"Regret" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... "I regret that I have no messages for ye, sor," said he. "The comp'ny's land agent, Mr. Sleeman, will take ye wherever ye want to go in his autymobile. Ye will see his sign as ye go uptown. But, speakin' as man to man, Mr. Farwell, and havin' the interests of thim that pays me to heart, ...
— Desert Conquest - or, Precious Waters • A. M. Chisholm
... laughed. He was hurt bodily and mentally. There was a feeling of regret, too, uppermost, which made him resent this unseemly mirth as cowardly to a ...
— First in the Field - A Story of New South Wales • George Manville Fenn
... was one who still watched for the prodigal's return and longed ardently for his coming, for Wilhelmina Campbell still remembered with regret the days when their ranch had been his goal. No matter where he had been, or what desperate errand took him once more into the hills, he had headed for their ranch like a homing pigeon that longs to join its mates. The portal of ...
— Wunpost • Dane Coolidge
... gratitude I owe you, and I hope, when your squadron goes up the Baltic, you will put into Belfast on your way. It has afforded me very great pleasure to contribute something to your instruction and amusement, and I most sincerely regret that we must part to-day. For myself and my family I thank you for all you have ...
— Down the Rhine - Young America in Germany • Oliver Optic
... L. M. Rollin:—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation to be present at the preliminary organization of the association for the assertion of woman's rights in this State, and regret that the pressure of public duties precludes my indulging myself in that pleasure. Be assured, however, that the cause has my warmest sympathy, and I indulge the hope that the time is not far distant when woman shall be the peer of man in political rights, as ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various
... to learn that she had recovered her spirits, and that it had been but a passing discomfort. That he trusted (by this time he had secured the eyes of the Chief, and addressed him) he might be permitted to express his hope that she was now none the worse, and that she would not regret ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens
... exceeded only perhaps by that of the Japanese. People who one day read the announcement of the death of a son, a father, or a brother, are seen the next day in the streets or cafes going about quietly, expressing or betraying neither sorrow nor regret. The loved one has died "fuer Gott, fuer Koenig, und fuer Vaterland." That is glory enough, and neither the Emperor nor the people feel that it is appropriate to mourn for one who has ...
— The Note-Book of an Attache - Seven Months in the War Zone • Eric Fisher Wood
... nine o'clock, Warwick and Sir John Gates heard mass in the Tower chapel; the two Seymours were again present with Courtenay: and before Gates received the sacrament, he said a few words of regret to the latter for his long imprisonment, of which he admitted himself in part the cause.[97] On leaving the chapel Warwick was taken back to his room, and learned that he was respited. Gates joined Palmer, who was walking with ...
— The Reign of Mary Tudor • James Anthony Froude
... entertained by native dancers. Two at a time—a young man and woman—stand vis-a-vis and alternately sing a love ditty, the burthen of the theme usually opening by the regret of the young man that his amorous overtures have been disregarded. Explanations follow, in the poetic dialogue, as the parties dance around each other, keeping a slow step to the plaintive strains of music. This ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman
... dear and last object of my solicitude," he said, faintly addressing himself to the disconsolate Theodora, who, in a paroxysm of agony, was kneeling beside him, "Theodora, injured and unfortunate girl, too late I appreciate thy value; too late I deplore my fault. Oh! if I regret existence, it is because I cannot live to prove my love and gratitude. Forgive me, Theodora! forgive the repentant ...
— Gomez Arias - The Moors of the Alpujarras, A Spanish Historical Romance. • Joaquin Telesforo de Trueba y Cosio
... know, sir, that it will be so much at the expense of my friend? said the lady, fixing her eyes with a searching look on his countenance, where they met only the unsuspecting expression of manly regret. ...
— The Pioneers • James Fenimore Cooper
... melody which melts the world into a sea," and then, involuntarily, without premeditation, obeying a seemingly enforced impulse, he had turned toward her and she had lifted her eyes, violet eyes, touched with all regret; and a sudden surprised ecstasy had invaded every corner of his heart and filled it with sweetness and warmth, for the music, that enchanting, never-to-be-forgotten intermezzo, had revealed to him—the ...
— The Silver Butterfly • Mrs. Wilson Woodrow
... and the mighty keep that crowns it. It can claim attention therefore neither by magnitude and grandeur nor by prominence of position. Its tower is, however, next to the castle keep, the most conspicuous object in the town, and this fact makes our regret the greater, that it is not ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Rochester - A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See • G. H. Palmer
... merit! There are also some interesting gargoyles and a very ancient crucifix. A mile farther is the pleasant village of Hinton St. George. The fine village cross, though much mutilated, still retains enough of its former splendour to make us regret the many we have lost. The old thatched house known as the "Priory" is a delightful building. Hinton House is the home of the Pouletts, a famous family who came originally from the North Somerset sea-lands. Part of the house dates from the ...
— Wanderings in Wessex - An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter • Edric Holmes
... I can." She stepped back and the door was shut between them. As the car turned, Hilda waved her hand, and the General had a sense of sudden keen regret as the tall cloaked figure with its look of youth and ...
— The Tin Soldier • Temple Bailey
... he had none. He did not even regret any thing. He did not think of it, that the prisoner who was thus to be tried had once been his friend,—a friend of whom he was proud, whose hospitality he had enjoyed, and whose favor he had eagerly sought in his matrimonial aspirations. No. He only ...
— Within an Inch of His Life • Emile Gaboriau
... sir," one of the gentlemen said, "when you will have reason to regret the line which you have ...
— True to the Old Flag - A Tale of the American War of Independence • G. A. Henty
... Whip (Mr. Adam) asked me to stand for the Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities on very easy terms to myself. I declined, because I should have had to commit myself to the Liberal party, which I did not choose to do. Lord Carnarvon afterwards spoke to me with regret at my resolution. He had a conversation with Mr. D'Israeli, and it was agreed that if possible I should be brought in by a compromise without a contest. But it appeared doubtful afterwards whether the Liberals would consent to this without fuller ...
— The Life of Froude • Herbert Paul
... infrequent eddies of opinion, the current of its political progress has been steadily carrying the Northern Democracy farther and farther away from the example and the doctrines of Jefferson, you have surrendered yourself to the evil influence without a twinge of remorse or a sigh of regret. You have submitted to the insolent demands of Southern politicians with such prompt and easy acquiescence, that many of your oldest friends have mourned over your lost manhood, and sadly abandoned you to the worship of your ugly and obscene idol. A Northern man, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 74, December, 1863 • Various
... on my heart,—impressions of the image of Fanny Trevanion as the fairest and brightest of human beings,—could I feel free to love again? Could I seek to woo, and rivet to myself forever, the entire and virgin affections of another while there was a possibility that I might compare and regret? No; either I must feel that if Fanny were again single, could be mine without obstacle, human or divine, she had ceased to be the one I would single out of the world; or, though regarding love as the dead, I would be faithful to its memory and its ashes. My mother sighed, and looked fluttered ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... I regret to report the scene which followed. After trying hard to drown each other's voices, the two young maids of honour, who had sworn eternal friendship, commenced pushing, then spitting, then slapping, ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat
... harmony and beauty of his style, the dramatic interest of his narrative, and the careful research which renders his works as valuable for their accuracy as they are attractive for their style, have given Prescott's histories a brilliant and extensive reputation; and it is a matter of deep regret that his last and crowning work, "The History of Philip II.," should remain uncompleted. Another important contribution to the literature of the country is Motley's (1814- 1877) "History of the Rise ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta
... were passionate jabberings of regret. The Caid, was away, had been away for days, fighting the locusts on his other farm, west of Aumale, where there was grain to save. But the letter had arrived, and had been sent after him, immediately, by a man on horseback. This ...
— The Golden Silence • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... replied the plotter. "I have, as you observe, no further business here; and once I have packed a little bag, I shall ask you to share a frugal meal, to go with me as far as to the station, and see the last of a broken-hearted man. And yet," he added, looking on the boxes with a lingering regret, "I should have liked to make quite certain. I cannot but suspect my underlings of some mismanagement; it may be fond, but yet I cherish that idea: it may be the weakness of a man of science, but yet," he cried, rising into some energy, "I will never, I cannot if I try, believe that my poor dynamite ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... to Germany gave to acquaint you with Gisela von Arnim (Bettina's daughter), and Joachim the violinist, and Hermann Grimm the scholar, her friends. Neither has E.,—wandering in Europe with hope of meeting you,—yet met. This contumacy of mine I shall regret as long as I live. How palsy creeps over us, with gossamer first, and ropes afterwards! and the witch has the prisoner when once she has put her eye on him, as securely as after the bolts are drawn.—Yet I and all my little company watch every token from you, and coax Mrs. H. to read us letters. ...
— Ralph Waldo Emerson • Oliver Wendell Holmes
... to try to earn it. I can give you many things besides a whole-hearted admiration, Doris. You are the only woman I have ever thought of as wife. With me you would be secure from worldly hardships, and I venture to believe that you would never regret marrying me. One word more. You have been sad of late. No business of mine, perhaps, but if there is anything I can do, you may command me. Doris, will you ...
— Till the Clock Stops • John Joy Bell
... he began, in telling me how well I wore, was not disagreeable; but his indiscreet mention of a set of acquaintance we had outlived, recalled ten thousand things to my memory, which made me reflect upon my present condition with regret. Had he indeed been so kind as, after a long absence, to felicitate me upon an indolent and easy old age, and mentioned how much he and I had to thank for, who at our time of day could walk firmly, eat heartily and converse cheerfully, ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IV (of X)—Great Britain and Ireland II • Various
... so sudden and unbeknownstlike I said to myself that I was goin' to make that there dream come true; and I started out fur to do it. And I done it! And I reckin that's the cause of my bein' here to-day, accused of bein' feeble-minded. But, even so, I don't regret it none. Ef it was all to do over ag'in, I'd do it jest ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1917 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... Whenever, therefore, we recollect a thing which affects us with any kind of joy, we thereby endeavor to contemplate it with the same emotion of joy as if it were present,—an attempt which is, however, immediately restrained by the memory of that which excludes the existence of the thing. Regret, therefore, is really a sorrow which is opposed to the joy which arises from the absence of what we hate. But because the name regret seems to connect this emotion with desire, I therefore ascribe it ...
— The Philosophy of Spinoza • Baruch de Spinoza
... an expression of pathetic appeal, obtruded itself upon his meditations. He surprised himself mapping out a pleasant and beautiful future for her, or dwelling upon her misfortunes with a tender regret, and at such times took refuge from his thoughts in sudden action, shaking this folly off with fierce impatience, heaping abusive epithets upon his own head, arraigning himself as a drivelling sentimentalist; and what shame could equal that of ...
— In the Roaring Fifties • Edward Dyson
... good-humor, leaving Madeleine reflecting with regret upon the tools which harsh circumstance seemed ...
— Fairy Fingers - A Novel • Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
... regretfully followed the shiny broadcloth of his retreating back till it lost itself in the cloud of touts and cab-drivers hanging about the station; then she glanced across at Gannett and caught the same regret in his look. They were ...
— The Greater Inclination • Edith Wharton
... so well they were beginning to think with regret of the time when they must leave, for though really a city in size, the place had many of the attractions of a village. The gardens around the houses, the flowers and vines, the wide shady streets, combined to make ...
— The Spectacle Man - A Story of the Missing Bridge • Mary F. Leonard
... the faithful and upright Bongrand the justice to say that before he re-entered the salon he had abandoned, not without deep regret for his son, the hope he had cherished of some day calling Ursula his daughter. He meant to give his son six thousand francs a year the day he was appointed substitute, and if the doctor would give Ursula a hundred thousand ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac
... of his fellow-creatures; and he had to think twice before he flung himself into any casual piece of mischief which presented itself, lest he should involve her in disastrous consequences. On second thoughts he generally refrained with regret. The one practice he did not suffer to fall into desuetude was his daily bolt into the Salles de Jeu; of that she could always be a secure and ...
— The Admirable Tinker - Child of the World • Edgar Jepson
... attention, patience, and skill, be brought to light. * * With a smaller sum than is annually expended on the appointment of some silly and impertinent young envoy, we might restore all, or nearly all those writers of immortal name, whose disappearance has been the regret of genius for four entire centuries. In my opinion, a few thousand pounds, laid out on such an undertaking, would be laid out as creditably as on a Persian carpet or a Turkish tent."—Landor's Imaginary Conversations—Southey and Porson—Works, ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 70, March 1, 1851 • Various
... much so; and I regret very much that I should be the last to whom such important news ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat
... differently," said the young priest rudely; "it is useless to insist." And Abbe Picot once more began to regret his village, the sea which he saw from his parsonage, the little valleys where he walked while repeating his breviary, glancing up at the ...
— Une Vie, A Piece of String and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant
... Spithead before sunset. The circumstance of my going to sea affected my father in no other way than it interfered with his domestic comforts by the immoderate grief of my poor mother. In any other point of view my choice of profession was a source of no regret to him. I had an elder brother, who was intended to have the family estates, and who was then at Oxford, receiving an education suitable to his rank in life, and also learning how to spend his money like a gentleman. Younger brothers are, in such cases, just ...
— Frank Mildmay • Captain Frederick Marryat
... the desk was one from Miss Hitchcock, asking him to spend the coming Saturday and Sunday at Lake Forest. There was to be a small house party, and the new club was to be open. Sommers prepared to answer it at once—to regret. He had promised himself to see Mrs. Preston instead. In writing the letter it seemed to him that he was taking a position, was definitely deciding something, and at the close he tore it in two and took a fresh sheet. Now was the time, if he cared for the girl, to come nearer ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick
... Genoese Corsair and his Barbary rival. Doria gave up the captive Dragut to his old captain for a ransom of three thousand gold crowns—a transaction on which he afterwards looked back with unqualified regret. The situation was growing daily more unpleasant for France. From his easy position in Toulon, Barbarossa sent forth squadrons under S[a]lih Reis and other commanders to lay waste the coasts of Spain, while he remained "lazily engaged in emptying the ...
— The Story of the Barbary Corsairs • Stanley Lane-Poole
... afterwards transferred to Cherokee Springs as surgeon in charge of one of the convalescent hospitals, of which Mrs. Lee volunteered to act as matron. We parted with real regret, but truly her patients gained by our loss. For she was most competent, faithful, and well-beloved by those to ...
— Memories - A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure During Four Years of War • Fannie A. (Mrs.) Beers
... the Rio Grande during this period there sprang up many factional differences from various causes, some personal, others political, and some, I regret to say, from downright moral obliquity—as, for example, those between Cortinas and Canales —who, though generally hostile to the Imperialists, were freebooters enough to take a shy at each other frequently, and now ...
— The Memoirs of General P. H. Sheridan, Complete • General Philip Henry Sheridan
... With sincere regret Heideck saw the Prince depart. He did not share the hope, which the latter expressed to him, that they would meet again. But he remembered him as one of his most interesting acquaintances and a very charming comrade notwithstanding those ...
— The Coming Conquest of England • August Niemann
... an idle fancy, the unfortunate result of unoccupied days, you were about to take a step which would assuredly lead to regret at least, very probably to more active repentance. In fact, I should have warned you not to spoil your life ...
— A Life's Morning • George Gissing
... old E'en thy very pain grew cold, How thou might'st not measure bliss E'en when eyes and hands drew nigh. Thou rememberest all regret For the scarce remembered kiss. The lost dream of how they met, Mouths once parched with misery. Then seemed Love born but to die, Now unrest, pain, bliss are one, ...
— Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough • William Morris
... many fears, it is largely horrible in the foresight. After you have changed your nature you cannot regret it. What you are would be as horrible an idea to you afterwards as the thought of what you ...
— The Coming of the Ice • G. Peyton Wertenbaker
... dinner-table. The commodore, who, it would seem, was habitually well fed, merely paid a little complimentary attention to the banquet; but Mr. Downright attacked it tooth and nail, and I had no great reason to regret the absence of Mr. Poke. In the meantime, the conversation did ...
— The Monikins • J. Fenimore Cooper
... year or two back were cousins to the Lieutenant. When the throng came out to the carry-all I was there and mounted. Squire Wall took me a few rods to point out where a fork of his private road led into the highway. Then the carry-all came merrily after, and with a regret that surprised me I answered our Lieutenant's farewell wave, forgave him all his charms, and saw him face westward ...
— The Cavalier • George Washington Cable
... she repeated. At her words, the doctor tried to reassure her; but feeling that if he opened his mouth he must needs break into sobs, he still kept silent. The marquise appealed to him a third time. "I entreat you, sir, forgive me; and do not regret the time you have passed with me. You will say a De Profundus at the moment of my death, and a mass far me to-morrow: ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - THE MARQUISE DE BRINVILLIERS • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... the mainland to the causeway, when it sunk a good deal, as the causeway was made of fresh earth. This, however, I did not regret, as it was better that it should be so, than that it should run too fast towards the water; for I had to consider that if this piece of antiquity should fall into the Nile, my return to Europe would not be ...
— How to See the British Museum in Four Visits • W. Blanchard Jerrold
... the bushes with an expression of chagrin on his fat face. "It's gone," he said with a sigh of regret. "A dollar and eighty-seven cents' worth of chicken stew ...
— The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit - Or, Over the Top with the Winnebagos • Hildegard G. Frey
... for any alterations to be effected before the sheets went to press. This took the heart out of my work for that Dictionary. For its modernness, for many of its lexicographical features, and for its splendid illustrations, I entertain a cordial admiration for the book, and I greatly regret the unworthiness of my share in it. It is quite evident that others had contributed Australasian words, and I must confess I hardly like to be held responsible for some of ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris
... "suspended his design" of examining other characters of the poet, when the bright effusions of his genius "fled up to the stars from whence they came." This elegant little work is merely a fragment, nay, even an unfinished fragment. It must, then, cause deep regret, that death should so prematurely have deprived us of that rich treasure of animated thoughts, which, no doubt, would have sprung from his further tracing the poet's deep and piercing knowledge of the human heart. One may safely apply to Mr. Whateley, what he himself applies to the poet:—"He ...
— On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, • Samuel Felton
... the manner of one who begins a set narration. "In the year of '91 the rain came, more, more, more, until the earth was full and the excess made lagunas on the plain. That year the Salagua left all bounds and swept my fine fields of standing corn away, but we did not regret it beyond reason for the grass came up on the mesas high as a horse's belly, and my cattle and those of my friend Don Luis, the good father of Jeff, here, spread out across the plains as far as the eye could see, and every cow raised ...
— Hidden Water • Dane Coolidge
... Brown, with frank regret. "There's a great marble monument on top of it; a monument to the heroic Major Murray, who fell fighting gloriously at the famous Battle of ...
— The Innocence of Father Brown • G. K. Chesterton
... the darkest, the keenest shaft of its hatred, so fertile in its cruelties. This hatred, by a renewed and unparalleled sternness, lays before my gaze the choice it has made of all that is fairest in the world, only that I may leave it with deeper regret. ...
— Psyche • Moliere
... them vigorously up and down as he whispered, "Oh, my little girl! You never can know what it cost me to go off and leave you here alone!" His frank, honest blue eyes looked straight into her deep violet ones, and his glance told eloquently of his remorse and regret for the mischief ...
— Patty's Butterfly Days • Carolyn Wells
... decline all invitations to dine with him and her father—a strong-minded old admiral, whose authority was unbounded, only, to Bella's regret, very rarely exerted. Nothing would have pleased her more than to be forbidden this and commanded that; but no! the admiral was a lion with an enormous paw, only he could not be got to put it ...
— A Terrible Temptation - A Story of To-Day • Charles Reade
... Ousebank, and the mills, and the hands—the ungrateful people; they turned against me even, though they know I have always taken their parts and sympathised with them,' she burst out. Then the words of her uncle came back to her that she would one day regret the attitude she had taken up, and she wondered whether she didn't regret it a little now. And then Luke Mickleroyd's remarks haunted her, and with a sudden impatient movement she got up and went to the door. There she paused irresolutely, and then, half-shamefacedly, ...
— Sarah's School Friend • May Baldwin
... regret, in the interest of elegant manners, that these arguments are not more generally known. Heaven grant, therefore, that our book may have an immense success, as women will obtain this advantage from it, ...
— Petty Troubles of Married Life, Second Part • Honore de Balzac
... the use of the knife was opposed to general feeling, as it is, or as I regret to say, as it used to be in this country. I was passing down Broadway in New York, when a scoundrel of a carman flogged with his whip a young Southern who had a lady under his protection. Justly irritated, and no match for the sturdy ruffian in physical ...
— Diary in America, Series Two • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)
... rest of the year the Bellevite remained on duty as a blockader off Fort Morgan. It was an idle life for the most part, and Christy began to regret that he had caused himself to be transferred from the command of the Bronx. The steamer occasionally had an opportunity to chase a blockade-runner, going in or coming out of the bay. She was the fastest vessel ...
— Fighting for the Right • Oliver Optic
... only full of her first love, which of itself is a burden of pain to a young girl, but also it was sore from the grief of her first loss, the humiliation of her first mistake, and the pang of her first regret for ...
— The Touchstone of Fortune • Charles Major
... stirring of something new towards Archelaus. It was not any touch of that irrational affection that very easily affected people experience for those they have never really liked and yet towards whom they feel a warm outflow merely because of the approach of death; neither was it any regret that he had not loved Archelaus in life. That would have been absurd; there had been nothing to make him like his brother and everything to make him do the reverse, and he was not of those whose values are upset by approaching death. ...
— Secret Bread • F. Tennyson Jesse
... leaving us before." The regret in Tollman's voice was sincere, because it was the regret of a trapper who sees game slipping away from the snare, and it made him perhaps a shade over insistent. "Do you really regard ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck
... when you have had six months to think things over, if, after mature consideration, you can persuade yourself to write a few words of regret, ...
— An Enemy of the People • Henrik Ibsen
... advancing valuation gave no occasion for regret, other phases brought a spread of dismay and apprehension. In an essay of 1859 Edmund Ruffin analyzed the effects in Virginia. In the last fifteen years, he said, the value of slaves had been doubled, solely because of the demand from the lower ...
— American Negro Slavery - A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime • Ulrich Bonnell Phillips
... as time passed and brought no tidings of the robbers, the poor man grew more thin and careworn every day. He would talk for hours about Switzerland, about his own village, his father's house, his parents and relations. He had left them so thoughtlessly, he said, he had scarcely felt a regret; yet now a yearning grew within him to look once more upon those dear faces, and the verdant mountains of his country,—upon its cool, rushing streams, wide, green pastures, and the cows that grazed on them. ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 2, December, 1857 • Various
... and that he would escort her to the frontier. 'To-morrow,' he added, 'I shall go to meet her with the Empress; I shall make the most of every moment she can give me, and I shall part with her with the sincerest regret.' ...
— The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise • Imbert De Saint-Amand
... never allowed them to darken the opening of the Lord's day. They were thrown aside as far as possible, and, in after years when the old stone house was tenantless and its inmates dispersed, their thoughts often turned with affectionate regret towards the bright Sunday ...
— The Old Stone House • Anne March
... the course of the following June there was ushered into my studio a gentleman whom I had not yet seen but with whom I had been very briefly in correspondence. A letter from him had expressed to me some days before his regret on learning that my "splendid portrait" of Titras Flora Louisa Saunt, whose full name figured by her own wish in the catalogue of the exhibition of the Academy, had found a purchaser before the close of the private view. He took the liberty of inquiring whether I might have at his service ...
— Embarrassments • Henry James
... I was sanguine about finding him; but I regret to say my hopes have very much declined, and I begin to think he must have changed his quarters. If you have heard from him within the last few days, perhaps you will be so kind as to send me the ...
— Wylder's Hand • J. Sheridan Le Fanu
... word e'en yet; Were our eyes speaking while they watched the sky? And in the sunset Infinite regret Swept sighing from the skies into our souls — ...
— Poems: Patriotic, Religious, Miscellaneous • Abram J. Ryan, (Father Ryan)
... particulars. They simply express their regret that it should be impossible to keep him. That can have only one meaning." Mrs. Grose listened with dumb emotion; she forbore to ask me what this meaning might be; so that, presently, to put the thing with some coherence and with the mere aid of her presence to my own mind, I went ...
— The Turn of the Screw • Henry James
... never marry." Miss Kiametia's half bantering tone dropped, and the eyes she turned to Kathleen were shadowed with a haunting regret. "The habits of a life-time ...
— I Spy • Natalie Sumner Lincoln
... without regaining consciousness, he might even be sent to the electric chair, and always his name would be mentioned with horror. While these thoughts were passing through the dazed mind of the boy, there came, also, the keen regret that Frank Shaw had not accompanied him to the building. That would have changed everything—just ...
— Boy Scouts in Mexico; or On Guard with Uncle Sam • G. Harvey Ralphson
... Maynard, "I reckon more than one of us begin to regret already that we were not so desperately wounded as to need your attention and that of Miss Baron. We must remember, however, that she is not accustomed to these scenes, and I think we must try to make her forget them at the table. ...
— Miss Lou • E. P. Roe
... prosperity of the United States is the source of the most serious dangers that threaten them, since it tends to create in some of the confederate States that over-excitement which accompanies a rapid increase of fortune; and to awaken in others those feelings of envy, mistrust, and regret which usually attend upon the loss of it. The Americans contemplate this extraordinary and hasty progress with exultation; but they would be wiser to consider it with sorrow and alarm. The Americans of the United States must ...
— Democracy In America, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alexis de Tocqueville
... to descend and fasten the plane—he wandered, profoundly distracted, above the town with his anchor down! Figure to yourself, dear mother, it is the roof of the mayor's house that the grapnel first engages! That I do not regret, for the mayor's wife and I are not sympathetic; but when Xavier uproots my pet araucaria and bears it across the garden into the conservatory I protest at the top of my voice. Little Victor in his night-clothes runs to the window, enormously amused at the parabolic ...
— With The Night Mail - A Story of 2000 A.D. (Together with extracts from the - comtemporary magazine in which it appeared) • Rudyard Kipling
... was very wrong, and I regret having done so, Raoul. It seems nothing to write to a friend and say 'Come;' but to have this friend face to face, to feel him tremble, and breathlessly and anxiously wait to hear what one hardly dare ...
— Louise de la Valliere • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... discord amidst its strains. Nevertheless since bhakti grows by thought and word, it is not amiss that we should come near a subject so sacred; only in dealing with it we must needs feel our incompetency, we must needs regret our limitations, we must needs wish for greater power of expression than we can have down here. For, perhaps, amid all the divine manifestations that have glorified the world, there is none which has aroused a wider, tenderer feeling than ...
— Avataras • Annie Besant
... corpses—has taken advantage of the unused plot of ground to plant potatoes there. From year to year, however, his small field grows smaller and when there is an epidemic, he does not know whether to rejoice at the deaths or regret the burials. ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VIII (of X) - Continental Europe II. • Various
... would. Sensible little gal! Well, Miss, you shan't regret it. Bless you, we'll be as chummy together as ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, March 29, 1890 • Various
... to engage him in our conversation, "it is true that something can be learned from books; but a great deal more can be learned by travelling, and I regret that I have not been able to go round the world like you. I have lived in the same house for thirty years and I ...
— The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard • Anatole France
... of Daisy's death from her brother only a few days before, and had felt a pang of regret that she had treated her quite so harshly on the occasion of her visit ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes
... serve as priests—that is to say, as chief directing priests—when "Parsifal" is played. Thus declare the naive dwellers in Villa Wahnfried, modestly forgetting the missing link in the chain of argument which should prove them alone to be the people qualified to perform "Parsifal"; and I regret to observe the support they receive from a number of Englishmen and Scotchmen, who are grown more German than the Germans, and just as religiously forget to make any reference to this missing link of proof. But these Germanised Scotchmen ...
— Old Scores and New Readings • John F. Runciman
... remembered that this cold and contemptuous, this scoffing and jeering world was the same in which only yesterday he proposed to tower in such lofty grandeur that the maiden who had slighted him should be consumed with vain regret in memory of her lost opportunity. He had, indeed, gained eminence speedily. All the town was hearing of him; but the pedestal which lifted him so high was composed equally of crime and folly, and he felt as if he might stand as ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe
... interesting had happened since she could remember, and it had rained steadily for four days. Mr. Parsons, who played right tackle on the Winsted team, had written that he was laid up with a lame shoulder, which, greatly to his regret, would prevent his taking Betty to his fraternity dance. Helen was toiling on a "lit." paper with a zealous industry which got her up at distressingly early hours in the morning, and was "enough to mad a saint," according ...
— Betty Wales Freshman • Edith K. Dunton
... not regret that I did so. I think that I have never heard the dry bones of history clothed so fascinatingly. The knowledge displayed by my unknown visitor of the history of that old monkish corner of England was truly amazing. The Coverlys, it appeared, had played their part in that history right ...
— The Green Eyes of Bast • Sax Rohmer
... with him under his cloak. Quite early on the drive up he began speculating about who would be at the party, and when he had suggested various figures who were certainly not going to be there he said with a mixture of regret and acceptance, "There is always such a sundering quality about Belloc's quarrels." When he rose to propose the toast he said at once that if he or anybody else in the room was remembered at all in the future it would be because ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward
... and impracticable, he invented something entirely new, superseding it altogether. But with all his inventive genius, in the exercise of which Mr. Roberts has so largely added to the productive power of the country, we regret to say that he is not gifted with the commercial faculty. He has helped others in their difficulties, but forgotten himself. Many have profited by his inventions, without even acknowledging the obligations which they owed ...
— Industrial Biography - Iron Workers and Tool Makers • Samuel Smiles
... go on record as being an advocate of crime," he said whimsically; "that would never do. But I don't mind admitting quite privately that it's been a positive regret to ...
— The Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard
... both written and telephoned her, but she made excuses, and did not see him, and the last time he had hung up the receiver abruptly. She felt an odd mixture of relief and regret. ...
— A Poor Wise Man • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... letters and documents are in my custody at Donohil Rectory, and I am perfectly willing to allow any responsible person to examine them, subject to certain restrictions, these latter obviously being that names of people and places must not be divulged, for I regret to say that in very many instances my correspondents have laid this burden upon me. This is to be the more regretted, because the use of blanks, or fictitious initials, makes a story appear much less convincing than if ...
— True Irish Ghost Stories • St John D Seymour
... above, if ever a person needs to be calm and deliberate, it is when about to take the most important step of his whole life. But men don't generally take important steps, or enter upon decisive movements, when they are excited. When one is excited he is very apt to do the wrong thing, and regret it afterwards. ...
— The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church • G. H. Gerberding
... frequented by an insect covered profusely with a snow-white powder, arranged in delicate filaments that curl like a head of dressed celery. These it moves without dispersing the powder: but when dead they fall rapidly to dust. I regret that I did not preserve specimens, but I have reason to think that they are the larvae of the Flata limbata, or of some other closely allied species[1], though I have not seen in Ceylon any of the wax ...
— Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon • J. Emerson Tennent
... a woman silent. He may know the story of my miserable home life, but he does not know—and he must never know—of the magnetic power which drew me toward him, made me tell my story, and left me with a regret and a tenderness which has closed my heart to any other ...
— The Inner Sisterhood - A Social Study in High Colors • Douglass Sherley et al.
... chance of escape, and she did not know why she had done it. The impulse to refuse had been unreasoning, overpowering; and now it was all over she only knew that she had done what Honor would approve, and what she herself would regret to the end of her life. How far the girl whose soul had been concentrated on Evelyn's uplifting was responsible for her flash of self-sacrifice, is a problem that must be left for psychologists ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver
... informed her. "You must remain in one place. There can be no roaming about. This seaman who is your guard will see that you remain where you are for the present. I cannot permit you to leave this part of the dining room. Ladies, I regret being obliged to be so disagreeable, but I beg to assure you that your rights will be respected, and that you shall come to no ...
— Dave Darrin After The Mine Layers • H. Irving Hancock
... of England has set a price upon your head and mine. If this Declaration is not made good by the people of these colonies you and I will be shot, hanged by the neck till dead, or burned at the stake as traitors. If we fail, my only regret will be that I have but one life to give for my country. But with faith in the people and in God to carry our cause through to a glorious victory, the delegates from Massachusetts stand as one man for Independence. Massachusetts, ...
— America First - Patriotic Readings • Various
... much regret at this. Failing Charlotte Harman, she turned her attention to Hinton. She was fully resolved that no stone should remain unturned by her to enable those two yet to marry, and she thought she might ...
— How It All Came Round • L. T. Meade
... sleep here on the floor?" he said, showing us a clean-looking office. "We regret we have ...
— The Luck of Thirteen - Wanderings and Flight through Montenegro and Serbia • Jan Gordon
... I regret that the commercial interests between the United States and Brazil, from which great advantages were hoped a year ago, have suffered from the withdrawal of the American lines of communication between the ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 2 (of 2) of Volume 8: Chester A. Arthur • James D. Richardson
... wasted lives they led and the poverty of their nourishment, were reduced to a state of semi-idiocy. The men hardly seemed to have the strength and energy to walk or even stand up—although I must confess, to my regret, that they had not yet ...
— Across Unknown South America • Arnold Henry Savage Landor
... I hurried home and we put Poppy into her brown jacket, securing it neatly with strings. By morning, I regret to say, she had kicked it to shreds. Also the Finn woman decided that she needed higher pay and more milk as her perquisite. Since we were obviously "city folks" she thought she might as well hold us up, and she felt sure that I couldn't get any one ...
— The Smiling Hill-Top - And Other California Sketches • Julia M. Sloane
... to think it over during the next few days; but the old man could see, to his regret, that the Mortlocks group of islands possessed a strong fascination ...
— Tessa - 1901 • Louis Becke
... I regret to add that there was also a Lady, that she was garbed for riding in the style affected by mere man, and that she swaggered loud-voiced, horsey, slapping ...
— Driftwood Spars - The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who - Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life • Percival Christopher Wren
... would not do differently from what I have done. What have I done? I have simply preached God's truth, as I plainly see it, to my church. And if I do not do that, what business have I in the ministry at all? I regret this personal encounter with Mr. Winter; but I don't see how I ...
— The Crucifixion of Philip Strong • Charles M. Sheldon
... on the eastern slope of the ridge, it receives more rain than any part of the westward. Sekwebu had been instructed to point out to me the advantages of this position for a settlement, as that which all the Makololo had never ceased to regret. It needed no eulogy from Sekwebu; I admired it myself, and the enjoyment of good health in fine open scenery had an exhilarating effect on my spirits. The great want was population, the Batoka having all taken refuge in the hills. We were now in the vicinity of those whom the Makololo deem ...
— Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa - Journeys and Researches in South Africa • David Livingstone
... command, there are now among you, (I speak it with pride and pleasure,) there are many chiefs whose merit and experience are equal to the conduct of the most important war. Such has been the temper of my reign, that I can retire, without regret, and without apprehension, to the obscurity of a private station." The modest resolution of Julian was answered by the unanimous applause and cheerful obedience of the Romans, who declared their confidence of victory, while ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon
... a club-house, and, with a pang of regret for the lost comforts of such an establishment, glanced enviously at its cosey interior, disclosed ...
— The Copper Princess - A Story of Lake Superior Mines • Kirk Munroe
... us go," he replied. "Unfortunately, I am accustomed to such scenes—I, who would give my life without the slightest regret to save ...
— The Lily of the Valley • Honore de Balzac
... My greatest regret is that my profession takes me to Baltimore on the day that you are giving the dinner at the Lotus Club to my friend Cyril Maude. It would give me the greatest pleasure to eat his health with you. I rejoice that you are giving recognition on his first arrival here in New ...
— Charles Frohman: Manager and Man • Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman
... faces keenly, and he thought with regret of the time not long ago, when he too had been one of the happiest of all the merry guests of just such another party. But where was Doll? He could not see her anywhere, and so intent was he on searching for his beloved, ...
— Heiress of Haddon • William E. Doubleday
... comprehending its cause, and but for the terrific cry of the Indians that had preceded them, would have mistaken the deafening broadsides for the blowing up of the vessel, so tremendous and violent bad been the concussion. Nay, there was a moment when Miss de Haldimar felt a pang of deep disappointment and regret at the misconception; for, with the fearful recollection of past events, so strongly impressed on her bleeding heart, she could not but acknowledge, that to be engulfed in one general and disastrous explosion, was ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson
... imported and liberated a number of times in this country, but apparently is not able to thrive here, a fact which will not cause much regret when we remember the experiment with the English Sparrow. They are abundant in Europe and Great Britain where they nest on the ground in cultivated fields or meadows, laying from three to five grayish eggs, marked with brown, drab ...
— The Bird Book • Chester A. Reed
... last in a position to dictate to the diet. The opportunity for which he had been longing since his first acceptance of the crown was now at hand. He had won an unconditional victory over every one of his opponents, and he was minded to use this victory for all that it was worth. It is matter of regret that practically no account is given us of the steps by which the measures that he sought to have enacted were attained. This very meagreness, however, is strong evidence that the measures were enacted without much ...
— The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa • Paul Barron Watson
... a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every ...
— Pearls of Thought • Maturin M. Ballou
... have met the fate of newspapers, and are now on file. The more considerable poets themselves appeared to be jealous of the war; they complained bitterly that Mars had displaced Apollo; but later readers regret the ferocious sack of Magdeburg, or the death of Gustavus Adolphus, more than the silencing ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 56, June, 1862 • Various
... Petersburg before he had made up his mind to leave a place where he found he had nothing to do and little to enjoy. He was homesick, too, as a young husband and father with an affectionate nature like his ought to have been under these circumstances. He did not regret having made the experiment, for he knew that he should not have been satisfied with himself if he had not made it. It was his first trial of a career in which he contemplated embarking, and in which afterwards he had an eventful experience. In his private ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... a hoarse voice, looking into the very eyes of Paul. "I am the slayer of the slave, and regret only that I slew him without torture. Know you whose slave he was, by ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) • Henry William Herbert
... heavy dumbbells elicited hearty applause. With no breaks they went through with marching, stepping movements, wand-drills and the anvil chorus, the exercises closing with a full chorus, "The Song of the Sea," by Veazie. Our only regret was that so many must be turned away. Between the concert and the gymnastic drills, Miss Dickerman's tiny ones entertained the company with motion songs, recitations and solos, showing the careful drill and ...
— The American Missionary — Volume 48, No. 7, July, 1894 • Various
... well-nourished, lazy, content; its home of dusky silver hung on high, where its pleasure lay in weaving, clinging, hoarding, breeding. It lived in the dark; it had neither pity nor regret; it troubled itself neither for the death it dealt to nourish itself, nor for the light without, into which it never wandered; it spun ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida
... to the United States, I find America confronted by the same peril and shame. Here, too, I find anti-Jewish meetings being held. To my great astonishment and regret, I find that the personal influence and the vast fortune of the erstwhile pacifist-philanthropist are apparently enlisted in the same cruel and vicious propaganda. The Dearborn Independent, which is the personal organ of Mr. Henry Ford, maintained ...
— The Jew and American Ideals • John Spargo
... narration of my adventures from the time of the abandonment of the Manilla to the moment of the capture of the Jean Bart. He complimented me highly upon my conduct throughout, and, while promising to immediately relieve me of the charge of my prisoners, incidentally expressed his regret that I had not selected the navy as my profession. I answered him that I was but an obscure individual, with no influence or patronage whatever at my command, and that, therefore, had I entered the navy, I should probably never ...
— The Log of a Privateersman • Harry Collingwood
... advantage with the usual license of rapine and plunder, and miserably sacked the whole town, without any distinction of persons and places. Churches and hospitals, as well as other houses, were made a prey to the enraged and greedy soldier, to the exceeding regret of the King.' Clarendon goes on to account for the exceeding regret of Charles: it was because many of his faithful friends had suffered, in the confusion of this murderous scene of rapine ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... by expressing sincere regret at beholding choral and orchestral studies still so badly organized. Everywhere, for grand choral and instrumental compositions, the system of rehearsals in the mass is maintained. They make all the chorus-singers study at once, on the one hand; and all ...
— The Orchestral Conductor - Theory of His Art • Hector Berlioz |
