"Absently" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... absently. Her mind was still on her discovery. Should she tell Captain about it? Perhaps it would be best. Briefly she acquainted her mother with what she ...
— Marjorie Dean - High School Sophomore • Pauline Lester
... went on, rather absently, "at this very moment the doctor is probing the wounds in your back where the horns ...
— Jimbo - A Fantasy • Algernon Blackwood
... hand on the girl's arm. Miss Foster sat down absently not far from the window. The mingled lights of lamp and moon fell upon her, upon the noble rounding of the face, which was grave, a little austere even, but still sensitive and delicate. Her black hair, thanks to Mrs. Burgoyne's devices, ...
— Eleanor • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... nodded absently, still dazed by the sudden turn of events. Tom hurried past him and met Roger coming down from the radar bridge. "I'm going too!" the blond-haired ...
— Sabotage in Space • Carey Rockwell
... lingeringly, absently. Then he came to himself with a mocking laugh. "Well, perhaps he wasn't, after all, what ...
— Imaginary Interviews • W. D. Howells
... here," replied Helen, absently; and, scarcely aware that she had given instructions to that effect, she presently found herself confronted by the ...
— The Yellow Claw • Sax Rohmer
... this absently in a tone of perfunctory dryness. His throat was parched, his head seemed to waver. But he was beginning to comprehend that Long-Hair, for some inscrutable reason of his own, was desirous of making a friendship between them. ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson
... it—but absently and in a distrait manner, as becomes a man of affairs. There's nothing in the B's. I might devote my ardent youth to Bar-Room Glassware and Bottlers' Supplies. On the other hand, I might not. Similarly, while there is no doubt a bright future ...
— Piccadilly Jim • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
... at the rooms of Narumov of the Horse Guards. The long winter night passed away imperceptibly, and it was five o'clock in the morning before the company sat down to supper. Those who had won, ate with a good appetite; the others sat staring absently at their empty plates. When the champagne appeared, however, the conversation became more animated, and all ...
— Best Russian Short Stories • Various
... continued Ravenslee absently, "I used to dream of the wonderful things I would do when I was a man—by the way, you're quite sure ...
— The Definite Object - A Romance of New York • Jeffery Farnol
... through the lane slowly and absently like a woman in a dream. When she came to the gap in the fence where the lane ran into the orchard she lifted her wan, drooping face and saw Eric, sitting in the shadow of the wood at the other side of the orchard with his bowed head in his ...
— Kilmeny of the Orchard • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... "Sex" the words "She is probably feminine"; looked at him absently, glanced at what she had written, flushed a little, rubbed out the "she is probably," wondering why a moment's mental wandering should have ...
— The Tracer of Lost Persons • Robert W. Chambers
... on the sidewalk, lengthening as he passed under and beyond a street-light, vanishing as he entered the stronger light of the one ahead. The windows of a cheap cafe reminded him that he was hungry, and he entered, going to a table and ordering something absently. There was a television screen over the combination bar and lunch-counter. Some kind of a comedy programme, at which an invisible studio-audience was laughing immoderately and without apparent cause. The roughly dressed customers ...
— The Edge of the Knife • Henry Beam Piper
... talked with the servants, and, in fact, with everyone, but never did she come upon a clue which promised to lead to a solution of the diamond difficulty. Once she penetrated into a turret room, and came unexpectedly upon the Prince, who was sitting on the window-ledge, looking absently out on the broad and smiling valley that lay for miles below the castle. He sprang to his feet and stared so fiercely at the intruder that the girl's heart failed her, and she had not even the presence of ...
— Jennie Baxter, Journalist • Robert Barr
... and saying. With a firm determination no longer to slight his plate, he turned his attention to it, but had scarcely eaten two mouthfuls when his treacherous thoughts stole off to Katie again. Absently laying his knife and fork down, he was soon unconscious of all that was ...
— A Lover in Homespun - And Other Stories • F. Clifford Smith
... crossly came after, until they arrived nearly at the end of the hedge which, separating the upper from the lower garden, hid from those immediately behind it all view of the estuary. Here, still sheltered by the hedge, he stopped and Audrey stopped, and Aguilar absently plucked up a young plantain from the turf and dropped it into ...
— The Lion's Share • E. Arnold Bennett
... sociably to distribute medals and sip a cup of tea to have German shells invite themselves to the party. It is a way German shells have. They push in everywhere. One invited itself to my party and got within ten feet of it. When I complained, the colonel suggested absently that it probably was not a German shell but a French mine that had gone off prematurely. He seemed to think being hit by a French mine rather than by a German shell made all the difference in the world. It ...
— With the French in France and Salonika • Richard Harding Davis
... his own feelings, Grant had been unaware of his companion's. Her face had paled, and she stirred her drink absently. The reflections in her eyes were ...
— A Fine Fix • R. C. Noll
... absently. He knew he could find the best way, that was his business, but he did not want to go to Clermont. It seemed to him that he was always going away from the war while others were going toward it. While these boys were rushing forward he would be rushing ...
— Tom Slade Motorcycle Dispatch Bearer • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... response. He dropped his cigarette into an ash-tray, rose to his feet with a sigh, and strolled to the window of his sitting room to gaze out absently ...
— Bandit Love • Juanita Savage
... Kent Edwards, absently, paying most attention to a toad which had hopped out form the cover of a budock leaf, in search of insects for ...
— The Red Acorn • John McElroy
... thought not, though he remembered having seen several of them at lectures and things. Doyle made no move toward introducing his friends to Satherwaite, and, to relieve the momentary silence that followed, observed that he supposed it was getting colder. Satherwaite replied, absently, that he hadn't noticed, but that it was still snowing. The youth in the cricket-blazer fidgeted in his ...
— The New Boy at Hilltop • Ralph Henry Barbour
... little absently. They were passing the Gray Cottage—a blind was just then raised in one of the lower rooms, and a small pale face peeped eagerly out at the passers-by. Audrey smiled and waved her hand in a friendly manner, and a bright answering smile lighted up ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... had that pleasure,' said little Felix, bowing again, and absently taking up a bottle which ...
— The Grand Babylon Hotel • Arnold Bennett
... her departure, and Mr. Wilton stretched out his hand to the toast-rack, took a piece of toast which he absently broke in two, and once more buried his head in his Times. There were a good many interesting items of intelligence this morning, and Mr. Wilton was a keen politician. Between him, however, now, and the clearly printed type of the paper, came the vision of to-morrow. To-morrow—his ...
— The Children of Wilton Chase • Mrs. L. T. Meade
... Come, Cousin," said the younger Stanton,—"come and view a purchase I have made." Stanton absently alighted, and followed him across a small paved court; the other person followed. "In troth, Cousin," said Stanton, "your choice appears not to have been discreetly made; your house has somewhat of a gloomy aspect."—"Hold you content, Cousin," replied the other; "I shall take order that you ...
— The Lock and Key Library • Julian Hawthorne, Ed.
... "Bows?" queried Elizabeth absently, all absorbed in a winding river, a moat, and a drawbridge. "Aunt Margaret won't let me have one, I know. Will they wear ...
— 'Lizbeth of the Dale • Marian Keith
... car?" asked Garrick absently. "Nothing except that he ran down the Pennsylvania report and found there was nothing in it. Now he says that he thinks the car may have returned to New York, perhaps by way of Staten Island, for he doubts whether it could have slipped in by ...
— Guy Garrick • Arthur B. Reeve
... jangled. "Five thousand dollars," she kept repeating to herself, greeting the teachers absently—"five thousand dollars." And then on the porch she was suddenly aware of the awaiting boy. She eyed him critically: ...
— The Quest of the Silver Fleece - A Novel • W. E. B. Du Bois
... kitchen, so dark and cool to him after his sultry walk up the steep, long lanes, and sat watching her absently, yet with a pleasant consciousness of her presence, as she kindled her fire of dry furze and wood, and hung a little kettle to it by a chain hooked to a staple in the chimney, and arranged her curious old china, picked up long years ...
— Cobwebs and Cables • Hesba Stretton
... Myrtle, half-absently; 'no, my love, I never was very musical. But your grandmother sang charmingly.' And Jacinth, believing she was launched on long-ago reminiscences, began to breathe freely, when suddenly the old lady reverted to ...
— Robin Redbreast - A Story for Girls • Mary Louisa Molesworth
... Field had taken pity on what would otherwise have been solitary confinement, and that now it was time to dress. Meadows kissed her absently, and, with his head evidently still full of his walk, went to his dressing-room. When he reappeared, it was to find Doris attired in a little black gown, with which he was already too familiar. She saw at once ...
— A Great Success • Mrs Humphry Ward
... replied quickly, "not that;" and then she added absently, and with a dim look in her fine eyes, ...
— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue • Various
... speech flowed on, he looked sidelong at her, in a trouble of fear and wonder; then, at length, absently, trying to put his mind elsewhere and to leave her voice as the muted murmur of a distant torrent. He succeeded fairly well in this, for Lorena combined admirably in herself the parts of speaker and listener, and was not, he thankfully noted, ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson
... own room, and Mr. Dillwyn was forced to follow her. The door was shut between them and the rest of the household. Mrs. Barclay trimmed her fire, and her guest looked on absently. Then they sat down on opposite sides of the fireplace; Mrs. Barclay smiling inwardly, for she knew that Philip was impatient; however, nothing could be more sedate to all appearance ...
— Nobody • Susan Warner
... so," he answered, a little absently. "I had not considered that seriously, as yet, but my people would appreciate such a ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West • Edith Van Dyne
... what does not concern him?" said she, angrily, turning her head away. She stood a moment in thought, absently pushing forward the roll of linen with her foot. Then, shrugging her shoulders and raising her head, she said slowly, ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... absently, and walked on into the house. Winifred was not in the dark little sitting-room. He walked to the open window and stood there, expecting her to come in presently. There were veils of Madeira vine over the window, just opening their whitish ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 9 • Various
... bad, too bad," said he, drawing the remnant of the shroud about him and leaning his jaw pensively on his hand. Then he put his left foot up on his knee and fell to scratching his anklebone absently with a rusty nail which he ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... went home and the rest of us went to bed,—all except Mrs. O'Shaughnessy, who was so cranky and snappy that we left her by the fire. It seemed hours after when I awoke. She was still sitting by the fire; she was absently marking in the ashes with a stick. I happened to be the first one up next morning and as I stirred up the fire I saw "Baby" written in the ashes. We had breakfasted and the men had gone their ways when Mrs. O'Shaughnessy said ...
— Letters on an Elk Hunt • Elinore Pruitt Stewart
... consideration. Later she went downstairs, cloaked warmly, for a walk to the post-office. Ed Higgins was still in the parlour talking to the family. He hastily put in his petition to accompany her, and it was granted absently. Then he surreptitiously and triumphantly glanced through the window, the scene outside pleasing him audibly. 'Rast was standing at the front gate talking to Anderson Crow. Miss Banks noticed as they passed the ...
— The Daughter of Anderson Crow • George Barr McCutcheon
... Slowly and absently Steptoe dusted his left hand with the hearth-brush held in his right. "If madam's goin' to decide 'er life by what another person wants she ain't never goin' ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King
... he pursued absently, "shall always live in England. If I know myself, I can be of most service at the centre of things. Parliament, when the ...
— The Crown of Life • George Gissing
... window, still further sheltered from view by a gyringa-bush at the house corner, sat a little woman with a small, pale face, the still attractive features perceptibly sharpened by years, of which the half-gray hair bore further testimony. The eyes, just now fixed absently upon the dusking landscape, were light gray and a little faded, while around the lips there were crow's-feet, especially when they were pressed together, as now, in an unsatisfied, almost pathetic look, evidently ...
— A Summer Evening's Dream - 1898 • Edward Bellamy
... to Sutter as he stood there that the surrounding silence grew more intense. Then he passed through a wide gateway and began to stride across an evenly clipped lawn toward a grove of trees beyond. Halfway he paused and glanced absently at his watch. It ...
— Made in Tanganyika • Carl Richard Jacobi
... the last pin in her veil, the last hook in the heavy gown of cloth of silver. The maids stood off from her a little, whispering. But she herself remained motionless, gazing absently into her quaintly framed old mirror, lost in one of those reveries that her servants had learned not to disturb. The pause had lasted some five minutes when the door opening into the outer hall opened, vigorously, and the Princess started suddenly up, her ...
— The Genius • Margaret Horton Potter
... around the blurred sky line, answered absently, "Usual answer is 'Leave? It's all I ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various
... in evident fear of his displeasure, but to go through again the tale of the wager and letter. She was moistening her dry lips as she finished, her eyes on his face wide with apprehension. But he answered amiably, half absently, as if the whole affair were ...
— Helmet of Navarre • Bertha Runkle
... that." It was still to Durrance's back that he addressed his excuses. "Dermod is old, his estates are going to ruin, and there are other things. You know, Jack?" The direct appeal he had to repeat, and even then Durrance answered it absently:— ...
— The Four Feathers • A. E. W. Mason
... with some old china cups, and other little ornaments with which it was adorned. Turned with its face to the wall was a small trumpery frame, containing as it seemed some common-looking picture; and quite absently, and as though he scarcely knew what he was doing, the old man placed his fingers on it to turn it face outwards. Anton Dormeur gave a low cry, and placed his hand upon his ...
— Miss Grantley's Girls - And the Stories She Told Them • Thomas Archer
... his seat over the sea, stared absently at the jocose revelers, for he was a stranger in a strange land. He leaned back on the granite railings with the easy indolence of an invalid, though his frame was robust and sinewy as a mountaineer's. The hidden ...
— Trifles for the Christmas Holidays • H. S. Armstrong
... doubt; the Chief his, each in a characteristic way. The former frowned, the latter tapped his breast absently with his forefinger while looking askance at Mr. Gryce, who in his turn took up some little object from the desk beside which he was standing and to it confided whatever surprise he felt at this proof of some uncommunicated secret shared by these ...
— The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow • Anna Katharine Green
... continued, absently, "I forgot; it was my brother I was talking with. But I have investigated thoroughly the whole subject of those blockade runners, and I believe the prospect of success is worth a giant effort for the recovery of some of that money from the sea. There must be untold quantities of it lying there, ...
— Money Island • Andrew Jackson Howell, Jr.
... new through his mind, James had been absently watching while the cook turned his treasures out upon his bunk, and pawed them over with trembling hands. There were innumerable little things, besides a stiff white shirt, a cheap shiny Bible, a stuffed parrot and several wads of clothes. ...
— The Stolen Singer • Martha Idell Fletcher Bellinger
... looked long and curiously at the marriage bed of red and white ashes on which lay, dull black, the barrel of the Ranger's gun. He drove his spurred heel absently into a half-charred log, and the chattering sparks flew upwards. 'Most extraordinary ...
— Life's Handicap • Rudyard Kipling
... rather absently, her animation falling away from her in an instant, and a weary look creeping into ...
— The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin • Hildegard G. Frey
... when they returned to the yacht from their first expedition, a packet of newspapers lay on the deck-house table. Nick picked up one of the London journals, and his eye ran absently down ...
— The Glimpses of the Moon • Edith Wharton
... and absently put the note in a little rack over the mantelpiece. Then, recollecting that a prying servant or landlady might misinterpret it, he transferred it to his pocket. After breakfast, having satisfied himself before the mirror ...
— The Irrational Knot - Being the Second Novel of His Nonage • George Bernard Shaw
... resumed his smoking as though oblivious of the other's presence. Momentarily disconcerted, the landlord devoted himself once more to the fire. After readjusting a trunk of old hickory on the great andirons and gazing absently for a moment at the huge crane supporting an iron kettle of boiling water, mine host tipped back in his chair, braced his feet against the wall, lighted a vile-smelling pipe and again returned valiantly to the attack, resolved to learn more ...
— The Strollers • Frederic S. Isham
... absently, "but there are several things about the fellow that I don't understand. To begin with, he is talking to those other chaps through an interpreter. Then he does not gesticulate, while most Indian orators depend more upon signs than words for effect. He stands with ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore
... veranda as he quitted the house, and absently picked a few sprays of jessamine that grew upon a trellis near by. She inhaled the odor of the blossoms and thrust them into the bosom of her white morning gown. The boys were dragging along the banquette a small "express wagon," which they had filled with blocks and ...
— The Awakening and Selected Short Stories • Kate Chopin
... and he regarded me at first absently, then with startled curiosity, and sharply drew his skittish mare back on her haunches. "Good God, Floyd!" said he, "how glad I am to see you!" We looked straight in each other's face for a time, and his features worked, as he regarded ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, November, 1878 - of Popular Literature and Science • Various
... had closed behind her, he walked over to the window and looked out, drumming absently with his knuckles ...
— When God Laughs and Other Stories • Jack London
... drawing absently with his fingers on the table, said, "Do you see, Yakov, why this did not please me? . . . Let us go into the matter thoroughly, and understand what you are really doing, and what the result may be. Your wife is pregnant. You struck her last night on her sides and breast. That ...
— Creatures That Once Were Men • Maxim Gorky
... to his feet as he spoke. He was still absently mopping his face with the scrap of lace he had taken ...
— The Swindler and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell
... in the answer just given, at the end of the allusion to the Egyptian and Idumaean. The color in the Jewish lad's cheeks deepened, and he may not have heard the rest of the speech, for he remained silent, looking absently into the ...
— Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ • Lew Wallace
... plunged the scholars of the whole class in such consternation that they all wistfully and absently looked at him. ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... the ground his half-full condensed milk can with which he had been absently toying, and kissed the fingers of his one ...
— The Red One • Jack London
... down in one of the big chairs, and Euterpe, the lesser tawny dog, came and pushed her nose into his hand. He patted her silky head absently. He was collecting his thoughts; the shock of this news was considerable and ...
— The Price of Things • Elinor Glyn
... cautiously introduced the subject of godmothers. It might, perhaps, remind the little lady of what her letter had promised. She told Miss Black about the other children's godmothers, and how lucky the others thought she was to have a godmother alive and in Ireland. Miss Black patted her hand absently, and ...
— The Weans at Rowallan • Kathleen Fitzpatrick
... turned away to hide the tears when Dr. Gerald continued absently: "As for me, Mistress Beresford, when I go home at night I take my only companion from the mantelshelf and leaning back in my old armchair say, 'Praise me, ...
— Penelope's Postscripts • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... "I—think—so," responded Amy, absently, her attention now engrossed by the excitement about her. Girls were hurrying to take their places before the long frames filled with reels, on which fine woollen threads were being wound by the revolutions ...
— Reels and Spindles - A Story of Mill Life • Evelyn Raymond
... this head somewhat absently, for he evidently was debating within himself some very serious matter; but his answer was of a sort that Young found entirely satisfactory. In the heart of the city, he said, was the Treasure-house that Chaltzantzin had builded there; and within it the treasure remained that Chaltzantzin had ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier
... her mind drove her at last almost insensibly towards the low, wide wall facing the unquiet sea. Here she sat down, still absorbed in her thoughts, her gaze resting absently on the incoming tide below. She was conscious of a strange feeling of communion with the shifting, ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler
... had walked that distance, carrying his heavy load. Editor Goodman was absent at the moment, but the other proprietor, Dennis E. McCarthy, asked the caller to state his errand. The wanderer regarded him with a far-away look and said, absently, ...
— The Boys' Life of Mark Twain • Albert Bigelow Paine
... clearly understood, definitely promised arrangement. Monpavon was to call for him at the club. From time to time the good Jenkins glanced at his watch, while applauding absently the bouquet of brilliant notes which the Wauters was pouring forth from her fairy lips, a bouquet costing three thousand francs, useless, like the other expenses of the evening, if ...
— The Nabob • Alphonse Daudet
... plainly showed his great admiration for the lady. When he came, she suddenly woke up from her listless mood and became as brilliantly gay as she had been unmistakably melancholy before. As she chatted, she absently pushed to and fro a small antique urn of bronze on the chimneypiece, and in doing so she more than once gave Treherne a quick, significant glance, which he answered at last by a somewhat haughty nod. Then, as if satisfied, she ceased toying with the ornament and ...
— The Abbot's Ghost, Or Maurice Treherne's Temptation • A. M. Barnard
... is familiar to him, and he is accustomed to night rides," she said, encouragingly. "Yes," absently. "But he will be very wet. ...
— At Last • Marion Harland
... smiled absently, her big eyes brilliant. Unconsciously she was wondering what dancing could mean to these elders of hers. . . . Dancing was the stir of youth . . . the carnival of the blood . . . the beat of expectancy and ...
— The Innocent Adventuress • Mary Hastings Bradley
... answer, absently, his eyes fixed keenly upon the belt and taking note of its girth. "But where is ...
— Children of the Frost • Jack London
... him going down the street again, absently running his night-stick along the fence palings, ...
— Sight Unseen • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... queerly all that Winter—that he would go for days without speaking, and then fly into a rage if any one asked him a question." "He was always so good to his family," said Mother Blossom, smoothing Meg's hair absently. "He must have been out of ...
— Four Little Blossoms on Apple Tree Island • Mabel C. Hawley
... during the rest of the day. She went about her work as usual, but her mind was upon other things. At times she found herself standing and looking absently out of the window. She felt quite sure who was the man responsible for the trouble the previous night. Her face was paler than it had been for some time and an occasional nervous tremor shook her body. She found herself mentally comparing two men, one, mean and contemptible, ...
— The Unknown Wrestler • H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody
... Vavasour; "but is that all? Let me give him that glove," which Cecil had been absently ...
— Bluebell - A Novel • Mrs. George Croft Huddleston
... in the little parlor beside the roses. She touched them tenderly, absently. Life, which the day before had called her with the beckoning finger of dreams, now reached out grim insistent ...
— K • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... He laid down his fork, he rested his elbow on the table, his forehead upon his hand. Then absently he began to hum over to himself a tune. The rhythm of it was somehow familiar to the Surgeon's ears. Where had he heard it before? Then with a start he remembered. It was this very rhythm, that very tune, which Scrope's fingers had beaten out on the ...
— Ensign Knightley and Other Stories • A. E. W. Mason
... Patterson," Florence replied absently. "F'r instance, Aunt Julia, I don't see what you want to go walking with Newland Sanders for, when you said yourself you wished he was dead, or somep'n, after there got to be so muck talk in the family and everywhere about his sayin' all that about the Bible ...
— Gentle Julia • Booth Tarkington
... reply; an imperceptible twitching tightened her lips; then the young mouth relaxed, drooping a trifle at the corners. Lying there, so outwardly calm, her tired, faraway gaze fixed absently on him, she seemed on ...
— Special Messenger • Robert W. Chambers
... in the center scratched absently at its stomach with a furry paw and he lowered the bow, feeling a little foolish at having bothered to raise it against animals so small ...
— Space Prison • Tom Godwin
... had finally hit upon the word poignant to describe the hungry youth of her, the odd little tilt of her head, the soft and eager promise in swelling line of hip and breast, Denby himself most certainly would have murmured absently: ...
— Winner Take All • Larry Evans
... and while the father talked on the drive home of the sermon, the son answered absently; his thoughts were all with the piece of good luck which had come his way by such a ...
— The End of the Rainbow • Marian Keith
... That hardened "ginthleman," absently sipping his coffee, flung a faintly-derisive, patient smile at his accuser. A perfect understanding seemed to exist between the two men. Redmond, musing upon the pathetically-sordid drama he had witnessed not so many hours since, relapsed into a reverie ...
— The Luck of the Mounted - A Tale of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police • Ralph S. Kendall
... of milk from the doors, first thing, as they're delivered. There's been an extra lot of it lately. My mate who relieves me has got special instructions to keep his eye open in the mornings!" The man grinned. "It wouldn't be a very big case even if he caught anybody!" "No," said Smith absently; "perhaps not. Your business must be a dry one this warm ...
— The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu • Sax Rohmer
... stood by the window—then stooped, looked askance at the sunset, at the fields, at the musical instrument. He reflected a moment, then muttered absently: ...
— Tales of the Wilderness • Boris Pilniak
... absently. He moved his head slowly and looked around. His suspicions were confirmed. There wasn't a red Cadillac anywhere in sight, and from the looks of the street there never had been. "It's gone," he said, but the ...
— The Impossibles • Gordon Randall Garrett
... out in the stores, and the hucksters' torches were flaring at the corners. There was Christmas in the very air and Christmas in the storekeeper's till. It had been a very busy day. He thought of it with a satisfied nod as he stood a moment breathing the brisk air of the winter day, absently fingering the coupon the girl had paid for the shawl. A thin voice at his elbow said: "Merry Christmas, ...
— Children of the Tenements • Jacob A. Riis
... said the lady rather absently, giving a perfunctory glance to the woods sloping away on her right towards a little stream winding in the hollow. Sir Henry felt a slight annoyance. He was a good fellow, and no more touchy as to personal dignity ...
— Elizabeth's Campaign • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... self enveloped in a similar apron, was dusting his room as he entered it. She nodded absently, with a casual "Good-morning, Mr. Smith," as she continued at her work. Even the placing of the two big trunks, which the shuffling men brought in, won from her only a listless glance or two. Then, without speaking again, she left the room, ...
— Oh, Money! Money! • Eleanor Hodgman Porter
... upon him a perturbed face, "It's taken," she said absently. "They are all taken until after supper. I'll give you one then." And with this ...
— Quin • Alice Hegan Rice
... evening was readied by the appearance of a pitcher of steaming, spiced mulled wine. A cupful was formally presented to Amity Merken; Gilda Penny sipped hers with an audible satisfaction, and Jasper Penny absently drank the fragrant compound of cinnamon bark and lemon, cloves, sugar and claret. A measure of that, before retiring, could not but be beneficial to Susan Brundon, fatigued by the duties of her Academy. He thought ...
— The Three Black Pennys - A Novel • Joseph Hergesheimer
... as Reb Sender and I were reading a page together, a very pretty girl entered the synagogue. She came to have a letter written for her by one of the scholars. I continued to read aloud, but I did so absently now, trailing along after my companion. My mind was upon the girl, and I was ...
— The Rise of David Levinsky • Abraham Cahan
... seemed delighted to greet him, yet had barely a word for "his millions," him to whom the Board of Trade bowed humbly at home. A great war secretary, whom they had recently dined at the Grand Pacific and whose dictum as to the purchase of supplies meant much to Chicago, but vaguely remembered and absently greeted the man of wealth, yet beamed with pleasure at sight of his small-salaried soldier companion. The secretary drew Hazzard off to one side, in fact, and left the man of stocks and ...
— To The Front - A Sequel to Cadet Days • Charles King
... promised to take the sick man back to Maine and see him comfortably settled there. All this Mr. Wheeler explained to his family when he called them up to the living room one hot, breathless night after supper. Mrs. Wheeler, who seldom concerned herself with her husband's business affairs, asked absently why they bought more land, when they already had so much they could not farm half ...
— One of Ours • Willa Cather
... emotion, not daring to sit down beside her. The fiddles and flutes began to play and suddenly it seemed to them as though all the people in the boxes were looking at them. She got up and walked quickly to the exit; he followed, and both walked absently along the corridors, down the stairs, up the stairs, with the crowd shifting and shimmering before their eyes; all kinds of uniforms, judges, teachers, crown-estates, and all with badges; ladies shone and shimmered ...
— The House with the Mezzanine and Other Stories • Anton Tchekoff
... not. Why should it?" said Dyce, absently. "Now I'll tell you something that has happened since I ...
— Our Friend the Charlatan • George Gissing
... near-mahogany desk was deep in thought when Kate passed him. He bowed absently and she responded in the same manner. It occurred to Mr. Wentz that a time when everyone else was either borrowing, or endeavoring to, she was one of the few customers whose balances ...
— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart
... beginning to strike under the laurels around the hotel into the little office where the widow sat with the housekeeper—a stout spinster of a coarser Western type. Mrs. MacGlowrie was looking wearily over some accounts on the desk before her, and absently putting back some tumbled sheaves from the stack of her heavy hair. For the widow had a certain indolent Southern negligence, which in a less pretty woman would have been untidiness, and a characteristic hook and eyeless freedom of attire which on less graceful limbs would have been ...
— Trent's Trust and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... said the old lawyer, absently. He was obviously preoccupied with some other topic. "Very good," he repeated with racking deliberation; "quite good. How ...
— Birthright - A Novel • T.S. Stribling
... automobile. A slight man with thick glasses magnifying his red-rimmed eyes, his speech a painful effort, stood leaning against a mud-guard with his hands in the pockets of a shabby raglan. A great bearded sailor, with the clear eyes of youth, prowled restlessly about, absently toying with an enormous blue-steel revolver, which never left his hand. These were ...
— Ten Days That Shook the World • John Reed
... and both are happy and well," she replied absently; "but we can talk of them on some other occasion. I want us to speak of ...
— Roger Trewinion • Joseph Hocking
... every morning and her heart Followed his bow. But often she would sit, While he was playing, quite withdrawn apart, Absently fingering and touching it, The locket, which now seemed to her a bit Of some gone youth. His music drew her tears, And through the notes he ...
— Men, Women and Ghosts • Amy Lowell
... ago—and after turning the matter over and over to no purpose, I concluded to come to you. An envelope addressed to the Misses Hosmer, and postmarked Portsmouth, England was blown along the deck to my side, lately, and when I absently picked it up it was, apparently, to see my sister's writing before me. I asked your daughter Faith who wrote that address, and she said a lodger of her old nurse's, but could not tell the name—had forgotten it. But she described my sister, Clara Leroy, as perfectly as I could. What ...
— All Aboard - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry
... maturity succeeded adolescence and decay succeeded maturity; it seemed intolerable that the ineffable charm of the girl's youth must be slowly filched away by the thefts of time. 'I was like that once! And Jack too!' she thought, as she gazed absently at the pair in front of the piano. And it appeared incredible to her that she was the mother of that tall womanly creature, that the little morsel of a child which she had borne one night had become ...
— Leonora • Arnold Bennett
... and looking down the garden path said, "He's coming;" and as Don Ippolito drew near, his face lighting up with a joyous and innocent smile, she continued absently, "he's got on new stockings, and a different ...
— A Foregone Conclusion • W. D. Howells
... and for half an hour, at least, not a word passed on either side. From time to time, being forbidden to make any more inquiries, I stole a look at her face. It was always the same; the lips close shut, the brow frowning, the eyes looking straight forward, eagerly and yet absently. We had reached the first houses, and were close on the new Wesleyan college, before her set features relaxed ...
— The Woman in White • Wilkie Collins
... moment with her hands hanging straight at her sides, staring absently at the door. Then she glanced at Walt, staring wooden-faced from his gilt frame upon his gilt easel, and shivered. She pushed the red plush chair as far away from him as possible, sat down with her back to the picture, and immediately felt his dull, black ...
— Lonesome Land • B. M. Bower
... that letter through slowly, and then sat down heavily in an old arm-chair in the hotel office, lighted one of his favorite fat, black cigars, and mouthed it absently, while he read the letter through again. He said "John Jimpson!" just above a whisper. He held the letter in his two hands and regarded it strangely. Then he looked up, caught the quizzical, inquiring glance of Pete Lowry, and beckoned ...
— Jean of the Lazy A • B. M. Bower
... was annoyed that her daughter said nothing of the events of the morning, and soon went out again; Rosine and her father sat dreamily, he by the window, smoking, and she with an unread magazine before her. She looked absently about the room, with happy eyes, trying to recall the details of the scene between her and Daniel; her glance fell on her father's weary face, and its melancholy expression struck her sharply. She got up, and standing behind him, laid her hand on his shoulder and said, with ...
— Clerambault - The Story Of An Independent Spirit During The War • Rolland, Romain
... occupied in this way as he was absently taking off his gown, when Mr. Landor startled him by entering the vestry and asking abruptly, 'Have you heard ...
— Scenes of Clerical Life • George Eliot
... Thomas absently, as if he were thinking of something else, "to receive—if God's good pleasure ...
— Clare Avery - A Story of the Spanish Armada • Emily Sarah Holt
... lingering a little Sylvia went down. Slowly, because her errand was a hard one; thoughtfully, because she knew not where nor how she could best deliver it. No need to look for him or linger for his coming; he was already there. Alone in the hall, absently smoothing a little silken shawl she often wore, and waiting with a melancholy patience that smote her to the heart. He went to meet her, took both her hands in his, and looked into her face so tenderly, ...
— Moods • Louisa May Alcott
... was, that the girl did not appear to find the silence dreadful. She stood absently curling and uncurling a syringa-leaf between her long white fingers. All the lines of her were long, except the curl of her upper lip, and there was not an ungraceful one among them. Her face was quietly sad, but there was no sign ...
— Geoffrey Strong • Laura E. Richards
... put the recommendation of the son and master on the same line as that of the coal. Mr Headley answered the business matters absently, and ended by saying he would ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte M. Yonge
... with a smile. "Last fall I did something—well, it was foolish, though I wouldn't admit that to any one else. I was carried away by an impulse. Not that I regret. In the only really important way, I wouldn't undo it if I could—I think." Those last two words came absently, as if she were debating the ...
— The Cost • David Graham Phillips
... look so well together," she murmured absently. "He's so much broader—and a whole ...
— Then I'll Come Back to You • Larry Evans
... and with the perpetual smiles playing about his grimness, Mr. Blunt appeared to me positively satanic. Mills' hand was toying absently with an empty glass. Again they had forgotten my ...
— The Arrow of Gold - a story between two notes • Joseph Conrad
... understand in exactly what way," said Linda, absently rubbing her elbows and her knees. "Seems to me it's my promontories that have been knocked off, not ...
— Her Father's Daughter • Gene Stratton-Porter
... evolutions absently. His heart was ill-attuned to dances. But the thing had to be done, so it was as well to get it over. When the last movement had been completed, ...
— The Swoop! or How Clarence Saved England - A Tale of the Great Invasion • P. G. Wodehouse
... fingering the money and gazing absently down upon it as these thoughts flitted through his mind, and thinking, too, that it was somewhat singular that Mr. Knowles should have paid him in gold coin and of the very same denomination as he had given Edith less than forty-eight hours previous, and which ...
— The Masked Bridal • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
... would return a poem by Arabella Jones! Is the editor of the Athenian a dolt, Buddha? The Decade typewrites his regrets—that's better—but the Bystander says nothing at all but 'Declined with thanks' inside the flap of the envelope." The girl stared absently into the candle. She was not in reality greatly discouraged by these refusals: she knew that they were to be expected: indeed, they formed part of the picturesqueness of the situation in which she saw herself, alone in London, making her own fight for life as she found it worth living, by ...
— A Daughter of To-Day • Sara Jeannette Duncan (aka Mrs. Everard Cotes)
... low, while the king nodded absently. He was thinking that a penful of ink, carelessly trailed over a sheet of paper, had lost him his throne. He was about to draw the arm of the diplomat through his own, when his step was arrested by the entrance of a messenger ...
— The Puppet Crown • Harold MacGrath
... breakfast. She said, "Poor Mr. March!" and laughed inattentively; when he went on to philosophize the commonness of the sparse company always observable at the Sans-Souci as a just effect of its Laodicean situation between Pupp's and the Posthof, the girl sighed absently, and his wife frowned ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells |
