"Portiere" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... daughter and her cousins conversed for some time on what had happened during the protracted separation, as well as on domestic affairs and their private feelings, when Chia Cheng likewise advanced as far as the other side of the portiere, and inquired after her health, and the Chia consort from inside performed the homage and other conventionalities ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... yourself. It's not so bad as it seems when you've got the right doctor, I've practiced for thirty years among Endbury ladies. They can't spring anything new on me. I've taken your mother through doily fever induced by the change from tablecloths to bare tops, through portiere inflammation, through afternoon tea distemper, through art-nouveau prostration and mission furniture palsy, not to speak of a horrible attack of acute insanity over the necessity of having her maids wear caps. ...
— Quit Your Worrying! • George Wharton James
... The portiere was thrust aside and an elderly lady entered the room, seating herself quietly at the window, and, after a single glance at the form upon the couch, beginning to embroider patiently upon some work she took from a silken bag. She moved so noiselessly that the girl ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces • Edith Van Dyne
... door upon him with his own hand, the King drew a heavy portiere across it,—and then walking round the room saw that every window was closed,—every nook secure. The Queen's boudoir was one of the most sacred corners in the whole palace,—no one, not even the most intimate lady of the Court in personal ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli
... gone. Steel could hear the distant dying swish of silk, the rustling of the portiere, and then, with a flick, the lights came up again. Half-blinded by the sudden illumination Steel fumbled his way to the door and into the street. As he did so Hove Town Hall clock chimed two. With a cigarette between his teeth David ...
— The Crimson Blind • Fred M. White
... the two maids retired. Only Frederick and Rollo followed the master of the house as he took his wife into his sitting room and study. Effi was as much surprised here as she had been in the hall, but before she had time to say anything, Innstetten drew back a portiere, which disclosed a second, larger room looking out on the court and garden. "Now this, Effi, is your room. Frederick and Johanna have tried to arrange it the best they could in accordance with my orders. I find it quite tolerable and should ...
— The German Classics Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12 • Various
... the sound of footsteps. He listened. Some one—the rustling of a dress—was approaching the room. He slipped the note into the book and replaced the volume on the pedestal, and quickly stepped behind the portiere curtains. ...
— Nell, of Shorne Mills - or, One Heart's Burden • Charles Garvice
... watching the ice-cream begin to melt, the portiere was again lifted and the maid re-entered, leading a fat, fuzzy dog. She led him by a beautiful blue satin ribbon, and he blundered along in a haphazard sort of way that was ...
— Divided Skates • Evelyn Raymond
... sweep of her half bare arm, she brushed aside a portiere and disappeared. A crashing chord rolled out from a piano behind the curtains ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, July 1908. • Various
... surrounded by a high stone wall, and as it was built by the military, it was ugly and had the ridiculous effrontery of the army and all its lack of common sense. The iron gate was shut, and a sign said, "Sonnez s'il vous plait!" A toothless French portiere of thirty years let us in. All the doctors of Tahiti had left the island for a few days on an excursion, and the gay scientist who opened the champagne in his pockets at the Tiare Hotel New Year's eve was in command. He sat in an arm-chair in a littered office and was smoking ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien
... gently, in the Rue Chatrain, at the iron grating of a private residence which rears its brick facade and slate roofs in the clearing of a sunny park. A servant lets me in. Monsieur de Frechede is absent, but Madame is at home. I wait for a few seconds in a salon; the portiere is raised and an old lady appears. She has an air so affable that I am reassured. I explain to her in a few words ...
— Sac-Au-Dos - 1907 • Joris Karl Huysmans
... over him a plush portiere that reached clear down to the ground, and over each ear was ...
— The Bobbsey Twins in the Country • Laura Lee Hope
... (Hysterically, backing to portiere and hiding her face in its folds.) The—the Almost Inevitable Consequences! (Flits though portiere as G. attempts to catch her, and bolts herself in ...
— Soldiers Three • Rudyard Kipling
... who had been announcing the numbers, now swung aside the portiere, and Nancy slipped from her chair, ran out upon the stage, and then,—oh, the fairy motion of her arms, the lightness with which, on the tips of her toes, she flew across ...
— Dorothy Dainty at the Mountains • Amy Brooks
... propped-up bit of mirror, jagged of edge; a piece of comb; a rhinestone breastpin; a bunion-plaster; a fork; spoon; a sprouting onion. Yet all of this somehow lit by a fall of very coarse, very white, and very freshly starched lace curtains portiere-fashion from the door, looped back in great curves from the single window, and even skirting stiffly and cleanly the bureau-front ...
— Humoresque - A Laugh On Life With A Tear Behind It • Fannie Hurst
... of the portiere pulling a refractory button of her glove into place, as a gay group precipitated themselves into ...
— Five Little Peppers Grown Up • Margaret Sidney
... Jenny," he said. "You'll win your game." And after he had resumed the reading of his paper he looked over the top of it once or twice in furtive admiration of her as she sat between him and the dark portiere, which set her form in relief against the rich background and made her seem a picture to the fond eyes of her husband. He reflected that perhaps after all managing church fairs and running sewing societies was no bad training for a larger ...
— The Faith Doctor - A Story of New York • Edward Eggleston
... where he had more than once seen Marsa seated at the piano playing her favorite airs. He remembered it all so well, and, nervously twisting his moustache, he longed for her to make her appearance. He listened for the frou-frou of Marsa's skirts on the other side of the lowered portiere which hung between the two rooms; but ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... not with them! My heart was almost broken; to leave my beautiful dog on the plains to starve to death was maddening. I wanted to be alone, so to the dressing room I went, and with face buried in a portiere was sobbing my very breath away when Mrs. Pierce, wife of Major Pierce, came in and said so sweetly and sympathetically: "Don't cry, dear; Hal is following the car and the conductor is going ...
— Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888 • Frances M.A. Roe
... current of the air. The two lovers, as Henri considered them to be, proceeded in this manner, first crossing a gallery to the duke's own room, and disappeared behind the fleur-de-lized hangings, which served the purpose of a portiere. ...
— The Forty-Five Guardsmen • Alexandre Dumas
... heard through the door, or rather divined, for a heavy portiere on the inside smothered the sounds, gave him an inkling of the truth. The sick woman, surrounded by luxury, was evidently kept in ignorance of the real situation of her father and son. The violet silk dressing-gown of Monsieur Bernard, the flowers, his remarks to Cartier, had already roused ...
— The Brotherhood of Consolation • Honore de Balzac
... played me dirt can stay here while I stay." Sinclair, with a hand on the portiere, was moving from the doorway into the room. McCloud in a leisurely way rose, though with a slightly flushed face, and at that juncture Marion ran into the room and spoke abruptly. "Here is the silk, Mr. Sinclair," she exclaimed, handing to him a package she had not finished wrapping. ...
— Whispering Smith • Frank H. Spearman
... listened for swish of skirts or fall of slender feet upon the stairway, but there had not been a sound. They saw the reason as she halted at the entrance, lifting with one little hand the costly Navajo blanket that hung as a portiere. In harmony with the glossy folds of richly dyed wool, she was habited in Indian garb from head to foot. In two black, lustrous braids, twisted with feather and quill and ribbon, her wealth of hair hung over her shoulders down the front of her ...
— A Daughter of the Sioux - A Tale of the Indian frontier • Charles King
... Bronson had put his hand on Hiram's shoulder, and urged him down the length of the room. They had come to a heavy portiere; Hiram thought it masked ...
— Hiram The Young Farmer • Burbank L. Todd
... gathered in puzzled furrows, Jimmie Dale stepped to the door, and locked it; then, drawing aside the portiere that hung before the little alcove at the lower end of the room, knelt down before the squat, barrel-shaped safe, and his fingers began to play over the knobs ...
— The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard
... and find rest, good Mere des Seraphins," replied Amelie, to whom the portiere was well known. "We desire to leave the world and live henceforth with the community in the service and adoration of our blessed Lord, and to pray for the sins of others ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby
... at head height on the end of a string from a chandelier or portiere pole. The delinquent player is required to walk up to the apple and take a bite from it without help from the hands. For obvious reasons, only one person should be allowed to bite ...
— Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium • Jessie H. Bancroft
... intercourse of the early Portuguese traders and missionaries with the East Indies, is the brief mention by Margaret S. Burton of a very elaborate old quilt now in a New York collection: "My next find was a tremendous bed quilt which is used as a portiere for double folding doors. It formed part of a collection of hangings owned by the late Stanford White. He claimed there were only four of its kind in existence, and this the only one in America. It is valued ...
— Quilts - Their Story and How to Make Them • Marie D. Webster
... that have appeared have a handsome swinging crane fastened to the wall near the ceiling, upon which a portiere or curtain is suspended. This can then be swung back against the wall or swung out to make a cozy corner or to shut off one portion of a room from another. These swinging portieres can in many cases be made to take the place ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke
... were heavily shuttered and curtained, and even the door was hidden under a thick portiere. The man who had brought them in was middle-aged and poorly dressed, but then this was a time when everybody in Russia was poorly dressed, and his shabbiness did not preclude the possibility of his being the proprietor of the house, as indeed ...
— The Book of All-Power • Edgar Wallace
... N. shade; awning &c (cover) 223; parasol, sunshade, umbrella; chick; portiere; screen, curtain, shutter, blind, gauze, veil, chador, mantle, mask; cloud, mist, gathering. of clouds. umbrage, glade; shadow &c 421. beach umbrella, folding umbrella. V. draw a curtain; put up a shutter, close a shutter; veil &c v.; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... and there in the doorway, holding back the heavy portiere, stood Juliette, graceful, smiling, a little pale, this no doubt owing to the flickering light of ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... that of the late Mr. Kelly having attached to its frame the sheaf of wheat that had lain on his coffin. On the walls also were the large calendars of insurance companies, and one or two china plaques in plush frames. A bead portiere hung between the two parlours, constantly clicking and catching as the guests swarmed to and fro. All the chairs in the house had been set about the walls, and all were occupied. A disk on the phonograph ...
— Martie the Unconquered • Kathleen Norris
... the bunch of white roses came from. He did not know that, on his birthday, his wife and daughter stood behind the portiere of the parlor, nor that they made the long journey every year to see him. The first few years the Captain's wife had had golden hair, but it had gradually turned gray, and now it was white, although she was still quite a young woman. Formerly she used to come alone, but for three years ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various
... exquisite in taste, had something monastic about it; the walls, hung with a cheap glazed cotton selected with taste, of a color which harmonized with the furniture and was newly covered, gave the room an air of elegance and nicety. In the hallway he added a double door, with a "portiere" to the inner one. The window was shaded by a blind which gave soft tones to the light. If the poor mother's life was reduced to the plainest circumstances that the life of any woman could have in Paris, Agathe was at least better off than all others in a like case, ...
— The Celibates - Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac
... know what impelled me to play such an antiquated, worn-out trick; however, I was just advancing into the room through the wide-open but curtained doorway, when a chance sentence made me pause, struck as by a blow in the face. Through an interstice, left by an ill-adjusted fold of the portiere, I had a glimpse of the room. My betrothed, in one of her favorite white negligees, was stretched on the Turkish divan by the open fireplace, filled now with an enormous bowl of flowers. Her arms were raised above her head, and there was an enigmatic ...
— A Village Ophelia and Other Stories • Anne Reeve Aldrich
... secret looks of almost comic appeal at their brother, but he pretended not to see them, being disposed for some reason to grant my request. Taking advantage of the momentary hesitation that ensued, I made them all three my most conciliatory bow, and said as I retreated behind the portiere: ...
— That Affair Next Door • Anna Katharine Green
... suit, I observed, had lost all semblance to an article of clothing; they had covered me, as I lay upon the couch, with a torn portiere. ...
— Mr. Hawkins' Humorous Adventures • Edgar Franklin
... of the proceedings in the Chamber and what progress had been made in the matter of the Nabob's election—all with perfect coolness and without the slightest affectation. Then, fatigued doubtless, or fearing that his glance, which constantly returned to the portiere opposite through which the decree of fate was presently to come forth, should betray the emotion that lurked at the bottom of his heart, he leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and did not open them again until ...
— The Nabob, Vol. 2 (of 2) • Alphonse Daudet
... thus Jacqueline noiselessly opened the door of the salon, over which, on the inner side, hung a thick plush 'portiere'. But as she was about to lift it, the sound of a voice within made her stand motionless. She recognized the tones of Marien. He was pleading, imploring, interrupted now and then by the sharp and still angry voice of her mamma. They were not speaking above their breath, but if she listened ...
— Jacqueline, v1 • Th. Bentzon (Mme. Blanc)
... embroidery frame like all the others. The other three ladies were each seated at an embroidery frame in the embrasures of the windows. I was much impressed, particularly with the large pieces of work that they were undertaking, a portiere, covers for the billiard-table, bed, etc. It quite recalled what one had always read of feudal France, when the seigneur would be off with his retainers hunting or fighting, and the chatelaine, left alone in the chateau, spent her time in her "bower" surrounded by her maidens, all working ...
— Chateau and Country Life in France • Mary King Waddington
... shadow darkened the doorway and with a leap of the heart I jumped behind a portiere. Then, as the shadow remained and knowing that in any event I was trapped, I threw open the door. Gottlieb, with wild eyes peering out of a haggard face, stood before me. Without a moment's hesitation, he ...
— The Confessions of Artemas Quibble • Arthur Train
... the parlour, and Katherine went by way of the library one, over which a portiere was hanging. Her hand was lifted to draw it back when she heard ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1907 to 1908 • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... a room barren as a doctor's outer office. There was nothing here worth their attention, and they would have left the place as unceremoniously as they had entered it if they had not caught glimpses of richness which promised an interior of uncommon elegance, behind the half-drawn folds of a portiere at the ...
— The Circular Study • Anna Katharine Green
... not a poet, must he then suffer and enjoy in silence? When he puts aside the leafy portiere and enters the cool green paradise of the trees, must he be dumb? Slowly, almost solemnly, we walked up the beautiful road with its carpet of dead leaves. It was as silent of man's ways as if he were not within a thousand miles, and we had all the enjoyment of the deep forest, with ...
— Little Brothers of the Air • Olive Thorne Miller
... pavilion, with its silk draperies, its scent of musk, and its intolerable secrecy, was no longer endurable. He felt cramped and confused in mind and muscle. He stood for a second to straighten his limbs; then he turned, and, moving directly forward, passed through the portiere. ...
— The Masquerader • Katherine Cecil Thurston
... came before Mrs. O'Brien. If so, walk in," he answered, moving the portiere aside ...
— Other Things Being Equal • Emma Wolf
... Altogether it was an apartment suited to a skilled artisan earning high wages. From the room we are now in, branched on one side a small but commodious kitchen; on the other side, on which the door was screened by a portiere, with a border prettily worked by female hands—some years ago, for it was faded now—was a bedroom, communicating with one of less size in which the children slept. We do not enter those additional rooms, but it may be well here to mention them as indications of ...
— The Parisians, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... against my cheek, I turned toward the portiere of the library, and as chance would have it, making a misstep when my head was swimming, I went plunging forward into the folds of this curtain. Because of this I found myself sitting flat upon the hardwood floor, gibbering like an idiot at the dim ...
— The Blue Wall - A Story of Strangeness and Struggle • Richard Washburn Child
... it was either a waltz, a two-step, or something else. It filled with glamour the Cowles library—the only parlor in Joralemon that was called a library, and the only one with a fireplace or a polished hardwood floor. Grandeur was in the red lambrequins over the doors and windows; the bead portiere; a hand-painted coal-scuttle; small, round paintings of flowers set in black velvet; an enormous black-walnut bookcase with fully a hundred volumes; and the two lamps of green-mottled shades and wrought-iron frames, set on pyrographed leather skins brought ...
— The Trail of the Hawk - A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life • Sinclair Lewis
... the other, "it's not so near London! But come in and have something, won't you?" And he held aside the reed portiere that screened the ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1917 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... brigandage etait repandu. Une nuit qu'il se rendait de Berkeley a Londres, sa voiture fut arretee par un seigneur de grande route qui, passant sa tete a la portiere, lui ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell
... one corner of the room stood a tall clock with a burnished copper face, and in another a cupboard containing glass and china. A door at the back, which led into the kitchen, was covered with an Oriental portiere. On the writing-table, and on some dwarf bookcases already filled with books left behind by Hermione on her last visit to Sicily, stood rough jars of blue, yellow, and white pottery, filled with roses and geraniums arranged by Gaspare. To the left of the room, as Lucrezia faced it, ...
— The Call of the Blood • Robert Smythe Hichens
... dinner was brought in. Through the doorway between the two rooms—there was no door, only a portiere—Leonora heard Ethel's rather heavy footsteps. 'I don't think mother will want you to wait to-day, Bessie,' Ethel's voice said. Then followed, after the maid's exit, the noise of a dish-cover being lifted and dropped, and ...
— Leonora • Arnold Bennett
... possible I had portiere on the brain when I wrote you last? I thought I had just caught the disease. I am very fond of needle-work, but for years have nearly abandoned it, because I could not thread my needle. But the portiere is made with a large ...
— The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss • George L. Prentiss
... shown in Fig. 4. The cross cords are woven in as shown in Fig. 5. As many of these cross cords can be put in as desired, and if placed from 6 to 12 in. apart, a solid screen will be made instead of a portiere. The twisted cross cords should be of such material, and put through in such manner that they will not be readily seen. If paper beads are used they can be colored to suit and hardened by varnishing. The first design shown is for using bamboo. ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics
... went down the slope, slid and slipped and couldn't stop themselves, till they were below the landmark. Looking up, they saw that a piece of soiled canvas or a skin, held down with a drift-log, fell from under the sled, portiere-wise from the top of the terrace, straight down to the sheltered level, where the camp fire had been. Coming closer, they saw the curtain was not canvas, but ...
— The Magnetic North • Elizabeth Robins (C. E. Raimond)
... those useful martyrs to science, guinea pigs. Taking one of the little animals and segregating him from the others, he prepared to inoculate him with a tiny bit of the solution made from the stain on the piece cut from the portiere. ...
— The Film Mystery • Arthur B. Reeve
... King, by a dexterous movement, succeeded in slipping back of the portiere folds into the little writing-room, as Polly rushed out through the other doorway into the hall. "A fortunate thing it was that I left Dick, to see what had become of Polly. Now, Cousin Eunice, you move from my house!" and descending the stairs, he ...
— Five Little Peppers Midway • Margaret Sidney
... Hatton to leave things in disorder behind him, even if he were to take McLean at his word. No! It wasn't Hatton, unless something very unforeseen had suddenly called him away. Stepping quickly back into the room he felt a draught of cool air, and saw that the portiere that hung between the two rooms was bulging slightly toward him. Instantly he stepped into his bedroom, where all was dark, struck a match, and saw, the moment its flash illumined surrounding objects, that the one door he generally kept locked was now ajar. ...
— 'Laramie;' - or, The Queen of Bedlam. • Charles King
... I could perceive a growing embarrassment in her manner as de Valence came closer to her, remembering, for so she must, that we could hear every word through the portiere. She collected herself bravely; ...
— The Black Wolf's Breed - A Story of France in the Old World and the New, happening - in the Reign of Louis XIV • Harris Dickson
... He watched her disappear. Afterwards, with a curious sense of unreality, he remained quite still, his eyes still fixed upon the portiere through which she ...
— A Lost Leader • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... shows the snowy and gleaming array of a table set for dinner, under the dim light of gas-burners turned low. An air of expectancy pervades the place, and the uneasiness of MR. ROBERTS, in evening dress, expresses something more as he turns from a glance into the dining-room, and still holding the portiere with one hand, takes out his ...
— The Elevator • William D. Howells
... places, and make de rest of de places live. See, I make dat window be put in—you find no better light in New York. Den you see, here we have de alcove, where Madame Campbell shall sit and make her sewing, while de husband do his work on de easel. How you like dat portiere? I design him myself—oh, yes, I do all here; you keep them if you like; I go to Germany, perhaps not come back after some years, so I leave dem, not so? Now I show you my little chamber of the piano. See, I make ...
— David Poindexter's Disappearance and Other Tales • Julian Hawthorne
... but at last the robe was removed and the body itself lying at full length on its back on the couch. Seen thus, with the light full on it, the face was horrible, and Goldberger laid his handkerchief over the swollen and distorted features, while, at a sign from him, Simmonds pulled down the portiere from the inner door and placed it over the body. Then the coroner picked up the robe and held it out at ...
— The Gloved Hand • Burton E. Stevenson
... near the switch. A portiere rustled, and a young man approached his bed—a short, thin, pale, fair young man, ...
— Hugo - A Fantasia on Modern Themes • Arnold Bennett
... corners of the apartment. A Persian rug lay in the center, and took the fullest light. There were no sharp edges of shadow, but instead there was a softly graduated penumbra, deepening into murk. Straight across was a doorway with a portiere, beyond was another, and still farther, a third, all made visible in silhouette by the light in a fourth room, seen as at the end of ...
— Double Trouble - Or, Every Hero His Own Villain • Herbert Quick
... to me. I looked at the faded damask curtains; at the mantelpiece with its gilded clock and two side-pieces, Louis Seize at his worst, considered good enough for a bedroom; at the drapings of the enormous bed; at the portiere covering the door of Sir Samuel's dressing-room; at the kaleidoscopic claret-and-blue figures on the carpet; in fact, at everything within reach of my eyes except Mr. ...
— The Motor Maid • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson
... locked her own door—only there was no door, merely a shoddy portiere, for there was not room to open a door. Her old ambitions came back to her. She had planned to know rich people and rebuke their wicked wiles. One rich man had held her in his arms, lifted her out of the pool. It was no less a man than Jim Dyckman, ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes
... and windows in such a room are high and narrow, they can be made to come into the scheme by placing the curtain and portiere rods below the actual height and covering the upper space with thin material, either full or plain, of the same colour as the upper wall. A brocaded muslin, stained or dyed to match the wall, answers this purpose admirably, and ...
— Principles of Home Decoration - With Practical Examples • Candace Wheeler
... alcoves, curtained off from a pleasant little central sitting-room, composed the apartment Margaret shared with her four years' chum Alice Raynor. Alice was not there, yet Margaret did not seat herself in the room common to both, but entered her own alcove, drew the portiere, and sat down on the edge of the iron bed, not larger than a soldier's camp cot. It was an austere little cell, simple as a nun's, with the light falling from one narrow window on the pale face and brown hair of the young girl, to whom the unopened ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various
... took place before Christophe, who watched the arrival of each new personage with natural eagerness. A magnificent portiere, on either side of which stood two pages and two soldiers of the Scotch guard, then on duty, showed him the entrance to the royal chamber,—the chamber so fatal to the son of the present Duc de Guise, the ...
— Catherine de' Medici • Honore de Balzac
... words, Mr. Middleton saw the portiere at his side rustle slightly. It was not the swaying caused by the currents of ...
— The Strange Adventures of Mr. Middleton • Wardon Allan Curtis
... book and tried to read, but found herself looking towards the door fully as often as at the page before her. Presently she set her teeth together and swallowed hard, for there was a rustling in the hall. The portiere was pushed aside and madame swept into the room in a dinner-gown ...
— The Gate of the Giant Scissors • Annie Fellows Johnston
... prie de vouloir bien conduire la petite de Dorlodot chez elle, elle vous attend dans le cabinet de Rosalie la portiere—c'est que sa bonne n'est ...
— The Professor • (AKA Charlotte Bronte) Currer Bell
... a door before which hung heavy curtains; but these curtains did not deaden the sound entirely. Indeed, as Helen hesitated, with her hand stretched out to seize the portiere, she heard something ...
— The Girl from Sunset Ranch - Alone in a Great City • Amy Bell Marlowe
... the domed hall and its sparkling fountain, and in two or three minutes came to a deep archway veiled by a portiere of some rich stuff woven in russet brown and gold,—this curtain my guide threw back noiselessly, showing a closed door. Here he came to a standstill and waited—I waited with him, trying to be calm, ...
— The Life Everlasting: A Reality of Romance • Marie Corelli
... what's my gift today?" he laughed. "A golden goose, a magic ring, or a beautiful Cinderella hidden behind the curtain?" and he poked at the portiere playfully. "But you have the appearance of conspirators. Is it ...
— Paradise Garden - The Satirical Narrative of a Great Experiment • George Gibbs
... place of ten or twelve threads to the inch, there should be from fifteen to twenty. The woof or filling may be old or new, and either of fine cotton, merino, serge, or other wool material, or of silk. The ordinary "silk-rag portiere" is not a very attractive hanging, being somewhat akin to the crazy quilt, and made, as is that bewildering production, from a collection of ribbons and silk pieces of all colours and qualities, cut and sewed together in a haphazard way, without any arrangement ...
— How to make rugs • Candace Wheeler
... moment he was occupied; and when his back was turned I whisked Lady Monica out of the ball-room, past the decorated staircase in the square hall, and to the room at the end of the corridor. There I pushed aside a portiere and followed ...
— The Car of Destiny • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... an arras portiere over a doorway to the right of the fireplace. That was her bedroom! Dare he peep in? That was her little bed. Would the housemaid catch him if he slipped in and left a kiss on her pillow? By the mirror was a grotesque little china monster with his mouth full ...
— The Romance of Zion Chapel [3d ed.] • Richard Le Gallienne
... the boudoir," he wrote, "described an easy and graceful semicircle, while the opposite side was perfectly square, and in the centre glistened a mantelpiece of white marble and gold. The entrance was through a side door, hidden by a rich portiere of tapestry, and facing a window. Within the horseshoe curve was a genuine Turkish divan, that is to say, a mattress resting directly upon the floor, a mattress as large as a bed, a divan fifty feet in circumference and covered with white cashmere, relieved by tufts of black ...
— Honor de Balzac • Albert Keim and Louis Lumet
... That appalling yell effectually awakened the entire occupants of the hut; and whilst they were sitting up on their pallets, rubbing their eyes and wondering what the terrible sound might portend, the portiere was pushed aside and the professor, bearing a hand-lamp, unceremoniously made his appearance before them with an earnest request that they would dress with all speed and join him on the outside of the hut, where he would await them, the hour ...
— The Log of the Flying Fish - A Story of Aerial and Submarine Peril and Adventure • Harry Collingwood
... this time, always on the alert. I glanced through the large door opening out into the hall, and saw a group of Indian scouts; they laid a coffee-sack down by the corner fire-place, near the front door. The commanding officer left the table hastily; the portiere was drawn. ...
— Vanished Arizona - Recollections of the Army Life by a New England Woman • Martha Summerhayes
... portiere and stepped into the living room Eugene Snow rose to meet her. What either of them expected it might be difficult to explain. Knowing so little of each other, it is very possible that they had no visualizations. What Snow saw was what everyone ...
— Her Father's Daughter • Gene Stratton-Porter
... intimacy, of security, encompasses one when ushered into a living room in which the door opens and closes! Who that has read Henry James's remarkable article on the vistas dear to the American hostess, our portiere-hung spaces, guiltless of doors and open to every draft, can fail to feel how much better our conversation might be were we not forever conscious that between our guests and the greedy ears of our servants there ...
— The House in Good Taste • Elsie de Wolfe
... self-reliant man!" said the voice, and then from behind a portiere a laughing face appeared, followed by a man's active body. At the same time, from an opposite portiere, a lady sprang out and took ...
— Marjorie at Seacote • Carolyn Wells
... my dear," laughed Mrs. Knapp. "Sit down, children. I must see to Mr. Carter, who is lost by the portiere and will never be discovered unless ...
— Blindfolded • Earle Ashley Walcott
... portiere was raised, and the gypsy appeared on the threshold of the chamber, blushing, confused, breathless, her large eyes drooping, and not daring to ...
— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo
... in the Ducal Palace: a window (L.C.) looks out on a view of Padua by moonlight: a staircase (R.C.) leads up to a door with a portiere of crimson velvet, with the Duke's arms embroidered in gold on it: on the lowest step of the staircase a figure draped in black is sitting: the hall is lit by an iron cresset filled with burning tow: thunder and lightning outside: ...
— The Duchess of Padua • Oscar Wilde
... his thought, Mme. Chantelouve, coming out through the portiere, laughed nervously and said, "A woman of my age doing a mad thing like that!" She looked at him, and though he forced a smile ...
— La-bas • J. K. Huysmans
... of that falling body he had already reached the doorway and torn aside the heavy portiere. It was a sleeping-room he looked into, a room of medium size with two windows and an ornate bed of the Empire style set sidewise against the farther wall. There were electric lights upon imitation candles which were grouped in sconces against the wall, and these were turned on, so that the ...
— Jason • Justus Miles Forman
... cozy corner the school-teacher had made with a portiere and some cushions, and I saw she was about ready to break down and cry. I went over to her and took her hand, for she was my own niece, although she didn't suspect it, and I had never had a ...
— The Case of Jennie Brice • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... four brass bands are playing behind a portiere between the coal shed, and also behind time. Footmen in gay-laced livery bring in beer noiselessly and carry out ...
— Rolling Stones • O. Henry
... as they returned to the drawing-room. In all that had gone before, he had been a victim of circumstances. He had an uncomfortable conviction that his position now was not wholly unlike that of an impostor. But as he pushed aside the portiere he beheld a pair of blue eyes which, he flattered himself, betrayed an expression of ...
— A Border Ruffian - 1891 • Thomas A. Janvier
... moment's thought and hesitation she stepped in very quietly under the drapery of the portiere, and in the twinkle of an eye was sitting on a small, low stool which stood behind a tall case of shelves filled with books, which, placed near the door, formed with two walls a narrow, triangular space. That ...
— The Argonauts • Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)
... the cave was protected against the cold by a heavy blanket hung over a pole anchored at either end in the rocky side at the top. Pushing aside this wilderness portiere, the four investigators stepped in, lighting their way with two ...
— Campfire Girls in the Allegheny Mountains - or, A Christmas Success against Odds • Stella M. Francis
... it from the hook on the wall, and thrust it into my hands. With a single movement I had it buckled securely about his arms, and was free to sit up, and stare about. A cord from the portiere curtain draping the bathroom entrance completed his lashings. With wicked eyes he stared up at me, unable to ...
— Gordon Craig - Soldier of Fortune • Randall Parrish
... line as we swept under a great glass-roofed portiere, and came to a halt at a fine flight of marble steps, where Sir Rupert left us and drove away with ...
— A Queen's Error • Henry Curties
... things to think of, and—— Where's papa?" said Miss Allison, turning abruptly from her aunt and moving with quick, impetuous step towards the heavy portiere that hung between the parlor and Mr. Allison's library. But she stopped short at the threshold, for there, just within the rich folds of the hanging barrier, apparently searching for some particular book among the shelves nearest the parlor and farthest from the library ...
— A Tame Surrender, A Story of The Chicago Strike • Charles King
... fire was burning in this new room, and again the air was heavy with tobacco smoke. Holmes entered on tiptoe, waited for me to follow, and then very gently closed the door. We were in Milverton's study, and a portiere at the farther side showed the entrance ...
— The Return of Sherlock Holmes • Arthur Conan Doyle |
