"Guess" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... nightfall, and had taken this means of leaving to avoid discovery. If the former conjecture embodied the truth, my sympathies were with the plot; for it little pleased me that the wife of our Huguenot leader should remain at the French court, a constant subject of scandalous gossip. If the second guess was correct, I was glad of an opportunity to avert, even slight, trouble from the wilful but charming head of Marguerite. In either case, I might serve a beautiful woman, a queen, the wife of a Huguenot king. Certainly, if that man, paid spy or accidental interloper, should ...
— An Enemy To The King • Robert Neilson Stephens
... young Mr. Camwell's fatiguing drone upon his one theme of the double-dealing of Chloe's betrothed. He became of her way of thinking, and treated the young gentleman almost as coldly as she. In time he was ready to guess of his own acuteness that the 'strange cavalier' could have been no other than Colonel Poltermore. When Caseldy hinted it, Mr. Beamish said, 'I have marked him.' He added, in highly self-satisfied style, 'With all your foreign training, my friend, you will learn that we English are not so far ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... or twice after duck," rejoined Rob, "but it's a tricky sort of a place to get through. However, I guess ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol • Howard Payson
... intervening carnations, "The old lady who looks like a chorus girl in her dotage? Yes, I've had the pleasure and I found her decidedly better than she looked. Her husband, by the way, is a great old chap, isn't he? He held the biggest share in iron last spring and I guess he has ...
— The Wheel of Life • Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
... deposit, chiefly, however, along the eastern coast of Scotland, where its larger pebbles rarely exceed two hundred weight. How account for the occurrence of pebbles of so gigantic a size here? We can but guess at a solution, and that very vaguely. The islands of Mull and Kerrera form, in the present state of things, inner and outer breakwaters between what is now the coast of Oban and the waves of the Atlantic; but Mull, in the times of even ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller
... the book as near as I can guess at the Morning Service, and you tell me if you can find any part of the writing which appears to begin with a large round letter, like—what shall I say?—the bottom of ...
— The Little Savage • Captain Frederick Marryat
... instantly recollecting Miss Larolles, "by your appearance, I own! but by your voice, I think I can guess you." ...
— Cecilia Volume 1 • Frances Burney
... "I guess we will!" said Maria, with opening eyes. "You and I! Take care of the house, and wash the dishes, and cook the dinner, and everything! You know we couldn't, Matilda; and what's ...
— What She Could • Susan Warner
... greater or less acidity as the case may be. We often see bees with sting extended and tipped with a tiny drop of poison; but how do we know that this poison is certainly mingled with the honey? Is this any more than a guess?—A.J. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 514, November 7, 1885 • Various
... States a great demand, ranging anywhere up to $246,000,000, a proposition so indefinite in character that the commissioner of pensions is utterly unable to give us any approximate estimate, but gives his guess as near as he can. He says that this proposition will involve the expenditure ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman
... goin' up to the oak. I know the Cap' sayed we were to wait for them under it. Why cant we just as well stay heer? 'Taint like they'll be long now. They wont dally a minute, I know, after they've clutched the shiners, an' I guess they got 'em most as soon as we'd secured these pair o' petticoats. Besides they'll come quicker than we've done, seeing as they're more like to be pursooed. It's a ugly bit o' track 'tween here an' the big tree, ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid
... waited on the croquet lawn to take their turn, Henry remarked to Gertie that no opportunity had yet been found for their long talk; looking down at her affectionately, he added that perhaps she could guess all that was in his mind. It had been perfectly splendid, he went on in his boyish way, simply magnificent, to be near to her for so long a period of time; they would have many week-ends similar to this. His mother had spoken approvingly of Gertie, and nothing else ...
— Love at Paddington • W. Pett Ridge
... was something else—something which I think you will find interesting. At the next table to me there was a man—alone. Can you guess who he was?" ...
— Peter Ruff and the Double Four • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... continued, not a bit grieved at the knight's banter, "I even heard the King's fool remark that since the man was so good, the master need must be. And then and there he hazarded a shrewd guess that if this master were not the King, nor Sir Launcelot, then it must need ...
— In the Court of King Arthur • Samuel Lowe
... cad, but never mind—and it seems to be a day of general jollification. Can't I give a present to somebody? Well, I'm going to give it to a young lady who never cares for anything but what she can give away again to somebody else; and it is—well, it is—Why don't you guess, Mabyn?" ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Vol. XV., No. 85. January, 1875. • Various
... hear the barking get nearer and nearer, and then it stopped all of a sudden. On we went, and it was half an hour again before we heard it, and then it was a long way off. "I expect we're all right now, Seth," Rube said. "I guess we are," I said; "but the sooner we strike water, the better I shall be pleased." It was nigh another half hour, and we were both pretty nigh done, when we came upon the stream, and the dog couldn't have been more than a mile ...
— Out on the Pampas - The Young Settlers • G. A. Henty
... that I was married to a man with a golden top-joint to his little finger. I suppose that it was the white mouse with the gold claw which put the idea into my head. But," and here the Princess's voice grew very sad, "how will that poor boy ever guess ...
— Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know • Various
... you will come, won't you?—You dear kind papa, that is just like you, always able to guess what one wishes. There is nothing in the world I should like better than to ...
— Milly Darrell and Other Tales • M. E. Braddon
... And most vindictive and raucous was the infant voice that I heard saying, "Git up, you blasted lazy cart-'orse!" Other animals are sometimes represented. With a realistic grunt, a little boy, beaming all over his face, said to his companion, "Now I'll be your pig." Another day it puzzled me to guess what a youngster was doing, as he capered furiously about the road, wearing his cap pushed back and two short sticks protruding from beneath it over his forehead; but presently I perceived that he was a "bullick" being driven to market. ...
— Change in the Village • (AKA George Bourne) George Sturt
... whom Fortune has been pleas'd to rowl From the Tip-top of her enchanted Bowl, Sate musing on his Fate, but could not guess, Nor give a Reason for her Fickleness: Such Thoughts as these would ne'er his Brain perplex, Did he but once reflect upon her Sex: For how could he expect, or hope to see, In Woman either Truth ...
— The Merry-Thought: or the Glass-Window and Bog-House Miscellany - Parts 2, 3 and 4 • Hurlo Thrumbo (pseudonym)
... record where the mist hath been. Boots it to us if Shakspeare erred like man? Why idly question that most mystic life? Eno' the giver in his gifts to scan; To bless the sheaves with which thy fields are rife, Nor, blundering, guess through what obstructive clay The glorious corn-seed struggled up ...
— The Pilgrims Of The Rhine • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... took up a position astride a road that ran behind, parallel to the lines. In peace-time manoeuvres one had generally been told the direction from which to expect the enemy, hours before he actually came; now, when the great game was being played in real earnest, he found that he had to guess. The Uhlans might have come unsuspecting along the road, in which case the game would be his; or they might come blundering along from somewhere in the rear and enfilade him, in which case the game would most assuredly ...
— "Contemptible" • "Casualty"
... situated in its far-reaching grounds, and you can form some idea of what it will be, when the whole Family of the Redeemed gather in the Father's house. All reserve, all shyness, all restraint gone forever. God has given us all the memory of what home was, that we may guess at what awaits us, and be smitten with homesickness. As the German proverb puts it: "Blessed are the homesick, for they shall ...
— Love to the Uttermost - Expositions of John XIII.-XXI. • F. B. Meyer
... tempered Perk, "I've rubbed that on, an' witch hazel, an' all sorts o' lotions till I guess now I smell like a stick-pot set out, with old rags smoulderin' to keep the skeets away. Salt water helps a mite, but this scratchin' which I just can't let up on to save my life, makes ...
— Eagles of the Sky - With Jack Ralston Along the Air Lanes • Ambrose Newcomb
... The letter was written in a very lively and exceedingly familiar vein. It implied such intimacy, and called up in such a lively way the gay times Motley and himself had had together in their youthful days, that I was puzzled to guess who could have addressed him from Germany in that easy and off-hand fashion. I knew most of his old friends who would be likely to call him by his baptismal name in its most colloquial form, and exhausted my stock of guesses unsuccessfully before looking at the signature. I confess that ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... will be the brightest, the happiest event that I ever attended,' so I guess it will be fine, for Uncle John always means ...
— Princess Polly At Play • Amy Brooks
... glance, saw the sign-manual of commonness on every detail, from the cast-iron stove to the household utensils, and his gorge rose as he said to himself, "And this is virtue!—What am I here for?" said he aloud. "You are far too cunning not to guess, and I had better tell you plainly," cried he, sitting down and looking out across the courtyard through an opening he made in the puckered curtain. "There is a very ...
— Cousin Betty • Honore de Balzac
... nor as handsome either, but she hasn't been married before. She's very plain, they say, and getting on to forty or past, and so, you know, if she didn't jump at this hopportunity, she thought she'd never get a better. I guess she thought such a handsome young husband was worth all 'at ever she had, and he might take it and welcome, but I lay she'll rue her bargain afore long. They say she begins already to see 'at he isn't not altogether that nice, generous, perlite, delightful gentleman ...
— The Tenant of Wildfell Hall • Anne Bronte
... "I guess I'll go back to Mr. Noland's and see if Stubby and Button have returned," he thought, and as he rounded the corner of the street on which Mr. Noland's house stood, he saw the auto turn in the other ...
— Billy Whiskers' Adventures • Frances Trego Montgomery
... sent the flowers, and if you'll never tell as long as you live and breathe, I'll tell you what Rachel says. Rachel's an old colored woman, who used to be a nigger down South, but she's free now, and says Mrs. Atherton loves you. I guess she does, for she fainted most away that day I went home and ...
— Darkness and Daylight • Mary J. Holmes
... destination of the cargo. All such evidences of curiosity on the subject were rather alarming, but it turned out that the visitors were probably Mexicans—of what political party there it would be impossible to guess—whose interest had been aroused by the rumour, which Crawford had encouraged, that guns were being shipped to that distracted Republic. Still more alarming was the arrival on board the tug of a German official in resplendent uniform, who insisted that he must inspect the cargo. Crawford knew ...
— Ulster's Stand For Union • Ronald McNeill
... came to meet me In rain and thunder; My heart 'gan beating In timid wonder. Could I guess whither Thenceforth together Our path should run, ...
— The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: - Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English, Volume 5. • Various
... cakes are so like real macaroons that no one who had not seen the recipe would guess how they ...
— A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl • Caroline French Benton
... much that keen old fisherman already knew, from a skillful baiting of Martha, about the visit of the Elders that afternoon; while his knowledge of Dan's character from childhood, enabled the physician to guess more than a little of the thoughts that occupied the young man pacing the floor of his room. But the Doctor would not do for ...
— The Calling Of Dan Matthews • Harold Bell Wright
... she won't hurt you!" shouted a gray-haired man in his shirt-sleeves, who had risen from his seat on the porch and who was now walking down the garden-path. "Get out, Juno! I guess you're the young man that's been painting with our Margaret up in the Gorge. She's been expecting you all ...
— The Fortunes of Oliver Horn • F. Hopkinson Smith
... "I guess," thought Ivan to himself, "I will take a walk around the premises and examine everything carefully, for who knows what he may be ...
— The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories • Leo Tolstoy
... just disappeared. Some of his old pals cribbed it, I guess, or Jimmy may have fixed it with them to remove it. He was always close-mouthed, and he never would tell me. I knew where his plant was, of course, and I went there myself, after he was sent up and the coast was clear, to get the outfit, to—to take ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander
... tightly drawn veins. Beside her lay a child, grasping convulsively at her shrunken breast, and squeezing it with involuntary ferocity at finding no milk there. He neither wept nor screamed, and only his gently rising and falling body would have led one to guess that he was not dead, or at least on the point of breathing his last. They turned into a street, and were suddenly stopped by a madman, who, catching sight of Andrii's precious burden, sprang upon him like a tiger, and clutched him, yelling, "Bread!" But his strength ...
— Taras Bulba and Other Tales • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... he said. "I guess this is about the beautifullest outfit to be found in either Texas or Mexico. I bought it all in honor of our victory just after we took San Antonio, and it soothes my eyes and makes my heart strong every time I ...
— The Texan Scouts - A Story of the Alamo and Goliad • Joseph A. Altsheler
... Armine might guess at a bitter truth of his nature, and shrink from him, despite the powerful attraction he possessed for her, despite her own freedom from scruple, her own ironic and even cruel ...
— Bella Donna - A Novel • Robert Hichens
... signs of conflict? Here are feathers of a blue plume, which I ought to remember, seeing my knight assumed it, or at least permitted me to place it in his helmet, this morning, in sign of returning hope, from the liveliness of its colour. But here it lies, shorn from his head, and, if I may guess, by no friendly hand. Come, friend, to the church—to the church—and thou shalt have my example of the manner in which De Walton ought to be ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott
... more sharply: "I guess you won't get let to set in Aunt Keren-Happuch's pew again right away, Helen 'Lizy." For before my lesson I had once more been studying ...
— The Bacillus of Beauty - A Romance of To-day • Harriet Stark
... of almost equal eminence may have been here accidentally omitted, but the writer will not guess at more than he actually recollects. Sometimes—for the lecture was a famous one—members of other colleges came in; Sidney Herbert, of Oriel, in particular, is remembered; and if Robert Lowe, of University, was only occasionally seen, it must have been because he seldom went ...
— My Life as an Author • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... might make desperate expedients necessary? She stood, temporarily stupefied, with her eyes full, looking at that pitiful, terrible, guilty bit of paper, stupefied by the sudden realization of her sudden guess at the truth—though, indeed, the truth was so much more guilty and appalling than any guess ...
— Phoebe, Junior • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant
... order he's not bound, But has his springs of union round; And kitchen sisters ev'ry where Know how to please him to a hair: Sometimes his errand they can guess, If not, he can his wants express; Nor from old Slug can they get free Without a ...
— The Communistic Societies of the United States • Charles Nordhoff
... bed, my lads," cried the overseer. "You heard what I said. Lie down, all of you, at once. There will be a sentry with a musket outside, and you can guess what his orders are." ...
— Nic Revel - A White Slave's Adventures in Alligator Land • George Manville Fenn
... strange voice in here, so I thought I would take a look in." Mr. Bunner laughed easily. "You thought I might have been eavesdropping, perhaps," he said. "No, sir; I heard a word or two about a pistol—this one, I guess—and that's all." ...
— The Woman in Black • Edmund Clerihew Bentley
... the first place; and even if she is, she may be mistaken as to the character of the frigate, or she may have altered her course just to deceive us, so as to let the frigate come up with us without our taking alarm about her. Never fancy that you have made a right guess and neglect to take precautions, in case you should ...
— Old Jack • W.H.G. Kingston
... strike something out of us—a book or a picture or a symphony; and we're amazed at our feat, and go on letting that first work breed others, as some animal forms reproduce each other without renewed fertilization. So there we are, committed to our first guess at the riddle; and our works look as like as successive impressions of the same plate, each with the lines a little fainter; whereas they ought to be—if we touch earth between times—as different from each other as those other creatures—jellyfish, aren't they, of a kind?—where successive ...
— Tales Of Men And Ghosts • Edith Wharton
... which a mitrailleuse squatted, its black nose thrust through a net of branches. Sometimes the roof of the tunnel was so low that we had to bend nearly double; and at intervals we came to heavy doors, made of logs and sheeted with iron, which shut off one section from another. It is hard to guess the distance one covers in creeping through an unlit passage with different levels and countless turnings; but we must have descended the hillside for at least a mile before we came out into a half-ruined farmhouse. This building, which had kept nothing but its outer walls ...
— Fighting France - From Dunkerque to Belport • Edith Wharton
... course it's possible, but is it likely?" countered Phyllis. "But as you say, we'd better go over the place again and more carefully. If we don't find something, I shall certainly go back to believing in my 'ghost.' And I guess you'll admit I have foundation ...
— The Dragon's Secret • Augusta Huiell Seaman
... several times mentioned, that by applying a lighted candle near the surface of some of their rivers, a sudden flame Would catch and spread on the water, continuing to burn for near half a minute. But the accounts I received were so imperfect that I could form no guess at the cause of such an effect, and rather doubted the truth of it. I had no opportunity of seeing the experiment; but calling to see a friend who happened to be just returned home from making it himself, I learned from him the manner of it; which was to choose a shallow place, ...
— Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air • Joseph Priestley
... cried the stranger in broad Yankee, "I guess I'm barkin' up the wrong tree. I calculated to tell you something, ...
— Memoirs • Charles Godfrey Leland
... fortunate as to reach the shore. I saved my minerals, but Empson lost part of his botanical collection. Upon the whole, we got off well; and, had I not been on the American side of the Atlantic, I 'guess' I would not have ...
— Lives of the Engineers - The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson • Samuel Smiles
... succeed, because I did firmly believe that justice was with us. The case is now altered, we are going and doing wrong and therefore I look forward to evils and calamities, but without being able to guess at the instrument, nature, ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing
... pretty period! Well, I guess the sequel; And yet I will not name it; and yet I care not. And yet take this again; and yet I thank you, Meaning henceforth to trouble ...
— The Two Gentlemen of Verona • William Shakespeare [Craig, Oxford edition]
... matter in the solar atmosphere, as clouds are melted and again given out by our air; or, if the reader pleases, upon the annihilation and reproduction of parts of this resplendent covering, is left for theory to guess at.[3] ...
— History of Astronomy • George Forbes
... thet ef I went over thar I'd gain me some enemies," he said. "Hit 'pears like ye made a right shrewd guess ... read thet.... I found hit nailed ter my door when I come ...
— The Roof Tree • Charles Neville Buck
... Ledsam," he said, "I do hope that you will excuse this early call. I could only have been an hour behind you on the road. I dare say you can guess what I have come to see you about. Can ...
— The Evil Shepherd • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... said was very different in sound, and not to be rendered in echo by any one born far away from that country, where three dialects meet and find it hard to guess what each of the others is up to. Enough that this is what Sally meant to say, and that ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore
... examples invented solely to illustrate metres unfamiliar in Latin. The one quotation that is explicitly made from his lyrical poems is, curiously enough, a hexameter line. As to his literary merits or defects, it is now impossible even to guess. ...
— Post-Augustan Poetry - From Seneca to Juvenal • H.E. Butler
... you think I followed you for sheer curiosity. Guess I might well enough do so, seeing we bear the same name, and that name's liable to stink—through you. But I didn't, anyway. I came out here to tell you something I heard this morning, and it's about—last night. Fyles says that the result of last night is that the gang, their leader, is now ...
— The Law-Breakers • Ridgwell Cullum
... it is in sights, in wonders, full of people—hundreds of people in the streets and market-place—they can take it all in and know its meaning. Every man and woman, of all classes, in all that concourse, is there for some definite purpose which they can guess and understand; and the busy street and market, and red houses and soaring spire, are all one, and part and parcel too of their own lives in their own distant little village by the Avon or Wylye, or anywhere on the Plain. And that soaring spire which, rising so high above the red town, ...
— A Shepherd's Life • W. H. Hudson
... I insisted on the explanation she had evaded in public. "I guess," I said, "as much as you can tell me about 'the four.' I have borne too long with those who have made your life that of a hunted therne, and rendered myself anxious and restless every day and hour ...
— Across the Zodiac • Percy Greg
... turn twice as many hand-springs as any feller you ever saw, an' he can walk on his hands twice round the engine-house. I guess you couldn't find many circuses that could beat him, an' he's been practising in his barn all the chance he could ...
— Mr. Stubbs's Brother - A Sequel to 'Toby Tyler' • James Otis
... represents him as a sweet-tempered child, and says that he was called the "little nightingale," from the beauty of his voice. As the sickly, solitary, and precocious infant of elderly parents, we may guess that he was not a little spoilt, if ...
— Alexander Pope - English Men of Letters Series • Leslie Stephen
... plainly seen slowly ascending the somewhat rugged road toward the spot where stood the farmer leaning against the wall awaiting him. I could not better occupy the time that intervenes than endeavour to picture the approaching traveller. His age I would not dare to guess, he might be 60, or he might be 90. He was a short thick-set man, and rather bent, but evidently more from habit than from weight of years. He wore a long blue coat which plainly spoke of years gone by, and bore in many places unmistakable ...
— Yorksher Puddin' - A Collection of the Most Popular Dialect Stories from the - Pen of John Hartley • John Hartley
... suppose the rivulets washed from my garden and from yours during the last severe storm? How much do you suppose all the rivulets which make up the rivers of your state washed from all the gardens and fields during the same storm? Make a guess and then multiply your answer by the number of storms in one year and that by fifty years, and you will get a quantity greater ...
— Conservation Reader • Harold W. Fairbanks
... guess we are safe, what is left of us, at any rate," said Chester as they halted to take a much needed rest. "It's terrible to think of those poor fellows ...
— The Boy Allies On the Firing Line - Or, Twelve Days Battle Along the Marne • Clair W. Hayes
... cut down these two, make an end of Fortunio, and, running for it, attempt to escape through the postern before the rest of the garrison had time to come up with him or guess his purpose. But the notion was too wild, its ...
— St. Martin's Summer • Rafael Sabatini
... flavour they far exceed them, being exactly of the kind that we call bleeding-hearts, hard to the bite, and parting easily from the stone, which is proportionately small. Figs too are here in such perfection, that it is not easy for an English gardener to guess at their excellence; for it is not by superior size, but taste and colour, that they are distinguished; small, and green on the outside, a bright full crimson within, and we eat them with raw ham, and truly delicious is the dainty. By raw ham, I mean ...
— Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I • Hester Lynch Piozzi
... interpreted, * * * [as to fail] to give fair notice of what acts will be punished, * * *, violates an accused's rights under procedural due process * * * [A penal statute must set up] ascertainable standards of guilt. [So that] men of common intelligence * * * [are not] required to guess at * * * [its] meaning," either as to persons within the scope of the act or as to ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin
... "I guess our grandsires could measure up with anybody's," Amanda said proudly. "We're every one eligible to the ...
— Blue Bonnet in Boston - or, Boarding-School Days at Miss North's • Caroline E. Jacobs
... guess, within a trifle, what that leads unto. I very much disapprove of it, whatever it may be. And then? and then? Prithee go on: I am inflamed with a miraculous zeal ...
— Imaginary Conversations and Poems - A Selection • Walter Savage Landor
... went back to what she had written in her diary. If that should be true she must be very, very careful. He must never guess it, never. She would be very cold and distant and polite. Not hail-fellow well-met with a "brother artist," like she had been yesterday. It was all very difficult indeed. Even if it really did turn out to be true, if the wonderful thing had happened to her, if she really ...
— The Incomplete Amorist • E. Nesbit
... invited me into the office, or cabinet room, and read very carefully the telegram received from you last night—Friday night. His face was a study. He was greatly surprised to learn that the Governor voted for Bryan, and walked about considerably. At last he said, "Well, I guess I'll have to appoint him, but I am awfully sorry he voted for Bryan." He then asked me who Dr. Crum[1] is and I told him that he was a clean representative character, and that he was favorably considered by Harrison for the Charleston ...
— Booker T. Washington - Builder of a Civilization • Emmett J. Scott and Lyman Beecher Stowe
... give up. I worked as a newspaper artist for a while, and then for a lithographer, but my work with them got me into the same trouble. If I drew from a photograph my drawing showed up characteristics and expressions that you couldn't find in the photo, but I guess they were in the original, all right. The customers raised lively rows, especially the women, and I never could hold a job long. So I began to rest my weary head upon the breast of Old Booze for comfort. And pretty soon I was in the free-bed line ...
— The Trimmed Lamp • O. Henry
... ought to touch upon the birds that were singing vespers as I passed. But the reader would find my rhapsody as poor entertainment as the programme of a concert he had been unable to attend. I have no more learning about bird-music than would help me to guess that a dull dissyllabic refrain in the heart of the wood came from the cuckoo; and when at moments I heard a twitter of fuller tone, with a more suggestive modulation, I could only hope it was the nightingale. I have listened for the nightingale ...
— Italian Hours • Henry James
... aid, and technological support. Turkmenistan's economic statistics are state secrets, and GDP and other figures are subject to wide margins of error. In particular, the 20% rate of GDP growth is a guess. ...
— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... of 1754 Washington is back in Virginia. By May he is on the trail again, blazing a path through the wilderness down the Monongahela towards the French fort; for what purpose one may guess, though these were times of piping peace. Come {225} an old Indian chief and an English bushwhacker one morning with word that fifty French raiders are on the trail ten miles away; for what purpose one may guess, spite of peace. Instantly Washington sends half a hundred Virginia frontiersmen ...
— Canada: the Empire of the North - Being the Romantic Story of the New Dominion's Growth from Colony to Kingdom • Agnes C. Laut
... dare ask it at all if I didn't know that you had failed with your candy, and might want to raise your Christmas funds some other way. No, I guess I'd better not ask you, after all. It ...
— The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware • Annie Fellows Johnston
... Grand Lama of Thibet himself not wholly a lie. The Lecture on Mahomet ("the Hero as Prophet") astonished my worthy friends beyond measure. It seems then this Mahomet was not a quack? Not a bit of him! That he is a better Christian, with his "bastard Christianity," than the most of us shovel-hatted? I guess than almost any of you!—Not so much as Oliver Cromwell ("the Hero as King") would I allow to have been a Quack. All quacks I asserted to be and to have been Nothing, chaff that would not grow: my poor ...
— The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, - 1834-1872, Vol. I • Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson
... and trodden down, Dark with the shade of sin: Deciphering not those halo lights Which God hath lit within; Groping about in utmost night, Poor prisoned souls there are, Who guess not what life's meaning is, Nor dream of heaven afar; Oh! that some gentle hand of love Their stumbling steps would guide, And show them that, amidst it all, ...
— Friends and Neighbors - or Two Ways of Living in the World • Anonymous
... remember, child,' said she, 'that the pigeon-house fell the very afternoon that our careless wench spilt the salt upon the table?' 'Yes,' says he, 'my dear; and the next post brought us an account of the battle of Almanza.' The reader may guess at the figure I made, after having done all this mischief. I dispatched my dinner as soon as I could, with my usual taciturnity; when, to my utter confusion, the lady seeing me quitting my knife ...
— Apparitions; or, The Mystery of Ghosts, Hobgoblins, and Haunted Houses Developed • Joseph Taylor
... to the extreme. These are generally sheds or outhouses which have been converted into cottages. I entered one not long since which consisted of two rooms, one above and one below, and each of these rooms could not have measured, at a guess, more than six feet six across. I had heard of this place, and expected to find it a perfect den of misery and wretchedness. No such thing. To my surprise the woman who opened the door was neatly clad, clean, and bright. The floor of the cottage was of ordinary ...
— The Toilers of the Field • Richard Jefferies
... just now. I protest I don't know why Madam built them. I guess she thought it was good works. I should have thought it would have been better works to have sent for Aunt Anne, as well as you; but don't you tell her ...
— The Maidens' Lodge - None of Self and All of Thee, (In the Reign of Queen Anne) • Emily Sarah Holt
... you may boast of having hazarded a particularly shrewd guess," replied the gentleman. "Bucephalus Buskin, at your service; and, of ...
— Austin and His Friends • Frederic H. Balfour
... answered, "You're the ring-tailed squealer! Less Than a hundred heavy dollars Won't be offered you, I guess! ...
— The Bon Gaultier Ballads • William Edmonstoune Aytoun
... distinguish—at his own toes. When the smoke of the shot had cleared away, I fully expected to see the Icelander prostrate; but he was already reloading with the greatest expedition. Determined to prevent the repetition of so dreadful an attempt at self-destruction, I rushed to the spot. Guess then my relief when the bloody body of a ptarmigan—driven by so point blank a discharge a couple of feet into the snow—was triumphantly dragged forth by instalments from the sepulchre which it had received contemporaneously with ...
— Letters From High Latitudes • The Marquess of Dufferin (Lord Dufferin)
... says, he contrived to sell ninety-nine of them, and reserve the last for his intended 'ruse.' He went to the house where he had sold the first clock, and said, 'Well, now, how does your clock go? very well, I guess.' The answer was as he anticipated, 'No, very bad.' 'Indeed! Well, now, I've found it out at last. You see, I had one clock which was I know a bad one, and I said to my boy, "you'll put that clock aside, for it won't do to sell such an article." Well, the boy didn't mind, and ...
— Diary in America, Series Two • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)
... too old to go about collecting donations to establish an A.B. college for you. I guess I shall have to arrange ...
— Autobiography of a YOGI • Paramhansa Yogananda
... he had continued to discount as absurd and preposterous the possibility of his vague apprehension ever being realized. It was a chance guess, a silly speculation, based upon the most trivial data, he sagely concluded. It merely connoted the attractiveness of his wife and of his friend. But—and on occasional moments he could not will the ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London
... thinkin' o' you? I seen you talkin' with them gran' Monterey ladies an' I guess you won't be thinkin' often o' me. Like 's not by to-morrow you'll 'ave clean forgot me," she said with ...
— The Girl of the Golden West • David Belasco
... guess that the accursed hag, thy foster-mother, showed it thee, for in her redes must thou ...
— The Story of Grettir The Strong • Translated by Eirikr Magnusson and William Morris
... "Guess again," said Dolly, clapping her hand to her little mouth, and looking intensely mysterious. Her blue eyes rolled roguishly round until they fixed themselves on Edith King's face, then she looked again at Kitty as solemn ...
— A Bunch of Cherries - A Story of Cherry Court School • L. T. Meade
... more'n you'll guess," declared Belllounds, with irritation. "What do a lot of cow-punchin' fellars know about dogs? Why, they nearly ate Bludsoe up. He wouldn't feed 'em. An' Wils, who seemed good with dogs, was taken off bad hurt the other day. Lem's been tryin' to rustle feed fer them. Now we'll ...
— The Mysterious Rider • Zane Grey
... lowered his gun. "The nerve uh the darned——Say! don't go off mad," he yelled, his anger evaporating, changing on the instant to admiration for the other's cold-blooded courage. "Yuh spilled all the whisky, darn yuh—but then I guess yuh don't know any better'n t' spoil good stuff that away. No hard feelin's, anyhow. Stop an' eat dinner with us, an' ...
— Raw Gold - A Novel • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... have to rub all that in, Mr. Selmer. I guess I know it better than you do. Just because I don't come crying around you with a lot of please-forgive-me stuff, you think I don't give a cuss! Which way did Mary V go? That's more important right now than naming over all the kinds of damn ...
— Skyrider • B. M. Bower
... grander thing to be a minister than anything else in the world," he asserted. "But you have to know an awful lot, I guess." ...
— 'Lizbeth of the Dale • Marian Keith
... department. Unless an accurate cost system is in force the third item cannot be accurately calculated. The best that can be done is to take the salaries of the people actually employed on the work and guess at the proper charge for the space. The sum of the three items divided by the number of letters is the cost per letter. It is not an accurate cost. It will be low rather than high, for probably the full share of overhead expense ...
— How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) - A Complete Guide to Correct Business and Personal Correspondence • Mary Owens Crowther
... ridiculously absurd exaggeration. If it had been true, the race would now be at the point of dying out. Nevertheless, this statement is copied from book to book, as if it were gospel truth, as if it were a scientifically and statistically established fact instead of a wild, sensational guess. An esteemed New York physician, Dr. Prince A. Morrow, did excellent pioneer work in calling attention to the dangers of venereal disease. But, as is the case with so many "reformers," he permitted his zeal to run away with him occasionally, ...
— Woman - Her Sex and Love Life • William J. Robinson
... I thought I'd come, and just hint to you what was going on: though I supposed you'd most likely guess, even if you didn't know. I can't stay, because I'm engaged to some fellows to- night. You won't forget how fond you are ...
— Hard Times • Charles Dickens*
... "I guess that on the time appointed for the opening of this paper we, i.e. Charlotte, Anne, and I, shall be all merrily seated in our own sitting-room in some pleasant and flourishing seminary, having just gathered in for the midsummer holiday. Our debts will be paid ...
— The Three Brontes • May Sinclair
... satisfaction, but he carried his personality in his moustache, so to speak, which, though small, as I say, and precise to a hair, yet obtruded itself upon one in a vaguely unpleasant way. Noticing all this, I thought I might make a very good guess as to ...
— My Lady Caprice • Jeffrey Farnol
... black, who in vain endeavours to win her attentions, is thought the handsomest gallant in London? Ah, Genius is paid by smiles from all females but Fortune; little, methinks, does that young poet, in his first intoxication of flattery and fame, guess what a lot of contest and strife is in store for him. The very breath which a literary man respires is hot with hatred, and the youthful proselyte enters that career which seems to him so glittering, even as Dame ...
— Devereux, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... but they are awful words enough. Awful enough to the poor creatures of whom they speak. You here, most of you, can hardly guess all that these words mean. You may thank God that you do not. That you do not know the horrors of war, and the misery of a conquered country, ...
— Town and Country Sermons • Charles Kingsley
... notions on this and other kindred subjects may become known to us. Till then, it is best to remain content with such facts as are ascertainable, without seeking to penetrate mysteries at which we can but guess, and where, even if we guess aright, we cannot ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 2. (of 7): Assyria • George Rawlinson
... 'em, young man," she assured. "I guess you're a pilgrim, ain't you? I see a leetle green in your eye. No, you ain't a tin-horn. You're some mother's boy, jest gettin' away from the trough. My sakes! Sick, too, eh? Weak lungs, ain't it? Now you tell me: ...
— Desert Dust • Edwin L. Sabin
... four to three, in favor of the American ship. Against that must fairly be weighed the power of the "Endymion" to maintain for half an hour a quartering and raking position, owing to the necessity to escape laid on the "President." A quantitative estimate of this advantage would be largely guess; but it may safely be said that the disproportion of killed and wounded[466] can probably be laid to this, coupled with the very proper endeavor of Decatur to throw off his immediate enemy by aiming at her spars. After two and a half hours' fighting, the sails of the "Endymion" were "stripped ...
— Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 - Volume 2 • Alfred Thayer Mahan
... "I guess you'll not do that, for we put in there a week ago, and there was no British man-of-war there ...
— The Three Admirals • W.H.G. Kingston
... in the darkness, even guess what the animal was, and went back to the house much mystified. The Old Squire had just arisen, and we told him the story of our early vigil. "Wood-chucks, I guess," was his comment, but we knew that they were not wood-chucks. Addison was then called up, to get ...
— When Life Was Young - At the Old Farm in Maine • C. A. Stephens
... Madame calls it; for I shall appreciate whatever gifts I get—silk dresses, Christmas cards, or just a friendly word; but this is the very first time I ever made things myself to give away at such a time, and I guess it has gone to my head. I like to receive presents, but I think it is lots more fun to give them. I have enjoyed making every single ...
— Tabitha at Ivy Hall • Ruth Alberta Brown
... to smell my pretty rose; I liked to feel her silky dress. She held a very little book And asked the things for us to guess. ...
— Under the Tree • Elizabeth Madox Roberts
... they fly? Well I presume we shall have rain right away; and them noisy critters, them gulls how close they keep to the water, down there in the Shubenacadie; well that's a sure sign. If we study natur', we don't want no thermometer. But I guess we shall be in time to get under cover in a shingle-maker's shed about three miles ahead on us. We had just reached the deserted hovel when the rain ...
— The Clockmaker • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... you can guess; but except to your kindness in employing me, I am beholden to no man. I say it humbly—the Lord has been ...
— Shining Ferry • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... of the mesa, too, that Bryant on reaching the bank of the stream was able to see on the opposite side two persons a quarter of a mile off riding toward him; women, he perceived. Far north of them on the road, a black spot in a haze of dust, seemingly motionless but as one could guess advancing rapidly, was ...
— The Iron Furrow • George C. Shedd
... still kneeling before her, 'you remember that night you came down to me in the study, the night I told you I was in trouble and you could not help me. Did you guess from what I said ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... was that struck them. The turn came to himself, and he knelt down to the lap of Tisbina; but no sooner was he there, than he experienced feelings he had never dreamt of; and instead of trying to guess correctly, took all the pains he could to remain in the ...
— Stories from the Italian Poets: With Lives of the Writers, Vol. 2 • Leigh Hunt
... to keep their forms indistinctly in sight, which was as much as he could do at twenty yards' distance: fortunately the wind was so high that they did not hear his footsteps, although he often trod upon a rotten stick, which snapped as it broke in twain. As near as Edward could guess, he had tracked them for about three miles, when they stopped, and he perceived that they were examining their pistols, which they took from their belts. They then went on again, and entered a small plantation of oak-trees, of about forty ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat
... was not in love with La Valliere a week ago! he was not in love with her yesterday, and the letter is dated yesterday; I could not guess the king was in love, when the king's affection was ...
— Ten Years Later • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... the departure for Europe is imminent. Raymond had a tepid, awkward parting with his mother, whose headaches would not allow her to go to the train; and he shook hands rather coldly and constrainedly with his father, who would have welcomed, as I guess, some slight show of filial warmth, and he threw an embarrassedly facetious word to me about the weight of his portmanteau, and so was off. And it was years, rather than months, ...
— On the Stairs • Henry B. Fuller
... blows from the atmosphere created by the Frenchman's objective artistry is by the Russian commingled with the warm breath of a great human sympathy. Maupassant never tells where his sympathies lie, and you don't know; you only guess. Chekhov does not tell you where his sympathies lie, either, but you know all the same; you don't have to guess. And yet Chekhov is as objective as Maupassant. In the chronicling of facts, conditions, and ...
— Best Russian Short Stories • Various |
