"Sob" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... wheeled round and strode off with something like a sob in his throat. Teddy had little idea of the mighty conflict in his breast. The child's words had awakened many memories, and Tim was at that stage now when the powers of good and of evil were contending ...
— Teddy's Button • Amy Le Feuvre
... to get to that little, insistent girl. He heard her sob, a childish sob, half desire, half fear. The veins stood out on his forehead and his hands gripped the edge of his desk as he got ...
— Joyce of the North Woods • Harriet T. Comstock
... the music of those others, and follow it. Now for the rising of the lark! Henceforward it is a chorus, and he is the leader thereof. Heaven and earth agree to follow him. I have a part for the brooks—their notes drop, drop, drop, like his: for the woods—they sob like him. At length, nothing remains but to blow the Hautboys; and just as the chorus arrives at its fulness, they come maundering in. They have a sweet old blundering 'cow song' to themselves—a silly thing, made of ...
— The Violin - Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators • George Hart
... was shut. She threw herself against it and wrenched at the handle, which must have been put on upside down to suit some whim of the owners, for it would not turn. The bear was close upon her, so with a sob of despair she passed on round the house. Next moment she found herself confronted with a log wall and in a species of cul-de-sac. Oh! the horror of that moment! But there was a barrel lying on its side against the wall of the hut Afterwards she marvelled how ...
— The Rising of the Red Man - A Romance of the Louis Riel Rebellion • John Mackie
... spoke of long years of quiet prosperity. As Miss Merivale took her accustomed seat at the tea-table and looked about her, and then at Tom sitting opposite her, all unwitting of the terrible blow that might be about to fall on him, she could scarcely keep back the sob ...
— Miss Merivale's Mistake • Mrs. Henry Clarke
... he said with a sob in his voice, "that whatever I do is wrong. This Bill has gone through various transmogrifications since; with a light heart, I brought it in as part of Budget scheme. But it's all the same. Hit high or hit low, I can't please 'em. Begin to think ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, August 9, 1890. • Various
... strolled along, swinging their school satchels as they went. Presently a sound came to them on the still, morning air, something like a frightened yet angry sob, then a noise ...
— Master Sunshine • Mrs. C. F. Fraser
... knees with a childish sob. Sometimes the old church seemed absolutely still, and the only sound to be heard was the sighing of the night breeze below him in the pines, but sometimes the place seemed full of muffled movements, and once O'Hagan ...
— War and the Weird • Forbes Phillips
... take Beata upstairs to her room, Rosy," she said. "You must be tired, dear," and the kind words and tone, so like what her own mother's would have been, made the cup of Beata's distress overflow. She gave a little sob and then burst into tears. Rosy half sprang forward—she was on the point of throwing her arms round Beata and whispering, "I will love you, dear, I do love you;" but alas, the strange foolish pride that so often checked her good feelings, held her back, and jealousy whispered, ...
— Rosy • Mrs. Molesworth
... he—well, it was just the same as saying he would. I told him he had to come and I'd expect him, and he didn't say he wouldn't. Why, for gracious sake, do you suppose I went and fixed his din—dinner—?" Mary V gulped down a sob she ...
— The Thunder Bird • B. M. Bower
... taste of blood in his mouth. The shadow of the bridge was just above him. He turned on his back for a second. There were lights on the bridge. A current swept him past one barge and then another. Certainty possessed him that he was going to be drowned. A voice seemed to sob in his ears grotesquely: "And so John Andrews was drowned in the Seine, drowned in the Seine, in ...
— Three Soldiers • John Dos Passos
... into the lane, and with a strange broken cry of joy that was half a sob she fell upon her knees and clasped the little burro's neck. Noddle wearily flapped his long brown ears, wearily nodded his white nose; then evidently considering the incident closed, ...
— The Heritage of the Desert • Zane Grey
... the lark and robin, Sun and sky, and mead and bloom; But give for this rare throat to throb in, And this lonesome soul to sob in, Wildwoods ...
— Upon The Tree-Tops • Olive Thorne Miller
... a time, a poor boy was seen to go up and down the side-walk of a town, and sob and cry. At last he sat down on a door-step. He was too weak to run more. He had had no food all the day. It was a day in June. The air was mild. The warm sun sent down its rays of love on all. But poor Dick had no ...
— Dick and His Cat - An Old Tale in a New Garb • Mary Ellis
... gasp, then a half-sob. "Ah! But I love to sing them, honey. I have sung them every Sunday all my life, and he loved them. He said I could sing with anybody, he wouldn't except angels. I 'most felt he ...
— Senator North • Gertrude Atherton
... long sigh, one smothering sob, to me. And I thank God that we have as yet one or two generous friends in England who understand and ...
— The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe • Charles Edward Stowe
... said not one word, but, drawing Agnes to a seat under one of the trees, he seated himself beside her, and laying his head upon her shoulder, he was quiet for a few moments; and then Agnes felt his frame tremble with sudden emotion, and heard a deep sob. ...
— Lewie - Or, The Bended Twig • Cousin Cicely
... was very soft, and the Skipper would not have known that his father had come back, if Dot had not uttered a tiny sob, when the boy started round, to ...
— The Little Skipper - A Son of a Sailor • George Manville Fenn
... hair had yet bits of ice in it, his face still had the awful shadow that is cast by the passing-by of death. Denas put her arms around his neck and kissed him; she kissed him until she began to sob, and he drew her upon his knee, and held her to his breast, and said in a ...
— A Singer from the Sea • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
... traitor shall go out of the world, or a poor worthless devil, that doesn't care to remain in it. I am better away, Hal—my wife will be all the happier when I am gone," says my lord, with a groan, that tore the heart of Harry Esmond so that he fairly broke into a sob ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray
... whence or how—and planted beside them, and up the men swarmed, three abreast, Dave leading on the right-hand one, at the foot of which Nat hung back and swayed. He heard Dave's long sigh, the sigh, the sob almost, of desire answered at last. He watched him as he mounted. The ladders were still too short, and the leader on each must climb on the second man's shoulders to get hand-hold on the coping. In that moment he might be clubbed on the ...
— The Laird's Luck • Arthur Quiller-Couch
... angrily. "I feel like a miserable coward;" and he uttered a hysterical sob as he passed his wet hand over ...
— Dead Man's Land - Being the Voyage to Zimbambangwe of certain and uncertain • George Manville Fenn
... she said, turning her head to Saunders an instant, and speaking under her breath, with a kind of sob. ...
— Bessie Costrell • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... concerned at my mother's prolonged absence, and was deeply anxious to meet her and sob out my joy on her faithful bosom. Surely it was the hands of God which prevented mother's presence at the trial, for broken down with anxiety and loss of sleep on my account, the revulsion of feeling would have been greater than her over-wrought ...
— From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or Struggles for Freedom • Lucy A. Delaney
... when he saw this movement of the pursuers; and springing as he spoke towards the entrance of a narrow defile which lay entirely in the shadow of the mountain. A deep convulsive sob burst from the pent-up bosom of Elliot ere he replied: "Leave me to my fate, my friend; I cannot fly; the weight of his ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 2 - Historical, Traditional, and Imaginative • Alexander Leighton
... cord of Troloff, or in some cell at Schlusselbourg or the Cross.[11] And yet, as I listen to these voices dying away in the dark distance, I again experience all the despair and all the hate of the day, and my last "adieu" is choked in a sob—and when, a few moments later, the heavy outer door is closed, a great shudder as of death passes over ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III., July 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various
... it. If love is a weed, how simple they Who gather and gather it, day by day! If love is a nettle that makes you smart, Why do you wear it next your heart? And if it be neither of these, say I, Why do you sit and sob and sigh? ...
— Songs of a Savoyard • W. S. Gilbert
... grief until the tremulous motion of her hand, in which she had concealed her face, indicated her sorrow, and made me regret that I had asked the question. Recovering her self-possession, she went on to speak, although, without a sob, her tears ...
— A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden - 2nd edition • W. A. Ross
... but his pockets were full of the articles that had been written about her. The leaves of the beech trees shimmered in the steady sunlight, and they could see the green park through the drooping branches. She often detected a sob in his voice, and once, while sitting under a cedar tree at the edge of the terrace, he had to turn aside to hide his tears, and the sadness of everything made her ...
— Evelyn Innes • George Moore
... hogshead (from "barelo", barrel). bonega, excellent (from "bona", good). malbonege, wickedly, wretchedly (from "malbone", badly, poorly). domego, mansion (from "domo", house). ploregi, to sob, to wail (from "plori", to weep). treege, ...
— A Complete Grammar of Esperanto • Ivy Kellerman
... he did—I don't know." Then the man's listless voice throbbed out achingly, as he cried in despair: "She believed him, boy! She believed his lies! That's what hurts." Something like a sob caught in his throat, and he staggered away under the weight ...
— The Barrier • Rex Beach
... it as she thought needful. She had been with bad people, playing for them, a long time, she did not know how long. And then they would take away her violin, and she would not stay, and she ran away from them, and had walked all day, and—and that was all. A little sob shook her voice at the last words; she had not realised before how utterly alone she was. The delight of freedom, of getting away from her tyrants, had been enough at first, and she had been as it were on wings all day, like a bird let loose from its cage; now the little bird ...
— Marie • Laura E. Richards
... The sob was at her throat. If she had spoken it would have burst through, and she would have been not merely the child, ...
— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett
... There was a moment of confusion, of exhortation to be a good girl, of farewell; and then the train was gone. The last member of Isabelle's world had deserted her, and she choked back a sob of loneliness, of rebellion. It was all mirrored in her tell-tale face. A big strong hand suddenly enclosed her own, and she looked up into ...
— The Cricket • Marjorie Cooke
... Uncle Ben, the poet, whose name he had disgraced. He could endure no more; he began to sob, and so went to sleep, his little squirrel pitying ...
— True to His Home - A Tale of the Boyhood of Franklin • Hezekiah Butterworth
... believe it I hope that it is true; indeed, I think that it must be true, Mother dear," said Isobel with a little sob. ...
— Love Eternal • H. Rider Haggard
... forth her child To meet with cares and strife, Breathes through her tears her doubts and fears For the loved one's future life. No cold "adieu," no "farewell," lives Within her choking sigh, But the deepest sob of anguish gives, ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various
... hideous form, crept the young Helga. She stopped when she reached the bodies of the Christian priest and the slaughtered horse: she gazed on them with eyes that seemed full of tears, and the frog uttered a sound that somewhat resembled the sob of a child who was on the point of crying. She threw herself first over the one, then over the other; then took water up in her webbed hand, and poured it over them; but all was in vain—they were dead, and dead they would remain. She knew that. Wild beasts would soon come and devour their bodies. ...
— The Sand-Hills of Jutland • Hans Christian Andersen
... hysterical sob burst from the young midshipman's breast at this; and, facing death as he was just then,—a horrible death which might follow at any moment,—the lad's hand grasped that of his young gaoler—officer and smuggler, but both boys of one blood, who had fought each ...
— Cutlass and Cudgel • George Manville Fenn
... asked violently whether she imagined that there was anything in her, apart from her money, to induce any intelligent person to take any sort of interest in her existence, she only caught her breath in one dry sob and said nothing, made no other sound, made no movement. When she was viciously assured that she was in heart, mind, manner and appearance, an utterly common and insipid creature, she remained still, without indignation, without anger. She stood, a frail ...
— Chance • Joseph Conrad
... "I thought so." A sob swelled up in her throat. "You come here and make trouble. I do hate you if you want ...
— Steve Yeager • William MacLeod Raine
... was coming, and, with a gasping sob which Lucy thought a long-drawn breath, she kissed the pretty parted lips, ...
— The Rector of St. Mark's • Mary J. Holmes
... in Kit, enthusiastically. "We got up on a high hill, and saw the sea lying like a great quiet lake beneath us. There was scarcely a ripple on it, and only a soft sound like a sob." Her eyes, that are almost too big for ...
— Rossmoyne • Unknown
... generally served, are almost as digestible as rocks, but not so tempting in all their grease-dripping beauty as the latter. Many of you have doubtless seen the potatoes neatly sliced and dumped into a frying pan full of hot lard, where they were permitted to sink or float, and soak and sob for about a half hour or more. When served, they presented the picturesque spectacle of miniature potato islands floating at liberty in a sea of yellow grease. Now, if any of you can relish and digest such a mess as that, ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 484, April 11, 1885 • Various
... When anyone spoke it was in an almost inaudible whisper. Each seemed to feel that Death, grim and awful of aspect, was stalking invisible through the room. From behind the closed door where the father and husband lay dying there came no sound. Only an occasional sob from the wife, and the movements of the two girls as they endeavored to console her, relieved the oppressive stillness. Suddenly the doctor's eye encountered Mrs. Blaine's searching, questioning gaze. ...
— Bought and Paid For - From the Play of George Broadhurst • Arthur Hornblow
... When asked what she had to say in her defense, she only lifted her eyes on the justiciary, looked around like a hunted animal, and immediately lowering them began to sob aloud. ...
— The Awakening - The Resurrection • Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy
... odious and tyrannical that I stood excused in advance for inconstancy when I stooped to wed country manners and stubborn ignorance. Indeed, mon ami, if you will but take pains to recover, I will never breathe a word about the duel; but if—if—" a sob indicated the tragic possibility which Lady Lucretia dared not put into words—"I will do all that a weak woman can do to get Fareham hanged for murder. There has never been a peer hanged in England, I believe. He should be ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon
... kind did but make the tears flow yet more freely. Drake perceived the fact and stood aside, wondering perplexedly at the reason. The sound of each sob jerked at his heart; he began to walk restlessly about the room. The storm, from its very violence, however, wore itself quickly out; the sobs became less convulsive, less frequent. Clarice raised her head from her arms and ...
— The Philanderers • A.E.W. Mason
... for an instant on the threshold of the platform. Then, in two steps, he was by her side and speaking almost with a sob. ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XXI • Robert Louis Stevenson
... anything, just ring. I'll put this little bell right by your hand on the bed; and you must ring if you want anything, ANYTHING. Then Susan will come and get it for you. There, the bell's right here. See? Oh, no, no, you CAN'T see!" she broke off suddenly, with a wailing sob. "Why will I keep talking to you ...
— Dawn • Eleanor H. Porter
... exactly what you couldn't bear to think," she cut in, letting herself break into a sob. "You thought: 'Mrs. West has told me a deliberate lie because she's jealous of that child, and doesn't want me to take her in the car.' Oh, don't deny it. I know. And it's true. I was jealous, I don't dislike the poor little thing. Why should I? She's too insignificant, ...
— The Heather-Moon • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... in the pillow and began to sob and Jane reached out quick gentle arms and gathered her in a close comforting embrace. In a moment more Betty had gained control of herself and ...
— Exit Betty • Grace Livingston Hill
... terror and despair, she fell forward on the ridge; all her courage and strength suddenly deserted her—she could only cling there face downward, and sob and sob as if her heart would break. "Effen our house burns down, I want to die too," she whispered. "But Miss Lucy an' Marse Jim won't never know how I tried to take keer on it. 'Deed ...
— Southern Stories - Retold from St. Nicholas • Various
... told me about Feetgong; you have never told me why it is that he goes like the wind whenever you mount him, and when any one else rides him he is so slow there is no getting anywhere with him." Then she began to sob as if her heart would break. "You do not ...
— Tales of Folk and Fairies • Katharine Pyle
... in the eyes, the tears meanwhile coursing freely down his cheeks. Mr. Lincoln returned the gaze for a moment, then the wild look died out of his eyes, and his breast heaved and he gave a deep sob. ...
— Young Auctioneers - The Polishing of a Rolling Stone • Edward Stratemeyer
... panic he jerked erect and cupped his palm round his ear. Far off; muted by distance, but still unmistakable; he heard the baying of bloodhounds. Then this was the end. A sob broke from his throat. What was he, an animal; to be hunted down as a sport? Tears of self-pity welled to his eyes as he thought back to a party and a girl and laughter and cleanliness and the scent of magnolias, like a heady wine. But that was so long ago—so long ago—and ...
— Faithfully Yours • Lou Tabakow
... my work with almost a sob, "don't look at me like that. I cannot bear it, and I do ...
— The Late Miss Hollingford • Rosa Mulholland
... tears that blinded her so that she could no longer see the beautiful handiwork which seemed such a symbol of her mother's finished life, Mary rushed back to her room to throw herself across the bed again, and sob herself into a state of exhaustion. Then after a long time, sleep came ...
— Mary Ware's Promised Land • Annie Fellows Johnston
... the great army of toilers as yet slumbered. One sad-eyed woman stumbled against him as he walked slowly up Piccadilly. He lifted his hat with an involuntary gesture, and her laugh changed into a sob. He turned round, and emptied his pockets of silver into her hand, hurrying away quickly that his eyes might not dwell upon ...
— The Illustrious Prince • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... sob behind her, turned to see the tears running down Georgina's face. The next instant she was up, and with her arms around the child, was gently pushing her ahead of her out of the room, into the hall. With the door shut behind ...
— Georgina of the Rainbows • Annie Fellows Johnston
... began to sob. "I dun know who it were," he said; "indeed I don't. But he were tall, and his clothes looked dark. Please, sir, if you basted me, I couldn't ...
— Verner's Pride • Mrs. Henry Wood
... offered it to Old Man Smith. "Why, that is Harry!" she said. She reached for the pig-tail that had the blue Larkspur braided into it. She pointed to the pig-tail that had the blue fan braided into it. "Why, that is Harry!" she said. She made a little sob ...
— Fairy Prince and Other Stories • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
... lord's disgrace, his father's death. Mine aged bosom she will wring And kill me with her sorrowing, Sad as a fair nymph left to weep Deserted on Himalaya's steep. For short will be my days, I ween, When I with mournful eyes have seen My Rama wandering forth alone And heard dear Sita sob and moan. Ah me! my fond belief I rue. Vile traitress, loved as good and true, As one who in his thirst has quaffed, Deceived by looks, a deadly draught. Ah! thou hast slain me, murderess, while Soothing my soul with words of guile, As the wild hunter kills the deer Lured from the brake his song ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI
... head drooped, and quick tears filled his eyes. He said nothing further, but turned to assist Babette in guiding the little Fabien's hesitating steps as he hobbled from the room. The emotional Madame Patoux choked back a rising sob. ...
— The Master-Christian • Marie Corelli
... her handkerchief over her face, and held her breath. For a minute all was quiet; then another violent sob forced a passage. ...
— The Invader - A Novel • Margaret L. Woods
... YANK—Aw, cut de sob stuff! T' hell wit de starvin' family! Yuh'll be passin' de hat to me next. [With naive admiration.] Say, dem tings is pretty, huh? Bet yuh dey'd hock for a piece of change aw right. [Then turning away, bored.] But, aw hell, what good are dey? Let her have 'em. Dey ...
— The Hairy Ape • Eugene O'Neill
... could not walk much further, the Thin Woman grew anxious. Already Brigid had made a tiny, whimpering sound, and Seumas had followed this with a sigh, the slightest prolongation of which might have trailed into a sob, and when children are overtaken by tears they do not understand how to escape from them until they are simply bored by ...
— The Crock of Gold • James Stephens
... landlady," said Freda; "she is the daughter of the Major's landlady. And you should hear what she says of Derrick! Why, he must be a downright hero! All the time I have been half despising him"—she choked back a sob—"he has been trying to save his father from what was certain death to him—so they told me. Do ...
— Derrick Vaughan—Novelist • Edna Lyall
... urged, and he heard a subdued sob. His heart stood still.... He knew the meaning of those tears. "Can it be that you love me?" he whispered, and ...
— A House of Gentlefolk • Ivan Turgenev
... wished the two riders to pass on, but he did not slacken his speed for a moment. So for a space they went abreast, the man, with every twenty paces, glancing up suspiciously. And now and again, the boy, as he ran or walked, vented a sob. ...
— The Wild Geese • Stanley John Weyman
... life, struck him on the cheek with her little, brown fist, and, with a sob of woe, turned and ran from ...
— Mavericks • William MacLeod Raine
... afterwards to see her, I found her asleep, but with her eyelashes wet as if with tears. Poor darling! Dorothy told me that my voice could be heard distinctly up here, and that Delfina had wakened from her first sleep and begun to sob, ...
— The Child of Pleasure • Gabriele D'Annunzio
... we were silent and depressed at breakfast; for the first time no birds sang, and no sunlight flickered through the leaves and brought the day smiling to our very door. The rain fell steadily, and when the wind swept through the trees a sound like a sob went up from the Forest. After breakfast, for lack of active occupation, we lighted a few sticks in the rough fireplace, and found ourselves gradually drawn into the circle of cheer in the little room. The great world of Nature was for ...
— Under the Trees and Elsewhere • Hamilton Wright Mabie
... his back; his breast And brow were stained with gore and dust, And through his lips the life-blood oozed, From its deep veins lately loosed; But in his pulse there was no throb, Nor on his lips one dying sob; 890 Sigh, nor word, nor struggling breath[qj] Heralded his way to death: Ere his very thought could pray, Unaneled he passed away, Without a hope from Mercy's aid,— ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron
... extended towards it, and her countenance lighted up with an expression of angelic beauty and intense admiration. Her brother was seated upon the bed, his face concealed in the pillow, while ever and anon a deep sob burst ...
— Mark Hurdlestone - Or, The Two Brothers • Susanna Moodie
... a sob in his voice. Their eyes met fairly, unmasked as they had not been for years. Tears came into the man's eyes, the first that had ever sat there; tears for the past, tears for that sweetness which ...
— The Mississippi Bubble • Emerson Hough
... gave him a long, searching scrutiny, then her lips quivered, and with a smothered sob she flung herself into his arms and hid ...
— The Secret House • Edgar Wallace
... from her weary perch, grew frightened at Judy's tense, set face and began to sob. And then Judy must find breath enough to laugh reassuringly and to nod over her shoulder ...
— Judith Lynn - A Story of the Sea • Annie Hamilton Donnell
... unmerited misfortune, are sometimes very close to tears. Just then the vision of his little California home, and of the wife and two yellow-haired boys, was strong upon him, and there was a strange, choking sensation in his throat, which made him afraid that if he attempted to speak he would sob instead. ...
— Dutch Courage and Other Stories • Jack London
... a heart is soothed, Which else would be with sorrow crushed, And many a dying pillow smoothed, And sob of parting anguish hushed. Across the troubled sky of time It doth the bow of promise bend, A symbol of that cloudless clime That waits the soul when time ...
— Hymns for Christian Devotion - Especially Adapted to the Universalist Denomination • J.G. Adams
... of the stockaded village the train stopped, and Bud Adams came through the car, scrutinising every passenger. Seeing this, Hal began to sob again, and murmured something indistinct to his companion—which caused her to lean towards him, speaking volubly in her native language. ...
— King Coal - A Novel • Upton Sinclair
... Dark. And beyond his star-gazing, in his far-imagined heavens, Valkyrie or houri, man has fain made place for her, for he could see no heaven without her. And the sword, in battle, singing, sings not so sweet a song as the woman sings to man merely by her laugh in the moonlight, or her love-sob in the dark, or by her swaying on her way under the sun while he lies dizzy with longing ...
— The Jacket (The Star-Rover) • Jack London
... sister, darling, though I smile, the tears are in my heart, And I will strive to keep them there, or hide them if they start; I know you've seen our mother's glance ofttimes so full of woe, The grief-sob rises to the lips ...
— The Wedding Guest • T.S. Arthur
... He began to sob quietly, and saying dejectedly: "But I hadn't any more money!" he stuffed his gifts, shorn of their ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... her face with that long strange gaze which had so impressed Hetty's heart and imagination, smothered a sob, snatched a kiss from her sister's quivering lips, held her a moment in a close embrace, and then ...
— Hetty Gray - Nobody's Bairn • Rosa Mulholland
... command the Guard! 'Tis an old hurt, But scalded on my memory.... Well, they sailed! And from the terrace here, sick with self-pity, Wrapped in my wrong, forgetful of devoir, I watch'd them through a mist—turned with a sob— Uptore my rooted sight— There, there she stood; Her hand press'd to her girdle, where the babe Stirred in her body while she gazed—she gazed— But slowly back controlled her eyes, met mine; So—with how wan, how small, how brave a smile!— Reached me her hands to kiss ... O royal hands! ...
— The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems by "Q" • Q
... and as with one hand she grasped old lady Chia, and with the other she held madame Wang, the three had plenty in their hearts which they were fain to speak about; but, unable as each one of them was to give utterance to their feelings, all they did was to sob and to weep, as they kept face to face to each other; while madame Hsing, widow Li Wan, Wang Hsi-feng, and the three sisters: Ying Ch'un, T'an Ch'un, and Hsi Ch'un, stood aside in a body shedding tears and saying ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... a wail which was dismally echoed by Rubens. Then, suddenly, in the darkness came a sob that was purely human, and I was clasped in a woman's arms, and covered with tender kisses and soothing caresses. For one wild moment, in my excitement, and the boundless faith of childhood, I thought my mother had heard me, and ...
— A Flat Iron for a Farthing - or Some Passages in the Life of an only Son • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... reached him, breaking in on these meditations. A door opened below, and heavy feet tramped in. Voices, and then cries of alarm, and then lamentations of all the household startled him. Steps sounded coming up the stairs, and a man's sob, and then ...
— The Young Seigneur - Or, Nation-Making • Wilfrid Chateauclair
... she said, shaking her head slowly; "but those luminous worlds are a great way off, with cold and vast reaches of space between them. Besides, a luminous world would not do me one bit of good. I want—-" she stopped abruptly with something like a low sob. "There, there," she resumed hastily dashing away a few tears. "I have occupied your thoughts too long with my forlorn little self. I did not mean to show this weakness, but have been betrayed into doing os, I think, because you impressed me as being honest, and I thought that perhaps—perhaps your ...
— A Face Illumined • E. P. Roe
... was spared for a time, since they thought he might be of use to them, and forthwith loaded him with plunder. But he could not bear the cruel treatment that we suffered; and though I tried to console him with a hope of deliverance, he continued to sob and moan. One of the savages, seeing this, instantly came up, struck him to the ground, and ...
— The Junior Classics • Various
... melodies, that all the court were melted into tears. He then changed his theme, and played airs so sprightly, that he set the grave philosophers, sultan and all, dancing as fast as their legs could carry them. He then sobered them again by a mournful strain, and made them sob and sigh as if broken-hearted. The sultan, highly delighted with his powers, entreated him to stay, offering him every inducement that wealth, power, and dignity could supply; but the alchymist resolutely refused, it being decreed, he said, that he should never repose till he had ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay
... one end, and a gas-mask at the other. But the artist is not going to be deprived of his romance through a touch of the actual, any more than the lady with the handkerchief can be expected to forego her anguished sob over her hero as he goes forth ...
— Waiting for Daylight • Henry Major Tomlinson
... A strangled sob of terror answered him, blurred by a swift rush of skirts, and in a breath his shattered nerves quieted and a glimmer of common sense penetrated the murk anger and fear had bred in his brain. He understood, and stepped forward, ...
— The Black Bag • Louis Joseph Vance
... the monks. Balthazar (for it was he) approached the table in his usual meek manner. His limbs were unbound, and his exterior calm, though the quick unquiet movements of his eye, and the workings of his pale features, whenever a suppressed sob from among the females reached his ear, betrayed the inward struggle he had to maintain, in order to preserve appearances. When he was confronted with his examiners, Father Michael bowed to the chatelain; for, though the others were admitted by courtesy to ...
— The Headsman - The Abbaye des Vignerons • James Fenimore Cooper
... Song' and 'Turn, Fortune,' which he had shortly before leaving England sung to Tennyson; and then after a pause he turned once more to the instrument and sang 'Break, break, break.' It was very solemn, and no one spoke when he had finished, only a deep sob was heard from the corner where Longfellow sat. Again and again, each time more uncontrolled, we heard the heartrending sounds. Presently the singer gave us another and less touching song, and before he ceased Longfellow rose and ...
— Authors and Friends • Annie Fields
... low the monarch heard, Then came a cruel throb That tore his heart—still not a word, Only a stifled sob! ...
— Hindu Literature • Epiphanius Wilson
... to save her. "Leam! Fina! save her! save her!" cried Josephine, who herself had enough to do to hold her ponies, in their turn startled by her own sudden cries. "Leam, save her!" she repeated; and then breaking down into helpless dismay she began to sob and scream with short, sharp hysterical shrieks as her contribution to the misery of the moment. Poor Josephine! it was all that she could do, frightened as she was at her own prancing ponies, distracted at the sight of Fina's danger, ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April, 1876. • Various
... did not look back until they were started. Then he turned and waved a mittened hand. Mukoki heard the sob in his throat. David tried to call a last word to him, but his voice choked. He, too, waved a hand. He had not known that there were friendships like this between men, and as the Missioner trailed steadily away from him, growing smaller and smaller against the dark rim of the distant ...
— The Courage of Marge O'Doone • James Oliver Curwood
... reason for feeling serious. Marion Dearsley looked at Ferrier with parted lips, and he could see that she was unable to speak; but her eyes made the dread inquiry which he expected. He bowed his head, and the girl covered her face with a tearing sob: "Oh, the fatherless! O Lord, holy and true, how long? Bless the fatherless!" The poor prostrate ladies in the further cabin added their moanings to that dreadful wail, and you may guess that no very cheerful company were gathered in that dim saloon. ...
— A Dream of the North Sea • James Runciman
... mission for which rich bribes of sugarplums had been promised, and trotting bravely across the stage, she held up the lovely nosegay, saying in her baby voice, "Dis for you, ma'am." Then, startled by the sudden outburst of applause, she hid her face in Phebe's gown and began to sob with fright. ...
— Rose in Bloom - A Sequel to "Eight Cousins" • Louisa May Alcott
... shelter at Tom's but on his way home from town. Tom stood leaning against the door post with the hail beating on him through it all. His eyes were very bright and very dry, and every breath was a choking sob. Jacob let him stand there, and sat inside with a dreamy expression on his hard face, thinking of childhood and fatherland, perhaps. When it was over he led Tom to a stool and said, "You waits there, Tom. I must go home for somedings. You sits there still and waits twenty minutes;" then he ...
— While the Billy Boils • Henry Lawson
... her arm seemed to drive some strange force towards him. Again and again was the gesture repeated, the man falling back from her at each movement. Towards the door he retreated, she following. There was a sound as of the cooing sob of doves, which seemed to multiply and intensify with each second. The sound from the unseen source rose and rose as he retreated, till finally it swelled out in a triumphant peal, as she with a fierce sweep of her arm, seemed ...
— The Lair of the White Worm • Bram Stoker
... "Doug, if I do she'd guess how cowardly I am and how I suffer—in my mind, I mean," and she put her hands over her face with a dry sob. ...
— Judith of the Godless Valley • Honore Willsie
... young man not overburdened with emotions, told with a sob in his voice how, at the terrible Rowan Rock, Jim Mason had stood, impotent, dumb, big-eyed, watching Betsy—Betsy, the friend and partner of the last ten years—slipping over the ice-cold surface, silently appealing to the hand that had never ...
— Bob, Son of Battle • Alfred Ollivant
... Uncle Billy," she cried madly, and with a sob that almost broke the old man's heart. "I tell you ...
— The Trail of the Lonesome Pine • John Fox, Jr.
... just behind the jury; I know why she chose that seat: she wished to study me to the best advantage. I try to catch her eye; she will not look at me. For three hours my eloquence storms. The judge acknowledges to a tear, the jurors reach for their handkerchiefs, the people in the court room sob like the skies of autumn. As I finish, the accused arises and addresses the court: 'May it please your honor, in the face of such a masterly prosecution, I can no longer pretend to be innocent. Sir (addressing me), I congratulate you upon your magnificent ...
— The Mettle of the Pasture • James Lane Allen
... miraculous deeds bright Phosphor's sob Tells of his brother, Peleus' herdsman comes, Phocian Anetor, flying, and, with speed Breathless, "O Peleus! Peleus!" he exclaims, "Of horrid slaughter messenger I come!" Him Peleus bids, whate'er he brings, to speak; Trachinia's monarch even with friendly dread ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid
... giant was about to strike him a frightful blow; for the hand that was free from holding the lantern doubled up fiercely. Tony, indeed, uttered a pitiful little cry that was almost a sob; and throwing himself forward clung to the arm of his terrible father. But he was immediately flung roughly aside as though he were ...
— Chums in Dixie - or The Strange Cruise of a Motorboat • St. George Rathborne
... at herself in the glass. Her cheeks were flushed as if the sun had burned them; her lips were parted in a smile. She stretched her arms out as though to embrace herself, with a laugh that for all the world was like a sob. ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... answered Pandora, again beginning to sob, "I have had enough of lifting the lid! You are inside of the box, naughty creature, and there you shall stay! There are plenty of your ugly brothers and sisters already flying about the world. You need never think that I shall be so foolish ...
— The Paradise of Children - (From: "A Wonder-Book For Girls and Boys") • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... finer than that? But my father in me made my whole body clamour for the desert when I was in England; my mother in me makes my heart throb in the desert for just one hour of her cool, misty country, one hour on a hill-top in which to watch the pearl-gray dawn. Dearest, dearest, don't sob so. It is a case of two affirmatives making a negative; two great nationalities decried, derided, rendered null and void in their offspring through the dictates of those who, in religion, prate that we are all brothers. I have just got to stick it, my mother, and life ...
— The Hawk of Egypt • Joan Conquest
... in the midst of which I suddenly heard a deep and broken breath—ah! that supreme breath, that last sob of a deadly sorrow; God also has heard it, has ...
— Led Astray and The Sphinx - Two Novellas In One Volume • Octave Feuillet
... farewell or a tear, A sob or a flutter of breath, Unharmed by the phantom of Fear, To glide through ...
— Literary Hearthstones of Dixie • La Salle Corbell Pickett
... grieving sound, like a sigh—almost like a sob. It attracted Mr. Lorry's eyes to Carton's face, which was turned to the fire. A light, or a shade (the old gentleman could not have said which), passed from it as swiftly as a change will sweep over a hill-side ...
— A Tale of Two Cities - A Story of the French Revolution • Charles Dickens
... excuse me. Others may drop one if they feel like it; but as for me, I decline. The early managers of this institootion were a bad lot, and their crimes were trooly orful; but I can't sob for those who died four or five hundred years ago. If they was my own relations I couldn't. It's absurd to shed sobs over things which occurd during the rain of Henry the Three. Let us be cheerful," I ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 5 • Charles Farrar Browne
... hour or so ago with the old man, and she stood on the step of her defiled, despoiled home where the curtains hung in tatters at the windows. She saw me pass by. She wanted to speak to me, but her voice stuck in her throat. There she stood, her arms extended like a great cross. She could only sob: ...
— Fighting France • Stephane Lauzanne
... the wall near by She gazed on her faded face. "Well, Meg, I declare, what a beauty you are! She sneered, "What an angel of grace! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! What a thing of beauty and grace!" She reached out her arms with a moaning sob: "Oh, if I could go back!" Then, swift and strange, came a sudden change; Her brow grew hard ...
— The Kingdom of Love - and Other Poems • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... in his breath, an' the noise he made was half way between a sob an' a groan. "My God!" he said between set teeth. "Do you think that I haven't carried that cross also? But I've changed a lot in five years, an' they won't think of me at the Diamond Dot. Happy, I've got a scheme for organizin' the cattlemen o' the Northwest ...
— Happy Hawkins • Robert Alexander Wason
... warning a wild sob sounded from the doorway and he looked up, coming to his feet so abruptly that his overturned chair fell backward with ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck
... low, we hear the broken sob Of angels who have watched for years his footsteps turn from God. Someone's prayers have oft been made o'er him in childhood's day, When, rocked in love, he knew no wrong, a ...
— Poems - A Message of Hope • Mary Alice Walton
... but, though he did not say anything, his face looked worse than screaming, and he passed away very stiff in his hind-legs. Oh!" (with a fresh outburst), "when cook told me that her sister that was in a decline had gone, I never thought," (sob, sob!) "poor ...
— The Danvers Jewels, and Sir Charles Danvers • Mary Cholmondeley
... while he slept, for it was the voice of a woman, and he was tender of heart. It seemed in the dream and yet not of it—this awful, suppressed sobbing that disturbed his slumber, but was not quite strong enough to break it. But presently, instead of the muffled sob, there came a cumulative outburst, like that of a too hard-pressed turkey-gobbler forced to the wall. He thought it was the old black gobbler at first, and he even said, "Shoo," as he sprang from his bed. But a repetition ...
— Moriah's Mourning and Other Half-Hour Sketches • Ruth McEnery Stuart
... with a short laugh of contempt which in her own ears sounded like a sob. "There were men here just now; but you waited ...
— Shining Ferry • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... strikes. It is the hour of execution. Dorothea begins to sob, and Gentleman Jim clenches his hands. The back of the stage opens to disclose a street, a crowd, a hangman, and the fatal Tyburn tree. Faint cheers are heard from the wings. The sheriff enters, bearing in his hand a reprieve, written apparently on a window-blind. ...
— M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." • G.J. Whyte-Melville
... night to stand around here while you turn on sob stuff with a dance-hall tart? You shut up ...
— Broken to the Plow • Charles Caldwell Dobie
... breath like a sob, "sometimes you look harder than poor dear papa, in his very worst moments, used to look. I am sure that I do not at all deserve it. All that I pray for is peace and comfort; and little do I ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore
... listens to a sermon when one is married, and the pretty bridesmaids came round for three collections. The bishop talked of her father, his friend, who had died under cruel circumstances. Shoulders heaved in the congregation, and in a dark corner a sob ...
— Where the Sabots Clatter Again • Katherine Shortall
... that I made no impression. Father, the Englishman had saved our Moppet's life at the risk of his own; he did not pause to ask whether she was friend or foe when he rushed to her rescue—could we he less humane? I do not know what they do to prisoners,"—and Betty strangled a swift sob,—"but I could not bear to think of a gallant gentleman, be he British or American, confined in a prison, and so I resolved I would assist his escape. I waited until midnight, and then I spoke to him through the ...
— An Unwilling Maid • Jeanie Gould Lincoln
... destined guest espy, Well could his ear in ecstasy Distinguish every tone That filled the chorus of the fray - From cannon-roar and trumpet-bray, From charging squadrons' wild hurra, From the wild clang that marked their way, - Down to the dying groan, And the last sob of life's decay, When breath was all ...
— Some Poems by Sir Walter Scott • Sir Walter Scott
... thoughts in him. It is the eve of one of those terrible struggles at Toulouse, and the poet's imagination is hanging at moon-rise over the scene. 'The low broad field scattered over thick with corpses, all silent, dead,—the last sob spent,'—the priest's thanksgiving for the Catholic victory having died into an echo, and only the 'vultures crying ...
— Short Studies on Great Subjects • James Anthony Froude |
