"Very softly" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the shaft the boys, who were walking very softly in their stockinged feet, heard a rattle as of a moving stone or piece of coal in the passage, and at once drew ...
— Boy Scouts in the Coal Caverns • Major Archibald Lee Fletcher
... down the passage like a shadow, walking as if I were treading on eggs. Very softly I tried the door. To my disgust it was locked. Now the only time Bryce ever locked it was when he was at work inside, so I knew that my man was still within reach. As if to make assurance doubly sure I caught, as I stepped back, the faint gleam of a pencil ...
— The Lost Valley • J. M. Walsh
... "Don't you?" Very softly Laura repeated, "'Love is the joy of service so deep that self is forgotten.' And isn't the home the place above all others where Camp Fire Girls should ...
— The Torch Bearer - A Camp Fire Girls' Story • I. T. Thurston
... would,' said the old lady, very softly, more as if she were speaking to herself than to him. ...
— The Dictator • Justin McCarthy
... said then, very softly, a little breathlessly. "And I'm a woman. I'm blind—but I'm a woman. I've been wondering how long it would take you ...
— The Hidden Places • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... chivalrous words that she dared not speak for fear the tears should rush out of her eyes. Impulsively she put out her hand, and his brown, firm one closed on it, and held it very close. Then he carried it to his lips. She heard him say one word, very softly: "Diana." ...
— Blue Aloes - Stories of South Africa • Cynthia Stockley
... down very softly, and tiptoed over to the stair-railing to grasp the letter Mrs. Higby thrust between the bars, going back to her old post, to ...
— Five Little Peppers Grown Up • Margaret Sidney
... "But," said Allison, speaking very softly, "He does ken. Dinna you mind, 'Even to your old age I am He, and even to hoar ...
— Allison Bain - By a Way she knew not • Margaret Murray Robertson
... gently at an office door, a peremptory voice called "Come in," and he opened the door very softly, entered, closed the door very gently behind him, placed his crippled belltopper (rim uppermost) on the small counter that walled visitors off from the severe gentleman dictating to a blonde typewriter and said, with ...
— The Missing Link • Edward Dyson
... "Yes," said Melite, very softly, and afterward flushed and wondered dimly if she had spoken the truth. Then, somehow, her arms clasped about Adhelmar's neck, and she kissed him, from pure pity, as she told herself; for Melite's heart was tender, ...
— The Line of Love - Dizain des Mariages • James Branch Cabell
... disappeared into the garden, intending to watch there and wait his chance to be admitted to the house as an assistant. He now returned to it very softly, his boots making no noise, for there were carpets on the stairs and corridors. He was able to reach the door of his uncle's room without being heard. The abbe and the doctor had left the house; La Bougival ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac
... colonial was drawn for him, and he tried it. He seemed rather startled at first, then he looked curiously at the half-empty glass, set it down very softly on the bar, and leaned against the same and fell into a reverie; from which he roused himself after a while, with a ...
— Over the Sliprails • Henry Lawson
... said Mother, very bitterly, "nobody at all. Do you suppose I've not tried everything? No, my dearest, there's nothing to be done. All we can do, you and I and Daddy, is to be brave, and patient, and—" she spoke very softly—"to pray, ...
— The Railway Children • E. Nesbit
... were! How darling, and cuddly, and fuzzy! Betsy put her fingers very softly on the gray one's head and thrilled to feel the warmth of the little living creature. "Oh, Eleanor!" she asked eagerly. "CAN I pick one up?" She lifted the gray one gently and held it up to her cheek. The little thing ...
— Understood Betsy • Dorothy Canfield
... dumfoundered; and it was five minutes before they could either see a seat, or think of sitting down. With the reflection of the looking-glasses, one of the bailies was so possessed within himself, that he tried to chair himself where chair was none, and landed, not very softly, on the carpet; while another of the deacons, a fat and dumpy man, as he was trying to make a bow, and throw out his leg behind him, stramped on a favourite Newfoundland dog's tail, that, wakening out of its slumbers with a yell ...
— The Life of Mansie Wauch - Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself • David Macbeth Moir
... Charlotte turned and laid a hand on his arm. "Jeff," she said, very softly and close to his ear, "we must take little Ellen home ...
— The Second Violin • Grace S. Richmond
... They succeeded in getting it safely to the window sill, but to hoist it to the tree branch was too risky a feat for them to try, so Whiffet decided to open the trunk and see what was inside. She lifted up the lid very softly and found that it contained enough pretty clothes for a whole doll family. In one of the trays was a doll's tiny white hand mirror, comb, brush and powder puff. Whiffet was so taken up with these things she nearly forgot ...
— Whiffet Squirrel • Julia Greene
... throubled." At the end av Sweethearts off the Capt'n runs in his kyart to the Colonel's house, an' I sits down on the steps and laughs. Wanst an' again I slipped in to see how the little piece was goin', an' whin ut was near endin' I stepped out all among the carr'ges an' sings out very softly, "Jungi!" Wid that a carr'ge began to move, an' I waved to the dhriver. "Hitherao!" sez I, an' he hitheraoed till I judged he was at proper distance, an' thin I tuk him, fair an' square betune the eyes, all I knew ...
— Soldiers Three • Rudyard Kipling
... said the German, very softly. "Just at this moment courtesy must be suspended. With a general mobilization in effect ...
— The Boy Scouts In Russia • John Blaine
... walked up and down the antechamber, very softly, on tip-toe, it appeared to me that I was, as it were, two persons in one. On the one side there was the conviction and the determination that, come what would, I must get a priest to the King if he took a turn at all for ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson
... the last touches to mother's breakfast-tray, and went, very carefully up the stairs, feeling for every step with her toes, and holding on to the tray with all her fingers. She crept into mother's room and set the tray on a chair. Then she pulled one of the blinds up very softly. ...
— The Phoenix and the Carpet • E. Nesbit
... gone with the words, swift and noiseless as a bird on the wing, and five seconds later was scratching very softly at Olga's door. ...
— The Keeper of the Door • Ethel M. Dell
... word I came to a stand. Nell, looking over her shoulder and seeing me stand, turned to front me. She smiled merrily, then frowned, then smiled again with raised eye-brows. I stood there, as though pinned to the spot. For now I had heard a sound from within. It came very softly. There was a stir as of someone moving, then a line of some soft sad song, falling in careless half-consciousness from saddened lips. The sound fell clear and plain on my ears, though I paid no heed to the words and have them not in my memory; I think that in them a ...
— Simon Dale • Anthony Hope
... She was very much afraid of him, for she thought he looked very hungry; but as she knew that racoons are very fond of nuts and fruit, she said to herself, "Perhaps if I show him where the red squirrel's granary in the beech-tree is, he will not kill me." Then she said very softly to him, "Good Mister Coon, if you want a very nice breakfast, and will promise to do me no hurt, I will tell you where to ...
— Lady Mary and her Nurse • Catharine Parr Traill
... thus, Miriam heard a stir in the Court of Israel, and by the dim starlight saw that men were gathering, to do what she knew not. Presently, as she wondered, the great gates were opened very softly and out poured the Jews upon their last sally. Miriam was witnessing the death-struggle of the nation of Israel. At the foot of the marble steps they divided, one-half of them rushing towards the cloister on the right, and the other to that upon the left. Their object, as it seemed ...
— Pearl-Maiden • H. Rider Haggard
... misty shapes fleeing before him with little soft rustlings, so many whispers at his back and hushed cries behind the closed doors. Yet this door had seemed to shut more tangibly, with a warmer promise of life. He went quickly up the three wooden steps, turned the knob, and pushed it open—very softly this time. No one appeared. But, as he stood on the threshold, while the pupils of his eyes dilated to the gloom of the hall into which he looked, his ears seemed to detect somewhere in the house a muffled footfall and the sound of ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson
... as he thought of this excellent fellow's first morning in the promoted capacity of private secretary. He would come in very softly, one eye looking more intelligent than the other; the air of the City clerk discarded, and in its place the bearing that belonged to new robes of office worn for the first time. He would bow, say 'Good morning, Mr. Rogers,' glance round with one eye on his employer and another on ...
— A Prisoner in Fairyland • Algernon Blackwood
... moment that I heard him one morning in the library performing an air set in a curiously low key, it forced itself upon my attention, and I knew, as it were by instinct, that it must be the Gagliarda of the "Areopagita." He was using a sordino and playing it very softly; but I was not mistaken. One wet afternoon in October, only a week before the time of his leaving us to return to Oxford for the autumn term, he walked into the drawing-room where I was sitting, and proposed that we should play some music ...
— The Lost Stradivarius • John Meade Falkner
... smell of the savoury food. Hot roast mutton and potatoes seemed almost too good to be eaten all by herself; but she did not hesitate long, and began her meal with evident enjoyment. Dr Price sat near, whistling very softly to himself, and sometimes leaving off to smile a little under his light moustache, as Snip and Snap continued to hurl themselves with hoarse cries against ...
— Black, White and Gray - A Story of Three Homes • Amy Walton
... was sure he would like nothing better; and the voice in the birch tree sang him the following song, very softly: ...
— All the Way to Fairyland - Fairy Stories • Evelyn Sharp
... next Christmas Day That we shall hear the happy children play Gladly aloud, unmindful of the dead, And watch the lovers go To the old woods to find the mistletoe. But this year, children, if you needs must play, Play very softly, underneath your breath; Be happy softly, lovers, for great Death Makes England holy with sorrow this Christmas Day; Yes! in the old woods leave the mistletoe, And leave the holly for another year— Its berries are ...
— The Silk-Hat Soldier - And Other Poems in War Time • Richard le Gallienne
... only a girl! she will never be able to manage us, Jane says," Lottie remarked very softly to me; "but then, I daresay, she can be cross enough when she likes, governesses ...
— My Young Days • Anonymous
... forward with all his strength. The rope spun tight, hummed, and snapped—very softly indeed. Then he padded in silence out among the huts, and nobody who had not seen him do it would believe how silently an elephant can ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various
... minor difficulties. He wondered if Ethel also was packing. What particularly would she do? He listened, but he could hear nothing. She was very still. She was really very still! What could she be doing? He forgot the bothers of the morrow in this new interest. Presently he rose very softly and listened. Then he sat down again impatiently. He tried to dismiss his curiosity about the silence by recapitulating the ...
— Love and Mr. Lewisham • H. G. Wells
... was]l and rub it betwixt your hands till you make it clean, and as free from husks as you can; then put that water from it, and put a small quantity of fresh water to it, and set it in something that is fit for that purpose, over the fire, where it is not to boil apace, but leisurely and very softly, until it become somewhat soft, which you may try by feeling it betwixt your finger and thumb; and when it is soft, then put your water from it: and then take a sharp knife, and turning the sprout end of the corn upward with the point of your knife, take the back part of the ...
— The Complete Angler • Izaak Walton
... turn, beginning with me and ending with Croisette, as was becoming. Afterwards Catherine threw her handkerchief over her face—she was crying—and we three sat down, Turkish fashion, just where we were, and said "Oh, Kit!" very softly. ...
— The House of the Wolf - A Romance • Stanley Weyman
... the Guest went along his dim corridor, the Master turned and followed him very softly on ...
— The Valley of Vision • Henry Van Dyke
... I opened my journal? Three months, I really believe, and not a word of record. Even now, when the world becomes more real, I feel like one aroused very softly from dreaming among the angels. How would I write and see emblazoned upon paper, doomed, perhaps, frail as it is, to outlive me, thoughts that even yet are so intangible, that, like the butterflies that I used to ...
— Mabel's Mistake • Ann S. Stephens
... been a slight noise in the lock. A key turned, softly, softly, in the lock, and then—silence; and then another little noise, a grinding sound, a slight grating of wire, above, then on the bolt; upon the bolt which shone in the subdued glow of the night-lamp. The bolt softly, very softly, slipped slowly. ...
— The Secret of the Night • Gaston Leroux
... I opened the window very softly. What did I expect? There were still the iron bars and the high wall opposite. I could not get out, and yet foolish though the thought was, I expected my freedom. The morning air chilled me but I stayed by my window, looking out without knowing at ...
— Nobody's Boy - Sans Famille • Hector Malot
... said Ezra very softly to himself, "oh, yes, the best scene in all the pictur' is when evenin' comes, when all the lamps are lit in the parlour, when the neighbours come in, and when there is music and singing an' games. An' it's this part o' the pictur' that makes me homesick now and fills my heart with a longin' I never ...
— Good Cheer Stories Every Child Should Know • Various
... hundred deliberately, to compel himself to wait; and meanwhile his sub-conscious self laboured at the scheme. Then he glanced this way and that with wide eyes; his ears sang with intentness of listening. Then, very softly he shifted his position, and found with his fingers the ring that lifted the trap-door ...
— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson
... his eyes had grown capable of using what light there was, which however was scarcely sufficient to render him the smallest service, Richard began to whistle, very softly, a certain tune well known to Lady, one he always whistled when he fed or curried her himself. He had not got more than half through it, when a low drowsy whinny made reply from the depths of the darkness before him, and the heart ...
— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald
... Rose. "I wish he would let me touch him." And she put out one finger very softly ...
— Dick and His Cat and Other Tales • Various
... woke some time in the night, oh, hours after, because the moonlight was 'way across the room, and sitting in it, washing its face, was the prettiest little half-grown kitten. It was a perfect beauty, white with a plumy tail. I spoke to it very softly so as not to wake either of you, and it looked at me and purred but would not come. I watched it chase its tail for a little and then it jumped in a big chair and curled itself up to sleep. I suppose ...
— The Spanish Chest • Edna A. Brown
... went very softly for fear of being overheard. It would be so disappointing if Nursey were just to come out of Gran'ma's room and say "Come ...
— Terry - Or, She ought to have been a Boy • Rosa Mulholland
... She makes no noise, but stilly seizeth on The flower or herb appointed for her food, The which she quietly doth feed upon While others range and glare, but find no good. And though she doth but very softly go, However, 'tis not fast nor slow, but sure; And certainly they that do travel so, The prize they do aim ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... came very softly through the reeds. Then stopped dead and stood sniffing, hesitated, and at last turned and slunk back into ...
— Tales of Space and Time • Herbert George Wells
... entered her room she tried to receive him with something of a smile. It was clear enough that she was always glad of his coming, and that she made some little show of welcoming him. A book was always put away, very softly and by the slightest motion; but Herbert well knew what that book was, and whence his mother sought that strength which enabled her to live through ...
— Castle Richmond • Anthony Trollope
... interferes with both the religious and the artistic effect of the music. For this latter state of affairs there is no remedy except to learn to listen to individual voices, and when some voice does not blend with the rest, to let the person who owns it know that he must either sing very softly or else stop entirely. This can often be accomplished by a look in the direction of the singer who is causing the trouble; but if this does not suffice, then a private admonition may be necessary—and here we have a situation in which the diplomacy and the good humor of the conductor ...
— Essentials in Conducting • Karl Wilson Gehrkens
... Eve Edgarton. Indolently she withdrew her eyes from her father's and stared off Nunko-Nonoward—in a hazy, geographical sort of a dream. "Good old John Ellbertson—good old John Ellbertson," she began to croon very softly to herself. "Good old John Ellbertson. How I do love his kind ...
— Little Eve Edgarton • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
... a pause and then very softly a warm arm stole about his neck, and a strand of rippling brown hair brushed his cheek lightly as her gentle head ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander
... of curing this defect is to cause the stammerer to repeat the word, which he finds difficult to speak, eight or ten times without the initial letter, in a strong voice, or with an aspirate before it, as arable, or harable; and at length to speak it very softly with the initial letter p, parable. This should be practised for weeks or months upon every word, which the stammerer hesitates in pronouncing. To this should be added much commerce with mankind, in order to acquire a carelessness about ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin
... on his trousers and slippers, and was looking under his pillow for the fatal Cash, when he heard himself called loudly and repeatedly by name; but this time the sound came from the garden into which his bedroom looked. He opened it very softly, in trepidation and wonder, which were speedily doubled by what met his eyes; for there, right in front of his window, stood an unearthly figure, corresponding in every particular to that notion of a ghost in which we are reared, and which, when our nerves are healthy, ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade
... one heard little Hurry crying very softly and bitterly, and it would turn out to be Mrs. Fulton, locked in her bedroom. Pressure of business, success, kept Mr. Fulton going. Sometimes the two tried to talk things over. But it was an irritating, mosquitoey house. Always their voices ended by rising to the point where ...
— We Three • Gouverneur Morris
... What was not his own, and shews them which is the more to blame. Then they decide on the sentence; perhaps some one suggests that it should be the utmost infliction allowable, a slight pat on the hand; while a tender-hearted girl says, "Please, sir, give it him very softly;" but the issue is, a marked distinction between right and wrong;—appropriate expressions of pleasure and disapprobation:—and on the spot, "a kissing and being friends." I am, indeed, so firmly convinced, from the experience I have had, of the utility of a play-ground, from the ...
— The Infant System - For Developing the Intellectual and Moral Powers of all Children, - from One to Seven years of Age • Samuel Wilderspin
... which song do you want?' she asked. 'I know so many.' 'All without the notes?' 'Why, of course. Now which was it?' 'It is so very beautiful,' I explained. 'Right at the beginning the melody rises, then it becomes fervent, and finally it ends very softly. You sing it more frequently than the others.' 'Oh, I suppose it's this one,' she said, setting down her basket, and placing her foot on the stool. Then, keeping time by nodding her head, she sang the song ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VI. • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... those light brown trousers with a feeling of awe, and used to put my hand upon them very softly when uncle had them on. They seemed to rank with "sofys," albums and what-nots in their ...
— The Light in the Clearing • Irving Bacheller
... nobody in the world who knows so many stories as Ole-Luk-Oie, or who can relate them so nicely. In the evening, while the children are seated at the table or in their little chairs, he comes up the stairs very softly, for he walks in his socks, then he opens the doors without the slightest noise, and throws a small quantity of very fine dust in their eyes, just enough to prevent them from keeping them open, and so they do not see him. Then he creeps behind ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen
... Hearing her hum very softly to herself, he asked what she sang. She said, her mother's favorite hymn, and gave it aloud, ...
— Aurora the Magnificent • Gertrude Hall
... Gerald. They had a great respect for each other these two; but when Miss Cecilia turned to hear what her elder nephew was saying, her face lost the momentary look of approval it had worn, and she again, though very softly, almost imperceptibly, began ...
— The Perpetual Curate • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant
... heed. As their meaning seeped into her consciousness, the expression of her face changed little by little. "Making people happy!" She repeated the phrase as she had formulated the idea again, very softly, with a persistence that would have surprised Mrs. Delancy, could she have caught the inaudible murmur. Presently, the faint rose in the pallor of her cheeks blossomed to a deeper red, and the amber eyes grew radiant, as she lifted the long, curving lashes, and ...
— Making People Happy • Thompson Buchanan
... added very softly, "She said we should find her asleep, if all went well. We found her asleep. Is it an omen ...
— Robin Tremain - A Story of the Marian Persecution • Emily Sarah Holt
... delicate subject. You have met Mr. Kahl?... But I must tell you this story very softly. [She draws nearer to LOTH.] His father, you know, was just as silly about hunting as he is. When wandering apprentices came into his yard he shot at them—sometimes only into the air in order to frighten them. ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann
... doing is quite delicious. You sit at a table with the ball in front of you; then you take the subject's hands, spread them out on the table, and stroke them very softly while you gaze into the crystal; that gets up the sympathy, you know." She looked up innocently. ...
— The Masquerader • Katherine Cecil Thurston
... voice. It said very softly, "You can't have it both ways." It cried out aloud in a fury, "I've always known it. You can't hide it. You're full of it." And yet another voice, deep and hard, "You can't not tell him. It's a shame Kitty; ...
— The Immortal Moment - The Story of Kitty Tailleur • May Sinclair
... answered very softly, and there was something in the tender intonation with which she spoke the name that told a tale Cuthbert was not slow to read. He had guessed as much before, but this made assurance doubly sure; and with the sympathy ...
— The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn - A Story of the Days of the Gunpowder Plot • Evelyn Everett-Green
... lay in the back room, for they moved very softly around the head of the stairs, but once in front they let their tongues run loose again. I, who cared nothing for their babble when it contained no information, walked slowly about the room and finally stopped before ...
— That Affair Next Door • Anna Katharine Green
... you?" she said, very softly. "Good! I was in hopes it wouldn't. So, here's another plan." Her voice had become very winning. "Suppose you could go West—some place where you would have a fair chance, with money enough so you could live like a human being till ...
— Within the Law - From the Play of Bayard Veiller • Marvin Dana
... her and ask the one simple question," I made answer to myself. Then I reached down my head over the edge of my shelf and called very softly: ...
— The Daredevil • Maria Thompson Daviess
... his precious blessings, feeling nerved for the fiercest fight; but when the storm-clouds gather and the golden brightness is withdrawn, we bow before the blinding tempest and writhe under our pain, unless—and the kind voice spoke very softly—the Master has our hearts in his own safe keeping, unless we have learned to love his will. Then we can discern the bright stars of his love shining through the darkness, and find that the apparently pitiless storm has left diamond drops of blessing behind it. ...
— Aunt Judith - The Story of a Loving Life • Grace Beaumont
... observed him. Once at a rest-day gathering they sat side by side in the dim starlight, and the music was sweet. His hand came upon hers and he dared to clasp it. Then very tenderly she returned his pressure. And one day, as they were at their meal in the darkness, he felt her hand very softly seeking him, and as it chanced the fire leapt then, and he saw the ...
— The Door in the Wall And Other Stories • H. G. Wells
... Very softly he passed his hand down the delighted animal's back until he reached his tail. Then, stifling with an effort all the finer feelings which should have made such an act impossible, he administered so vigorous ...
— The Head of Kay's • P. G. Wodehouse
... table (which was without cloth or cover,—an old mahogany round-table) there rose a hand, visible as far as the wrist. It was a hand, seemingly, as much of flesh and blood as my own, but the hand of an aged person, lean, wrinkled, small too,—a woman's hand. That hand very softly closed on the two letters that lay on the table; hand and letters both vanished. There then came the same three loud, measured knocks I had heard at the bedhead before this extraordinary drama ...
— Haunted and the Haunters • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... One of her last conscious looks was for him. He was in his nightgown, with bare feet, holding his father tight round the neck, and whimpering. They bent down to her, and he kissed her on the cheek, as David told him, 'very softly.' Then he cried to go away from this still, grey mother. David gave him to the nurse and ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... slowly, and very softly rubbed his hands, as if he were afraid by any action to disturb the ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens
... toe and sole, and opening the communicating door, peered into the library. It was empty, but her father's tarpaulins, in a heap on the floor, just outside his stateroom door, showed he was within, so she moved very softly across to the ...
— All Aboard - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry
... Very softly Muriel turned the door-handle and entered. Olga's voice greeted her before she was well in the room. It sounded husky ...
— The Way of an Eagle • Ethel M. Dell
... Very softly Mary Martin stole back down the zigzag steps to the road below. Slowly she went back through the deep shadows of the night to her little home, with its garden of old-fashioned flowers, next door to the deserted house where John Ward ...
— Helen of the Old House • Harold Bell Wright
... question. She must win it. The thought of disgrace was too intolerable; she must, she would win it. She determined to rise now and test her powers of composition. It was between five and six in the morning. She rose very softly, got into her clothes, and stole out of ...
— A Bunch of Cherries - A Story of Cherry Court School • L. T. Meade
... doubt about. Mr. Pike, however, was not destined on this one occasion to reap any substantial reward. The kitchen appeared to be wrapped in perfect silence. Satisfying himself as to this, he next took off his heavy shoes, stole past the back door, and so round the clerk's house to the front. Very softly indeed went he, creeping by the wall, and emerging at last round the angle, by the window of the best parlour. Here, most excessively to Mr. Pike's consternation, he came upon a lady doing exactly what he had come to do—namely, stealthily listening at the window to anything there might ...
— Elster's Folly • Mrs. Henry Wood
... just surprised the soul of his elder brother in one of its most secret altitudes, and that Claude must not be allowed to know it. Seeing that the archdeacon had fallen back into his former immobility, he withdrew his head very softly, and made some noise with his feet outside the door, like a person who has just arrived and is giving ...
— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo
... dare to tell you how soon it was after I knew you that I began to think of you as playing this part in my life," he said very softly. ...
— Under the Country Sky • Grace S. Richmond
... pigtail from his head. My father was too sound asleep to be roused: in a minute the tail was off, and my mother rose up, holding it, with an expression of the utmost contempt, between her finger and thumb. She then very softly laid it down by his side, and replaced the scissors in the cupboard; as I expected that she would go upstairs again, I concealed myself in the back kitchen. I was correct in my supposition. A moment afterwards I heard her ascending the stairs, and ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat
... as they all gathered round, and then four of them lifted from the wagon the long box it contained, and bore it on their shoulders reverently and tenderly within the open gate, through the wide door, along the solemn aisle and close beneath the pulpit, where they placed it very softly, and then stood back with uncovered heads, while a troop of little girls, who waited, with aprons full of flowers, drew near and emptied them on the ground, so that nothing was to be seen but a great heap of flowers; and beneath them was ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 106, August, 1866 • Various
... Church Hospital lay sleeping. Very softly Janet crept to the organ loft—softer still she played to ...
— Futurist Stories • Margery Verner Reed
... dem," said G. W., thrilling again. "Miles ob dem an' millions of men! Lawd, Corporal!" Then, after a pause, and very softly, he said, "Say, Corporal Jack, if—if my Colonel don't send orders back fur me to come ter him, an' if youse all get orders ter go on, will yer jes' fur my sake try ter find de Colonel an' tell him ...
— A Little Dusky Hero • Harriet T. Comstock
... don't take cold going across the street, and step very softly as you go down the stairs, and Dora, do you hear! Close the door very gently, and Karl, be careful of the draught, as you cross ...
— Uncle Titus and His Visit to the Country • Johanna Spyri
... blessed Lady who sent me," said Mora, very softly. "Hugh, dare I stay and tell you the whole story, here and now? What if we are discovered, alone upon the ramparts, at this ...
— The White Ladies of Worcester - A Romance of the Twelfth Century • Florence L. Barclay
... answered Zenobia, looking him in the face, and smiling. "But we have come many times before to this gray rock, and we have talked very softly among the whisperings of the birch-trees. They were pleasant hours! I love to make the latest of them, though not altogether so delightful, loiter away as slowly as may be. And, besides, you have put many queries to me at this, which you design to be our last interview; and being driven, ...
— The Blithedale Romance • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... her head, shaking it sorrowfully. Then very softly: "Is it no more than the matter of—of that, that stands between us?" ...
— The Lion's Skin • Rafael Sabatini
... Linen Nurse very softly. With sudden alertness she turned her curly blonde head towards the road. "There's somebody coming!" she ...
— The White Linen Nurse • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
... from the fibrous bark of the mulberry-tree and hemp, which grew wild and in abundance. The natives had acquired the art of rich coloring, and the garments thus manufactured by them were often really beautiful. The walls of the houses of the wealthier citizens were hung with tapestry of very softly tanned and richly prepared buckskin; and carpets of the same material were spread upon ...
— Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the Mississippi - American Pioneers and Patriots • John S. C. Abbott
... sharply, aware that his own emotion was carrying him out of his depth, and out of their depth likewise. He changed the sentence: "We shall be in Eternity," he whispered very softly, so softly that it was scarcely ...
— The Extra Day • Algernon Blackwood
... to whistle very softly as the doctor disappeared. Then he washed and wiped the glass, and put it back in its place ready for use. After this he threw himself upon the settee, took hold of his right leg with his left hand, by the ankle, dragged ...
— The Bag of Diamonds • George Manville Fenn
... "Very softly," assented Sebastian, "so that no one should hear. And now I have them all!" He spoke exultingly. "And next month I shall see Reinken.... I ...
— Unfinished Portraits - Stories of Musicians and Artists • Jennette Lee
... wakened in her, grew suddenly hopeful. She began to hum a tune, very softly at first, making more than one false start; but getting it nearly right at last. The Queen recognized it. She had heard it a hundred times in old days at prayers in the chapel of her college. It was a hymn tune. The words came ...
— The Island Mystery • George A. Birmingham
... Lord Charles. The Highlander whistled very softly a bar or two of a wild melody with longing and a poignant sorrow ...
— The Path of the King • John Buchan
... face kept quiet it looked dead beside the ruddy faces of the three old men; dead and very quietly, very softly decomposing into bleached purple and sallow white. Then her gaiety would come popping up again and jerk it ...
— Mary Olivier: A Life • May Sinclair
... penetrating the closely drawn curtains. Mrs. Flaxman was standing near, looking worn and pale; but Mrs. Blake was also there, and loomed up before me, strong as ever—a look into her kindly face was like a tonic. When she saw me watching her she turned around, and very softly whispered to Mrs. Flaxman, who, casting a startled, anxious glance towards me, went ...
— Medoline Selwyn's Work • Mrs. J. J. Colter
... about a week; when one night, Mrs. Prosser being in the nursery, her husband, who was in the parlour, heard it begin very softly at the hall-door. The air was quite still, which favoured his hearing distinctly. This was the first time there had been any disturbance at that side of the house, and the character of ...
— The House by the Church-Yard • J. Sheridan Le Fanu
... soon began to find that Ethelberta's opinions on the matter would not be known by the tones of her voice. But innocent Picotee was as wily as a religionist in sly elusions of the letter whilst infringing the spirit of a dictum; and by talking very softly and earnestly about the wondrous good she could do by remaining in the house as governess to the children, and playing the part of lady's-maid to her sister at show times, she so far coaxed Ethelberta out of her intentions that she almost accepted the plan as a good one. It was agreed that ...
— The Hand of Ethelberta • Thomas Hardy
... and now, standing before it, folded his arms, staring at her with bent head. He was a very tall man, with a rain-sodden, bell-crowned hat crushed low upon his brows, and wrapped in a long, many-caged overcoat, the skirts of which were woefully mired and torn. All at once he laughed, very softly and musically. ...
— The Broad Highway • Jeffery Farnol
... Very softly, for he knew the caprices of sleep, he stepped across the paved roof to the opposite parapet and looked over, for there yet hung about him a desire for reassurance that he was still in company with flesh and blood. Yes, indeed he was still on earth; for there was a real ...
— Lord of the World • Robert Hugh Benson
... end of ten minutes or so she heard him go down the passage again. Very softly he closed the front door. By then she had divined why the lodger had behaved in this funny fashion. He wanted to get the strong, acrid smell of burning—was it of burning ...
— The Lodger • Marie Belloc Lowndes
... away very softly. All the time the Imp of Mischief was whispering to him that this was a splendid chance to play a joke on Jimmy. You know it is very easy to play a joke on any one who is asleep. Peter doesn't often have a chance to play a joke ...
— The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk • Thornton W. Burgess
... and pushed back the shutters. A wan semi-darkness looked in upon her. Again she wondered whether Batouch had come. It seemed to her unlikely. She could not imagine that anyone in all the world was up and purposeful but herself. This hour seemed created as a curtain for unconsciousness. Very softly she stepped out upon the verandah and looked over the parapet. She could see the white road, mysteriously white, below. It was deserted. ...
— The Garden Of Allah • Robert Hichens
... very softly, while he drew Skag to a large couch in the same room), "it is finished. She is altogether safe now. You should be this far away; stretch yourself here and give yourself to sleep also—it will be best for her if ...
— Son of Power • Will Levington Comfort and Zamin Ki Dost
... off and then was awakened, sharply, abruptly, by the sound of Markovitch's padded feet. There could be no mistaking them; very softly they went past Bohun's door, down the passage towards the dining-room. He sat up in bed, and all the other sounds of the night seemed suddenly to be accentuated—the dripping of the tap, the blowing of the wind, and even the heavy breathing of old Sacha, who always slept in a sort of cupboard near ...
— The Secret City • Hugh Walpole
... Softly, very softly Tom brought his rifle to bear on the back of the thief. Then, holding the weapon with one hand, for it was very light, Tom extended the electric flash, so that the glare would be thrown on the intruder and would leave his own person in ...
— Tom Swift and his Motor-cycle • Victor Appleton
... her in, and sate for awhile in silence, looking on her face. The Lady Margaret was now a very comely and sedate lady, and had held her son's child in her arms; and Paul was a grey-haired man; yet in his eyes she was still the maiden he had known. Then Paul, speaking very softly, said, "Dear Margaret, I have bidden you come hither, for I think I am called hence; and when I depart, and I know not when it may be, I would close my eyes in the dear house where I was nurtured." Then she looked at him with a sudden fear, but he went on, "Dear one, I have dreamed very oft ...
— Paul the Minstrel and Other Stories - Reprinted from The Hill of Trouble and The Isles of Sunset • Arthur Christopher Benson
... "Very softly Striped Chipmunk stole up and opened the bag. Out fell his store of fat acorns. Then they waked Mr. Meadow Mouse and marched him off to old Mother Nature, where they charged him with being ...
— Mother West Wind's Children • Thornton W. Burgess
... there for at least a half-hour. Presently he heard the cousin moving about in the kitchen. Then he thought that he would go up very softly, and peep into the bedroom. Perhaps his father would like something to eat: it was long ...
— Rico And Wiseli - Rico And Stineli, And How Wiseli Was Provided For • Johanna Spyri
... means give it without a model. Poor fellow! He had such a heart-broken air as he said this. Do you know what I did? Well, I bravely picked up the drapery which was lying in a corner, I went into my hiding-place; then, very softly without saying a word, while he was still looking at his statue, I placed myself on the platform in front of him, in the costume and attitude in which I had seen that abominable model. Ah my dear I What emotion I ...
— Artists' Wives • Alphonse Daudet
... exclaimed the widow, clapping her hands very softly and prettily; "really you must speak at ...
— The Philistines • Arlo Bates
... the room, as she thought, very softly, but making more noise than Edith would in a week, she seized a bottle of cologne, and coming close to the bedside, bent over me, so that her great, black eyes almost touched mine. Had they been a pair of pistols, I could not have recoiled with ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz
... rays of light began to spread up the sky from the eastern horizon, and the earth seemed to wake very softly ...
— The Huntress • Hulbert Footner
... very softly and tenderly, "You are very naughty, and very foolish. Go to bed di-rectly." And she closed her window with a valiant slam; then ...
— The Woman-Hater • Charles Reade
... to the door of the shack. By feeling we saw it opened out; so the two of us felt around for big-sized stones, a hundred pounds apiece, or so, and them we piled in front of the door, fifteen or twenty of 'em, very softly, and then I whispers to Archie to hustle the flat car along to ...
— Sonnie-Boy's People • James B. Connolly
... to Aristide. "I'm afraid," she said, very softly, hesitating a little—"I'm afraid this must be a sad ...
— The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol • William J. Locke
... then with a gentleness and courtesy that I had never seen in him before nor dreamed that he possessed, very softly kissed ...
— The Dark Forest • Hugh Walpole |
