"Testily" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... said Booden, a little testily, "what did you say was the name of this place, and where away does it lay from 'Frisco?" In very choice Castilian, as Lanky declared, the priest rejoined that he did not understand the language in which Booden was speaking. "Then bring on somebody that does," ...
— Stories by American Authors (Volume 4) • Constance Fenimore Woolson
... doctor testily, "and give me time. I've got plenty of ideas, but I want to select the right one. Ah! ...
— Jack at Sea - All Work and no Play made him a Dull Boy • George Manville Fenn
... Don't talk in riddles, lads," exclaimed the captain, testily, his temper still suffering from the unaccustomed restraint he ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... new Monarch testily, "do you believe that there should be delay in proclaiming myself? I shall feel safer with the Crown actually upon ...
— The Lighted Match • Charles Neville Buck
... sure I do not know what he feels in his throat," Panda replied testily, "but I feel that mine is dry. Well, as no one says anything, the matter is settled. To-morrow Saduko shall give the umqoliso [the Ox of the Girl], that makes marriage—if he has not got one here I will lend it to him, and you can take ...
— Child of Storm • H. Rider Haggard
... nor sleep!" retorted the colonel testily. "You'll go to your quarters and get into your uniform without a moment's delay. You'll be back here in fifteen minutes, or I'll order you in arrest. And you'll finish out your tour of guard duty. You'll be on duty and awake, sir, until the old guard goes off to-morrow morning. More, you'll ...
— Uncle Sam's Boys as Sergeants - or, Handling Their First Real Commands • H. Irving Hancock
... something else you could call him except 'Uncle Tom'," said Aunt Dahlia a little testily. "Every time you do it, I expect to see him turn black and start playing the banjo. Yes, Uncle Tom, if you must have it. I shall have to tell him soon about losing all that money at baccarat, and, when I do, he will go up like ...
— Right Ho, Jeeves • P. G. Wodehouse
... "Tut, nonsense," returned Malcolm testily; but his eyes were not quite clear, and he laid a kindly hand on the boy's shoulder. "I want no thanks, only you must promise me, on your word as an English gentleman, never to play for money as long as ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... face became curiously condensed. "That is a mistake—it must have been some one else," he said slowly and testily, for he perceived that Venn's countermoves ...
— The Return of the Native • Thomas Hardy
... me," Mandleco said testily, "that the killer was someone Carmack trusted enough to have in his home. Then you bludgeon Losch with the idea it was a person Carmack had reason to fear! It would ...
— We're Friends, Now • Henry Hasse
... landlord, a somewhat sullen individual, who appeared to be greatly vexed and disconcerted by these events, was already being questioned by the chief as to what he knew of the young man whose body they had just seen, and he was replying somewhat testily. ...
— The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation • J. S. Fletcher
... testily, "I don't think you should speak to Dave that way. After all, he's a very valuable ...
— Sabotage in Space • Carey Rockwell
... rather testily; "you exaggerate your danger and your own importance, and your enemies' abilities ...
— Martin Hewitt, Investigator • Arthur Morrison
... how are they to do anything else?" inquired the old gentleman testily. "There is such a lot of them you can't escape them. We're talking about your name, ladies," he continued as Dorothy and her mother came in, and then he related the story of Hapgood's visit and the possibility that Mary might prove to belong ...
— Ethel Morton's Enterprise • Mabell S.C. Smith
... before his guest a couple of eggs poached in milk, a steaming bowl of beef juice, and a plate of toast. For one instant the Harvester thought this was going into the fire, the next a slice was picked up and smelled testily. The Girl sat on her grandfather's chair arm, and breaking a morsel of toast dipped it into the ...
— The Harvester • Gene Stratton Porter
... earth is the matter?" retorted the master of the household testily. "Pray go yourself if you wish to." Then he stopped short, for the snoring of Platon was filling the whole room, and also—outrivalling it—that of the dog Yarb. This caused Kostanzhoglo to realise that ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... testily away from each other and I walked home alone. When I reached our front door my father opened it and, seeing me in my white tulle dress, was beside himself with rage. He asked me if I would kindly explain what I was doing, walking in the streets in my ball-dress at two ...
— Margot Asquith, An Autobiography: Volumes I & II • Margot Asquith
... mischief is my prospective father-in-law?" Richard demanded, almost testily. "There's an atmosphere about that house and the servants I can't ...
— Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... went on, undisturbed. But several shareholders now rose, and the same speaker said testily: "We might as well go home. If the chairman's got no voice, ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... testily. "These New York hall-porters are recruited entirely from homes for the feeble-minded. I suppose he was a new man. Well, Pilkington, my boy, I shall expect you at seven o'clock. Goodbye till ...
— The Little Warrior - (U.K. Title: Jill the Reckless) • P. G. Wodehouse
... yo', lass?" said her mother at another time. "Yo're that theer soft about th chap as theer's no makkin' yo' out. Yo' wur nivver loike to be soft afore," somewhat testily. "An' it's noan his good ...
— "Seth" • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... the kind," said Jack a trifle testily—so soon does conventional masculinity champion the conservatism of the other sex! "That was just as I was going—gone, in fact. I looked back and she had drawn her veil aside. The moon was bright on her face—I saw her as clear ...
— The Fortieth Door • Mary Hastings Bradley
... Mr Pennycuick testily intimated, as before, that to be a Carey at all was enough for him. It was his excuse for these confidences, of which ...
— Sisters • Ada Cambridge
... sort!" replied the baronet testily. "Would you have me doubt whether he will carry himself like a gentleman? The thing depends on my pleasure. There are ...
— There & Back • George MacDonald
... said testily. "You may be a kind of Galahad, Lawrence, outside all natural law. I don't know, but you'll forgive me if I go for a moment on my own experience—and that experience is, that you can start on as highbrow an elevation as you like, but love ...
— The Secret City • Hugh Walpole
... Peter spoke testily. He wanted Jan to marry him before he went back to India in October, and if he got the billet he hoped for, to follow him, taking the two ...
— Jan and Her Job • L. Allen Harker
... I may," said Mr. Folair testily "isn't it enough to make a man crusty, to see the little sprawler put up in the best business every night, and actually keeping money out of the house by being forced down the people's throats while other people are passed over? Why, I know of fifteen-and-sixpence that came to Southampton last ...
— Ten Girls from Dickens • Kate Dickinson Sweetser
... the Union have, apparently, no skins at all; they wince if a breeze blows over them, unless it be tempered with adulation. It was not, therefore, very surprising that the acute and forcible observations of a traveler they knew would be listened to should be received testily. The extraordinary features of the business were, first, the excess of the rage into which they lashed themselves; and, secondly, the puerility of the inventions by which they attempted to account for the severity with which they fancied ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... "Rubbish!" testily observed Mr. Galloway. "Some one must have come in; some one with light fingers, too! the money could not go without hands. You are off to college now, ...
— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood
... reflection upon his physical limitations, however remote or indirect, aroused Jerry's instant ire. "At it again, ain't you?" he cried, testily. "I s'pose you'll forget about that whisky in four or five years. I ...
— The Winds of Chance • Rex Beach
... her husband, testily, and in the same comprehensively audible whisper. "No, I ain't been ...
— Galusha the Magnificent • Joseph C. Lincoln
... Schofield asked testily. "What are you talking about?" His nerves were jarred, and he was rather hoarse after what he had been saying to Penrod. (That regretful necromancer was now upstairs doing unhelpful things to his nose over a washstand.) "What do you mean by, ...
— Penrod and Sam • Booth Tarkington
... cried Adrian, testily. "However, since there 's no quieting you otherwise, I suppose, for the sake of peace, I 'd best tell you, and have done with it. Well, then,"—he stood off, to watch the effect of his announcement,—"Craford's Folly ...
— The Lady Paramount • Henry Harland
... crow, and you know it," said Kathleen testily. "Why not now? Ellen and Gilbert are out and mother ...
— Mother Carey's Chickens • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... some of the rest of you have done as much for this town as Honer'ble Bickford," broke in the president, testily, "you can have the right to criticise. As it is, I can't see anything but jealousy in it. And I've heard enough of it. Now, to make this thing all pleasant and agreeable to the Honer'ble Bickford, we've got to have Cap'n Sproul and Hiram ...
— The Skipper and the Skipped - Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul • Holman Day
... if the poorhouse was a gaol," the doctor said testily. "But so far as Nanny is concerned, everything is arranged. I promised to drive her to the poorhouse to-day, and she is waiting for me now. Don't look at me as if I was a brute. She is to take some of her things with her to the poorhouse, and the rest ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie
... Father Knickerbocker, a little testily I thought, "I'm as democratic and as plain and simple as any man in this city. But when it comes to carrying a handbag in full sight of all this crowd, why, as I said to Peter Stuyvesant about—about"—here a misty look seemed to come ...
— Frenzied Fiction • Stephen Leacock
... sometimes, boy; and, besides, your judgment hasn't led you very straight so far," said the old man testily. "But don't talk of such things. I don't want to come to 'em ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe
... ask for 'em while you 'ad the chance?" demanded Bainton testily; "It's too late now to bother your mind with what ye might ha' done if ye'd had a bit of gumption. And it's too late for me to be goin' and speakin' to Passon Walden. There's nothin' to be done now till ...
— God's Good Man • Marie Corelli
... call them," he said testily, "consist of a great sewer away in the depths, accessible from various appointed places. Besides, nobody in his senses tries to lift earth out of ...
— The Right Stuff - Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton • Ian Hay
... your chatter, Moll!" answers Jack, testily. "Don't you see I'm a-thinking? Heaven knows there's enough to swallow without any ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett
... about the child, nor whether there is a child,' Sir George answered testily. 'My uncle may be dead, unmarried, or alive and married—what difference does ...
— The Castle Inn • Stanley John Weyman
... let me take care of this, young man," replied the judge, testily. Then, once more speaking into the mouthpiece of the telephone, "All right, Alton. We'll pick you up at your ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science February 1930 • Various
... the ear and turning over of papers. "Hm—hm," he muttered to himself testily, "that is not enough. It is too indefinite, in spite of strong grounds for suspicion." Then he looked up, and in a tone which was meant to convey as much scorn as possible, he asked Schrotter—"You played a part in the political ...
— The Malady of the Century • Max Nordau
... he answered, testily, "we understand that thoroughly. But I suppose you do not intend to cast the young lady's affections from you as if they ...
— The Uninhabited House • Mrs. J. H. Riddell
... Gouger, testily. "What is that worth? But take the stuff, if you want it, and when you are done, send it to her; it will make less rubbish in this confounded hole. One thing I'll tell you, though, in advance. You'll never be able ...
— A Black Adonis • Linn Boyd Porter
... change pocket. He had no quarter. He pulled out a plump bill-fold. Without looking at the man, Claire could vision his eyes glistening and his chops dripping as he stared at the hoard. Mr. Boltwood handed him a dollar bill. "There, take that, and let's change the subject," said Mr. Boltwood testily. ...
— Free Air • Sinclair Lewis
... testily, "how often must I repeat to you and your people that I am NOT going to compromise this case in any shape, form, or manner? I am going to fight it out on the lines I have indicated if I have to disrupt this entire office to get men to do it. I have ...
— The Ear in the Wall • Arthur B. Reeve
... testily, to draw him out. "Precious little of it you've had! Two years at a school! You're more foreign than you are ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1915 - And the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... testily, "I am not going to do anything of the kind. I and mine have suffered enough at the hands of this family. I rented the house at an exorbitant figure and I have moved out here for the summer. My city home is dismantled and in the hands of decorators. I have been here ...
— The Circular Staircase • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... all, too, I seem to feel, though with no definite reason for it, that she was perturbed and excited about something known only to herself, for she was strangely irritable on our walk, contradicted me fiercely, inquired testily who Nelson might be, then chid me for a dry old schoolmaster, when I told her, and such like flighty vagaries, inseparable, I believed, from her sex in general and her temperament in particular. If I have never taken the trouble to defend myself from the ...
— Margarita's Soul - The Romantic Recollections of a Man of Fifty • Ingraham Lovell
... testily, "and what if it is? Am I a spook that ye need stare at me so? Ye knowed me well enough before. ...
— Children of the Tenements • Jacob A. Riis
... that rubbish," Richford said testily, as the waiter passed the elaborate menu with its imposing array of dishes. "What's the good of all that foreign cat's meat to an honest Englishman? Give me a steak and plain potatoes and a ...
— The Slave of Silence • Fred M. White
... of me Guts," responded Tom, more testily than I had ever heard him speak to Harry, whose every whim and frolic he seemed religiously to venerate and humor; "a fellow doesn't want to have it 'Guts' here, and 'Guts' there, over half a county. Why, now, it was but ...
— Warwick Woodlands - Things as they Were There Twenty Years Ago • Henry William Herbert (AKA Frank Forester)
... see him," replied Abner, testily; for, in Joe's absence, his work had to be done by the other ostlers, who did not ...
— Try Again - or, the Trials and Triumphs of Harry West. A Story for Young Folks • Oliver Optic
... either, so it does not matter,' replied Vava testily, for she was very sorry about it all, and ...
— A City Schoolgirl - And Her Friends • May Baldwin
... Donnithorne more testily than before; "you know very well that things must have a beginning, and that caution is necessary at first in all speculations. Besides, I feel convinced that Mr Clearemout is a most respectable man, and an uncommonly clever fellow to boot. It is quite plain that you don't like him—that's ...
— Deep Down, a Tale of the Cornish Mines • R.M. Ballantyne
... nevertheless temperate [massvoll], chaste, nay, aristocratic, and sometimes even severely reserved. When, on returning home from the above-mentioned visit to the Russian ladies, Lenz expressed his sincere opinion of Chopin's playing of Beethoven's variations, the master replied testily: "I indicate (j'indique); the hearer must complete (parachever) the picture." And when afterwards, while Chopin was changing his clothes in an adjoining room, Lenz committed the impertinence of playing Beethoven's theme as he understood it, the master came in in his ...
— Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician - Volume 1-2, Complete • Frederick Niecks
... to flatter you, my dear!" said the old man, testily, "but I thought it was pathetic—the way in which Ashe enjoyed your conversation. It showed he didn't get much ...
— The Marriage of William Ashe • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... that's the name that was written on every slip of paper that came with each six months' money," he answered, testily. "That's the only ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli
... from the piano and beginning to walk about rather testily] My dear: I really don't care about Georgina or about Teddy. All these squabbles belong to a plane on which I am, as you say, no use. I have counted the cost; and I do not fear the consequences. After all, what is there to fear? Where ...
— How He Lied to Her Husband • George Bernard Shaw
... that's what she's like," he said testily. "One of these days I'll have to convince you that what I say around here ...
— The Right Time • Walter Bupp
... here, Father,' I said, rather testily. 'Haven't I been here hours on end with the parson's wife? Wouldn't ...
— The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon • Josephine Daskam Bacon
... round, but continued to watch Lucille in the garden. The Vicomte sat in silence—waiting, no doubt, for a further explanation. Failing to get this, he said, rather testily as I thought: ...
— Dross • Henry Seton Merriman
... Barbox Brothers, testily. "Sings them at the bedside? Why at the bedside, unless he goes to bed drunk? Does, I shouldn't wonder. But it's no business of mine. Let me see. Mugby Junction, Mugby Junction. Where shall I go next? As it came into my head last night when I woke ...
— Mugby Junction • Charles Dickens
... gentleman instanced certain words to which he gave a pronunciation that made them bear small resemblance to the same words as spoken by any class of people laboring under the disadvantage of having been born and bred in England, Sir Robert got impatient, and testily dismissed the subject with, "Oh, come, now! I can stand a good deal, but I can't stand being told that we don't know how to speak English in England." Something, however, must be pardoned to a foreigner. If Sir Robert would not consent ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1885 • Various
... Ralph, testily; 'yes, and he did it well, and carries it off with a hypocritical face and a sanctified air, but you! Risk! What do you mean by risk? The certificates are all genuine, Snawley HAD another son, he HAS been married twice, his first wife IS dead, none but ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens
... heard to remark testily, that four times was over the average; and he ought to be ashamed ...
— The Chimes • Charles Dickens
... see the logic of that, Lord Westerham," replied Mr Parmenter a little testily. "If we can put this business through, the dollars couldn't be much better used, and if we can't they won't be much use to me or anyone else. It's worth doing, anyhow, if it's only to show what new-world enterprise helped with old-world brains can do in bringing ...
— The World Peril of 1910 • George Griffith
... mercy upon us!" Gertrude said testily. "Unfortunately, I happen not to be a beauty, so I need some adorning. Moreover, I don't admit that beauty can do without adorning. There's Minnie Lathrop: she's a beauty, but she wouldn't improve herself by leaving off flowers and ribbons and laces, and dressing herself ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April, 1876. • Various
... returned to us; but as Pyecroft stooped to gather up the rug, Hinchcliffe jerked the lever testily, and with prawn-like speed she retired backwards into her ...
— Traffics and Discoveries • Rudyard Kipling
... replied, 'High church Congregationalists believe in New England; low church Congregationalists believe in God!' Sounds like him—I could just see him twitching his lips and twinkling his eyes when it came!" Captain Morton looked suspiciously over his steel-bowed glasses to say testily: ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White
... Monday morning she brought her week's account to him. He turned from it testily, but she insisted on his going over it. There was not the mistake of a halfpenny. He went to town with a smile in his heart, and that night brought her home a cheque for ...
— Stephen Archer and Other Tales • George MacDonald
... said Mr. Vincy, testily. "I know I am worried more than I like with my family. I was a good brother to you, Harriet, before you married Bulstrode, and I must say he doesn't always show that friendly spirit towards your family that might have been expected of him." Mr. Vincy was very little like a Jesuit, but no accomplished ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot
... want your money," said the old woman, testily, "and shall return it as soon as I have sold the other goat;"—whereupon, she took the leading-string from the "sennerin" and hobbled off with her new-found property, apparently as little pleased ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, October 1878, No. 12 • Various
... rejoined Captain Barber, testily; "but when you know as much about wimmen as I do, you'll know that that's got nothing to do with it. It gets took for granted. Mrs. Church's whole manner to me now is that of a engaged young person. If she was sitting here now she'd put 'er hand on ...
— A Master Of Craft • W. W. Jacobs
... representatives interrupted testily, "What is the point of this lengthy narrative? You can give the story to the newsmen without our official sanction, if you want to make it a heroic epic, young Steele. We have heard sufficient ...
— The Colors of Space • Marion Zimmer Bradley
... gets on my nerves!" said Durkin testily. Yes, he told himself, he was sick of it, sick of the monotony, of the idleness, of the sullen malevolence of it all. It was gay only to the eyes; and to him it would never ...
— Phantom Wires - A Novel • Arthur Stringer
... time to waste in idle disputation," said the sheriff testily; but he sat down, nevertheless, at his prisoner's bidding, as meekly as if the ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine
... Bundercombe continued a little testily. "I only want to get at the common sense of the matter. You are thinking of trying for a seat in Parliament, and you say the four hundred a year you get for it is nothing. Well, of course, it's nothing. What I want to know ...
— An Amiable Charlatan • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... didn't want to hire the wagon," asked Mr. Titmouse testily, "what was the use of taking ...
— The High School Boys' Training Hike • H. Irving Hancock
... evidently of that truculent disposition which merely growls at blandishments. He snorted and replied testily, "That is all very well, sir, but I don't ...
— The Lunatic at Large • J. Storer Clouston
... Sam, testily, "how can you, an officer's son, ask me, an officer's son, such a question? The King's (I beg pardon, the Queen's) ...
— The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn • Henry Kingsley
... been aching in every joint, his nose, his lips, and his eyes, this unjust speech might have amused him. As it was he answered testily: ...
— The Wreck of the Titan - or, Futility • Morgan Robertson
... me—what is it?" said Sholto, testily, being (and small blame to him) a trifle ruffled in ...
— The Black Douglas • S. R. Crockett
... me," said his chief testily, "that you are not so very healthy-looking yourself. What's the matter with YOUR getting inside as a dope fiend and ...
— The Lost House • Richard Harding Davis
... what he says," said his father a little testily. "But about this money question there must be a sensible middle course somewhere between a fanatical giving away everything you have and a close-fisted holding on to it all. Give to the Lord of your first fruits, certainly. That is a good thing. But a man ...
— The First Soprano • Mary Hitchcock
... his edition of the Epistle of Barnabas, repels somewhat testily the imputation of Tischendorf, who criticises him as if he supposed that the saying in St. Matthew was not directly referred to [Endnote 73:2]. This Hilgenfeld denies to be the case. In regard to the use of the word [Greek: gegraptai] introducing the quotation, the same writer ...
— The Gospels in the Second Century - An Examination of the Critical Part of a Work - Entitled 'Supernatural Religion' • William Sanday
... you, Mr. Stone," said Rhoda Schuyler, testily; "I didn't suppose you were superhuman, but I did think, with your reputation and all, you would be able to find that woman. I've heard say that nobody could absolutely vanish in New York City, and not ...
— Vicky Van • Carolyn Wells
... she get another house, and swindle some one else?" he replied, testily; "there's ...
— Little Classics, Volume 8 (of 18) - Mystery • Various
... amounting to an obsession," Doctor Keltridge told Professor Opdyke testily, two months later. "I never saw a case of such ineradicable dubiousness concerning all the things ...
— The Brentons • Anna Chapin Ray
... the captain testily. "Our watch-dogs are far too wide awake to be caught napping like that. You have been deceived by one of the rumours that are filling the air just now. You can go to your berth and sleep in peace, and to-morrow you shall be half-way across the Atlantic without an ...
— The Angel of the Revolution - A Tale of the Coming Terror • George Griffith
... said Myles, testily. "Get thee gone, I say, or I will crack thy head for thee;" and he picked up a block of wood, with ...
— Men of Iron • Ernie Howard Pyle
... attention. .. All dention, said Fleece, again stooping over upon his tongs in the desired position. Well, said Stubb, helping himself freely meanwhile; I shall now go back to the subject of this steak. In the first place, how old are you, cook? What dat do wid de 'teak, said the old black, testily. Silence! How old are you, cook? 'Bout ninety, dey say, he gloomily muttered. And have you lived in this world hard upon one hundred years, cook, and don't know yet how to cook a whale-steak? rapidly bolting another mouthful at the last word, so that that morsel seemed a continuation ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... matter, Price? What's wrong now?' testily demanded the captain, grievously annoyed at being disturbed over ...
— The Captain's Bunk - A Story for Boys • M. B. Manwell
... answer is for yourself," said Mr Auberly testily; "and hark 'ee, boy, you need not trouble me again. That note will get ...
— Fighting the Flames • R.M. Ballantyne
... replied, rather testily. "If you would tell me what the other things were for I might enlighten you, but ...
— The Poisoned Pen • Arthur B. Reeve
... testily, "you believe in nothing but what consists with your own prejudices and illusions. I remember when I was like you, but I ...
— Carmilla • J. Sheridan Le Fanu
... 'More soldiers!' he observed testily. 'The plague take it that they and the meteors must choose the same night to drop from heaven! How ...
— Corporal Sam and Other Stories • A. T. Quiller-Couch
... an army with banners,'" supplied his host—rather testily, for he was writing a letter. It began "My dear Father. By the time you receive this I shall ...
— Zuleika Dobson - or, An Oxford Love Story • Max Beerbohm
... if—what if!" cried Joseph testily. "Gregory, what a casuist you might have been had not nature made you a villain! You are as full of "what if s" as an egg of meat. Well what if some day he should return? I ...
— The Tavern Knight • Rafael Sabatini
... a constant effort to deny this too palpable fact, they become irritably vain. But Mr. Lamb the elder seems to have been bent on perfection. He did all things; he did them all well; and yet was neither gloomily arrogant, nor testily vain. And being conscious apparently that all mechanic excellencies tend to illiberal results, unless counteracted by perpetual sacrifices to the muses, he went so far as to cultivate poetry; he even printed his poems, and were we possessed of a copy, (which we are not, nor probably ...
— Biographical Essays • Thomas de Quincey
... about?" broke in the Prince testily. "Was it with reference to Monsieur Beliani? I understood that his appointment to the Ministry of ...
— A Son of the Immortals • Louis Tracy
... 'oo'," he replied testily. Then, clasping his jaw in both hands, he began to walk the floor again, groaning dismally. Miss Roberts's tears were flowing. She felt sure that Mr. Baxter's hours were' numbered, and that she would soon be forced to look on at his funeral. Could she be a mother to his little ones, ...
— Half a Dozen Girls • Anna Chapin Ray
... to come home at all," I added testily. "I am driven to death. I've got to go again in ten minutes. But I supposed you would worry if I didn't show myself. It is a foolish waste of time. I don't know how I am ever going to get through. I wish ...
— The Gates Between • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
... all right," Peake said testily. "At least, I hope so," and he gave a short, grim laugh. "But they're uncommon slow payers. I sent 'em in an account for coal only last week—three hundred and fifty pound. Well, auntie, who's the ...
— The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories • Arnold Bennett
... it, Dymock?" she said testily. "I wish you would not go about like a mute at a funeral. You make me think ...
— "Us" - An Old Fashioned Story • Mary Louisa S. Molesworth
... I know that," Bertie said testily. "My suggestion was that we might frighten them somehow, and I still don't see why we shouldn't be able to do it. Let us try to ...
— The Treasure of the Incas • G. A. Henty
... swift, low rustle and the sound of hard breathing, that it had been pounced upon and seized. He scrambled out from beneath the table, snicked on the light, whirled open the door, and was in time to hear the irritable voice of Sir Horace say, testily, "Don't make an ass of yourself by your over-zealousness. I've only come down to have a word with Mr. Narkom," and to see him standing on the threshold, grotesque in a baggy suit of striped pyjamas, with one wrist enclosed as in a steel band by ...
— Cleek, the Master Detective • Thomas W. Hanshew
... marched again into the briny deep, and Debby trotted away to her aunt, whom she found a clammy heap of blue flannel and despair. Mrs. Carroll's temper was ruffled, and though she joyfully rattled in her teeth, she said, somewhat testily, when Debby's story ...
— A Modern Cinderella - or The Little Old Show and Other Stories • Louisa May Alcott
... devils a chance, Alma. Don't tip 'em upside down," he advised, testily, when she followed him down the ladder. He stood at the foot and offered his hand, but she leaped down the last two steps and did not accept his assistance. "Now, you have twisted that skipper of ours until he ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day
... come on," he said, testily. "Put me somewheres and do it quick. Long's I've GOT to sleep in this house I might's well be doin' it. Where is this room you're ...
— Thankful's Inheritance • Joseph C. Lincoln
... Gods,' the lama muttered. 'And to go forth on the round of lives anew—still tied to the Wheel.' He shook his head testily. 'But maybe there is a mistake. Who, then, made ...
— Kim • Rudyard Kipling
... CRAVEN (testily interrupting him). I object to the existence of the place on principle; but what's the use of that? Here it is in spite of my objection, and I may as well have the benefit of any good that ...
— The Philanderer • George Bernard Shaw
... sound could be heard; no boom, no faint intonation of the shocks that blighted the earth's surface ever ruffled its centre. It was the solitary advantage the centre (as a residence) had over the surface; but it was a substantial advantage, though rather testily appreciated. ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan
... won a suit against the Northeastern, and nearly killed a man out West, Tom seems to think you can do anything. He wouldn't, give me any peace until I let him send for you," Mr. Gaylord remarked testily. "Now you're down here, what ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... his son-in-law testily, "I'll have you know I was managing the Blue Star Navigation Company quite some years before you quit wearing pinafores; so I guess, while you and Skinner are away from the office, we can manage to stagger ...
— Cappy Ricks Retires • Peter B. Kyne
... brought himself to public scorn for lack of a word. What word? they asked testily; but even now he could not tell. He had wanted a Scotch word that would signify how many people were in church, and it was on the tip of his tongue, but would come no farther. Puckle was nearly the word, but it did not mean so many people as he meant. The hour had gone by just like winking; ...
— The Art of Public Speaking • Dale Carnagey (AKA Dale Carnegie) and J. Berg Esenwein
... labor for your pains, then, and the satisfaction of finding yourselves fools," exclaimed Dunlop testily. "You'd better drop all that nonsense, and ...
— The Young Engineers in Nevada • H. Irving Hancock
... is your advice, is it?" said the landlord testily. "Well then we shall soon know who is the fool, you or me, for I have spoken to her as it happens; and what is more, she has said Ay, and she is polishing the ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade
... replied, a trifle testily: "That's what I have been doin' for a purty consid'able spell, ...
— Dorothy on a Ranch • Evelyn Raymond
... interrupted its cadence and coerced him to a quick bobbing motion, as of a bottle in a choppy sea, it hardly affected his pace. Here and there he snapped out a greeting to some ship's captain or townsman of his acquaintance, or growled testily at a row of soldiers bearing down on him three abreast. His angry green eyes seemed to clear a path before him, in spite of the grins which his hump and shambling legs excited among strangers. In this way he darted along High Street, turned up ...
— The Blue Pavilions • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... rather testily, "that question is rather a severe test of one's credulity. As if it were possible for a parcel of howling redskins to conduct a siege! No one knows better than you that their only method of fighting is a surprise, a ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore
... testily. "Every young man thinks it the proper thing to talk like that, as if no girl was good enough for him. Miss Appleby is a charming girl, and she will find plenty of admirers without ...
— The Wharf by the Docks - A Novel • Florence Warden
... rattling on in the most voluble manner, until it was impossible to make head or tail of her evidence. Mr. Justice Hawkins, thinking he would try his hand, began with a soothing question, but the old woman would not have it at any price. She replied testily, "It's no use you bothering me. I have told you all I know."—"That may be," replied his lordship, "but the question rather is, do you know ...
— Law and Laughter • George Alexander Morton
... I hear?" he exclaimed testily, "is it true that ye are in flat rebellion against the lawful authority of the king? Laddies, laddies, ye maun come in wi' me to his excellence the Chancellor and make instanter your obedience. Ye are young and for my ...
— The Black Douglas • S. R. Crockett
... said Meddlechip, testily, taking up a pen and opening his cheque book. 'You, of course, can ...
— Madame Midas • Fergus Hume
... this eternal haranguing, and perceiving that unless he complied the inhabitants would follow their own inclination, or rather their fears, without waiting for his consent; or, what was still worse, the Yankees would have time to pour in their forces and claim a share in the conquest, he testily ordered them to hand up the paper. It was accordingly hoisted to him on the end of a pole, and having scrawled his hand at the bottom of it, he anathematised them all for a set of cowardly, mutinous, degenerate poltroons—threw the capitulation at their heads, slammed down the window, ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving
... not to have seen me. Very much annoyed in the evening by the laundress sending home an odd sock. Sarah said she sent two pairs, and the laundress declared only a pair and a half were sent. I spoke to Carrie about it, but she rather testily replied: "I am tired of speaking to her; you had better go and speak to her yourself. She is outside." I did so, but the laundress declared that only an odd sock ...
— The Diary of a Nobody • George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith
... Excellency the Administrator, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, a stout man of medium height with a very clever, thoughtful face, as I have always thought, one of the greatest of African statesmen. He did not see us, but he caught sight of you and said testily— ...
— Finished • H. Rider Haggard
... my family has also to be considered," Prince Vasili went on, testily pushing away a little table without looking at her. "You know, Catiche, that we—you three sisters, Mamontov, and my wife—are the count's only direct heirs. I know, I know how hard it is for you to talk ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
... wi' that noo," said Malcom, rather testily. "I ha' no time to make oot your account in the height o' the season. Let it ston till I ha' time. An' ye might help me soomtimes make up posies far the grand folk at the hotel. But how does your garden sin ye ...
— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe
... on nothin'," the old man replied testily; "but a man's a man, I don't keer whether he's a Polack or a 'Merican—I don't keer nothin' 'bout thet; but ef he's a man he knows he'd oughter stop backbitin' and hittin' out behind another man's back—he'd oughter come out inter the open an' say, 'You ain't done the right thing by me, now let's ...
— Flamsted quarries • Mary E. Waller
... pretty color," he exclaimed testily. "How am I to know what's a pretty color? Now if it was a sack of flour or a spade—but I'll do my best, Missy," he added meekly, catching her eye in which the familiar ...
— The Emigrant Trail • Geraldine Bonner
... You're eternally seeing the hole in the doughnut lately!" her husband interrupted somewhat testily. "Of course she will be along right away. No man would leave us on this island long without provisions. It wouldn't be human. And about smoking"—he waved an airy hand—"why I can quit any time I want ...
— Where the Sun Swings North • Barrett Willoughby
... beneath the surface of those blue eyes, so like her own, and the delicately intoned challenges of his courtly voice, exasperated her beyond measure. "It's obvious to any idiot, my dear," she replied testily. "Just look at him. It speaks ...
— The Fortunate Youth • William J. Locke
... said Captain Pharo, making an unsuccessful attempt to light his pipe, and kicking out his left leg testily. ...
— Vesty of the Basins • Sarah P. McLean Greene
... Mr. Harland, almost testily—"She is a woman whose life has been immersed in study and contemplation, and because she has allowed herself to forego many of the world's pleasures she can be made happy by a mere nothing—a handful of roses—or the sound ...
— The Life Everlasting: A Reality of Romance • Marie Corelli
... am," I answered, rather testily, my temper rising slightly at what I considered the boorish familiarity of his tone and manner, which I determined to at ...
— The Castaways • Harry Collingwood
... exclaimed Murray, more testily than he was accustomed to speak; "you are too apt not to consider the consequences of what you do, and, from want of judgment, the lives of those boys have ...
— The Three Commanders • W.H.G. Kingston
... of Companion of the most honourable Order of the Bath. This grade was recently distributed so profusely that an undecorated veteran testily remarked that if government went on thus there would soon be more C.B.'s than ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth
... not your own fault?' with that wiseacre look of yours," said John Skyd, testily tapping the bowl of his pipe on a stone preparatory to refilling it. "We are quite aware that we are not faultless; that we once or twice have planted things upside down, or a yard too deep, besides other little eccentricities of ignorance; but such errors are things of the past, and though we ...
— The Settler and the Savage • R.M. Ballantyne
... promptly and testily, "Sick? No, nor never was in my life. Nothin' but blind an' that's a trifle compared to sickness. What you askin' for? Didn't I eat my ...
— A Sunny Little Lass • Evelyn Raymond
... some of the school children would be there too. One day Mr. Lamb gave every one a fancy name all round the table, and made a verse on each. "You are so-and-so," he said, "and you are so-and-so," adding the rhyme. "What's he saying? What are you laughing at?" Mr. Richard asked testily, for he was short-tempered. Miss Betsy explained the joke to him, and Mr. Lamb, coming to his turn, said—only he said it in verse—"Now, Dick, it's your turn. I shall call you Gruborum; because all you think of is your food and your stomach." Mr. Richard pushed back his ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Vol. 6) - Letters 1821-1842 • Charles and Mary Lamb
... "Nonsense," said Mr. Boyce testily. "They got along in your Uncle Robert's days, and they can get along now. Charity, indeed! Why, the state of this house and the pinch for money altogether is enough, I should think, to take a man's mind. Don't you go talking to Mr. Harden in the ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... my own way,' said Sol testily. 'You mustn't mind my trading upon your quality, as 'tis a case of necessity. This is a woman nothing will bring to reason but an appeal to the higher powers. If every man of title was as useful as you are to-night, sir, I'd never call ...
— The Hand of Ethelberta • Thomas Hardy
... laurels taken away from her," she said "was not to be borne;" and Delia Williams, the rival of Kate in the estimation of the school, made even more fun than Kate over her own disappointment. Some of the girls made a crown of bright papers and would have put it on Susan's head, but she testily pushed it away. ...
— Miss Ashton's New Pupil - A School Girl's Story • Mrs. S. S. Robbins
... President had been seeing visions and talking with Saint Andrew in a dream. Marquis Berghen asked for the source whence he had derived such intimate acquaintance with the ideas of the Saint. The President took these remarks rather testily, and, from trifling, the company became soon earnestly engaged in a warm discussion of the agitating topics of the day. It soon became evident to Viglius that De Hammer and others of his comrades had been dealing with dangerous things. He began shrewdly to ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny, Governor-in-Chief of Canada, and Captain General of British North America, came down to the Legislative Chambers in State. He took his seat upon the throne quickly. He seemed to speak to his attendants testily. He sent for the Commons impatiently. And he looked sternly. Colonel Ready, as soon as the Commons had appeared, handed His Excellency, who was not particularly gracious, a paper to read. "Gentlemen ...
— The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation - Volume 1 • Charles Roger
... sharp enough, young man," replied the major testily; "but don't be sure about its being quick. If the South once gets to fighting, I know her people well enough to assure you that the Republican party can reach its ends only through seas of blood, if they ...
— His Sombre Rivals • E. P. Roe
... have known it, Maria!" said Uncle Kittredge testily. "I wa'n't for havin' her killed, and you'd ought ...
— Good Cheer Stories Every Child Should Know • Various
... "All right, Sim," testily rejoined the aggrieved fat one, "I notice at that, though, that I am a regular scout while you are ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol • Howard Payson
... mean?" I said, rather testily, for his excessive humility worried me. I hated to be worshipped like that. "Not tell the rajah about ...
— Gil the Gunner - The Youngest Officer in the East • George Manville Fenn
... spoken about me to him, then, as well as to your mother?" I demanded testily. I felt so guilty about my own conduct that it was a relief to be able to find fault with someone else, and I worked myself up into quite a show of indignation. "You must have made very sure of my answer to be ready to ...
— The Heart of Una Sackville • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... little testily, "only he's the meanest man! Wouldn't follow me when I leaped the gorge, and I know he could ...
— Maggie Miller • Mary J. Holmes
... you smoke?" inquired March testily, thinking that this question would reduce his companion ...
— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne
... said the King testily, "that you would not call me 'Jack'; at least, not after—not where any of the servants may come in and overhear us. It ...
— King John of Jingalo - The Story of a Monarch in Difficulties • Laurence Housman
... safe enough," he growled testily, "and so is my chain. Any one who steals from me will have to be pretty smart. I guess if this man had laid hands on my watch I'd have ...
— Grace Harlowe's Senior Year at High School - or The Parting of the Ways • Jessie Graham Flower
... the lash, and who will not accept the reduction of a bale of cotton or a tierce of sugar, though Church and State be disinfected of slavery?[E] It is a drop of planter's gall which the sham-hater shakes testily from his corroded pen. How far the effluvia of the slave-ship will be wafted, into what strange latitudes of temperance and sturdy independence, even to the privacy of solemn and high-minded thought! A nation can pass through epochs of the black-death, and recover and improve its average ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 65, March, 1863 • Various
... remind me of that," she said testily. "That part of my life is my own. I don't want you to start now and make it harder for me to do the right thing. It isn't fair; it isn't square, and it isn't right. You've got to let me go my own way." Putting ...
— The Easiest Way - A Story of Metropolitan Life • Eugene Walter and Arthur Hornblow
... her senses when she finds herself so situated, perhaps," he retorted testily; "and if she does not, it will just show that she ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand
... settle for yourself?" cried the doctor, testily. "That is the way you women flatter the ...
— The Testing of Diana Mallory • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... is just that little—the few hours or days—that will do the mischief," snapped the jester testily, for all that he lowered his voice. "In a few days Gian Maria will be back. If he were met with the news that the Lady Valentina were missing, that she had run away with Romeo Gonzaga—for that, you'll see, will presently be the ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini
... ought to know where he is," said the postmaster testily. "Didn't he get the telegram? If there is any mistake it is for Mr. Barrymore himself ...
— Hound of the Baskervilles • Authur Conan Doyle
... Poons dropped his bow and in picking it up, knocked his music stand over. When Miss Husted glared at him, Poons grinned guiltily, and stole a glance in the direction of Jenny. Miss Husted followed this glance with her eye and rather testily suggested to her niece that the bell was ringing and there was no one to answer it. Jenny, who was glad to get out alive, hurriedly made her escape. Poons, sighing deeply, went into the alcove and looked out of the window. Miss Husted sat down, looked around the ...
— The Music Master - Novelized from the Play • Charles Klein
... said the Lord testily, and somewhat sourly; "thou hast the choice. Have I not told thee that thou art free?" Then Ralph knelt before him, and said: "Lord, I thank thee from a full heart, in that thou wilt suffer me to depart on mine errand, for it is a great one." The scowl deepened ...
— The Well at the World's End • William Morris
... Faria y Sousa, appears to be nettled at the prosperous issue of the voyage; for he testily remarks, that "the admiral entered Lisbon with a vainglorious exultation, in order to make Portugal feel, by displaying the tokens of his discovery, how much she had erred in not acceding to his propositions." Europa Portuguesa, tom. ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V2 • William H. Prescott
... doesn't she have somebody?" he asked, testily. "Somebody besides ME, I mean! Why hasn't somebody asked her to go? She ought to be THAT popular, anyhow, I sh'd think—she ...
— Alice Adams • Booth Tarkington
... human, as he always is, exhibits disgust. If the volume proffered for the visitor's examination is a genuine rarity, not in his own collection, he surlily inquires how it was come by; whilst if it is no great thing, he testily expresses his astonishment it should be thought worth keeping, and this although he has the very same edition ...
— In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays • Augustine Birrell |
