking up at the messenger, and taking his hand pertly. ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams
... "Rather pertly, I'm afraid. He was silly enough to ask me what I thought of his book, though I hadn't mentioned it. I put on my superior air and snubbed him; it was like tapping a frog on the head each time it pokes up out of the water. He will ...
— The Emancipated • George Gissing
... "why, you do not seem willing to undertake any work; you will not wash nor scour; you cannot dress a dinner for company; you are no needlewoman; and our little house of two rooms on a floor is too much for you. For God's sake, what can you do?" "Madam," replied she pertly, "I know my business, and do not fear service; there are more places than parish churches: if you wash at home, you should have a laundrymaid; if you give entertainments, you must have a cookmaid; if you have any needlework, you should have a chambermaid; ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11 • Various
... embarked again, and were soon riding pertly over the waves of the bay. All of a sudden the captain started to his feet—the boat spun round, and again made for the shore. Some twenty or thirty natives armed with spears which through the glass looked like reeds, ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville
... lines of contending beauties: his eye was detained by the charms of Icasia, and in the awkwardness of a first declaration, the prince could only observe, that, in this world, women had been the cause of much evil; "And surely, sir," she pertly replied, "they have likewise been the occasion of much good." This affectation of unseasonable wit displeased the Imperial lover: he turned aside in disgust; Icasia concealed her mortification in a convent; ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon
... in the rapture of sight ... Miss Blake and she put up preserves, and Sheila had to invent jests to find some pretext for her laughter, so ridiculous was the look of that broad square back, its hair short above the man's flannel collar, and the apron-strings tied pertly above the very wide, slightly worn corduroy breeches and the big boots. Sheila was always thinking of a certain famous Puss of fairy-tale memory, and biting her tongue to keep it from the epithet. After Hilliard gave ...
— Hidden Creek • Katharine Newlin Burt
... good son," she answered almost pertly; and then, with infinite tenderness, "and I'm prayin' a good wife'll make ...
— Bob, Son of Battle • Alfred Ollivant
... stood straighter than ever when they heard her voice, and new ones came from their burrows and sat up to watch her, with their fore paws held primly in front of them, their tails lying out motionless behind, and their slender heads poised pertly—with no movement except the twinkle of sharp, black eyes and ...
— The Biography of a Prairie Girl • Eleanor Gates
... "Nonsense, ma!" pertly said her daughter Seraphine; "you can't believe that. I'm sure I'd rather laugh than cry, any day. And so would you, too, ma, in ...
— She and I, Volume 1 • John Conroy Hutcheson
... the elderly hen, and all the group were sighing, "Ah! in our young days!" when a young hen perched on a bough above them, and interrupted pertly, "Dear me! can't you good birds find anything more interesting to talk about than ancient history?" At this the groups of gossips whispered angrily to one another "Minx!" "Hussy!" "Wild Cat!" etc., and the rude young bird flew back ...
— Dot and the Kangaroo • Ethel C. Pedley
... nibbled the grass near him, the jays called pertly, "Shame, shame," a quail piped somewhere on the hillside, and the brook sung a soft, soothing melody that took away at last the sharp edge of his pain, and he sat up and gazed down the valley, bright with the sun and apparently filled with happy and ...
— Main-Travelled Roads • Hamlin Garland
... knew them, in the dear old cabin, there wasn't any other woman and nobody to gossip, and that's what made it so nice. I don't think so very much of civilization, do you?" said the young lady pertly. ...
— Devil's Ford • Bret Harte
... on, straight through the middle of the town without stopping. They scurried down a long, dismal lane toward a low-lying range of hills pertly wooded with bald patches of barren earth and rock. Beyond were mountains which Bud guessed was the Tehachapi range. Beyond them, he believed he would find desert and desertion. He had never been ...
— Cabin Fever • B. M. Bower
... by the dark seductions of dim half-captive locks about her oval temples, and by many an indescribable swaying of the form and of the voice, I was being—to speak it brutally—challenged? Even in the poetic obscurity of the night I lost all steadiness of eye as I pertly said— ...
— The Cavalier • George Washington Cable
... liked even Rose, so pale, strange, and contentious. In regard to Milly, whom he had begun by despising, he silently admitted that a girl so vivacious, supple, sparkling, and pretty, had the right to be as pertly foolish as she chose. He took a direct fancy to Ethel. And he decided once for ever that ...
— Leonora • Arnold Bennett
... looked pertly in his face, stood her guitar upright before her, and put her hands behind her back as she leaned saucily against the wall ...
— Selected Stories • Bret Harte
... little lane, remote from the sea, which led them along their last walk. On either side the white path was a grassy margin thickly woven with pink convolvuli. Some of the reckless little flowers, so gay and evanescent, had climbed the trunks of an old yew tree, and were looking up pertly at ...
— The Trespasser • D.H. Lawrence
... this B——s's Turn to sleep; and seeing a Light in his Cabin, I sent Mr. Cuddon, the second Mate, to him, to know how he would be able to sit up one Watch, and keep his own. Upon this B——s came up half way the Steerage-Ladder, with his Pipe in his Hand, and talk'd to me very pertly; and that was not the first time. This put me into a Passion, to be so talk'd to by a Boy, that I did dismiss him for two or three Days, and then re-stated him, which was more than he deserv'd, for keeping Company with him for whom the worst of Names is good enough, and those who recommended ...
— Great Pirate Stories • Various
... of it, then, madam," answered Miss Gray, not pettishly nor pertly, but with the utmost simplicity.—"Mr. Hartley, will you step into that garden?—and, you, madam, may observe us from the window, if it be the fashion of the country to watch ...
— The Surgeon's Daughter • Sir Walter Scott
... shut the door, Charlotte demanded 'if I chose to have some more coals on the fire? And whether I would have two candles or one?' 'Whatever you please madam,' I replied. 'Nay, sir,' said she pertly, 'that is just as you please.' I made no answer, and she shut the door with a dissatisfied air; which she ...
— The Adventures of Hugh Trevor • Thomas Holcroft
... time," she replied pertly. "I 'spect I'll like to do it. But if it's anything important, better begin now, for some of my own specially collected sheep will be drifting ...
— The Guests Of Hercules • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... past 11." In her comments on her readings, the mind of the Baroness is clearly revealed. One day, by some mistake, she was allowed to take up a volume of memoirs by Fanny Kemble. "It is certainly very pertly and oddly written. One would imagine by the style that the authoress must be very pert, and not well bred; for there are so many vulgar expressions in it. It is a great pity that a person endowed with so much talent, as Mrs. ...
— Queen Victoria • Lytton Strachey
... "Well," pertly cried Roque, "I suffer for having spoken truth, and I glory in what I have done. By all the saints, since I reflect on the flagrant injustice of Don Lope's conduct, and am become a martyr to my rectitude and compassion, I find that I am endowed with a degree of ...
— Gomez Arias - The Moors of the Alpujarras, A Spanish Historical Romance. • Joaquin Telesforo de Trueba y Cosio
... said Bessy pertly. "You never had any education, any way. Hear your accomplished daughter." With a mock bow to the new schoolmaster, and a capital burlesque of a confident school girl, she strode to the middle of the room the paper held and folded book-wise ...
— Drift from Two Shores • Bret Harte
... proceed, but Callum Beg said, rather pertly, as Edward thought, that 'Ta Tighearnach (i.e. the Chief) did not like ta Sassenagh Duinhe-wassel to be pingled wi' mickle speaking, as she was na tat weel.' From this Waverley concluded he should disoblige his friend by inquiring of a stranger ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott
... the King so pertly yesterday morn that the King doomed him, and fear has so addled his weak wits that he believes himself ...
— The Proud Prince • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... "Knowing what Jack Poindexter does of human nature," her husband had once said, "it's mighty fine in him to be so kind and forgiving. You ought to like him better, Belle." "And qualify myself to be forgiven," said the lady pertly. "I don't see what you're driving at, Belle; I give it up," had responded the puzzled husband. Mrs. Tucker kissed his high but foolish forehead tenderly, and said, "I'm glad ...
— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte
... high tribute to the skill of my hands. I did the best I could—and as for the matter of that," pertly, ...
— Madcap • George Gibbs |
