"Absently" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... she said slowly, with something very like a sigh. "He was the only man I ever knew who made me do what I did not want to do and made me wish to be something better than I was," she added absently. ...
— Gordon Keith • Thomas Nelson Page
... said Graham absently; he did not follow out her thought in the least, and, in fact, hardly heard what she said, for the words were suggestive to him also, and carried with them their own ...
— My Little Lady • Eleanor Frances Poynter
... Mackhai absently, as he took up his paper, and the breakfast went on to the end, but to Max it was anything ...
— Three Boys - or the Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai • George Manville Fenn
... grunted absently. He was deep in a thick, leather-backed, looseleaf volume of past performances, technically known as a form book, generally mentioned as "the dope sheets"—the library of the turf follower, the last resort and final court of appeal. The Kid's lower lip had a studious droop and the pages ...
— Old Man Curry - Race Track Stories • Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan
... said Ryder absently. "I don't want the horse.... But you say the sheik's there? What does he look like? ...
— The Fortieth Door • Mary Hastings Bradley
... have had the same feeling sometimes, Mr. Baxter. I am not always the staid respectable matron which I appear to you to be. Sometimes I—(She looks absently at the watch on ...
— Belinda • A. A. Milne
... absently upon his chin—leaned upon it, and after a moment's reflection said in a ...
— The Youth of Jefferson - A Chronicle of College Scrapes at Williamsburg, in Virginia, A.D. 1764 • Anonymous
... head, and a long silence followed. Once or twice he roused himself, stirred the cup of chocolate which the waiter had set before him, and sipped a teaspoonful of it absently. The corner where the two men sat together was quiet, but from the front of the cafe came the continual clatter of plates and glasses, the echo of feet, and the ring of voices; for it was just midday, and the place was ...
— Taquisara • F. Marion Crawford
... muttered absently Mr. Vinck, with a vague gesture. The aspect of Willems as a wife-beater presented to him no interest. How women do misjudge! If Willems wanted to torture his wife he would have recourse to less primitive methods. ...
— An Outcast of the Islands • Joseph Conrad
... directions; and I went down immediately into the ladies' cabin, which was almost empty, and chose a berth for myself in the darkest corner. It was not far from the door, and presently two other ladies came down, with a gentleman and the captain, and held an anxious parley close to me. I listened absently and mechanically, as indifferent to the subject as if it could be of no consequence ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • Hesba Stretton
... not answer or turn. He laid his book on the counter and passed out, his well-shod feet sounding flatly on the floor. On the staircase he paused and gazing absently at Dixon repeated: ...
— A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man • James Joyce
... "Yes," she returned, absently, continuing her inspection of him. "They were sent to me, and I kept them. I never knew why I did; but I ...
— The Wild Olive • Basil King
... automobile. A slight man with thick glasses magnifying his red-rimmed eyes, his speech a painful effort, stood leaning against a mud-guard with his hands in the pockets of a shabby raglan. A great bearded sailor, with the clear eyes of youth, prowled restlessly about, absently toying with an enormous blue-steel revolver, which never left his hand. ...
— Ten Days That Shook the World • John Reed
... course not," he murmured absently; then, after a moment's thought, he said gravely: "I never really doubted your husband's innocence, now I'm sure of it; unfortunately, this does not lessen your responsibility; you were in the room, you witnessed the crime; in fact, you were ...
— Through the Wall • Cleveland Moffett
... began to pick three long stems of grass and braid them together. Lois sat absently twisting the fringe on one end of the soft scarf of yellow crepe, which was knotted across her bosom, and fell almost to the hem of her ...
— John Ward, Preacher • Margaret Deland
... little absently. They were passing the Gray Cottage—a blind was just then raised in one of the lower rooms, and a small pale face peeped eagerly out at the passers-by. Audrey smiled and waved her hand in a friendly manner, and a bright answering smile ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... I'm sure," said Hilliard absently. It was easy to see that he had no attention to spare for Mademoiselle or her confectionery, and presently he added in a lower tone, "There is no immediate hurry for my return. I can just as well stay another three or four days, but I must be back in town before this day week. I fear there ...
— Pixie O'Shaughnessy • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... pleasure,' said little Felix, bowing again, and absently taking up a bottle which ...
— The Grand Babylon Hotel • Arnold Bennett
... so excited, so filled with their own thoughts that they hastened through the saloons, scarcely remarking the prince, who had stepped aside to allow them to pass. The queen-mother nodded absently and gave him a passing greeting, then turned again to Elizabeth, who had scarcely patience to conform her movements to the slow and measured steps of the queen-mother; she longed to look upon ...
— Frederick the Great and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... who entered at the instant. He had learned that there was no train for Geneva before the night-express. Lynde lighted the cigar which he had been unconsciously holding between his fingers all this while, and on the plea of cashing a draft at a banker's left the two gentlemen together. He wandered absently into the Place de la Concorde, crossed the crowded bridge there, and plunged into the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter. Finding his way back after an hour or so to the other bank of the Seine, he seated himself on one of those little black iron chairs which seem to have let themselves ...
— The Queen of Sheba & My Cousin the Colonel • Thomas Bailey Aldrich
... toward the village, and make a mental note, almost absently, that people were getting to their feet now, some of them clinging together the way you and Martha were—and then back down into mental chaos ...
— Eight Keys to Eden • Mark Irvin Clifton
... Prince Andrew absently. "One thing I would do if I had the power," he began again, "I would not take prisoners. Why take prisoners? It's chivalry! The French have destroyed my home and are on their way to destroy Moscow, they have outraged and are ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
... He played absently with a ring I had given him, turning it round and round upon his finger many times ...
— Vendetta - A Story of One Forgotten • Marie Corelli
... excitable, Pocahontas assented absently; she was bracing her will, and steeling her nerves to endure without flinching. Not for worlds would she—even by the quivering of an eyelash—let Norma see the torture she was inflicting. She felt that Norma had an object in this disclosure, and ...
— Princess • Mary Greenway McClelland
... said the professor absently. It was plain that he had been a very slack listener. ...
— Active Service • Stephen Crane
... silent, staring absently at the door that had just closed on the general's burly figure. He still held Elizabeth's letter in his hand. In fancy he was seeing her as she had bent above it, her face tender, compassionate; and then there rose the vision of ...
— The Just and the Unjust • Vaughan Kester
... passing through his mind, he had stopped insensibly at the window, close to which stood the foot of the bed with the closed curtains. At first he looked at it absently; then he became conscious that his eyes were fixed on it; and then, a perverse desire took possession of him to do the very thing which he had resolved not to do, up to this time—to look at the ...
— The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices • Charles Dickens
... the rubbers absently. They held fast; and his next impulse was entirely irresistible. He found a shapely stone, fitted it to the leather, and drew back the ancient catapult for a shot. A sparrow hopped upon a branch between him and the house, and he aimed at the sparrow, but the reflection from the dazzling ...
— Penrod • Booth Tarkington
... her years, Lydia did not reply, but went to the window and gazed absently at the tiny patch of flowers beyond the door—the two lilac trees in full blossom, the thread of glistening river, and behind it all, the northern wilderness. Just below the window stood the missionary and ...
— The Moccasin Maker • E. Pauline Johnson
... said Stafford. "It's a grand valley and a splendid stream." She leant forward with her elbow on the saddle and her chin in the small gauntletted hand, looked up the valley absently and then back at him, with a frank speculation in her eyes which was too frank and calm to be flattering, and was, indeed, ...
— At Love's Cost • Charles Garvice
... places. It seemed strange that she should please him so well at so slender a cost, but please him she did, prodigiously, and his pleasure had a quality altogether new to him. It made him restless, and a trifle melancholy; he walked about absently, wondering and wishing. He wondered, among other things, why fate should have condemned him to make the acquaintance of a girl whom he would make a sacrifice to know better, just as he was leaving the country for ...
— Roderick Hudson • Henry James
... answer, absently, his eyes fixed keenly upon the belt and taking note of its girth. "But where is the ...
— Children of the Frost • Jack London
... She moved away to one of the spindle-legged chairs near a window, and played absently with the knotted fringes of the old-fashioned dimity curtain. "I mention them in the order of their occurrence," she said gently. "Dear Mrs. Macleod could scarcely close her eyes on earth until they rested upon her son. He brought me over in his boat this morning, and is waiting below ...
— An Algonquin Maiden - A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada • G. Mercer Adam
... When he returned, he had a glass, into which he had poured some of the liquor. The canteen he handed back to the trooper, who without a word replaced it in his pocket. Murguia lingered. He sipped his toddy absently. ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle
... greatly agitated him on the previous day possessed him again, and the plan he had formed of imitating his model, Hamlet, in playing in Madame Steno's salon the role of the Danish prince before his uncle occurred to him. Absently, with his customary air of indifference, ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... "Yeah." Cash meditated, absently eyeing the burros. "Where it's green." He looked at the near hills, and at the desert, and at the dreary march of the starved animals. "It's a long way ...
— Cabin Fever • B. M. Bower
... put the recommendation of the son and master on the same line as that of the coal. Mr Headley answered the business matters absently, and ended by saying he ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte M. Yonge
... his near-mahogany desk was deep in thought when Kate passed him. He bowed absently and she responded in the same manner. It occurred to Mr. Wentz that a time when everyone else was either borrowing, or endeavoring to, she was one of the few customers whose balances appeared ...
— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart
... through this ordeal with difficulty because it was not easy to keep from staring about at other patrons. Constantly he was detecting some remembered face. But at last, with his laden tray he reached a vacant table near the centre of the room and took his seat. He absently arranged the food before him. He could stare at leisure now. All about him were the strongly marked faces of the film people, heavy with makeup, interspersed with hungry civilians, who might be producers, directors, ...
— Merton of the Movies • Harry Leon Wilson
... the wub said absently, staring around the room. "A nice apartment you have here, Captain. You keep it quite neat. I respect life-forms that are tidy. Some Martian birds are quite tidy. They throw things out of their nests and ...
— Beyond Lies the Wub • Philip Kindred Dick
... mind drove her at last almost insensibly towards the low, wide wall facing the unquiet sea. Here she sat down, still absorbed in her thoughts, her gaze resting absently on the incoming tide below. She was conscious of a strange feeling of communion with the ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler
... with her hands hanging straight at her sides, staring absently at the door. Then she glanced at Walt, staring wooden-faced from his gilt frame upon his gilt easel, and shivered. She pushed the red plush chair as far away from him as possible, sat down with her back ...
— Lonesome Land • B. M. Bower
... her head to come over and hear some more, for herself, you will not take it amiss? It will be for love of the child." Then, as a correction to what might have seemed a stint of courtesy:—"And for the pleasure of a visit to you, ma'am." Said old Maisie absently:—"I hope she will." And then Widow Thrale saw that all this talking had been quite enough, and ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan
... nodded absently, still dazed by the sudden turn of events. Tom hurried past him and met Roger coming down from the radar bridge. "I'm going too!" the blond-haired ...
— Sabotage in Space • Carey Rockwell
... retained his seat, but Chris Harford, Mrs. Devlyn's brother, had entered the box now and was assiduously paying his court. "Damned impertinence of the woman, forcing her relations upon them like that," he thought.—"Oh—er—no—that is, I think the Paris Opera-House is a beastly place," he said, absently, "a dull, heavy drab brown and dirty gilding, and all the women look hideous ...
— Beyond The Rocks - A Love Story • Elinor Glyn
... you why Mariuccia is a witch, and why my Nino, who never so much as looked at the beauties of the generone, as they came with their fathers and brothers and mothers to eat ice-cream in the Piazza Colonna, and listen to the music of a summer's evening,—Nino, who stared absently at the great ladies as they rolled over the Pincio, in their carriages, and was whistling airs to himself for practice when he strolled along the Corso, instead of looking out for pretty faces,—Nino, the cold in all things save in music, why he fulfilled Mariuccia's prophecy, ...
— A Roman Singer • F. Marion Crawford
... Oscard absently. In his ears there rang already the steady plash of the paddle, the weird melancholy song of the boatmen, the music of the ...
— With Edged Tools • Henry Seton Merriman
... He laid down his fork, he rested his elbow on the table, his forehead upon his hand. Then absently he began to hum over to himself a tune. The rhythm of it was somehow familiar to the Surgeon's ears. Where had he heard it before? Then with a start he remembered. It was this very rhythm, that very tune, which Scrope's ...
— Ensign Knightley and Other Stories • A. E. W. Mason
... MacMaine corrected almost absently. "All they have is a method of making their biggest ships indetectable until they're so close that it doesn't matter. When they do register on our detectors, it's too late. But the weapons they strike with are the same type as they've always ...
— The Highest Treason • Randall Garrett
... lane slowly and absently like a woman in a dream. When she came to the gap in the fence where the lane ran into the orchard she lifted her wan, drooping face and saw Eric, sitting in the shadow of the wood at the other side of the orchard with his ...
— Kilmeny of the Orchard • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... the scholars of the whole class in such consternation that they all wistfully and absently looked ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... said Thorpe, absently. The allusion to the brother-in-law in Kent had escaped his notice, so intent was he upon a new congeries of projects taking vague ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic
... be introduced to any more people," said Dick rather absently. "In my opinion you can't have too few acquaintances and ...
— M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." • G.J. Whyte-Melville
... in sober speculation. She would have liked to inquire into the nature of his excitement. Courtesy forbidding her to do so, she indulged only in commonplaces to which Tom replied almost absently. It was evident that something remarkable must have happened to thus upset Tom's equanimity. The sound of Grace's light feet on the stairs was a matter of relief to her. Excusing herself to the impatient lover, ...
— Grace Harlowe's Golden Summer • Jessie Graham Flower
... his master absently. Then, to the spare man at the head of the table: "I have been next door, talking to the American Secretary of War. A dull fellow. Convinced, is he, that Arvania harbors only kind thoughts for this great stupid ...
— The Radiant Shell • Paul Ernst
... absently. He had to give approval, but dropped the question rather abruptly, going back to his ...
— Radio Boys Loyalty - Bill Brown Listens In • Wayne Whipple
... serious trouble with that impetuosity of yours, Jacky," he said absently. "But there—I daresay ...
— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum
... money-ravenous wench," Gusterson said absently, trying to dream of an insanity beyond insanity that would make his next novel a real ...
— The Creature from Cleveland Depths • Fritz Reuter Leiber
... agreed Lucy, absently. In her mind she was wondering how she could find the money ...
— The Making of Mona • Mabel Quiller-Couch
... and he regarded me at first absently, then with startled curiosity, and sharply drew his skittish mare back on her haunches. "Good God, Floyd!" said he, "how glad I am to see you!" We looked straight in each other's face for a time, and his features worked, as he regarded me, with some emotion. "You were going to ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, November, 1878 - of Popular Literature and Science • Various
... room empty. John shut the door and sat down, looking about him half-absently. The Duffer had not contributed much to the mural decoration, saying, loftily, that he preferred bare walls to rubbishy engravings and Japanese fans. But, with curious inconsistency (for he was the least vain of mortals), he had bought at a "leaving auction" a three-sided mirror—once ...
— The Hill - A Romance of Friendship • Horace Annesley Vachell
... in his face that seems familiar," mused the squire absently. "He reminds me of somebody, though ...
— Frank's Campaign - or the Farm and the Camp • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... and ignominy. None of the Canadians seemed amused by this; they regarded it with serious composure as a fitting decorum, and Mr. Arbuton had no comment to make upon it. But at the first embrace bestowed upon the horse by the grooms the colonel said absently, "Ah! long-lost brother," and Kitty laughed; and as the scruples of each brute were successively overcome, she helped to give some grotesque interpretation to the various scenes of the melodrama, while Mr. Arbuton stood beside her, and sheltered her with his umbrella; and a spice of ...
— A Chance Acquaintance • W. D. Howells
... Pen absently; "we must make haste back, now, to let them know you are safe. You see, if you go getting lost, Cousin Charlotte won't let us come out on the moor alone. Come along," raising her sister, after putting on her shoes ...
— The Carroll Girls • Mabel Quiller-Couch
... beech wood which formed a pleasant place of encampment for tea-parties, Canon Wrottesley could only smile absently at the picnic-baskets, and appear wrapped in thought when addressed; he might have been mentally preparing his next Sunday's sermon. Miss Abingdon thought that he was doing so and respected him for it; she even tried to attune her ...
— Peter and Jane - or The Missing Heir • S. (Sarah) Macnaughtan
... up a chair and sat straddled across it, his arms on the back, looking at her with ardent eyes. She kept her own averted. She seemed to find it hard to begin what it was she wanted to say. She stood beside the dressing-table absently fingering the trinkets lying there. Among them was a portrait of Challoner in a silver frame. The pictured eyes seemed to be watching her as she stood trying to avoid the human ones. With sudden ...
— The Second Honeymoon • Ruby M. Ayres
... kitchen, so dark and cool to him after his sultry walk up the steep, long lanes, and sat watching her absently, yet with a pleasant consciousness of her presence, as she kindled her fire of dry furze and wood, and hung a little kettle to it by a chain hooked to a staple in the chimney, and arranged her curious old china, picked up long years ago by her father at ...
— Cobwebs and Cables • Hesba Stretton
... only Ariel was left. She came down alone after the first dance had begun, and greeted her young hostess's mother timidly. Mrs. Pike—a small, frightened-looking woman with a prominent ruby necklace—answered her absently, and hurried away to see that the imported waiters ...
— The Conquest of Canaan • Booth Tarkington
... here in Lost Valley," said the girl quietly, "an' th' breed ain't dyin' out as I can see. Th' settlers need a new leader—now that Jim Last's gone." And she fell to playing absently with her fork ...
— Tharon of Lost Valley • Vingie E. Roe
... absently. Presently he went on: "Don't imagine that I doubt anything you have said, Caw—except that the diamonds, whose value there must surely be some extraordinary mistake about, were ...
— Till the Clock Stops • John Joy Bell
... to her own room, and Mr. Dillwyn was forced to follow her. The door was shut between them and the rest of the household. Mrs. Barclay trimmed her fire, and her guest looked on absently. Then they sat down on opposite sides of the fireplace; Mrs. Barclay smiling inwardly, for she knew that Philip was impatient; however, nothing could be more sedate to ...
— Nobody • Susan Warner
... not a conscious falsehood, but just a word or two of political patter, dropped automatically, absently. In truth, Mr. Bamberger, possessed by his inspiration, was wondering why the deuce it had never occurred to him until this moment. Still more curious, too, that it had never occurred to his brother Isidore! This Isidore, after ...
— Brother Copas • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... Ruth. Women are so terribly apt in handling any subject to make it personal. Would she fire up, or would she, like so many women, join in abuse of her own sex? She did neither. She was looking straight in front of her, absently watching the figures of Dare and Molly in the next field. Then she turned her grave, thoughtful ...
— The Danvers Jewels, and Sir Charles Danvers • Mary Cholmondeley
... let the statement pass, and did not give it a single thought. Other matters occupied his mind, and besides he had neither seen nor heard anything. He contented himself by saying, "Oh!" absently, got a drink of water out of a pitcher standing there, and leaving Cornelius a prey to some inexplicable emotion—that made him embrace with both arms the worm-eaten rail of the verandah as if his legs had failed—went in again and lay down on his mat to think. By-and-by he heard ...
— Lord Jim • Joseph Conrad
... only Firmstone's reputation, but his life as well, hung in the balance, Zephyr had visible proof. This material proof he was absently tipping from hand to hand, during his broken and unsatisfactory interview with Firmstone. It was nothing more nor less than a nickel-jacketed bullet which, that very morning, had barely missed his head, only to flatten itself ...
— Blue Goose • Frank Lewis Nason
... speech flowed on, he looked sidelong at her, in a trouble of fear and wonder; then, at length, absently, trying to put his mind elsewhere and to leave her voice as the muted murmur of a distant torrent. He succeeded fairly well in this, for Lorena combined admirably in herself the parts of speaker and listener, ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson
... who was drawing absently with his fingers on the table, said, "Do you see, Yakov, why this did not please me? . . . Let us go into the matter thoroughly, and understand what you are really doing, and what the result may be. Your wife is pregnant. ...
— Creatures That Once Were Men • Maxim Gorky
... said Lily absently, "that will be the best way"; and she sat languidly watching the dancers. A young naval officer who spoke English ran across the ...
— A Fearful Responsibility and Other Stories • William D. Howells
... uncovered in deference to the worshiper rather than the rite, waited patiently. The eyes of Father Pedro returned to the earth, moist as if with dew caught from above. He looked half absently at Cranch. ...
— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte
... his own fingers got busy with buttons, zippers, hooks and the other temporary fastenings with which female clothing is encumbered. He was swimming in a red sea of passion and the Egyptians were nowhere in sight. Absently, he got an arm out of his shirt, and at the same time somehow managed to undo the final button of a series. Maya's ...
— Pagan Passions • Gordon Randall Garrett
... hesitated at the garden gate. He seemed no longer clearly aware of his actions. "I don't drink," he said slowly, coming up the garden path, and after a moment's interval repeated absently, "No—I don't drink. It goes round. Spin, ...
— When the Sleeper Wakes • Herbert George Wells
... Armiger Thesaurar." The words, set in four panels, which formed a frieze beneath the pediment of a fine brick portico, summarised the history of one of the tall houses at the upper end of King's Bench Walk and as I, somewhat absently, read over the inscription, my attention was divided between admiration of the exquisitely finished carved brickwork and the quiet dignity of the building, and an effort to reconstitute the dead and gone Richard ...
— The Red Thumb Mark • R. Austin Freeman
... minutes later a sorrowful, despondent-looking gentleman entered, and politely, although somewhat absently, saluted his caller. ...
— Mona • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
... Tucson's likin' you a heap," drawled Ferguson absently. He gravely contemplated the puncher. "I expect you was a long ways off yesterday when Leviatt an' Tucson come in from up the crick?" ...
— The Two-Gun Man • Charles Alden Seltzer
... She was on terms of intimacy with the colored man in a crisp linen coat who presided over the refreshments, and he invariably gave her an extra spoonful of the marron paste she preferred. When at lunch, it might be, she cared for very little, her mother would complain absently: ...
— Linda Condon • Joseph Hergesheimer
... John Alroyd," she answered, absently, for there were hammering at her brain the words, ...
— Northern Lights • Gilbert Parker
... who entered a moment later, was depressingly typical. He was as tall as his youngest son, with whom he shook hands absently and whom he resembled in no other way. He had the conventionally aristocratic features, thin lips and steely blue eyes. He was ...
— The Devil's Paw • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... afternoon, and the sun was beginning to strike under the laurels around the hotel into the little office where the widow sat with the housekeeper—a stout spinster of a coarser Western type. Mrs. MacGlowrie was looking wearily over some accounts on the desk before her, and absently putting back some tumbled sheaves from the stack of her heavy hair. For the widow had a certain indolent Southern negligence, which in a less pretty woman would have been untidiness, and a characteristic hook and eyeless freedom of attire which on less graceful limbs would have been ...
— Trent's Trust and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... week," said the officer curtly, moving on and absently pulling out his watch as if to verify his estimate of time. Six o'clock ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. II: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians • Ambrose Bierce
... Millar nodded absently and barely replied to Herman's cordial greeting. He was still enraged at the interruption which had prevented the success of his infamous plan. Herman turned quickly ...
— The Devil - A Tragedy of the Heart and Conscience • Joseph O'Brien
... time, I mused, absently. 'Yesterday—' I stopped, suddenly. Yesterday! There was no yesterday. The yesterday of which I spoke had been swallowed up in the abyss of years, ages gone. I grew dazed with ...
— The House on the Borderland • William Hope Hodgson
... the room to the alcove, from the alcove to the room, as if he had lost his way, gazed absently out of the window and lay down on the bench, feeling all the more miserable because no one ...
— Selected Polish Tales • Various
... of the two trunks fell to the late recruit; and when he had set it down at the door of the designated state-room, he did half-absently what John Gavitt might have done without blame: read the tacked-on card, which bore the owner's name and address, written in a firm round ...
— The Price • Francis Lynde
... shop which occupied almost the whole of the ground-floor and whose windows, blazing with electric light, displayed a huddled array of old furniture and antiquities. She stood there for a few seconds, gazing at it absently. A sign-board bore the words "The Mercury," together with the name of the owner of the shop, "Pancaldi." Higher up, on a projecting cornice which ran on a level with the first floor, a small niche sheltered a terra-cotta Mercury poised on one foot, with wings to his sandals and the caduceus in ...
— The Eight Strokes of the Clock • Maurice Leblanc
... now—" muttered Lingard, who felt a chill down his back at the idea of his own vessel decaying slowly in some Dutch port. "He died—didn't he?" he asked, absently, while he wondered whether he would have the pluck to set fire ...
— The Rescue • Joseph Conrad
... love, Tom," answered Geoffrey absently, as he threw away the match and walked on. "Don't do that; it is an unhappy thing to ...
— Beatrice • H. Rider Haggard
... Nora (absently). Maybe. (HELMER takes a bunch of keys out of his pocket and goes into the hall.) Torvald! what are you going ...
— A Doll's House • Henrik Ibsen
... an effort, Rankin got to his feet, and, as usual, his action brought the discussion to an end. The woman returned to her work; the men put on hats and coats preparatory to going out of doors. Only the proprietor stood passive a moment absently drawing down his ...
— Ben Blair - The Story of a Plainsman • Will Lillibridge
... man," said he absently, "fixes his mind not on making friends or defeating enemies, not on elections or on history, but just on avoiding from day to day, from act to act, the condemnation of his own self-respect—" The blinds closed as suddenly as they had opened—he had ...
— The Plum Tree • David Graham Phillips
... hospital directors' meeting at two. Really," Olive spoke a little absently, herself; "I almost ...
— The Brentons • Anna Chapin Ray
... gay as the sunset. She talked and laughed incessantly, saying all sorts of merry things in a childish fashion, that kept Mrs. Harrington in explosions of laughter, more natural than she often indulged in, while Elizabeth Fuller leaned back in her seat, listening, absently sometimes, to their graceful banter, glancing at the young girl with affectionate admiration of her youthful loveliness, but oftener losing herself in the pleasant train of thought which had ...
— A Noble Woman • Ann S. Stephens
... straight line from Stephen's house, and the road happened to pass a post-office. May stopped and looked absently through its ...
— Six Women • Victoria Cross
... word or two that might be changed," she answered, rather absently. "I shall have to think it over, to live with it a little. But I like it, and that's all I ...
— Sir Dominick Ferrand • Henry James
... Chessman said absently, as he watched, "When the Spanish got to Mexico they didn't understand what they saw, being musclemen rather than scholars. And before competent witnesses came on the scene, Aztec society was destroyed. The conquistadors, who did attempt to describe Tenochtitlan, misinterpreted ...
— Adaptation • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... I did," Jan owned, and fell to pondering what was best to be done about these memories. Absently she dug her hoe into the ground, making ruts in the gravel, while ...
— Jan and Her Job • L. Allen Harker
... replied absently. "True, I was forgetting—the sight of you, dear, always stirs me so. I came here very angry with you, and, now, ...
— The Colonel of the Red Huzzars • John Reed Scott
... a moment's meditation where he stood; it found issue in an articulate "Poor dear thing!"—an exclamation marked at once with patience and impatience, with resignation and ridicule. After which, waiting for his daughter, Lord Theign slowly and absently roamed, finding matches at last and lighting his cigarette—all with an air of concern that had settled on him more heavily from the moment of his finding himself alone. His luxury of gloom—if gloom it was—dropped, however, on his taking heed of Lady Grace, who, arriving ...
— The Outcry • Henry James
... at her absently for a few moments and then past her; he was so lost in thought that he had not heard her question at all. At last he murmured, "I wonder if it would not be better to be open about it? Hm." Then he shook his head and thoughtfully stroked ...
— The Son of His Mother • Clara Viebig
... humours sometimes," said Jost shortly, looking down at the flower in his buttonhole, and absently flicking off one of its petals with his fat forefinger—"He ought to be made to ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli
... answered, with a child's puzzled laugh. "I stick to my bond, I dress and talk and eat and go about- -" Her voice dropped; she stared absently ...
— The Heart of Rachael • Kathleen Norris
... absently at the distant spire; "SLUKER," he reiterated, rubbing his nose abstractedly with the handle of his umbrella; ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 2, No. 27, October 1, 1870 • Various
... her, and she gave him absently her customary answer. He pointed to a great striped tent of red and white linen, adorned with fluttering streamers and guarded by more sentries in shining mail; and she rode toward it ...
— The Ward of King Canute • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
... clergyman, absently. "Good-morning, Catharine." Then, as he walked down the little brick-paved path, "How strange; Catharine's hand never felt like that; it always seemed puckered and rough to me, but this felt soft and cold as it touched me, and shook so that ...
— Wee Wifie • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... would have talked after that, but she did not. When I spoke to her once or twice she answered absently; and presently she forgot me altogether, and began ...
— Ideala • Sarah Grand
... her face as she read it, and noticed the look of relief as, quite unconscious of his presence, his bride absently spread the paper out. And although deliberately to try and see what was written was not what he would ever have done, his eyes caught the signature, "Mimo," before he was aware ...
— The Reason Why • Elinor Glyn
... Winton nodded absently. It was one of his minor fads to ignore his lineage, which ran decently back to a Colonial governor on his father's side, and to assert that he did not know his grandfather's middle name—which was accounted for by the ...
— A Fool For Love • Francis Lynde
... Boy absently. And he tumbled back on the pillows, thinking about the seashore and the ocean ...
— Sunny Boy in the Country • Ramy Allison White
... wondering absently, in the unregarded depths of his mind, how they could go on with a talk that was ploughing deeper and deeper and yet could get nowhere in the end. For certainly they were both mercifully bent on saving Anne, and Anne, under ...
— Old Crow • Alice Brown
... deep-voiced, strong-lunged singer sends his rich notes rolling through the hall. The auditors have suddenly lost their merriment, and are now listening pensively to the music, which is good. They sip their beer absently, and are thinking no doubt of the far-off Fatherland, for you see their features grow softer and their eyes glisten. Then, when it is all over, they burst into an enthusiastic encore, or resume ...
— Lights and Shadows of New York Life - or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City • James D. McCabe
... a warning that he'll have to respect, cad or no cad," said Bazelhurst, absently spreading butter upon his fingers ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds
... As I looked absently down the track, I reviewed the past winter months, the long days and evenings spent at my desk in the stuffy little lodgings to which I was limited by my narrow income, interrupted frequently by invasions on various pretexts of the ill-fed chambermaid, who insisted on telling ...
— A Village Ophelia and Other Stories • Anne Reeve Aldrich
... as they pass joyous by, Nor note my presence; or, if they should see, Their eyes but rest upon me absently, Then turn away. They all are strange to me, And I to them. More lonely is my mood Here, ...
— The Song of the Exile—A Canadian Epic • Wilfred S. Skeats
... absently. Then the full force of Miriam's words dawning on her she looked at her friend in a startled way. "I know who sent Ruth those presents. It was Elfreda herself. I'm sure of it. She knew Ruth to be too proud to accept ...
— Grace Harlowe's First Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... his teeth together, which was a symptom it were well for the other to recognize but did not. Then Andy smiled, which was another symptom. He fingered the spur absently, laid it down and reached, with the gesture that betrays the act as having become second nature, for ...
— The Happy Family • Bertha Muzzy Bower
... absently. "You can always rely on Abe. It's time for you to dress, and we must look our prettiest. I caught a glimpse of Miss Seebrook strolling through the garden with her papa a bit ago. It may be necessary for you to cultivate her a trifle. A little ...
— Blacksheep! Blacksheep! • Meredith Nicholson
... absently. "He is, certainly. A man's reputation for a little gaiety oughtn't to make a great difference to married people, of course. It's where young girls are in question. THEN it may be very, very dangerous. There are a great many things ...
— The Turmoil - A Novel • Booth Tarkington
... was coming down on Detroit and would blot it out completely, fortress, soldiers, village and all. In a little while the darkness covered everything save a few flickering lights here and there. Henry sat at the window a while, gazing absently at the lights. But his mind was away with his comrades, Paul, Shif'less Sol, Long Jim and Silent Tom, the faithful four with whom he had passed through a world of dangers. Where were they now? He had ...
— The Border Watch - A Story of the Great Chief's Last Stand • Joseph A. Altsheler
... a shoe, and carefully deposited it on the floor beside his chair. Private secretary to Rear Admiral Killigrew, retired; Karl Breitmann! He drew off the second shoe, and placed it, with military preciseness, close to the first. Absently, he rose, with the intention of putting the pair in the hall, but remembered before he got as far as the door that it was not customary in America to put one's shoes outside in the halls. Ultimately, they would have been stolen ...
— A Splendid Hazard • Harold MacGrath
... the little parlor beside the roses. She touched them tenderly, absently. Life, which the day before had called her with the beckoning finger of dreams, now reached out grim insistent ...
— K • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... me to wear clean lab coats. Be satisfied with a limited victory," Kramer said absently, his eyes staring unseeingly at a row of reagent bottles on the bench. Abruptly he nodded. "Fantastic," he muttered, "but it's worth a check." He left the room, slamming the door behind him in ...
— Pandemic • Jesse Franklin Bone
... stood looking at a druggist's display window, gazing idly at the pills, absently picking out the various kinds which he had taken. He had just come from his mother with the expressed injunction not to go near the river. His eyes roamed listlessly from the pills to the pain-killer, and; turning wearily away, he saw Piggy and ...
— The Court of Boyville • William Allen White
... old man, absently. "Good stockin's, good stockin's! Nice gal she is too. But—'t was you left the book, ...
— Hildegarde's Holiday - a story for girls • Laura E. Richards
... he was going to reply to the last words of the proud heiress, the glance of the count wandered absently round the room and fell upon a pair of eyes fixed upon him with a sharp and jealous gaze, whereupon he gave his hand to his friend and said ...
— The Grandee • Armando Palacio Valds |
