"Best man" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... rolled up the plans of the farm, and pulled forth that of the dwelling-house from a bundle of papers. "Ay, here it is. By my troth, ye'll be weel lodged here. The hoose is in a manner quite new, for it has never had a brush upon it yet. And there's a byre—fient a bit, if I would mean the best man i' the ...
— Marriage • Susan Edmonstone Ferrier
 Read full book for free!
... vestry room to meet her, smiling, radiant, tripping as if he had been a slim young lover of twenty, instead of a tall and heavy giant of fifty odd. He took her hand, lifted it to his lips, and led her to the altar, where both knelt. The bridesmaids grouped behind them. The best man stood on the groom's right. Old Aaron Rockharrt, Mrs. Rothsay and Cadet Haught came out of their pew and formed ...
— For Woman's Love • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
Read full book for free!
... resting, taking that by itself, my Brother, who has gone back to Rome with some thoughts of settling as a Physician there, presses me to come thither, and rest in Rome. On the other hand, a certain John Sterling (the best man I have found in these regions) has been driven to Bordeaux lately for his health; he will have it that I must come to him, and walk through the South of France to Dauphine, Avignon, and over the Alps next spring!* Thirdly, my Mother will have ...
— The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, - 1834-1872, Vol. I • Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Read full book for free!
... who or what the great Kalatah might be. The chief was astonished, not to say chagrined, at the confession of so much ignorance, and the hunters were instantly enlightened. Kalatah was the most noble warrior, the best brother, the most loyal subject, in fact the best man in every way, that ever lived, and his memory was, and ought to be, respected over the whole world. This was news to our adventurers, and they were anxious to learn more of the chief and his wonderful relative. ...
— The Giraffe Hunters • Mayne Reid
Read full book for free!
... fun gettin' married," said the chief bridesmaid pensively to the best man. "Why don't you go and ...
— The Keeper of the Door • Ethel M. Dell
Read full book for free!
... he means to be very kind," Jervis answered; "but the journey has got on his nerves rather. However, I helped him to a hot bath, and now he has gone to bed in a happier frame of mind; and he wants to be best man to-morrow, so I have squared matters with Miles. ...
— A Countess from Canada - A Story of Life in the Backwoods • Bessie Marchant
Read full book for free!
... worthy disciple of that venerated philanthropist, Warner Mifflin, whom the Girondist statesman, Jean Pierre Brissot, pronounced "an angel of mercy, the best man he ever knew," was one of the noble band of Pennsylvania abolitionists, whose bravery was equalled only by their gentleness and tenderness. He presided at the great anti-slavery meeting in Pennsylvania Hall, May 17, 1838, when ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier
Read full book for free!
... "The best man possible for such a case as mine,—kind-hearted, yet cool, sagacious; the finest observer, the quickest judge of character,—nothing escapes him. Oh, one interview will suffice to show him all Helen's ...
— Lucretia, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Read full book for free!
... good a swordsman as the best man in Florence, and far better than the most that handled steel, and he thought and spoke in the wish to protect his new-made friend, whom he took to have no such ...
— The God of Love • Justin Huntly McCarthy
Read full book for free!
... there seized some o the men, They coud neither fight nor flee; The swans they bound the bride's best man Below ...
— Book of Old Ballads • Selected by Beverly Nichols
Read full book for free!
... counter-question. "We can't be expected to play on the bench the best man in Pennsylvania in that ...
— Double Trouble - Or, Every Hero His Own Villain • Herbert Quick
Read full book for free!
... trembling voice.] Here rests in God the unforgotten carpenter ... [Weeping aloud.] Oh, no, I tell you, it's too awful! That man—he was the best man in the world, he was. A man like that, you c'n take my word for it, you ain't likely to find ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann
Read full book for free!
... him. I made him take water. I 'laow I'm 'bout the best man with a six-shooter in these ...
— Desert Dust • Edwin L. Sabin
Read full book for free!
... great similarity of circumstance at Lyons, and is still going on. Talleyrand produced the 'Moniteur' last night with the account, lamented that the Duc d'Orleans had been sent with Marshal Soult to Lyons, which he said was unnecessary and absurd, that Soult was the best man for the purpose of putting it down. It was begun by the workpeople, who were very numerous, not political in its objects, but the cries denoted a mixture of everything, as they shouted 'Henri V., Napoleon II, La Republique, and Bristol.' ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. II • Charles C. F. Greville
Read full book for free!
... women would often be deficient. That the habit was most extensively practised during former times, even by the ancestors of civilised nations, is clearly shewn by the preservation of many curious customs and ceremonies, of which Mr. M'Lennan has given an interesting account. In our own marriages the "best man" seems originally to have been the chief abettor of the bridegroom in the act of capture. Now as long as men habitually procured their wives through violence and craft, they would have been glad to ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin
Read full book for free!
... his examiners ranked him the best man of his year, and in mistaken kindness the college decided to grant him the unusual compliment of keeping him in college through the vacation with a special mathematical tutor, gratis, to work with him, mathematics being considered his weakness. As his only chance ...
— Shandygaff • Christopher Morley
Read full book for free!
... moderating his voice to a more conciliatory key, "I'll tell you what I'll do. There's no use shooting each other over this. Send down your best man—if he licks me I go around; if I lick him I come ...
— Hidden Water • Dane Coolidge
Read full book for free!
... up with a steady hand, and addressed it first to Nelly, enclosing it in a larger envelope addressed to his oldest friend, a school-fellow, who had been his best man at their marriage. Then he stole downstairs, unlocked the front door, and crossing the road in the moonlight, he put the letter into the wall post-box on the further side. And before re-entering the ...
— Missing • Mrs. Humphry Ward
Read full book for free!
... must be a small-souled man, indeed, who, in the presence of grand mountain scenery, can not forget his own personality, realizing the infinite beauty and the unspeakable greatness of nature. Erica's father was unquestionably a large-souled man, in every sense of the word, a great man; but the best man in the world is to a great extent dependent on circumstance, and the circumstances of Raeburn's life had been exceptionally hard. Only two things on earth acted as a check upon the one great fault which marred an otherwise fine character. ...
— We Two • Edna Lyall
Read full book for free!
... voice of the man of God. Sim Gage's eyes were raised in sudden question. Neither he nor Doctor Barnes, quasi best man, had ever given thought to this matter of the ring. But again Doctor Barnes was able to serve. Quickly he slipped off the seal ring from his own finger and passed it to Sim Gage. The gentle hand of the churchly official showed him how to place it upon the finger of Mary Warren, who raised ...
— The Sagebrusher - A Story of the West • Emerson Hough
Read full book for free!
... simply, and pointing to the foremost of the three, "That 'im?... Sure?"... and being told that it was, shot his rival instantly and very accurately through the chest. He then shot Bill's best man much less tidily in the head, and then shot at and winged the third man as he fled. The third gentleman yelped, and continued running with a comical ...
— The War in the Air • Herbert George Wells
Read full book for free!
... Duke of Hazlewood had to tell was that Miss L'Estrange had promised to be his wife, and that the marriage was to take place in August. He prayed Lord Arleigh to be present as his "best man" on ...
— Wife in Name Only • Charlotte M. Braeme (Bertha M. Clay)
Read full book for free!
... to have the newspapers getting hold of the fact that Mrs. Lorimer is being married again so soon. There'd be paragraphs, and the suspicions of Simpkins would be excited. On the whole, I don't think we'll have a wedding cake, or bridesmaids, or anything of that sort. But you can be best man if you like." ...
— The Simpkins Plot • George A. Birmingham
Read full book for free!
... hunter, with a silent laugh at the other's evident dismay. "And not only that, but he's the best fighter and best man in the whole Ottaway tribe. They call him Songa, the strong heart, and I consate Sir William would be passing glad to exchange one hundred pounds of the king's money ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore
Read full book for free!
... days of Plutarch,' he answered. 'And I doubt the days of Plutarch never were. For already you have learned that a man may act most evilly, even as Privy Seal, and yet be the best man in the world. And ...' he ducked his great head sardonically at her, 'you have learned that a man may be most evil and yet act passing well for your good. So I will draw the picture of the ...
— The Fifth Queen • Ford Madox Ford
Read full book for free!
... lad,' said the good farmer. 'I shall send my best man and fleetest horse this very night, that they may know the straits in which you are. I have a file here if it would ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle
Read full book for free!
... animal was supernatural. No one was now hardy enough to deny it, and no one appeared to have the least idea of how to proceed except Smallbones, who, as we have shown, was as full of energy as he was deficient in fat. On all occasions of this kind the bravest becomes the best man and takes the lead, and Smallbones, who appeared more collected and less alarmed than the others, was now listened to with attention, and the ...
— Snarleyyow • Captain Frederick Marryat
Read full book for free!
... Did he suppose that Miss Nancy Lammeter was to be won by any man, squire or no squire, who led a bad life? That was not what she had been used to see in her own father, who was the soberest and best man in that country-side, only a little hot and hasty now and then, if things were not done ...
— Silas Marner - The Weaver of Raveloe • George Eliot
Read full book for free!
... had no love to give; and she knew now that the life she must thenceforth lead would be daily torture. Almost the worse because she had for Mr. Masters so deep a respect and so true an appreciation. And he loved her; of that there was no question; the whole affection of the best man she had ever known was bestowed upon her, and in his hopes he saw doubtless a future when she would have learnt to return his love. "And I never shall," thought Diana. "Never, as long as I live. I wonder if I shall get to hate him because ...
— Diana • Susan Warner
Read full book for free!
... Committee of Enclosures of 1844,[577] there is a curious description of the way in which common fields were sometimes allotted. There were in some open fields, lands called 'panes', containing forty or sixty different lands, and on a certain day the best man of the parish appeared to take possession of any lot he thought fit. If his right was called in question there was a fight for it, and the survivor took the first lot, and so they went on through the parish. There was also the old 'lot meadow' in which the owners drew lots ...
— A Short History of English Agriculture • W. H. R. Curtler
Read full book for free!
... Words and thought them lovely, but I always liked Handel best. Little by little, however, I was talked over into placing Bach and Beethoven on a par as the greatest and I said I did not know which was the best man. I cannot tell now whether I really liked Beethoven or found myself carried away by the strength of the Beethoven current which surrounded me; at any rate I spent a great deal of time on him, for some ...
— The Note-Books of Samuel Butler • Samuel Butler
Read full book for free!
... happiness and high hope. "Tell Martha all that I say about my dear Jack," wrote the eager girl; "please show my letter to Martha, and tell her that I shall come home next summer and bring the handsomest and best man in the world to Ashford. I have told him all about the dear house and the dear garden; there never was such a lad to reach for cherries with his six-foot-two." Miss Pyne, wondering a little, gave the letter to Martha, who took it deliberately and as if she wondered too, and went away to ...
— The Queen's Twin and Other Stories • Sarah Orne Jewett
Read full book for free!
... emerged from Newbury's pocket, and Marcia blazed with them, there and then, under the trees. They laughed together at the ugly setting, and planned a new one. But then a mention by Newbury of the Oxford friend who was to be his "best man" set him talking of the group of men who had been till now the leading influence in his life—friends made at Oxford, and belonging all of them to that younger High Church party of which he seemed to be the leader. Of two of them especially he ...
— The Coryston Family • Mrs. Humphry Ward
Read full book for free!
... all danger to us," he concluded. "I'm going to offer you a pleasanter job than fighting, Mac. It is imperative that Miss d'Arcambal should return to D'Arcambal House before morning, and I want you to take her, if you will. I'm choosing the best man I've got because—well, because she's going to be my wife, Mac. I'm the ...
— Flower of the North • James Oliver Curwood
Read full book for free!
... the thing to do that year, to get married; and she realized that Jim loved her more and could give her more than any of the others. Where I came in was that I had urged her to marry Jim because he was the best man in the world and because I wanted him ...
— 32 Caliber • Donald McGibeny
Read full book for free!
... would marry a hero, impersonate beauty. Maiden lady of quite impossible age, if you would marry the best man in the world, impersonate youth and beauty. Dear languishing widow, if you would marry a real man, impersonate youth, beauty and wealth. You will win. The odds are much against you here in the East, where in every state there are thousands and ...
— Supreme Personality • Delmer Eugene Croft
Read full book for free!
... I said, "is the best man we can go to. He and I were to have gone to the same dinner tonight; but he will just have come back by now. Have you any ...
— The Club of Queer Trades • G. K. Chesterton
Read full book for free!
... had been much attached to my father; he was, after my father himself, probably the best man I had ever known. He was of the same height, and wore the clothes my father had left ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
Read full book for free!
... I am spoken of as District Judge." I replied: "Yes, I saw the article." Neither of us said anything further on the subject. When I got to Washington I met Mr. Devens, then Attorney-General, who said, "We shall have to appoint a District Judge, I suppose. I think your friend Nelson is the best man for it. But I suppose he would not accept it." I said: "No, I don't believe he would accept it. But, if you think he is the best man for it, the question whether he will accept it ought to be determined by him, and not by his friends for him." I had no thought that ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar
Read full book for free!
... answered instead of a constitution for his country, he replied, "Then, madam, I am but a lucky accident." How much more emphatically may it be said, that the slave's destiny is a matter of chance! Reader, would you trust the very best man you know, with your time, your interests, your family, and your life, unless the contract were guarded on every side by the strong arm of the law? If a money-loving neighbor could force you to toil, and could gain a certain number of dollars for every ...
— An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans • Lydia Maria Child
Read full book for free!
... name," he said gravely. "In the land of the white man men are called by the name of their fathers. In the woods it is not often so, except when it be written upon papers. The best man in the North is one of whom men know only his first name. ...
— The Promise - A Tale of the Great Northwest • James B. Hendryx
Read full book for free!
... coat, and with a sprig of orange blossom in his buttonhole. There was no doubt that he was extremely happy. He gave a short manly speech in response to Sir Luke's rather academic oration proposing the health of the wedded pair. The Premier too made a speech, and so did the Attorney-General, who was best man. Bridget's bridesmaids had been selected from the daughters of the Executive with as much attention to precedence as though she had been a royal princess. All this had delighted the Leichardstonians, and when Sir ...
— Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land • Rosa Praed
Read full book for free!
... too close and careful. One might use for the purpose the actual body of teachers in the country to elect delegates to select a jury to choose finally the flower of the national flock. It would be worth any amount of trouble to ensure that we always had the best man or men. And when we had them we should give them a mandate as real and substantial as America now gives to her political President. We should intend them not for mere lay administrators and continuers of custom, but for true fountain-heads and initiators ...
— Another Sheaf • John Galsworthy
Read full book for free!
... "Well, rather! The best man at the wedding must surely be at the home-coming. Doesn't it seem funny to think of Christine as mistress of her own home? She'll be perfectly lovely, I know. My goodness gracious! Ken, what time is it? I'm afraid I'm ...
— Patty's Suitors • Carolyn Wells
Read full book for free!
... almost everybody here," he said. "When you're in a hole, the stranger's about the best man to ...
— Ambrotox and Limping Dick • Oliver Fleming
Read full book for free!
... poor suffering humanity than many an older man who wrote M.D. after his name. He was a fine, handsome, strapping fellow, with a determined manner and a kind heart. He was able to pull an oar with the best man aboard, and could even steer the brig in fine weather, if need be. He was hearty and romantic, and a great favourite with the men. He, too, was a restless spirit. He had grown tired of college life, and had made up his mind to take a year's run ...
— Fast in the Ice - Adventures in the Polar Regions • R.M. Ballantyne
Read full book for free!
... a wedding party, if I'm the 'best man,'" he said with a laugh, "so we'll not fuss because there's no musician to play a march for us, but we'll play you are all bridesmaids, and we'll hurry right along. The entrance is this way, I think, and under that ...
— Dorothy Dainty at the Mountains • Amy Brooks
Read full book for free!
... and an assurance that if Sir Edward felt the work too much for him, a subordinate should be found and the 'chargeable part' made easy. The Earl of Bath wrote by the same post: 'His Majesty declared in Council that he made choice of you, not only because you were the best man of your county, but also a person on whom he could by long experience ...
— Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts • Rosalind Northcote
Read full book for free!
... summer boat; and every other remarkably fine house in Cairo seemed to be one or another of the Khedive's palaces or harems. The man does not seem to have had the faintest idea of what was due to his country, or, even worse, what was due to himself. But take the greatest and best man in the world, surround him by people who assure him morn, noon and night that he differs from other men, and has a born right to their obedience—make a khedive, or czar, or king out of him—if kind nature ...
— Round the World • Andrew Carnegie
Read full book for free!
... by the hand, and asked pardon of him for his scoffing, saying that he had that day played the best man of all of them; and Jack, who never bore malice, began laughing in ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley
Read full book for free!
... the preliminaries of the next Tonkunstler-Versammlung. Accordingly some one else must be entrusted with the afore- mentioned task in Carlsruhe, although Bulow was the best suited for it. If you do not care to enter at once into direct communication with Devrient, Pohl would be the best man to "pioneer" the way. It would not be any particular trouble to him to go from Baden to Carlsruhe, and to persuade Devrient to favor the matter. This is before all else needful, for without Devrient's co-operation nothing of the sort can be undertaken in Carlsruhe. If the ...
— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 2: "From Rome to the End" • Franz Liszt; letters collected by La Mara and translated
Read full book for free!
... he did say something one day when he was very drunk; but, of course, it was all rot. Some one told him not to make such a row—he was a beastly tenant—and he said he was the best man in the place, and his brother was Prime Minister, and all sorts of things. Mere drunken rant! I never heard of his saying anything sensible about relations. We know nothing of his connections; he came here ...
— Martin Hewitt, Investigator • Arthur Morrison
Read full book for free!
... pride and vanity, and they were both hurt now. He would have been less irritable if this rival had been as good a man as himself or better. He was so much a gamester that he would have said, "Let the best man win," and have ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
Read full book for free!
... Aimee?" here I lie all alone in this wretched hole, I who was reared as a gentleman's son, an aristocrat to the soul, Could drink more wine at my father's board than the best man out of a score; Rode with the hounds at ten years old, and played high in a few years more. A man can live without love, but he can't get along without gold, And a woman and child sadly hamper a ...
— Victor Roy, A Masonic Poem • Harriet Annie Wilkins
Read full book for free!
... produced such an effect, that in a very little time the sailor held out his hand towards his captain, and expressed his willingness to go on board with him and perform his duty, adding, that the captain, upon the whole, was the best man in the world. So they departed mutually pleased; the consul making both of them promise to attend divine service at his ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow
Read full book for free!
... other unit. One of the Hants men I have been sitting beside and talking to was in our hold on the "River Clyde" when we landed exactly four weeks ago. He tells me how gloomy his battalion was over the death of their C.O. that day—Colonel Smith-Carrington, "a grand fellow, the best man that ever ...
— The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" • George Davidson
Read full book for free!
... what his uncle was," said the aged rustic. "When he was a lad he was the best cudgel-player, the best man of his hands, and the prettiest man of his feet from ...
— Aunt Rachel • David Christie Murray
Read full book for free!
... a growing activity below. First comes a closed automobile bearing the six ushers and soon after it another automobile bearing the bridegroom and his best man. The bridegroom and the best man disembark before the side entrance of the church and make their way into the vestry room, where they remove their hats and coats, and proceed to struggle with their cravats and collars before ...
— A Book of Burlesques • H. L. Mencken
Read full book for free!
... if you love me, for pity's sake, for the Honor of the Regiment, stand up! Chuck yourself into your uniform! Look like a man! I've got to speak to the Padre a minute. (G. breaks into a gentle Perspiration.) If you wipe your face I'll never be your best man again. Stand up! ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
Read full book for free!
... right to me. I like to see th' best man or th' best animile win. An' I want to see him win good. It wudden't help me story to tell about Tusky goin' home with wan ear gone an' his eye blacked, an' tellin' his wife that he'd just about managed to put wan over that stopped another ...
— Mr. Dooley Says • Finley Dunne
Read full book for free!
... beauty then. Nothing much had happened to her before but being engaged for a year or two to a soft called Millard Binch; the same she passed on to Indiana Rolliver; and—well, I guess she liked the change. We didn't have what you'd called a society wedding: no best man or bridesmaids or Voice that Breathed o'er Eden. Fact is, Pa and Ma didn't know about it till it was over. But it was a marriage fast enough, as they found out when they tried to undo it. Trouble was, they caught on too soon; we only had a fortnight. ...
— The Custom of the Country • Edith Wharton
Read full book for free!
... unprincipled men, what we here in this firm call honor. I gladly assume that your uprightness refused to do any thing contrary to your sense of right; but, Wohlfart, I repeat to you what I have said before: any permanent dealings with the weak and wicked bring the best man into danger. Gradually and imperceptibly his standard becomes lowered, and necessity compels him to agree to measures that elsewhere he would have peremptorily rejected. I am convinced that you are still what the world calls an upright man of business, but I do not ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag
Read full book for free!
... was not spoken, but all through that interview Smith appeared to be haunted by his presence. "He was the best man amongst us," he said. ...
— The Mormon Prophet • Lily Dougall
Read full book for free!
... the hour named, and punctually at that hour John Crumb knocked at the back door of Sheep's Acre farm-house. Nor did he come alone. He was accompanied by his friend Joe Mixet, the baker of Bungay, who, as all Bungay knew, was to be his best man at his marriage. John Crumb's character was not without any fine attributes. He could earn money,—and having earned it could spend and keep it in fair proportion. He was afraid of no work, and,—to give him his due,— was afraid of no man. He was honest, and ashamed of ...
— The Way We Live Now • Anthony Trollope
Read full book for free!
... a very quiet wedding, the only guests would be the lawyer, Mr. Treherne, an old family friend, who had undertaken to give the bride away, and Alwyn's best man, ...
— Doctor Luttrell's First Patient • Rosa Nouchette Carey
Read full book for free!
... else. Now take my advice, and think as little about the case as possible. You cannot do any good—you will only demoralize yourself still more. Everything depends on how the judge and jury may be disposed to regard our story. I shall give a brief to the best man that can be had, and then we shall have done all that lies in ...
— Name and Fame - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
Read full book for free!
... ago, the people became tired of feeding on grass, like deer and wild animals, and they talked together how fire might be found. The Ti-amoni said, "Coyote is the best man to steal fire from the world below," so ...
— Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest • Katharine Berry Judson
Read full book for free!
... as elegant a reception room as circumstances permitted. White favours had been distributed to the dusky warriors under Hone's command who lined the aisle. All was in readiness, from the bridegroom, resplendent in scarlet and gold, waiting in the chancel with Teddy Duncombe, the best man, to the buzzing guests who swarmed in at the west door to be received by the colonel's wife, who in her capacity of hostess seemed ...
— The Tidal Wave and Other Stories • Ethel May Dell
Read full book for free!
... sex has already become devoted. I fully admit the existence of such exceptions, but it must be insisted that they are exceptions, and that they do not at all invalidate the general truth that if a girl really chooses the best man, she is choosing the best ...
— Woman and Womanhood - A Search for Principles • C. W. Saleeby
Read full book for free!
... fellow gets worshipped by every one, from the Irish saloon-keeper up to Leonore. While look at me! I'm a clever, sweet-tempered, friendly sort of a chap, but nobody worships me. There isn't any one who gives a second thought for yours truly. I seem good for nothing, except being best man to much luckier chaps. While look at Peter! He's won the love of a lovely girl, who worships him to a degree simply inconceivable. I never ...
— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford
Read full book for free!
... to TRY to carry out the orders, whether we like 'em or not. So you won't hold that against me—that little scrimmage of last month, especially as you came out best man." ...
— Lahoma • John Breckenridge Ellis
Read full book for free!
... even attempt as much? When Murdoch gave up, the father himself undertook the education of his children, and carried it on at night after work-hours were over. Of that father Murdoch speaks as by far the best man he ever knew. Tender and affectionate towards his children he describes him, seeking not to drive, but to lead them to the right, by appealing to their conscience and their better feelings, rather than to their fears. To his wife he was gentle and considerate ...
— Robert Burns • Principal Shairp
Read full book for free!
... wedding-breakfast. I want it, I can tell you. I'm hungry. Here we all are, eh? Let's enjoy ourselves. Wilson, old scout, bustle about and give us your imitation of a bridegroom mixing a "B. and S." for the best man. Mrs Wilson, if you'll look in at the theatre tomorrow you'll find one or two small wedding presents waiting for you. Three bouquets—they'll be a bit withered, I'm afraid—a bracelet, and a gold Billiken with ruby eyes. I hope he'll bring ...
— The Man Upstairs and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse
Read full book for free!
... best man in the house every mornin' when ye gang oot!" roared another amid coarse laughter, whilst Andrew turned to ...
— The Underworld - The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner • James C. Welsh
Read full book for free!
... from Australia if he kept on dropping them off him. Bob's fielding's perfectly sinful. He was pretty bad at the beginning of the season, but now he's got so nervous that he's a dozen times worse. He turns a delicate green when he sees a catch coming. He let their best man off twice in one over, off Billy, to-day; and the chap went on and made a hundred odd. Ripping innings bar those two chances. I hear he's got an average of eighty in school matches this season. Beastly man ...
— Mike • P. G. Wodehouse
Read full book for free!
... claim; she's not for the likes o' me. You're going to be a great capitalist—a citizen of credit and renown. I'm Mr. Nobody, of nowhere. Go in and win, my boy; you have my best wishes. If I can scrape together enough money to buy myself a white waistcoat and a decent coat, I'll be your best man; or some left-off things of yours might do—we're about of a size, aren't we? You've become tres bel homme, Bob, plutot bel homme que joli garcon, hein? That's what women are fond of; English women especially. I'm nowhere ...
— The Martian • George Du Maurier
Read full book for free!
... you with bread and milk, and lollipops; and as to being too young—why, you are not much more than a year younger than I am, and fully as stout, and I should like to know who would venture to say that I am not fit to go to sea. I would soon show him which was the best man of the two." ...
— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston
Read full book for free!
... compliments of the season, your presence at a supper to-night at Slavovitch's joint. Miss Arral will be there and so will Gautereaux. Him and me was pardners down at Circle five years ago. He is all right and is going to be best man. About them eggs. They come into the country four years back. They was bad when they come in. They was bad when they left California. They always was bad. They stopped at Carluk one winter, and one winter at Nutlik, and last winter at Forty Mile, where they was sold for storage. And ...
— Smoke Bellew • Jack London
Read full book for free!
... put my greedy hands upon the best man in America for my purpose, and shall start him to the diamond field in South Africa within a fortnight at my expense... that the book will have a ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine
Read full book for free!
... to it than myself?' So he went forward, but ere he could lay hold of his man the other was again on his legs, and was prepared to renew the combat. They grappled each other—Bagg says he had not much fear of the result, as he now felt himself the best man, the other seeming half stunned with the blow—but just then there came on a blast, a horrible roaring wind bearing night upon its wings, snow, and sleet, and hail. Bagg says he had the fellow by the throat quite fast, as he thought, but suddenly ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
Read full book for free!
... meet Stella. I trust that as I am not likely to be employed again for some time, she will not consider it necessary longer to defer our marriage, and I sincerely hope, my dear Jack, that you will be at home to act as my best man." ...
— The Three Lieutenants • W.H.G. Kingston
Read full book for free!
... comparisons. As to the best man I ever met in my life I might have to acknowledge that even he had done wrong in certain circumstances. As the matter is forced upon me, I have to express my opinion that a great sin was committed both by the man and by the woman. You not only condone the sin, but declare both ...
— Dr. Wortle's School • Anthony Trollope
Read full book for free!
... no mushroom growth. She might not say, as Tunis did, that she had fallen in love at first sight. But very soon after meeting the young shipmaster from Big Wreck Cove she had appreciated his full value and realized that he was far and away the best man she had ...
— Sheila of Big Wreck Cove - A Story of Cape Cod • James A. Cooper
Read full book for free!
... be the worshipper, dear. You little know how unworthy even the best man is of a girl's ...
— Arms and the Man • George Bernard Shaw
Read full book for free!
... ye're proper men and tall, And I'm squat man, my stature small, Nath'less, though small and squat I be, I am the best man ...
— The Geste of Duke Jocelyn • Jeffery Farnol
Read full book for free!
... as quiet as possible," continued Mrs. Hardy, "and proprietor Jensen's daughters to be bridesmaids; and John has an old college friend who will come here to be his best man, and will return with me to England in the ...
— A Danish Parsonage • John Fulford Vicary
Read full book for free!
... language. This distinguished civilian had been sent by the Queen, early in August, to look into the state of Netherland affairs. Leicester having expressly urged the importance of selecting as wise a politician as could be found—because the best man in England would hardly be found a match for the dullards and drunkards, as it was the fashion there to call the Dutch statesmen—had selected Wilkes. After fulfilling this important special mission, he was immediately afterwards ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
Read full book for free!
... quarter past ten the bridegroom, with his best man, Clarence Rockharrt, followed in another ...
— For Woman's Love • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
Read full book for free!
... Trojans knew anything about it, and even if they did, they were only little bits of chaps compared with himself and the other giants. So, after a time, he proposed to Brutus that they should settle matters by "a scat to wrastling," the best man, of ...
— Cornwall's Wonderland • Mabel Quiller-Couch
Read full book for free!
... had preceded the wedding party to the altar, was waiting there with the bridegroom and his best man, Tom Gray. There was a buzz of admiration went the round of the church at the beautiful spectacle the bridal party presented. Then followed an intense hush as the voice of the minister took up the solemn words of God's ...
— Grace Harlowe's Problem • Jessie Graham Flower
Read full book for free!
... The knowledge of his merit is so bright within himself that he is unable to see that it is less bright in others. He is willing to become the head of the State if the post may be given to him as a right due to merit, not as a favour begged. He has no lust for power. But knowing himself to be the best man in Rome, he thinks that his merit is sufficiently great to excuse him from the indignity of sueing for it. The laws of free countries prescribe that he who wishes to be elected must appeal to the electors whether he love them or loathe ...
— William Shakespeare • John Masefield
Read full book for free!
... to go to India. Lord Ellenborough (by Peel's desire) wrote to the Duke and asked his advice, at the same time suggesting Sir James Graham. The Duke replied that he thought it better not to have anything to do with that party at present; that the best man he knew would be Lord Heytesbury, if he would go, or such a man as Lord Fitzroy Somerset, whom he mentioned, not because he had been long known to him, and had served under himself, but because he was a very able man, ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. III • Charles C. F. Greville
Read full book for free!
... him, and while his strength was almost equal to that of any two of his companions, his merry laugh was so infectious that even envy couldn't resist joining in, when public opinion pronounced him 'the best man in the county.' ...
— Adrift in the Ice-Fields • Charles W. Hall
Read full book for free!
... squires, of course," she said slowly, striving at least for a personal dignity which should match his. "There are plenty of landowners who do their duty as they understand it—no one denies that. But that does not affect the system; the grandson of the best man may be the worst, but his one-man power remains the same. No! the time has come for a wider basis. Paternal government and charity were very well in their way—democratic self-government will manage ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward
Read full book for free!
... Crimson Mountain Out of the Storm Exit Betty Mystery Flowers The Prodigal Girl Girl of the Woods Re-Creations The White Flower Matched Pearls Time of the Singing of Birds Ladybird The Substitute Guest Beauty for Ashes Stranger Within the Gates The Best Man Spice Box By Way of the Silverthorns The Seventh Hour Dawn of the Morning The Search Brentwood Cloudy Jewel ...
— Exit Betty • Grace Livingston Hill
Read full book for free!
... my best man, and only regretted that I was not in the "Brigade" that a dash of colour might be added to the ceremony by lining the church with ...
— A Queen's Error • Henry Curties
Read full book for free!
... clear that—with such authority and force,—not to become dangerous to liberty, every President needs to be a Washington. And Washingtons are not so thickly strewn around. Woe to the country, whose institutions are such, that their freedom depends on the personal character of one man. Be he the best man in the world, he will not overcome the essential repugnance of his position to freedom. When France abandons this centralization, and carries out her own principles of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," ...
— Select Speeches of Kossuth • Kossuth
Read full book for free!
... woman," returned my guardian, smiling, "not being an oracle, I cannot confidently say, but I think so. His reputation stands very high; there were people from that part of the country in the shipwreck; and strange to say, I believe the best man has the best chance. You must not suppose it to be a fine endowment. It is a very, very commonplace affair, my dear, an appointment to a great amount of work and a small amount of pay; but better things will gather about it, ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens
Read full book for free!
... see him," said the stranger. "I have business with him. Why, they told me down in the valley that Hightower, in many respects, is the best man in the county." ...
— Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches • Joel Chandler Harris
Read full book for free!
... his unmarried daughter, was the very best of hostesses. The house under her management was the perfection of comfort. She married an old and dear friend of mine, Sir James Wilde, afterwards the Judge, Lord Penzance. I was his 'best man.' ...
— Tracks of a Rolling Stone • Henry J. Coke
Read full book for free!
... termed. Upon occasions like this, feats of strength and activity universally constituted a part of the programme. The youth who could pull down his man at the end of the hand-stick, throw him in a wrestle, or outstrip him in a footrace, was honored as the best man in the settlement, and was always greeted with a cheer from the older men, a slap on the shoulder by the old ladies, and the shy but approving smiles of the girls,—had his choice of partners in the dance, and in ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks
Read full book for free!
... lads; and give and take is fair play. All I say is, let it be a fair stand up fight, and 'may the best man win.' So now, my lads, if you're ready to come to the scratch, why, the sooner we peel ...
— Newton Forster • Frederick Marryat
Read full book for free!
... on the island four years and four months, being left there by Captain Stradling in the Cinque-ports, his name was Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who had been master of the Cinque-ports, a ship that came here last with Captain Dampier, who told me, that this was the best man in her. I immediately agreed with him to be a mate on board our ship: It was he that made the fire last night when he saw our ships, which he judged to be English. During his stay here he saw several ships pass by, but only two came in to anchors: ...
— The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of - York, Mariner (1801) • Daniel Defoe
Read full book for free!
... smacked of the South. This old gentleman—so Rad called him—had kept an illicit still in his cellar for fifteen years, and it had not been discovered until after his death (of delirium tremens). The young lady who lived in that house—one of the belles of the county—had eloped with the best man on the night before the wedding and the rightful groom had shot himself. The one who lived here had eloped with her father's overseer, and had rowed across the river in the only available boat, leaving her outraged parent on the ...
— The Four Pools Mystery • Jean Webster
Read full book for free!
... Went to catch a snail, The best man amongst them Durst not touch her tail; She put out her horns Like a little kyloe cow. Run, tailors, run! Or she'll have you ...
— The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter • Beatrix Potter
Read full book for free!
... their children, as any woman could possibly do: and they would not part with them on any account. Will Atkins, for his own particular, added that if any man would take him away, and offer to carry him home to England, and make him captain of the best man-of-war in the navy, he would not go with him if he might not carry his wife and children with him; and if there was a clergyman in the ship, he would be married to her now with ...
— The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe
Read full book for free!
... clerk could lift more, throw farther, run faster, jump higher, and wrestle better than any man in Sangamon County. The Clary's Grove Boys, of course, felt in honor bound to prove this false, and they appointed their best man, one Jack Armstrong, to "throw Abe." Jack Armstrong was, according to the testimony of all who remember him, a "powerful twister," "square built and strong as an ox," "the best-made man that ever lived;" ...
— McClure's Magazine, January, 1896, Vol. VI. No. 2 • Various
Read full book for free!
... her consent, and because she will be my wife; but you worked upon her pity to put her to shame and now you shall pay the price of it. Do you see that whip?" and he nodded toward the sjambock that was lying on the grass. "Let him who proves the best man use ...
— Swallow • H. Rider Haggard
Read full book for free!
... to have it out like good fellows, and agree to wait a couple of years, unless any third party should interfere. In two years' time, they agreed, Selina Johns would be wise enough to choose— and then let the best man win! No bad blood afterwards, and meanwhile no more talk than necessary—they shook hands upon that. That January, being tired of the free-trade, they shipped together on board a coaster for the Thames, and re-shipped ...
— Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts • A. T. Quiller-Couch
Read full book for free!
... caution of the plainsman, pursued the subject no further. He was content to know that for a very moderate wage he had secured the best man with horses that the stable had ever known. His only anxiety related to the question of ...
— They of the High Trails • Hamlin Garland
Read full book for free!
... it," said the sheriff, spitting on the carpet; "and you see I've got this thing dead to rights. It sha'n't come off; and I'm doing you a favor in blocking the game, because Harry'd curl you all up any way if I let you meet him. I know he's the best man, and you'd just lose your money and get all bunged up besides; so you take my advice now, and quit. You'll ...
— Elbow-Room - A Novel Without a Plot • Charles Heber Clark (AKA Max Adeler)
Read full book for free!
... of that. You're the best man I have, and that shake-up I told you about is coming off sooner than I expected. I'd hate to have anything happen to you. Do you think you could hold down ...
— The Ne'er-Do-Well • Rex Beach
Read full book for free!
... upon him because he is the best man for our turn. But I am right. You will see I am right. Le Gardeur is the pink of morality when he is sober. He would kill the devil when he is half drunk, but when wholly drunk he would storm paradise, and sack and slay like a German ritter. He would kill his own grandfather. ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby
Read full book for free!
... AND THE BEST WOMAN.—The best man is he who can rear the best child, and the best woman is she who can rear the best child. We very properly extol to the skies Harriet Hosmer, the artist, for cutting in marble the statue of a Zenobia; how much more should we sing praises to the man and the woman ...
— Searchlights on Health - The Science of Eugenics • B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols
Read full book for free!
... tell you much, my boy," returned the miner in a kind, friendly voice, "only that he was the best man that ever set a hoisting plant in this region, and the finest, cleanest young fellow that ever came into these hills. Every ...
— Buffalo Roost • F. H. Cheley
Read full book for free!
... "Old Bill is the best man ever," interrupted Moore, as if to repudiate any hint of disloyalty to his employer. "Everybody in Middle Park and all over owes Bill something. He's sure good. There never was anything wrong with him except his crazy blindness about his ...
— The Mysterious Rider • Zane Grey
Read full book for free! |
