"Declined" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the whole thing lay in a nut-shell. I, Merle Fenton, sound, healthy, and aged two-and-twenty, being orphaned, penniless, and only possessing one near relative in the world—Aunt Agatha—declined utterly to be dependent for my daily bread and the clothes I wore on the goodwill of her husband and my ...
— The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII: No. 353, October 2, 1886. • Various
... Anne had not forgotten her natural stubbornness. At half-past twelve she rose from the supper table and declined absolutely to allow ...
— The Mischief Maker • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... turned up my hair like this, and what harm could there be in lengthening my skirts an inch or two? My picture will show her that I am improved by such little changes, and perhaps it will induce hor to let me go to the Bal Blanc that Madame d'Etaples is going to give on Yvonne's birthday. Mamma declined for me, saying I was not fit to wear a low-necked corsage, but ...
— Jacqueline, v1 • Th. Bentzon (Mme. Blanc)
... proposals from different parties who wished to join the expedition, but they were all civilly declined. In a few days a vessel arrived, which was about to go round to the settlement at Algoa Bay. Their stores, horses, and dogs, not forgetting Begum the baboon, were all embarked, and, taking leave of Mr Fairburn and the governor, Alexander, ...
— The Mission; or Scenes in Africa • Captain Frederick Marryat
... and still to have no heavy thoughts, in truth my heart would be a log or stone." Thus the prince, for Uda's sake, used every kind of skilful argument, describing all the pains of pleasure; and not perceiving that the day declined. And now the waiting women all, with music and their various attractions, seeing that all were useless for the end, with shame began to flock back to the city; the prince beholding all the gardens, bereft of their gaudy ornaments, the women ...
— Sacred Books of the East • Various
... rest the decision of the controversy on a comparison of the lives of the Methodists and non-Methodists? Unless he knows that their "morality has declined, as their piety has become more ardent," is not his quotation mere labouring—nay, absolute pioneering—for the triumphal chariot of ...
— Coleridge's Literary Remains, Volume 4. • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... miracle would come about; it would be like a lightning stroke, an awakening, an exaltation of the entire being, whilst the evil, that horrid, diabolical weight which stifled the poor girl would once more ascend and fly away as though emerging by her mouth. But at the same time he flatly declined to give a certificate. He had failed to agree with his two confreres, who treated him coldly, as though they considered him a wild, adventurous young fellow. Pierre confusedly remembered some shreds of the discussion which had begun again in his presence, some little part of the diagnosis ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... "That told very well; for I had the case strongly attested, "and went about col—called on you, a close prisoner "in the Marshalsea, for a debt benevolently contracted "to serve a friend. I was afterwards twice tapped "for a dropsy, which declined into a very profitable "consumption! I was then reduced to—0—no—then, "I became a widow with six helpless children—after "having had eleven husbands pressed, and being left "every time eight months gone with child, and without "money to get ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan
... of the day had declined, having satisfied my curiosity as to Boulogne, I called for my bill and my horse, intending to get on to Montreuil, where I had fixed upon sleeping. My bill was extravagant to a degree; a circumstance I imputed to the want of ...
— Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808 • Lt-Col. Pinkney
... 'Realities of Irish Life.' A neighbour, who had saved two hundred pounds in gold, kept it in the thatch of his roof. One day he appeared before Mr. Trench bearing his gold, and requesting him to be his depositee, expressing the comfort it would afford him. Mr. Trench declined the unprofitable duty, and pointed out to him the bank, which would accept his deposit and give him interest. The eye of Patrick flashed with intelligence and foresight as he warned Mr. Trench from the delusion of banks, which every year wasted the original sum by paying ...
— Fables of John Gay - (Somewhat Altered) • John Gay
... Indians, with divers crosses between them. Laziness is the prominent characteristic. A gentleman offered an Indian passing his door twenty-five cents if he would bring him a pitcher of water from the river, only a few rods distant. He declined. "But I will give you fifty cents." Whereupon the half-clothed, penniless aboriginal replied: "I will give you a dollar to bring me some."[140] While every inch of the soil is of exuberant fertility, there is ...
— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton
... in the usual terms, with "fire and sword," if the chiefs did not take the oaths to his Government by January 1, 1692. Money and titles under the rank of earldoms were to be offered to Macdonald of Sleat, Maclean of Dowart, Lochiel, Glengarry, and Clanranald, if they would come in. All declined the bait—if Breadalbane really fished with it. It is plain, contrary to Lord Macaulay's statement, that Sir John Dalrymple, William's trusted man for Scotland, at this time hoped for Breadalbane's success in pacifying the clans. But Dalrymple, by December 1691, wrote, "I think the Clan Donell ...
— A Short History of Scotland • Andrew Lang
... visits. Repeated offers were made to him by Government, who then wished to procure a complete survey of New Holland; but this scene of action did not seem to present sufficient attractions to Park, for he declined it. ...
— Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa • Mungo Park
... and Askold, and a second-class cruiser Novik. The Russians ultimately retreated towards the harbour with the intention of drawing the Japanese under closer fire of the land batteries, but the Japanese fleet declined to follow after them, and, instead, steamed away. Three days later (February 11th) another disaster overtook the Russians. The Yenisei, one of the two mining-transports included in their fleet, struck a ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi
... river navigation. The rain fell heavily before midnight, and they insisted that I should share one of their beds in the boat; but as small streams of water were trickling through the roof of the shanty, and my little craft was water-tight, I declined the kindly offer, and ...
— Four Months in a Sneak-Box • Nathaniel H. Bishop
... lines which that noble Queen of Prussia, whom Napoleon treated with such coarse brutality, used to quote in her humiliation and exile; they were the lines my mother often quoted in the troubles of her later life. I absolutely declined to accept or admit the enormous truth hidden in them. I could not understand it. I remember quite well how I used to tell her that I did not want to eat my bread in sorrow, or to pass any night weeping and watching ...
— De Profundis • Oscar Wilde
... again, and again perched upon his neighbour's cage, kissing him, as at the first, and singing, as if transported with the fortunate adventure. I could not but respect such friendship, as for the sake of its gratification had twice declined an opportunity to be free, and consenting to their union, resolved that for the future one cage should hold them both. I am glad of such incidents; for at a pinch, and when I need entertainment, the versification of them ...
— The Art of Letters • Robert Lynd
... Europe, than it is to enable us to supply them with our manufactured produce. The United States were therefore necessarily reduced to the alternative of increasing the business of other maritime nations to a great extent, if they had themselves declined to enter into commerce, as the Spaniards of Mexico have hitherto done; or, in the second place, of becoming one of the first trading powers of ...
— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al
... March, who was lame and needed an active person to wait upon her. The childless old lady had offered to adopt one of the girls when the troubles came, and was much offended because her offer was declined. Other friends told the Marches that they had lost all chance of being remembered in the rich old lady's will, but the ...
— Little Women • Louisa May Alcott
... imperial city by choosing it as the best place for a fort. Washington was then twenty-one years old. He had by that time written his precocious one hundred and ten maxims of civility and good behavior; had declined to be a midshipman in the British navy; had made his only sea-voyage to Barbados; had surveyed the estates of Lord Fairfax, going for months into the forest without fear of savage Indians or wild beasts; and was now a major of Virginia militia. In pursuance of ...
— A Short History of Pittsburgh • Samuel Harden Church
... in the midst of the horrors of San Francisco kindly but firmly declined the assistance offered by the other nations, and especially, through St. George's society, the assistance of England. The President meant simply that, bowed as the American people were under their load, it was his wish that the ...
— Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror • Richard Linthicum
... going to be at Mrs. North's for dinner," Anne observed quietly, in the silence. She had been informally asked to the Norths' for dinner that evening herself, and had declined for no other reason than that attractive Martin Lloyd was presumably ...
— Sisters • Kathleen Norris
... redress for their affliction and want, and besought him, even now, to make peace with the Swedes, and to command the Stadtholder in the Mark to institute a milder government in the unhappy province. In heartrending words, they pictured the distresses of both wretched cities, which had so far declined that they had now hardly seven thousand inhabitants, while ten years ago they had numbered more than twenty thousand. "But fire, pillage, and oppressions," so the writing wound up, "have reduced us to the most extreme poverty. Many of the ...
— The Youth of the Great Elector • L. Muhlbach
... in the immediate situation declined, the crowd in the Pit grew less dense. Portions of it were deserted; even Grossmann, discouraged, retired to a bench under the visitors' gallery. And a spirit of horse-play, sheer foolishness, strangely inconsistent with the hot-eyed excitement of the few moments after the opening invaded ...
— The Pit • Frank Norris
... there came a letter, which he opened in the dreary anticipation of finding two hard hopeless lines, intimating that "Messrs. Smith and Elder were not disposed to publish the MS.," and, instead, he took out of the envelope a letter of two pages. He read it trembling. It declined, indeed, to publish that tale, for business reasons, but it discussed its merits and demerits, so courteously, so considerately, in a spirit so rational, with a discrimination so enlightened, that this very refusal cheered the author ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... gradually become less and less vehement as they proceeded in their search without making any discovery; and, now, he gave vent to several very grim laughs, and confessed it could only have been his excited imagination. He declined any renewal of the conversation, however, for that night: suddenly remembering that it was past one o'clock. And so the ...
— Oliver Twist • Charles Dickens
... upon for the first meeting. During the week Katy proposed the plan to the elect few, all of whom accepted enthusiastically. Lilly Page was the only person who declined. She said it would be stupid; that for her part she didn't set up to be "proper" or better than she was, and that in any case she shouldn't wish to be mixed up in a Society of which "Miss Agnew" was a member. The girls did not break their hearts ...
— What Katy Did At School • Susan Coolidge
... in fact, Felipe and I have had our first quarrel. I contended that he ought to have sufficient moral strength to kill me in my sleep when I have reached thirty, so that I might pass from one dream to another. The wretch declined. I threatened to leave him alone in the world, and, poor child, he turned white as a sheet. My dear, this distinguished statesman is neither more nor less than a baby. It is incredible what youth and simplicity he contrived to hide away. Now that I allow myself to think aloud with him, as I ...
— Letters of Two Brides • Honore de Balzac
... grave was dug. Just then the Seraskier, for some unexplained reason, ordered the grave to be filled, and another to be dug outside of the cemetery, in the middle of the public highway. The Protestants declined taking part in the burial in such a spot, though entreated to do so by the Seraskier, but remained and looked on in silence, while Mussulmans dug the grave, put the coffin into it, and filled it up. As soon as this was done, the mob rushed forward and trampled spitefully upon it, in ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II. • Rufus Anderson
... contentment prevailed during the happy reign of King Oscar, and the prosperity, commerce, and population of the country increased steadily. These satisfactory conditions did not, however, result in weakening the national feeling, and the Storthing, in 1857, declined to promote a plan, prepared by a joint Swedish and Norwegian commission, looking to a strengthening of the union. After a sickness of two years, during which his son, Crown Prince Charles, had charge of the government as prince-regent, ...
— Norwegian Life • Ethlyn T. Clough
... high price would cause premature "lifting"? Were they aware that potatoes could be used for making rubber substitutes and cement; and would they assure the House that there would be an abundance of them for the next twelve months'? Captain BATHURST declined to figure in the role of prophet, and, for the rest, remarked that the hon. Member appeared to have an insatiable appetite for crambe repetita. Mr. PENNEFATHER is understood to be still searching the Encyclopaedia to ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, June 20, 1917 • Various
... his head after his own peculiar fashion, but declined to reply directly to this interrogatory. He parried it by one of ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes
... the operation of the principle becomes peculiarly oppressive, where, on the contrary, as in Kamtschatka, the population has been gradually diminishing, and, during some years, had been rapidly reduced. Thus, in many of the ostrogs, we are told, that the inhabitants had declined from thirty or forty, to eight or ten; and yet the tribute continued to be levied on the remainder, according to the preceding census! This was, in reality, the caput mortuum of taxation, and perhaps was never equalled, at least never surpassed, in absurdity, by the ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 • Robert Kerr
... they had reached the pleasing secret spot; Young Hispal wished to go within the grot; Though nearly overcome, she this declined; But then his services arose to mind; Her life from Ocean's waves, her honour too, To him she owed; what could he have in view? A something, which already has been shown, Was saved through Hispal's nervous ...
— The Tales and Novels, Complete • Jean de La Fontaine
... and paintings. The Porter collection took its name from the Hon. William Porter, and was purchased from the subscriptions raised for the purpose of procuring a life-size portrait of that gentleman, in recognition of his services to the Colony. As, however, Mr. Porter declined to sit for his portrait, the amount subscribed was appropriated to the purchase of standard works, to be known as the Porter Collection. By far the most valuable, however, is the Grey Collection, numbering about 5,000 volumes, and occupying a separate room. These were presented by Sir George ...
— A Winter Tour in South Africa • Frederick Young
... J. H. Newman declined, and Dr. Tregelles, from feeble health and preoccupation on his great work, the critical edition of the New Testament, was unable to attend. It should be here mentioned that soon after the formation of the company, Rev. John Troutbeck, Minor Canon of Westminster, afterwards ...
— Addresses on the Revised Version of Holy Scripture • C. J. Ellicott
... melee, the crush, and the 'sing' of bullets, and soon reached my old post of observation, exhausted and panting. The correspondents were still there, and one of them patted me on the shoulder in a way meant to be encouraging, and offered to put my name in his paper, an honor which I declined. We soon parted, unknown to each other. I learned, however, that the name of the gallant brigadier was Webb, and that he had been wounded. So also was General Hancock ...
— An Original Belle • E. P. Roe
... Earl for permission to publish some of those which are preserved in the archives of Wentworth House, but, "out of obedience to the expressed wish of his father, who published all he thought necessary, he declined to sanction any ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. September, 1863, No. LXXI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... maiden—that nothing would give her greater pleasure. The curfew rang, and found the two cousins in a chamber richly ornamented with carpeting, fringes, and royal tapestries, and Bertha began gracefully to disarray herself, assisted by her women. You can imagine that her companion modestly declined their services, and told her cousin, with a little blush, that she was accustomed to undress herself ever since she had lost the services of her dearly beloved, who had put her out of conceit with ...
— Droll Stories, Complete - Collected From The Abbeys Of Touraine • Honore de Balzac
... jackdaw! How could I reject a boy who simply would not be rejected? Why, I'll bet a ripe peach that Bill Peck was one of the doggondest finest soldiers you ever saw. He carries his objective. He sized you up just like that, Skinner. He declined to permit you to block him. Skinner, that Peck person has been opposed by experts. Yes, sir—experts! What kind of a job are you going to give him, ...
— The Go-Getter • Peter B. Kyne
... Vol. VIII, was devoted to a minute description of ice-boat building. —A.S. 1. California half-dollars, in perfect condition, are worth 60 or 70 cents each. 2. It is claimed to be very efficacious. —W.P. Your offer is respectfully declined. We have already provided many articles on electricity in its various forms, and from time to time will publish others by practical writers. —NENA. 1. The titles of the serials in the volumes named are printed ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XII, Jan. 3, 1891 • Various
... sat at the table a few evenings since, a gentleman called. He was invited to take a seat with us. As he had already supped, he declined. This person is a man of talent and education, but as I turned to look at him, in the course of conversation, I observed a habit which so disgusted me, that it was with an effort I ...
— The Nest in the Honeysuckles, and other Stories • Various
... learned from Carew, who had been of the party, which was the trooper who had mounted guard over the room where the aged grandmother had tucked herself away under her bed. The old Dutch vrouw had bidden him to share her shelter; but he had taken note of her dimensions, and had declined her hospitality. Later on, when the fight was over and she had painfully wriggled her way out from her trap, he had also declined certain of her manifestations of gratitude. Even chivalry to the ...
— On the Firing Line • Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller
... therefore it happened in a few days that a strong suspicion got about that Lord Montague had proposed formally to the heiress. The suspicion was strengthened by appearances. Mrs. Mavick did not deny the rumor. That there was an engagement was not affirmed, but that the honor had been or would be declined ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... this part of the performance herself, and she frankly said so, stating that if the others wanted to pull the taffy she would show them how. Elise declined, but Rosamond pulled away briskly, using only the tips of her fingers, and with a practiced touch, until her portion of candy became of a beautiful cream colour and then almost white. After watching her a few moments, ...
— Patty in Paris • Carolyn Wells
... upon us; yet have we not—Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined—Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow ...
— Dragon's blood • Henry Milner Rideout
... this Government to extend to the colonies of Great Britain the principle of the convention of London, by which the commerce between the ports of the United States and British ports in Europe had been placed on a footing of equality, has been declined by the British Government. This subject having been thus amicably discussed between the two Governments, and it appearing that the British Government is unwilling to depart from its present regulations, it remains for Congress to decide whether they will make any other ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 3) of Volume 2: James Monroe • James D. Richardson
... declined the invitations of Mrs. Brudenell to join the family circle at Washington every winter, until at last that lady had ceased to repeat them and had also discontinued her visits to ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
... kid and there are lots like her. I've got to halt sooner or later," Mr. Height muttered to himself as he dressed for his early dinner. "I'm going to put this fool play across for her, too." There are a few women who distill loyalty out of declined passion; but not many. They make ...
— Blue-grass and Broadway • Maria Thompson Daviess
... clouds, dispersed for a moment, like black birds, kept gathering and flying towards the summit of the heavens; hardly had the sun declined from noon when their flock had covered half the sky with an immense mantle; the wind drove it on faster and faster, the cloud grew more and more dense and hung lower and lower: finally, half torn away from the sky on one side, bending towards the earth, and spread ...
— Pan Tadeusz • Adam Mickiewicz
... But, among all the settlers, no one had exhibited so much anxiety and restlessness as the hunter, Phillips. He had been almost continually absent from home, evidently to distant places, but where and with what objects he declined to make known. The direction and object of one of these secret journeys, however, was inferred from the unexpectedly early return of Fluella, the lovely maid of the forest, who had no sooner reached her old home than she flew to the Elwood cottage, to mingle her tears and sympathies ...
— Gaut Gurley • D. P. Thompson
... much to retard the growth of democracy, so urgently advocated by Jefferson; while the interests of the cotton planters and the fears of the tobacco growers had served to "swing the leaders" of the aristocratic South into the Jackson columns. Though the price of raw cotton had declined from forty-four cents per pound in the former year to ten cents in the latter, the annual increase in the value of the total output between 1820 and 1830 was $1,000,000 and from 1830 to 1840 the value of this staple crop increased from ...
— Expansion and Conflict • William E. Dodd
... embraced the creed of their conquerors; the wonder is that the people as a whole remained true to their Christian faith even at the cost of daily martyrdom from generation to generation. Their fate too grew worse as the Turkish power declined after the unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1683. For at first Ottoman troops ravaged Bulgaria as they marched through the land on their way to Austria; and later disbanded soldiers in defiance of Turkish authority plundered ...
— The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913 - Third Edition • Jacob Gould Schurman
... disgusted, like most women of her class; and there was no doubt but that her husband had found her under extremely strange circumstances, in the act of receiving from Van Torp a large sum of money for which she altogether declined to account. Van Torp had not denied that story either, so it was probably true. Yet Logotheti, whom so many women thought irresistible, had felt instinctively that she was one of those who would smile serenely upon the most skilful and persistent besieger ...
— The Primadonna • F. Marion Crawford
... to the schooner to invite Captain May and the Aroostook gentlemen to come to the house for breakfast, but, rather to her relief—for she was not prepared to entertain so many guests—they declined her invitation, saying they would breakfast on board, and come to the house to pay their ...
— Wakulla - A Story of Adventure in Florida • Kirk Munroe
... the sense of the miraculous has not declined, and never can. It will grow deeper and stronger with the progress of true intelligence. As long as man thinks, he will feel that he is himself a perpetual miracle. The more he thinks, the more will he feel it. The mind which can wander into the deepest depths of ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham
... firing a single bullet in war. He saw enough, at any rate, to disgust him with a military life; indeed, to excite in his a great abhorrence of it; so much so, that though he was tempted by the offer of some petty office in the army, when he was about eighteen, he not only declined that, but he also refused to train when warned, and was fined for it. He then resolved that he would never have anything to do with any war, unless it were ...
— A Plea for Captain John Brown • Henry David Thoreau
... 1867 a sovereign state sought to enjoin the President of the United States from enforcing an act of Congress alleged to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, without determining the constitutionality of the act, declined to interfere with the exercise of the President's political discretion.[3] In the famous Dred Scott case[4] the effort of the Supreme Court to settle a political question accomplished nothing save to impair the influence ...
— Our Changing Constitution • Charles Pierson
... he enlarged his deeds of charity; he formed gardens at the capital, and planted groves of mangoes throughout the island. Desirous to enrich a wihara at Anarajapoora, he proposed to endow it with a village, but "the ministers of religion, regardful of the reproaches of the world, declined accepting gifts at the hands of a parricide. Kasyapa, bent on befriending them, dedicated the village to Buddha, after which they consented, on the ground that it was then the property of the divine teacher." Impelled, says the Mahawanso, by the irrepressible ...
— Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and • James Emerson Tennent
... I have spoken, that I can never cease to cherish a sad sort of love for it.—Let me tell the superstitious fancy first. The Puritan "Sabbath," as everybody knows, began at "sundown" on Saturday evening. To such observance of it I was born and bred. As the large, round disk of day declined, a stillness, a solemnity, a somewhat melancholy hush came over us all. It was time for work to cease, and for playthings to be put away. The world of active life passed into the shadow of an eclipse, not to emerge until the sun should sink ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes
... or his ship, or injury to the interests of the country. During the "Boreas's" stay at Madeira, the British Consul neglected to return his visit, on the plea that the Government allowed him no boat. Nelson declined any further intercourse with him. While lying in the Downs, he learns that sixteen British seamen are detained by force on board a Dutch Indiaman. He requires their delivery to him; and when their ...
— The Life of Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) - The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain • A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan
... Kautz advanced without meeting any serious resistance until within a mile and one half of the city, drove in the pickets and actually entered the city! Gillmore had attracted considerable attention on account of the display he made of his forces; but when he declined to fight, the rebels turned upon Kautz and drove ...
— History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2 (of 2) - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George Washington Williams
... the more immediate facts. Barrington had left the Cape Colony in a hurry, and coming north to the Transvaal when Johannesburg was as yet in its brief infancy, had prospered exceedingly. Meanwhile, Norris, as the ostrich industry declined, had gone from worse to worse, and finally he too drifted to Johannesburg with the rest of the flotsam of South Africa. He came to the town alone, and met Barrington one morning eye to eye on the Stock Exchange. A certain amount of natural disappointment ...
— Ensign Knightley and Other Stories • A. E. W. Mason
... control of the victors. Captain Louis proceeded in his cutter up the Tiber and planted the British colours at Rome, becoming its governor for a brief time. The naval men had carried out, by clever strategy and pluck, an enterprise which Sir James Erskine declined to undertake because of the insurmountable difficulties he persisted in seeing. General Mack was at the head of about 30,000 Neapolitan troops, said to be the finest in Europe. This, however, did not prevent them from being annihilated by 15,000 ...
— Drake, Nelson and Napoleon • Walter Runciman
... but when I ascertained the fact that I would be obliged to bribe the 300 roosters on the fence who held the balance of power, and who must be paid two dollars each to persuade them to come off their perch and vote, I preferred the $600 to the empty honor, and declined. ...
— The Gentleman from Everywhere • James Henry Foss
... briefly mentioned. A offered to sell B his farm for $1000. B offered $950, which offer was declined. Then B offered to pay $1000. By that time A had changed his mind and declined to accept B's offer. Then B sued to get the farm, offering to pay the money; but the court held that B had declined A's offer and consequently that, as A had not made any other ...
— Up To Date Business - Home Study Circle Library Series (Volume II.) • Various
... should have seen how I glared at Horner when he suggested, good-naturedly enough, that Min should go round, by the way that the Dasher girls and the others went, under his escort! How overjoyed I was when she politely declined the offer, saying that, as her mamma was sitting up for her, she must hurry home by ...
— She and I, Volume 1 • John Conroy Hutcheson
... did not see the force of this argument, and Mr. Nash remained Mr. Nash till the day of his death. He had another chance of the title, however, in days when he could have better maintained it, but again he refused. Queen Anne once asked him why he declined knighthood. He replied: 'There is Sir William Read, the mountebank, who has just been knighted, and I should have to call him "brother."' The honour was, in fact, rather a cheap one in those days, and who knows whether a man who had done such signal service ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton
... drew forth;—for the silver He had some hours before already in charity given, When he in mournful groups had seen the poor fugitives passing;— And to the magistrate handed it, saying: "Apportion the money 'Mongst thy destitute people, and God vouchsafe it an increase." But the stranger declined it, and, answering, said: "We have rescued Many a dollar among us, with clothing and other possessions, And shall return, as I hope, ere yet ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... Celebrate said. I have a dim recollection that Celebrate's plan for making money was to fill the wagon box with white beans which were scarce in Denver City, as we then called Denver, and could be sold for big money when they got there. I have no remembrance of Surajah Dowlah's plan for mining. I declined to go with them, and they went away toward Monterey Centre, saying that they would stay there a few days, "to kind of recuperate up," and they hoped I would join them. What about Rowena? They had been so mysterious about her, that I had a new subject ...
— Vandemark's Folly • Herbert Quick
... Ellsworth declined courteously. "We just came from breakfast. We were moving around trying to find our engineer's camp; Grayson, our chief of location, was to have been here before this. By the way, how did you happen to come down ...
— Heart's Desire • Emerson Hough
... Mr. Wilks declined gracefully. "Eighteen years I've bin with the cap'n," he remarked, softly; "through calms and storms, fair weather and foul, Samson Wilks 'as been by 'is side, always ready in a quiet and 'umble way to do 'is best for 'im, and now—now ...
— At Sunwich Port, Complete • W.W. Jacobs
... undertaking, such as would be felt now, were it announced that Tennyson was engaged in a translation of Goethe. Addison supplied arguments, and an essay on the "Georgics." A dedication to the new king was expected by the Court, but inexorably declined by the poet. It came forth, notwithstanding, amidst universal applause; nor was the remuneration for the times small, amounting to ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol I - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden
... said, to a conclusion, and the particular charge which he had engaged himself to open was relinquished.(328) "I have therefore," he cried, "washed my hands of making a speech, yet satisfied my conscience, my honour, my promises, and my intentions; for I have declined undertaking anything new, and no claim ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay Volume 2 • Madame D'Arblay
... explanation. Neither King nor Queen spoke a word on the subject; and Sir Roger de Launay, astonished and perplexed beyond measure as he was at this turn in affairs, dared not put any questions even to his friend Professor von Glauben who, as soon as the news of the Prince's departure was known, resolutely declined to speak, so he said, "on what did not concern him." Gradually, however, this excitement partially subsided to give place to other forms of social commotion, which beginning in trifles, swiftly expanded to larger and more serious development. The ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli
... be gathered from the clay tablets, faith cures were not unknown, and there was a good deal of quackery. If surgery declined, as a result of the severe restrictions which hampered progress in an honourable profession, magic flourished like tropical fungi. Indeed, the worker of spells was held in high repute, and his operations were in most cases allowed ...
— Myths of Babylonia and Assyria • Donald A. Mackenzie
... was the(n)[5] night; the sound and quiet sleep Had through the earth the weary bodies caught, The woods, the raging seas, were fallen to rest, When that the stars had half their course declined. The fields whist: beasts and fowls of divers hue, And what so that in the broad lakes remained, Or yet among the bushy thicks[6] of briar, Laid down to sleep by silence of the night, 'Gan swage their cares, mindless of travails past. Not so the spirit of this Phenician. Unhappy she ...
— A History of English Literature - Elizabethan Literature • George Saintsbury
... than man," answered the monk. There was an embarrassed pause, and the prelate who had to communicate in the evening declined to drink any more. But this vexed the Prior, who ...
— Historical Miniatures • August Strindberg
... came, however, she was sufficiently disillusioned to make the actual parting without pain. When Imlay saw she would no longer consent to be his wife, he proposed to provide for her, but she declined the offer, fearing it would give him some claim upon her and upon their child. And so Gilbert Imlay sailed away to America and out of the life of Mary ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers • Elbert Hubbard
... with; his manner of play was held barbarous, but still they played, sometimes for large sums of money; which, invariably winning, Soloviev readily laid down upon the altar of his comrades' needs. But he steadfastly declined from participation in competitions, which could have created for him the position of a star in the world of chess: "There is in my nature neither love for this nonsense, nor respect," he would say. "I simply possess some sort of a mechanical ability of the mind, some sort of a psychic deformity. ...
— Yama (The Pit) • Alexandra Kuprin
... given to the first Editions of this work, far exceeding my most sanguine hopes, affords a gratifying proof how far, in my preface, I had overrated the extent to which the taste for, and appreciation of, Classical Literature had declined. It will not, I hope, be thought extraordinary that some errors and inaccuracies should have found their way into a translation executed, I must admit, somewhat hastily, and with less of the "limae labor" than I should have bestowed upon it, had I ventured ...
— The Iliad • Homer
... tongue was at least sufficient for all the ordinary intercourse of civilized men, living in the simple manner ascribed to our early ancestors in Scripture; and that, in many instances, human speech subsequently declined far below its ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown
... these sightings and said that they weren't the kind to go off "half cocked." He offered to get a T-6 and fly me up to Boise to talk to them since they had never made a report to the military, but I had to return to Dayton so I declined. ...
— The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects • Edward Ruppelt
... work by the American Library Association. She was a very charming young woman, and very anxious to please all of her "customers," tho some of them didn't even wish to look at a book. In her rounds she approached one of the patients and he declined to be interested in her wares. At the next cot she stopped and offered its occupant ...
— More Toasts • Marion Dix Mosher
... alarmed by hearing Master Arthur pressing his friend to take his class instead of the more backward one, over which the gardener usually presided; and he was proportionably relieved when Mr. Bartram steadily declined. ...
— Melchior's Dream and Other Tales • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... heard of Uncle Jack. Before we left the brick house the Captain gave him an invitation to the Tower,—more, I suspect, out of compliment to my mother than from the unbidden impulse of his own inclinations. But Mr. Tibbets politely declined it. During his stay at the brick house he had received and written a vast number of letters,—some of those he received, indeed, were left at the village post-office, under the alphabetical addresses of A. B. or X. Y.; for no misfortune ever paralyzed the energies of Uncle Jack. In the ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... in what was going on on the other side of the wall, Sweetwater had forgotten himself. Daylight had declined, but in the darkness of the closet this change had passed unheeded. Night itself might come, but that should not force him to leave his post so long as his neighbour remained behind his locked door, brooding over the words of love and ...
— Initials Only • Anna Katharine Green
... been said, Garthorne took his male guests into the smoking-room for whisky and soda and cigars. Vane laughingly declined, and asked permission to light ...
— The Missionary • George Griffith
... lecture, and thither Tom Buller was driven in a close fly, the doctor accompanying him. Lord Woodruff, who had come to Weston on horseback, rode over separately. Mr Elliot was a man of good common sense, though his opinions were not quite so weighty as his person, which declined to rise in one scale when fifteen stone was in the other. He was a just man also, though perhaps he was less dilatory in attending to the wishes of a member of one of the great county families than he might be in the case of a mere nobody. If a ...
— Dr. Jolliffe's Boys • Lewis Hough
... consequence of his own offer, with so little respect, as to demand such formal and unusual securities for the performance of it, unless there had been some previous concert, or indirect management in the case. The Ambassador declined assenting to this opinion. He promised to see the Minister, with whom he was that day to dine, and to send me his positive and final answer by four o'clock ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. VIII • Various
... sixty-six or sixty-seven years old, of a rather solid frame, wearing a Talma, as a short cloak of the time was called, that hung from the shoulders, and low shoes, neatly tied, which were observable at a time when boots were generally worn. The head was slightly declined to one side, the face was smoothly shaven, and the eyes twinkled with kindly humor and shrewdness. There was a chirping, cheery, old-school air in the whole appearance, an undeniable Dutch aspect, which, in the streets of New Amsterdam, irresistibly recalled Diedrich Knickerbocker. ...
— Literary and Social Essays • George William Curtis
... of grapes from one of the poor stall-keepers, and, in return for my coin, had my two extended palms literally heaped. I can safely say that the vine of Padua has not declined; the fruit was delicious; and, after making my way half through my purchase, I collected a few hungry boys, and divided the fragments ...
— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie
... help. Under this stone rests the ashes of William Bradford, a zealous Puritan and sincere Christian; Governor of Plymouth Colony from April, 1621, to 1657 (the year he died, aged 69), except five years which he declined. "Qua patres difficillime adepti sunt, nolite turpiter relinquare." Which means, What our fathers with so much difficulty secured, ...
— See America First • Orville O. Hiestand
... generals wished to hold the pass of Slane in force, but James decided against this. As the morning approached, the king's newborn courage began to die out. He ordered some movements to the rear, and sent forward more of his baggage. He would probably have declined the combat altogether, had it not been too late. Finally, just as day was breaking over the council, he determined that the army should retreat during the battle, and not commit themselves in a decisive engagement. The French formed the left, and were to lead the retreat, while the ...
— Orange and Green - A Tale of the Boyne and Limerick • G. A. Henty
... but how will England appear before the world at the moment when she is struggling to maintain her supremacy in Ireland, and boasts to stand by treaties with regard to her European relations, having declined all this time to interfere in Italy or to address one word of caution to the Sardinian Government on account of its attack on Austria, and having refused to mediate when called upon to do so by Austria, ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol 2 (of 3), 1844-1853 • Queen Victoria
... expect to be much pressed with the Duke of ——'s affair, which you handled shortly before the recess with such signal ability and success. When you return to town, you must expect a renewal of certain offers, which I most sincerely trust, for the benefit of the public service, will not be again declined. ...
— Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. • Samuel Warren
... with ever-increasing clearness (Smith had begun to turn the knob), "to reveal to me the name of your correspondent in Nan-Yang. I have suggested that he may be the Mandarin Yen-Sun-Yat, but you have declined to confirm me. Yet I know" (Smith had the door open a good three inches and was peering in) "that some official, some high official, is a traitor. Am I to resort again to the ...
— The Devil Doctor • Sax Rohmer
... if it were to be saved. His wife, thoroughly convinced that he was still tormenting her and that he would never let her hear the last of the matter if she gave up, closed her lips down firmly and declined to ...
— The Wind Before the Dawn • Dell H. Munger
... there is in their women something sacred and prophetic. Cf. Caes. B.G. 1, 50, where Caesar is informed by the prisoners, that Ariovistus had declined an engagement because the women had declared against coming to action before the new moon.— Consilia, advice in general; ...
— Germania and Agricola • Caius Cornelius Tacitus
... crime to the defects of our criminal law. The nominal severity of that system, it was said, and said justly, with its uncertain punishments and frequent opportunities of escape, afforded in fact a bounty on the commission of crime. Injured parties declined to give information for fear of being bound over to prosecute; witnesses were reluctant to give evidence, judges caught at legal quibbles, juries violated their oaths, in order to save the accused from a ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844 • Various
... Sergeant Wells declined. He might need him, he said, and would keep him in front of the house where he was going to take his station to watch the valley and look out for signals. He led the horse to the stream and gave him a drink, and asked Farron to lay out a hatful of oats. "They might come in handy if I have ...
— Starlight Ranch - and Other Stories of Army Life on the Frontier • Charles King
... Castilla, and in the Yndias, have suffered so many losses during past years, and those engaged in the profits of the Chinese trade have gained so much, the latter has increased greatly, while the commerce of these my said kingdoms has declined, on which account both these kingdoms and my royal income have received great damage: therefore, since it is so important that the commerce of these my said kingdoms and of the Yndias be preserved and increased, and that there ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume VIII (of 55), 1591-1593 • Emma Helen Blair
... situation would certainly not relieve us from the burdens of militarism merely because we declined to enter into any arrangement with the European powers. As a matter of fact, of course, this present war destroyed the nationalist basis of militarism itself. The militarist may continue to talk about international ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... former occasion, declined giving the real source from which he drew the tragic subject of this history, because, though occurring at a distant period, it might possibly be unpleasing to the feelings of the descendants of the parties. But as he finds an account of the circumstances ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott
... dusky youth, who was slighter than Jack, was signalled to advance to the attack, but to the surprise of all, he shook his head in dissent and declined to come forward. The manner in which his companion had been handled was enough to convince him that the most prudent thing for him to do was to play the part ...
— Camp-fire and Wigwam • Edward Sylvester Ellis
... had not positively declined to undertake Clifford's higher education, and Felix, who had not thought of the matter again, being haunted with visions of more personal profit, now reflected that the work of redemption had fairly begun. The idea in prospect had seemed of the happiest, but in operation ...
— The Europeans • Henry James
... declined to sit down, and Sommers accompanied her to the waiting carriage. Alves watched them. Miss Hitchcock seemed to be talking very fast, and her head was ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick
... bosom heaved, and her large, black eyes, lately dimmed by sadness, once more shone with a mild radiance. She waited with inexpressible impatience for what was to follow. In the interview, with which Rose-Pompon had threatened her, and which a few minutes before Adrienne would have declined with all the dignity of legitimate indignation, she now hoped to find the explanation of a mystery, which it was of such importance for her to clear up. After once more tenderly embracing Mother Bunch, Rose-Pompon ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue
... indeed, were held in a cleft stick. Their revenue was steadily decreasing because the direct taxes, instead of growing with the nation's income, had remained fixed amounts since the fourteenth century, and the real value of those amounts declined rapidly with the influx of precious metals from the New World. Yet the expense of government automatically and inevitably increased, and disputes over foreign policy, over the treatment of Roman Catholics, over episcopal jurisdiction, over parliamentary privileges, and a host of minor matters ...
— The History of England - A Study in Political Evolution • A. F. Pollard
... British flag. Had the viceroy handed her over to a British court for trial, justice would no doubt have been done to the delinquents, and the two nations would not have been embroiled; but, haughty as well as hasty, the viceroy declined to admit that the British Government had any right to interfere with his proceedings. Unfortunately (or fortunately) British interests at Canton were in the hands of Consul Parkes, afterward Sir Harry Parkes, the renowned plenipotentiary ...
— The Awakening of China • W.A.P. Martin
... gang knocked off work. The last log was rushed down the satin ice of the chute to leap over its fellows at the foot. The smell of bacon sifted through the odours of evergreen branches and new-cut wood. Crossman declined a cordial invitation to join the gang at chuck. He must be getting back, he explained, "for chow ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 • Various
... with great composure until the end of this exhortation, when, springing from his seat, with an energy he had not yet displayed, he replied, 'Major Melville, since that is your name, I have hitherto answered your questions with candour, or declined them with temper, because their import concerned myself alone; but as you presume to esteem me mean enough to commence informer against others, who received me, whatever may be their public misconduct, as a guest and friend,—I declare to you that I consider your questions as ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott
... violently disputed by D'Aulney; and, from that time, each had constantly sought to dispossess the other; and the most bitter enmity kept them continually at strife. Both had repeatedly endeavoured to obtain assistance from the New-England colonists; but, as yet, they had prudently declined to decide in favor of either, lest the other should prove a dangerous, or at least an annoying enemy. La Tour was, or pretended to be, a Hugonot,—which gave him a preference with the rulers of ...
— The Rivals of Acadia - An Old Story of the New World • Harriet Vaughan Cheney
... What the declined is He shall as soon read in the eyes of others As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies, Show not their mealy wings but to the summer. Troilus and Cressida, Act ...
— The World's Best Poetry — Volume 10 • Various
... tenacity of purpose which were to prove useful in very different circumstances. In 1814, her husband died, leaving her with two children and the regency of the principality. After her brother's marriage with the Princess Charlotte, it was proposed that she should marry the Duke of Kent; but she declined, on the ground that the guardianship of her children and the management of her domains made other ties undesirable. The Princess Charlotte's death, however, altered the case; and when the Duke of ...
— Queen Victoria • Lytton Strachey
... great fairs has long since departed. They declined with the extension of turnpikes, and railroads gave them their death-blow. Shops now exist in every little town and village, drawing their supplies regularly by road and canal from the most distant parts. St. Bartholomew, ...
— The Life of Thomas Telford by Smiles • Samuel Smiles
... at this time, of course, after Dickens, and he had innumerable ones, his fastest seemed Robert Browning. As every Sunday came round it was a rule that the Poet was to dine with him. Many were the engagements his host declined on the score of this standing engagement. "Should be delighted, my dear friend, to go to you, but it is an immemorial custom that every Sunday Robert Browning dines with me. Nothing interferes with that." Often, indeed, during the week the Poet would ...
— John Forster • Percy Hethrington Fitzgerald
... returned Peter. "From that hour your father's love for his supposed mistress, and unacknowledged wife, declined; and with his waning love declined her health. I will not waste words in describing the catastrophe that awaited her union. It will be enough to say, she was found one morning a corpse within her bed. Whatever suspicions ...
— Rookwood • William Harrison Ainsworth
... one, "Wetariki no te wai Herekeke," or a similar one; and I having written something in the "Field" on this subject, the New Zealander asked for my address, which, for some private reason of his own, the Editor declined to give until so long a time had elapsed that Wetariki Herekeke had returned to the colony—this I learnt from an indirect source— otherwise I should have tried to induce him to undertake the experiment of introducing all the various species of the genus Salmo ...
— Essays in Natural History and Agriculture • Thomas Garnett
... The major part of both Houses of Parliament was, at that time, so far from desiring the execution of all those concessions, that, if they had been able to have resisted the wild fury of the army, they would have been themselves suitors to have declined the greatest ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. X. • Jonathan Swift
... formerly at Rome she had been accustomed to see Titianus every day at her house, this was their first meeting in Alexandria; for the previous day, exhausted by the sufferings of her sea-voyage, she had been carried in a closed litter to the Caesareum, and this morning she had declined to receive his visit, as her whole time was given up to her physicians, ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, had been nominated at Baltimore, but he declined the nomination, and the National Committee substituted the ...
— Abraham Lincoln, A History, Volume 2 • John George Nicolay and John Hay
... his deep-seated armchair, holding a cigar in a white, delicately-shaped hand which was strong enough to shake the world to its foundations, should possess such a tremendous power and yet refuse to use it, as quietly as he might have declined an invitation to dinner, exasperated him almost beyond the bounds of patience. If he would only join forces with him what glories might they not achieve, what splendours of power and possession might not be theirs! Here was universal empire, in one sense, only a couple ...
— The Mummy and Miss Nitocris - A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension • George Griffith
... and respectable in our genteel civilization. Since they belong to it they cannot lead it. And certainly they who do not know the absolutism of evil cannot very well understand sinners. Genuine satans, as Milton knew, are not weaklings and traitors who have declined from the standards of a respectable civilization. They are positive and impressive figures pursuing and acting up to their own ideal of conduct, not fleeing from self-accepted retribution or falling away from a confessed morality ...
— Preaching and Paganism • Albert Parker Fitch
... they had not resolved to make peace with Sparta, received no answers but imperious looks, and orders to mind their own business: that, however, they perceived plainly to what a low condition the government was declined: that they took the liberty to remonstrate mildly to their husbands upon the sad consequences of their rash determinations, but that their humble representations had no other effect than to offend and enrage ...
— The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, • Charles Rollin
... this place, Peregrine asked them to favour him with their company at dinner; but whether out of caution against the insinuations of one whose character they did not know, or by reason of a prior engagement, they declined his invitation on pretence of having an appointment at a certain ordinary, though they expressed a desire of being further acquainted with him; and Mr. Pallet took the freedom of asking his name, which he not only declared, but promised, as they were strangers in Paris, ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett
... their three thousand men. It was finally resolved to release them by detachments, drafting into the Imperial army such as were willing so to serve and take a special oath of allegiance to the Emperor, allowing those who declined to enlist to depart from the city in whatever direction pleased them, so that they went away in small parties. It was found, however, that the men cared little for whom they fought, providing the pay was good and reasonably well assured. Thus the Imperial army received many recruits and ...
— The Strong Arm • Robert Barr
... threw the Goutran establishment into a fever of excitement. The wrinkled old concierge who had declined to admit the stranger was ready to fall upon her knees before the director of the Secret Service. Madame Goutran hastened to explain why she had not reported the affair to the police department as the law required. She had not had time. It was so ...
— Mlle. Fouchette - A Novel of French Life • Charles Theodore Murray
... had declined the tea, now held out her hand. "This is Rosalind Whittredge, of course; ...
— Mr. Pat's Little Girl - A Story of the Arden Foresters • Mary F. Leonard
... soon tempted to repeat the draught. One taste provoked another; and he reiterated his visits to the flagon so often that at length his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, his head gradually declined, and he fell into a ...
— Short Stories Old and New • Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith |
