"Ruefully" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... which he called 'dacint and proper' about him, and he built some highly superior sheds on the lawn, to the bettering, no doubt, of his cattle's condition. The abrupt raising of his rent by fifty per cent, was a broad hint which most men would have taken; and it did keep Andy ruefully quiet for a season or two. Then, however, having again saved up a trifle, he could not resist the temptation to drain the swampy corner of the farthest river-field, which was as kind a bit of land as you could wish, only for ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4 • Charles Dudley Warner
... much," said the Irish lad, ruefully, "av we could kick th' booket foighting fer our loives; but it is a bit harrud ter go under widout a chance ...
— Frank Merriwell Down South • Burt L. Standish
... Great Muddy Army," said St. Clair, ruefully to Harry, as he surveyed his fine uniform, now smeared over with brown ...
— The Scouts of Stonewall • Joseph A. Altsheler
... a story of the haps and mishaps of the typical boy whose purposes are good, but whose impetuosity plunges him into all kinds of mischief, as the boy himself expresses it, "before he knows it." One of the boys of this book, ruefully reflecting on the results of a boyish scrape, wishes for something like a hedge fence to keep him from running into trouble. In a manner which will be delightfully entertaining and helpful to all boys (and girls for that matter), ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Vol. II, No. 6, March, 1885 - A Massachusetts Magazine • Various
... Flavia!" exclaimed Montevarchi, ruefully. "Flavia has done very well." During all this time Faustina was standing with her back towards the window and her hands folded before her, looking from the one to the other of the speakers with an air of bitter contempt which was fast changing to uncontrollable anger. Some last remaining ...
— Sant' Ilario • F. Marion Crawford
... a 'can-opener' on it," commented Garrick, looking at it critically and then ruefully at the charred wreck of his optophone that had tumbled in the ashes of the pile of books under which it had been hidden, "Yes, that was the scheme they must have evolved after their midnight conference,—a robbery masked by a fire ...
— Guy Garrick • Arthur B. Reeve
... thought to himself. "She has succeeded in making all these beggars laugh at me." He mused that if he had another chance he would show her how disagreeable or detestable or scampish he was under some circumstances. He reflected ruefully that the complacence with which he had accepted the comradeship of the belle of the voyage might have been somewhat overdone. Perhaps he had got a little out of proportion. He was annoyed at the stares of the other men in ...
— Active Service • Stephen Crane
... corduroy breeches and gaiters and a wide-awake felt hat. He was much annoyed in Birmingham, whither I had sent all the men to an agricultural show, at hearing a man say to a companion, "There's another of them Country Johnnies." When I told him what a swell he looked, he replied somewhat ruefully, "No! that's what I never could be," as though he felt that his appearance was ...
— Grain and Chaff from an English Manor • Arthur H. Savory
... added Orme, ruefully. That she had the right to this information it never occurred to him ...
— The Girl and The Bill - An American Story of Mystery, Romance and Adventure • Bannister Merwin
... replied the Potter ruefully; "their mother has gone to get flour in the bazaar, for there is none in the house. In the meantime I can neither work nor rest ...
— The Junior Classics, Volume 1 • Willam Patten
... that a Spanish galleasse had run aground and had been claimed by M. Gourdain, the governor of Calais; but probably, added the shrewd-eyed man, that was just a piece of their dirty French pride. The crowd smiled ruefully; and a French officer of the boat who was standing by the gangway scowled savagely, as the lawyer passed on with ...
— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson
... it," grunted the juror; yet then confessed somewhat ruefully, "however, he is unfortunate in his ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis
... who had come down with Aunt Melvy from the big house on the hill, viewed the culprit ruefully. 'Mazin' Grace was Aunt Melvy's eighth daughter, and had been named for her mother's favorite hymn, which began "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound." She was very short and very fat, and her kinky hair was plaited into ten tight pigtails, each of which was bound with a piece of leather ...
— Southern Stories - Retold from St. Nicholas • Various
... musing ruefully, when I saw a figure advancing to meet me on the path. I saw at a glance that it was John Hollingford. The time had been when I would have flown gladly to meet him, linked my arm in his, and seized ...
— The Late Miss Hollingford • Rosa Mulholland
... thought they were!" he said ruefully; "but I can't expect too much for five cents! I've just twenty cents left. That sandwich tastes good if ...
— Crowded Out o' Crofield - or, The Boy who made his Way • William O. Stoddard
... ruefully. "Of course, there is scarcely anybody on the lot who hasn't a picture play in his or her pocket. I was possibly unwise last week to offer five hundred dollars spot cash for a play I could make use of, for now I suppose there will be fifty to read. Everybody, from Jacks, the property man, to the ...
— Ruth Fielding Down East - Or, The Hermit of Beach Plum Point • Alice B. Emerson
... it got on the nerves of the doctors," said Mr. Lagg, ruefully, "for they called off the deal, and said they could not take the house unless I would get rid of the haunt. Of course I laughed, and ...
— The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car - The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley • Laura Lee Hope
... was here so you couldn't do it, of course!" Father Honore exclaimed so ruefully that Champney's hearty laugh rang out. "No, no; I didn't mean for you to take it in that way. I'm glad I found you here—I liked what you ...
— Flamsted quarries • Mary E. Waller
... said the March Hare ruefully. "It's more than terrible, it's rotten. Here I've been holding out for $1,250 for mine, and these duffers want to go in for a cut rate that will absolutely ...
— Alice in Blunderland - An Iridescent Dream • John Kendrick Bangs
... room and Miss Merton turned to survey ruefully her empty purse and to read again a letter which had ...
— A Sweet Girl Graduate • Mrs. L.T. Meade
... very fine," the editor retorted ruefully, "but your criticism's doing us a lot of harm. Jefferson of the Torch Theatre cancelled his advertisement the day after your notice ...
— Changing Winds - A Novel • St. John G. Ervine
... strong enough," grinned Hal ruefully, as he "swatted" at mosquitoes three times in ...
— Uncle Sam's Boys in the Philippines - or, Following the Flag against the Moros • H. Irving Hancock
... ruefully at his snowballs;—perhaps after all he had been hypercritical, perhaps one or two of those pages might be rescued and smoothed out and made to answer. After all, who else would be the better or the worse for it? All the public wanted of him was a piquant flavour for its ...
— In the Mist of the Mountains • Ethel Turner
... crowned with a rose-wreath, but disdained to accept the rest of the reward. The monk, who was the next victor, took the roses and kissed the maiden heartily. But alas! a bristly beard covered his chin, and the maid was left ruefully rubbing her pouting lips. One by one Dietrich's knights overcame their adversaries, some of whom were slain and some wounded. Toward nightfall a truce was called, and Dietrich and his company set out to return to ...
— Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine • Lewis Spence
... few lines," Bob went on, ruefully; "they are the first thing I heard or saw when I got down, and they almost made me wish I'd come down with a run! Well, it's no use talking about it, I only thought you'd know. It was the usual smack in the eye, I suppose, ...
— No Hero • E.W. Hornung
... stitch taken in the frock tended to hasten the departure which she anticipated with such impatience imparted. extraordinary activity to her needle, and the unhappy lover ruefully watched the flounces and ruffles piling up about her, ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... the evening Madame Schroeder-Schatz graciously consented to sing for her cousins. When she sat down to the piano, she beckoned Claude and asked him to turn for her. He shook his head, smiling ruefully. ...
— One of Ours • Willa Cather
... understanding of his feeling for her, what it was now and what it might become; not conspicuously easy of comprehension. Lee tried the old, the long inaccurately used, word, love. He asked himself the question squarely—did he love Savina? Damned if he knew! He might reply to that, he thought ruefully, if he grasped what love was, what the blasted phrase meant. As it was, it seemed to Lee, a dictionary of synonyms would be helpless to make all its varied significances distinct. He tried a simpler approach—did he want to be with Savina more than with anyone else? At last he had put a ...
— Cytherea • Joseph Hergesheimer
... ruefully at the pan). You will never be queen, My Lady, unless we can think of something ...
— The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays • Various
... shall 'ave to go back to bed again, then," he said, ruefully. "So long, mother. Hope you have a pleasant ...
— Ship's Company, The Entire Collection • W.W. Jacobs
... secure against a stout inspector of police able and willing to spend a considerable sum of money in his own defence, and with the entire force ready and eager to get at the tramp and put him out of business? He swallows his pride, if he has any, and ruefully slinks out of town for a period of enforced abstinence from the joys of metropolitan existence. Yet who shall say that, in spite of the fact that it is a theoretic outrage upon liberty, this cleaning out of the city is not highly desirable? One or two comparatively innocent men may be caught ...
— Courts and Criminals • Arthur Train
... in his sanctum, pulling his aggressive, bulbous nose, and ruefully turning over the account presented by his manager of the last week's business with his new production, a spectacular version of Ivanhoe, in which he ...
— Mummery - A Tale of Three Idealists • Gilbert Cannan
... temporary pantries. What little semblance of order there was, was due to the efforts of one of the lieutenants, who, suspecting trouble when the "Leopard" first came up, had made great exertions toward getting the ship clear. While the captain stood looking ruefully at the confusion, still more serious troubles were reported. The guns were loaded; but no rammers, powder-flasks, matches, wads, or gun-locks could be found. While search was being made for these necessary articles, a hail came from the "Leopard." Commodore Barron shouted ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 1 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot
... Sammy gazed ruefully at a large rent in her skirt, and at a shoe half laced. Then she put up a hand to her tumbled hair. "I—I didn't think it made any difference, when only home folks ...
— The Shepherd of the Hills • Harold Bell Wright
... way? Oh that won't do! We've managed better than that in America. Why I myself!"—and he looked at her ruefully enough, but enjoying too his idea that he might embody the social scandal or point to the darkest drama of the Searles. "Suppose I should turn out a better Searle than you—better than you nursed here in romance and extravagance? Come, don't disappoint me. ...
— A Passionate Pilgrim • Henry James
... narrow width of the exit to release himself and I, who went on with Jaffery, looking back, saw him rub himself ruefully, as though he had ...
— Jaffery • William J. Locke
... Drake smiled ruefully to himself and opened a secret compartment in his suitcase. From it, he removed a long strand of ...
— Heist Job on Thizar • Gordon Randall Garrett
... he said, somewhat ruefully, indicating his dinner jacket tightly constricted beneath the arms. "Already I've had to slit my waistcoat down the back. Poor old Peddle will have an apoplectic fit when he sees it. I've grown a bit since these elegant rags were ...
— The Rough Road • William John Locke
... was," I said ruefully. "It wasn't right of me to tell such a story—and it was very silly, too. But who would ever have supposed that there could be real Cecil Fenwick who had lived in Blakely? I never heard ...
— Further Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... much as if we could make it," said Billy dubiously, shaking his head and regarding the big leak ruefully, "but ...
— The Ocean Wireless Boys And The Naval Code • John Henry Goldfrap, AKA Captain Wilbur Lawton
... she said ruefully. "It's too bad! But there is a thing I want for you more than to come to my party, and that is to hang on and win with your work. I think of you every day, and I just pray that those thieves are not getting ahead of you. ...
— Freckles • Gene Stratton-Porter
... but he continued for several minutes to look ruefully down where he believed his legs to be, and then he resumed his chair. Bob returned to his accounts and a heavy tide of business flowed in to engage their attention. Business was always well done in Mr. Cinch's office, and it suffered that morning no more than on any other morning, ...
— Tin-Types Taken in the Streets of New York • Lemuel Ely Quigg
... the captain, looking ruefully at his hat. "It looks like a cullender; but, Moseley, your gun don't scatter well: a dozen shot have gone through ...
— Precaution • James Fenimore Cooper
... Thompson, echoing the doctor's question ruefully. "A pretty nice thing Horrocks and his fellows have let themselves, and us, ...
— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum
... Archie to Frank. Had the latter young gentleman married her, he would have dwindled to Lady Random's husband, and would have found too late that he had domesticated a kind of imitation George Eliot. When he congratulated Archie on his engagement somewhat ruefully, he little thought what an escape he ...
— The Green Mummy • Fergus Hume
... possessed of a curious, uncanny gift of—was it second sight?—as his old nurse entirely and his mother half, believed, or, as Dr. O'Farrell asserted, some abnormal development of his subconscious self. All three were ruefully aware that Timmy was often—well, his mother called it "sly," his sister called it "fanciful," his nurse by the good ...
— What Timmy Did • Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes
... her retort was in a still sharper, more angry key. "Your'n, indeed! I'd rather stand up to be a mark for all the musketeers in the Parliament army, as poor Master Edmund is like to be, all along of you. O Diggory Stokes," she added ruefully, "I'd not have believed it of you, if my own ...
— The Pigeon Pie • Charlotte M. Yonge
... all turned out as usual," said Graham, ruefully. "You won a victory and no end of glory; I a ...
— His Sombre Rivals • E. P. Roe
... "everything!" She drew the pot from the stove and ruefully carried it outside. "Nothing left, Jude;" she laughed nervously. "Nothing but crusts ...
— Joyce of the North Woods • Harriet T. Comstock
... youth staggered under my friendly blow as though the hammer of Thor himself had suddenly lit upon his shoulder, and ruefully rubbing his tender skin, he turned on me mild, handsome eyes, answering after a moment, during which his native mildness struggled with the pain ...
— Gulliver of Mars • Edwin L. Arnold
... waiting to pounce on all runaways. Such thoughts would hardly furnish the best tonic to a doubtful spirit. Nevertheless the troops answered cheerfully that they would stand by their general to the last; which, adds the brave old fellow ruefully in his despatch, "most of them belied ...
— Claverhouse • Mowbray Morris
... cooked he ate of it and she had her share. Then he arose from the fire and walked away among the trees. Becfola followed, feeling ruefully that something new to her experience had arrived; "for," she thought, "it is usual that young men should not speak to me now that I am the mate of a king, but it is very unusual that young men should not ...
— Irish Fairy Tales • James Stephens
... the strand; Borabolla waving his adieus with a green leaf of banana; our comrade ruefully eyeing the receding canoes; and the multitude loudly invoking ...
— Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. I (of 2) • Herman Melville
... Sylvia agreed ruefully. "I might have known Judith would manage to make me feel flat if I got wrought up about it. She hates a fuss made over anything, and she can always take you down if you make one." She remembered with a singular feeling ...
— The Bent Twig • Dorothy Canfield
... for practice?" He smiled, but rather ruefully. "Poor child! Somehow, of all ambitions, there seems to be more tragedy, more pitifulness, underlying that than any other. Where one succeeds, so many fail—go down into darkness and obscurity. Your mother had the fever at one time as a very young girl, Elsie. As ...
— Elsie Marley, Honey • Joslyn Gray
... absent-minded procedure of the young man, by the time Prudence came out to call him in to the breakfast of fried pork and johnny-cake, the chores were done, and afterwards he had only to concern himself with his toilet. He stood a long time gazing ruefully at his coat, so sadly threadbare and white in the seams. It was his only one, and very old, but Prudence thought, when with a sigh he finally drew it on, that she had never seen so fine a soldier, and, indeed, the coat did look much better ...
— The Duke of Stockbridge • Edward Bellamy
... While thus ruefully reflecting, he is confronted by the bar-keeper, whose usually grave countenance is now beset with smiles. The fellow has got it into his head that his sailor-guest is no longer impecunious. The navy gentlemen just gone have no doubt been to engage him for their ship, and perhaps ...
— The Flag of Distress - A Story of the South Sea • Mayne Reid
... foot in it again," ruefully reflected Chichikov. "But, good Lord, what a man the fellow is to laugh! Heaven send that he doesn't ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... mind the cushions," answered the gentleman, lifting Isabel up with a toss, and landing her on the front seat, while Mary stood trembling by his side, with her eyes fixed ruefully on the wreath which surrounded the crown ...
— The Old Homestead • Ann S. Stephens
... when they entered her home. The sick woman moaned, and the child fretted for food. The doctor bent above his patient, shaking his head ruefully as Maarda built the fire, and attended to the child's needs before she gave thought to changing her drenched garments. All day she attended her charges, cooked, toiled, watched, forgetting her night of storm and sleeplessness in the greater anxieties of ministering to others. ...
— The Moccasin Maker • E. Pauline Johnson
... Elsmere felt ruefully from the first that her new daughter was decidedly deficient in the ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... laughed ruefully. "No, she's not! She's too happy," she said, with a little laugh that apologized for the sentiment. "She washes and cooks and plans all day and all night! I'm the one who worries. It makes me sad to have her work ...
— Harriet and the Piper - (Norris Volume XI) • Kathleen Norris
... ruins. But Barry, from the very heart of the ruin, would cry "Here is what we must do," and his eyes would gleam with faith and resolution, and he would form a committee and act. And when he saw how the committee failed, as committees will, and how little good it all was, he would laugh ruefully and try something else. Barry, as he would tell you frankly—if you enquired, not otherwise,—believed in God. He was the son of a famous Quaker philanthropist, and had been brought up to see good works done ...
— Dangerous Ages • Rose Macaulay
... alone, and he looked up so ruefully at the major, that, recollecting his own qualms, the latter ...
— Mother Carey's Chicken - Her Voyage to the Unknown Isle • George Manville Fenn
... I was wondering if I had really—got it," murmured Daniel Burton, eyeing a bit ruefully the confused mass of words and letters in his notebook. "Still, I reckon I can dig it out all right—if I do it right away," he finished confidently. And he did dig it out before ...
— Dawn • Eleanor H. Porter
... forward to the actual ceremony—no man ever does; and though it was to be a war wedding, a great many people, as he was ruefully aware, had been bidden to the ceremony. But it was comfortable to know that none of the guests had been asked to go back to the house from which he and his bride were to start for Sussex at one ...
— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy
... know that you would like it," he said, still ruefully. "You see, Nina, you might have to dress in the same room with two ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black
... The cheeses were dear, being a halfpenny each; the load of flour cost 14 pence, and of meal 2 shillings; the beans were 1 shilling 8 pence, the cabbage 1 shilling 2 pence, the herrings 2 shillings. The coffer came to 5 shillings, the nails to 2 shillings 4 pence. [Note 2.] Isel looked ruefully at ...
— One Snowy Night - Long ago at Oxford • Emily Sarah Holt
... the very torpid social ball rolling. There were not many neighbours, but Helen assembled them all. She herself could stay only a few days. She was bound, until the middle of August, in a rush of engagements, and meanwhile Althea, rather ruefully, was forced to fall back on Miss Buckston for companionship. She had always, till now, found Miss Buckston's cheerful dogmatism fortifying, and, even when it irritated her, instructive; but she had now new standards of interest, and new sources of refreshment, and, ...
— Franklin Kane • Anne Douglas Sedgwick
... what you're going to get," Lucile wanted to say, but she only answered, ruefully, "I'm afraid all Burleigh will be talking about how boisterous Lucile Payton is becoming. Can't you hear?" she added, gaily: "'I declare, that child's terribly rude; she almost knocked ...
— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield
... defenders. The attack came on May 27th, 1813. There was sharp and bloody fighting. Greatly outnumbered, the British were beaten; so hastily did they evacuate the fort that Nairne and others lost their personal effects. He writes, somewhat ruefully, that he has now only the clothes on his back and his watch, a purse, a family ring, and some trinkets. But this had its compensations; now he could carry everything in a haversack and blanket. Even paper, pens and ink are hardly to be got; ...
— A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs - The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861 • George M. Wrong
... he answered ruefully. "I never pay any attention to the way a man looks, in church or out ...
— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow
... not until, pretty ruefully, they acknowledged this, tore up their artificial resolution not to look at the future, and deliberately set themselves to the contemplation of a life that would have to take into account complex ...
— The Real Adventure • Henry Kitchell Webster
... referred to my having dozed when every moment is of consequence," he explained. "And yet," he went on ruefully, "upon my soul, I cannot conjecture where I ...
— A Chair on The Boulevard • Leonard Merrick
... become eager and vibrant. Dorn smiled ruefully, the faint mist of a sigh in his thought. The girl had worked adroitly. Of course, he was someone to carry the money to ...
— Erik Dorn • Ben Hecht
... finished her afternoon's sleep." And Grace turned quickly away, not in the direction of the sheltered elm avenue, but across the park, by the path which led most quickly beyond the grounds. Presently she slackened her pace, and turning for a moment she glanced rather ruefully towards the high walls of the old garden, as if prudence dictated that she should seek fuller information there, before she set out on this search, which she had planned that afternoon. The old nurse's words on the subject seemed to have sent a chilling gust to her heart, harder to bear ...
— Geordie's Tryst - A Tale of Scottish Life • Mrs. Milne Rae
... day. I've been toddling through the drifts and sliding down chiflons"—he looked ruefully at the backs of his trousers legs—"ever since seven o'clock this morning. Haven't had time to eat any luncheon yet, you see." He took from another pocket a small package folded in a coarse napkin. "I came here to satisfy the pangs ...
— In Exile and Other Stories • Mary Hallock Foote
... most dispiriting tidings reach him. His messengers, coming from so obnoxious a quarter, narrowly escape imprisonment. His old congregation are coldly received, and even begin to look back again to their place of exile with regret. "My First Blast," he writes ruefully, "has blown from me all my friends of England." And then he adds, with a snarl, "The Second Blast, I fear, shall sound somewhat more sharp, except men be more moderate than I hear they are." (1) But the threat is empty; there will never be a second blast - he has had enough of that ...
— Familiar Studies of Men & Books • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Babie, ruefully, "but he is not a brother after all. Oh, Jock! mother says it is very wrong in me, but I ...
— Magnum Bonum • Charlotte M. Yonge
... himself and his hero, lies the difference. Grasping his fallen leader forcefully by the hand and murmuring his adieux in a voice of nobly controlled emotion, he obeys the waiting eye of the Gracious Presence, and goes. And as she sees him serenely to the door, the Ex-President looks ruefully at his painfully oversqueezed hand, and begins rubbing it softly. Even the touch of ...
— Angels & Ministers • Laurence Housman
... some one had been kicking me on the shins, until he had nearly broken them, Mother. I have been kicked pretty badly several times, in fights by rough fellows at home in Shadwell, but it never hurt like this;" and he rubbed his aching legs ruefully. ...
— The Tiger of Mysore - A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib • G. A. Henty
... rather tall," Ralph said, ruefully. "We have grown so horribly, in the last few months. Still, some women are as ...
— The Young Franc Tireurs - And Their Adventures in the Franco-Prussian War • G. A. Henty
... say they are," Cherry agreed, ruefully eyeing her bleeding hands. "I don't believe it is going to be any fun picking raspberries. They are ...
— At the Little Brown House • Ruth Alberta Brown
... Kingswood was making for home one day in early spring. He was outside the radius of his usual field of operations, far to the east of Kingswood and Staward, plodding along with the westering sun in his eyes, and thinking ruefully that he had come a long way for nothing. Sometimes it is convenient for gentlemen of Dicky's habits to visit foreign parts, or parts, at least, where their appearance may not attract undue notice—for such as he are often of modest and retiring disposition. On this occasion he ...
— Stories of the Border Marches • John Lang and Jean Lang
... side scene, and over half the corps de ballet who were waiting for their entree. Kicking, plunging, buffetting like a madman, they carried me to the "flats," when the manager led me forward to the foot lights, my wreath of flowers contrasting rather ruefully with my bruised cheeks and torn habiliments. Human beings, God be praised, are only capable of certain efforts—so that one-half the audience were coughing their sides out, while the other were hoarse as bull-frogs from their enthusiasm in less ...
— The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete • Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
... too hard a nut for Carlotta to crack. She was silent for a moment. She reverted, ruefully, to the intelligible. ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke
... the small town sent up their mid-day smoke; beyond, the Atlantic twinkled with its innumerable smile. The hour was come. As he stepped out upon the road he cast a glance to right and left along his deserted batteries, and answered the smile of Ocean whimsically, ruefully. If only, as an artilleryman, he could have summoned Mr. Fossell's Bank by a dropping shot! This business of hand-to-hand assault belonged by rights to another branch of ...
— Major Vigoureux • A. T. Quiller-Couch
... rapidly there were no indications of starting; and it was almost seven ere the long and heavily loaded train moved slowly from the depot. About fifteen minutes previous to their departure, as Madam Conway was looking ruefully out upon the multitude, she was horrified at seeing directly beneath her window the veritable woman from whom, through the entire day, she had been hiding. Involuntarily she glanced at the vacant seat in front of her, which, as she feared, was soon occupied by Mrs. Douglas and her companion, ...
— Maggie Miller • Mary J. Holmes
... the Major ruefully. "I knew very well any idea of John Merrick's would cause us misery. But understand this, you miserable home-wrecker, sir, my daughter Patsy steps not one foot out of New ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John • Edith Van Dyne
... the Senior Surgeon. "There are plenty of people I can hire for money! But they won't stay!" he explained ruefully. "Hang it all,—they won't stay!" Above his little girl's white, pinched face his own ruddy countenance furrowed suddenly with ...
— The White Linen Nurse • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
... what I desire," she told him ruefully. "But I know that when you talk of your man's business I am lonely and chilled and far away from you. And I know that I cannot understand more than half your fine high notions about duty and patriotism and serving England and so ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various
... powerful combination—rum and riot—had performed the frog's march to the baggage-car, the raving saloon-keeper had been instructed to send his bill of damages to the chief quartermaster across the bridge, the conductor had signalled "Go ahead," and the young officer, ruefully scanning the wreck of his new fatigue uniform, was clambering on the platform of the sleeper, when he saw that the blood was dripping from the corporal's hand, despite the big handkerchief wrapped ...
— Under Fire • Charles King
... feel that he resisted for the present his desire to go on questioning Annalise, and putting his hands in his pockets sauntered away to the other end of the kitchen where Priscilla sat looking on. "I'm afraid that really was cheap of me," he thought ruefully, when he came once more into Priscilla's sweet presence; but he comforted himself with the reflection that no girl ought to be mysterious, and if this one chose to be so it was fair to cross her plans occasionally. Yet he went on feeling cheap; and when ...
— The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight • Elizabeth von Arnim
... abstracted from Blake's signal kit, when he was scouting the Dragoon Mountains, and swapped for the vilest liquor under the sun, at Sancho's, of course, and the value of the glass, not of the whisky, was stopped against the long lieutenant's pay, leaving him, as he ruefully put it, "short enough at the end of the month." Somebody told Blake he would find his binocular at Sancho's, and Blake instituted inquiries after his own peculiar fashion the very next time ...
— A Wounded Name • Charles King
... when the boys were loafing around the cabin waiting for their early supper, Bud packed his worldly goods on Sunfish and departed from the Muleshoe—"by special request", he admitted to himself ruefully—with his wages in gold and silver in his pocket and no definite idea of ...
— Cow-Country • B. M. Bower
... no time, but put the matter in the hands of a crack Private Inquiry Agency. When they learned what I was doing, I'm hanged if my stepmother and uncle Bumpkin didn't stop my allowance." He laughed ruefully. "However, I kept the inquiries going by selling my two horses, my jewellery, my guns, and my clothes. That's why I'm in these rags. But no good came of it; the private detective discovered nothing, and charged me nearly three hundred for discovering it. But the crowning point ...
— The Admirable Tinker - Child of the World • Edgar Jepson
... very well to laugh," said Dick, getting up and looking ruefully at the broken bridle and bit which he held in his hand; "but see how ...
— Dick o' the Fens - A Tale of the Great East Swamp • George Manville Fenn
... said Sidney, hanging his head ruefully. "La, mother!" cried the youngest of the cousins, a square-built, ruddy, coarse-featured urchin, about Sidney's age, "La, mother, he never see a coach in the street when we are at play but ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... beside the point," Braun said ruefully. "I say that he is reacting as would be expected. As the average man in the street would react given the opportunity to seize almost unlimited power, and with small ...
— The Common Man • Guy McCord (AKA Dallas McCord Reynolds)
... you know about that!" cried Marion abruptly, bringing her hands together animatedly. "All that's left of my opera fudge that one of the girls sent me!" She took the paper and glanced at it ruefully. "I remember now—that was the time Fred was sure he'd get a—" she stopped herself and looked at him archly—"a jack-rabbit. And I said I'd come out and help him carry it home. But he didn't have any luck at all—why, of course, I remember! Meeting the professor with the mail, ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower
... and thirty thousand dollars. Oh, the prodigal son hasn't got anything on me, Dad, when it comes to scattering patrimonies," he concluded a little ruefully. ...
— The Clarion • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... ruefully, "It's pretty hard to explain to a little girl. I was wondering whether I was as good a mother to you as I ...
— The Brimming Cup • Dorothy Canfield Fisher
... encroaching on the land near a settlement, but the Russians had persisted, and now, in their helpless anger,—they were an aged lama and an old woman,—they refused to sell us wood. They stood aloof looking ruefully at their trampled meadow as we made ready to start, hardly brightening up at all when I tried to make good their loss. An Englishman or an American would scarcely have asked my boy to sit at table with us, but on the other hand he would have spared ...
— A Wayfarer in China - Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia • Elizabeth Kendall
... said Nan ruefully, "I would get right off this train and go back to Tillbury, much as I have counted on this trip. No, honey," she added, laughing at her own extravagance, "there's no need of your getting excited, for I have no idea that we shall meet ...
— Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach - Or Strange Adventures Among The Orange Groves • Annie Roe Carr
... deep slough or pit in which, to his exceeding pain, he saw a pig struggling, and with such faint efforts that it was evident that he could not extricate himself. Lincoln looked at the pig and the mud that enveloped him, and then looked ruefully at some new clothes in which he had but a short time before enveloped himself. Deciding against the claims of the pig he rode on; but he could not get rid of the vision of the poor brute, and at last, after riding two miles, he turned ...
— The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln • Francis Fisher Browne
... Billy Louise glanced ruefully back at the ledge. "We're down; but how the deuce do you ...
— The Ranch at the Wolverine • B. M. Bower
... and tied in big knots," she said ruefully, "but Sophie will just have to do them all over again when she gets up. Oh, dear, where are my boots, I wonder? I can't see them anywhere about. Well, I must go out in these, I suppose;" and sitting down on the floor she put on a pair of dainty Queen Anne shoes, with satin ...
— Naughty Miss Bunny - A Story for Little Children • Clara Mulholland
... they got three bears at this camp, and we've got nothing! We don't dare kill even a squirrel, though I'm sure we could get some sort of game in this rough country not far back." John spoke ruefully. ...
— The Young Alaskans on the Missouri • Emerson Hough
... ruefully at the result. The text was good but, for clarity, the accompanying illustrations should be accurate and in perspective. And he was definitely not ...
— Space Prison • Tom Godwin
... Katy, laughing rather ruefully. She had taken no fancy to Mrs. Nipson, and did not enjoy the idea of a ...
— What Katy Did At School • Susan Coolidge
... this the Lady of Savern Replied in gentle tone: "To hear the holy mass I yearn, For sick now lies my son; So go, my child, and when thou'rt there, Utter for me a humble prayer, And of thy sins think ruefully, That grace ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller
... I, ruefully, "I was very much." Then, with a sudden change of tone to that sneering key which so utterly—so ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton
... to his senses, he cursed the English and all belonging to them with right goodwill. "Now verily," he said to himself, as he turned his face ruefully towards Liddesdale, "'twill be a hundred years and more ere anyone finds me fighting with a man who is ...
— Tales From Scottish Ballads • Elizabeth W. Grierson
... to himself, "the woman is a volcano in eruption. I shall feel her kisses for a week," and he rubbed his face ruefully with his hand. "I wish I had made some other plan; but it is too late to change it now—she would betray everything. Well, I will be rid of her somehow, if I have to drown her. A hard fate to love the mistress and be loved of ...
— Fair Margaret • H. Rider Haggard
... mischief. Everybody agreed that it had never been quite so bad as this. Meanwhile, people yawned. They were bored stiff. As a source of gossip, those two burglaries were a negligible quantity. So was the little accident which had just happened to Mr. Keith, who ruefully declared he had done it on purpose, in order to liven things up. No one was likely to be taken in by this kind of talk, because the accident was of an inglorious and ...
— South Wind • Norman Douglas
... Rachel Wiletzky's Killarney-rose left cheek. The rude path down which the handkerchief had travelled deepened to red for a moment before both rose-pink cheeks bloomed into scarlet. The superintendent gazed rather ruefully from unblemished handkerchief ...
— Cheerful—By Request • Edna Ferber
... crazy carriages which backed towards us. The passengers scrambled in and made themselves as comfortable as they could. But where was the baggage to go? The soldiery had overlooked this item and they surveyed the straggling mass of bags and trunks littering the embankment ruefully. But they solved the problem in their own way. What could not be stacked within the trucks would have to go ...
— Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons - Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben • Henry Charles Mahoney
... all these questions," I cried, surveying the list ruefully again, "we go on accumulating researches and multiplying books without end, vituperating the benefactors who destroyed the library of Alexandria, and exhuming the civilisations that the earthquakes of Time have swallowed under. ...
— Without Prejudice • Israel Zangwill
... health in many homes if there was more economy in labor. For instance, the children at first clamored for griddle-cakes, but I said, "Isn't it nicer to have mamma sit down quietly with us at breakfast than to see her running back and forth from the hot stove?" and even Bobsey, though rather ruefully, voted against ...
— Driven Back to Eden • E. P. Roe
... reflected ruefully. "They're all passing me up to-day. But, great hooks, what's all this about Medcroft and Constance?" He bought some cigarets and started off for a walk, mildly excited by this new turn of affairs. It occurred ...
— The Husbands of Edith • George Barr McCutcheon
... Boulevard St. Michel," went on Gibelin. "I happened to be talking with the man who sent out the banquet invitations and he told me. M. Kittredge has a little room with a brick floor up six flights. And long! And black!" He rubbed his knees ruefully. "But it was worth the trouble. Ah, yes!" His ...
— Through the Wall • Cleveland Moffett
... could stay more than ten days at a time in one place in my life. Besides, I have worn out my welcome, I know I have. Your house is not new. It jars too much when I walk. I saw Mrs. Harlowe looking ruefully at some cracked glass and china, and then at me, as much as to say, 'It is all your ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz
... the same way, I guess," she replied ruefully to Maria's charges. "I cannot cry, I can ...
— Lucia Rudini - Somewhere in Italy • Martha Trent
... "Yes," answered Jack ruefully; "and we're bound to be back late pushing this old thing all the way. I wish old Jobling would try a ...
— The Triple Alliance • Harold Avery
... Passepoil and Martine. Passepoil had so far conquered his natural timidity as to go to the length of soliciting a kiss from the Inn maid. She had successfully repulsed him with a slap on each of his cheeks, and had slipped from the room. While Passepoil was rubbing his face ruefully, AEsop ...
— The Duke's Motto - A Melodrama • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... no more. Will you knock off another ten?" "All right," was the reply, "anything to oblige. Well say ten altogether. If there are so many righteous men in Sodom I'll spare it. Good afternoon, Abraham, good afternoon." And the Lord was off. Abraham ruefully watched the retreating figure, perfectly assured that the Lord had got the best of the bargain, and that he himself had been duped, ...
— Bible Romances - First Series • George W. Foote
... sure you are not thinking of yourself?" returned his son, half laughing, half ruefully; and his ...
— Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker • Marguerite Bryant
... admitted ruefully. "And the beauty of it is, not one of them will guarantee so much as a kitchenmaid. They say sadly that 'in the present crisis' it's difficult to supply servants. They don't seem to think there's any difficulty ...
— Captain Jim • Mary Grant Bruce
... he is now gone," said she, ruefully. "But yet, behold the better opportunity for us to escape, Madame. Ah, were it not for the injury of madame, I should say, let us at once set out—we ...
— The Purchase Price • Emerson Hough
... up to send for the doctor; and faith, I had to get up and go downstairs after her and speak in my natural voice before she'd believe I wasn't in the last gasp of a croup. But she won't speak herself this morning," added the old gentleman rather ruefully. "What's ...
— Pirate Gold • Frederic Jesup Stimson
... ruefully at his ankle, which was about the size of his calf, wondering why the Cure had not effected its advertised magic. The inflammation, however, clearly required medical advice. In the midst of his ruefulness the doctor, a capable-looking man of five and thirty, entered ...
— Septimus • William J. Locke
... be remarked in passing that he considered a moustache incompatible with effective speaking—"Why should a man hide one of the most expressive features of his face?" With regard to the still more expressive eyes, Lecky ruefully remarked that Gladstone's glance was that of a bird of ...
— Fifteen Chapters of Autobiography • George William Erskine Russell
... Barnabas, smiling ruefully, "it is certain that I shall achieve something yet, because—I ...
— The Amateur Gentleman • Jeffery Farnol et al
... that I had windows in my house," thought Naomi ruefully. "I would be so proud if I were Martha. But then she has no brother Ezra nor baby Jonas to ...
— Christmas Light • Ethel Calvert Phillips
... fellows don't believe in letting the grass grow under their feet, do they? Never thought a thing about it till they heard us talking matters over; and here they're getting all the credit for being first in the field," and Jack shrugged his shoulders ruefully as he spoke. ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts - Or, The Struggle for Leadership • George A. Warren
... Carl ruefully. "My career as a bibulous meteor is over. Last night, after an exquisite shower of golden fire, I came tumbling to earth in the fashion of meteors, a disillusioned stone. In other ...
— Diane of the Green Van • Leona Dalrymple
... Gibault," observed March ruefully, "they've almost sawed through the skin o' my ankle. I've no left foot at all, ...
— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne
... the nth power, and introduced in more or less important roles the most charming girl in the world, the most spectacular hero of France, the cleverest secret-service agent in the pay of the fatherland, and I sometimes ruefully suspected, the biggest imbecile of the United States in the person of myself—I knew better than to call any idea impossible simply because it might sound wild. But at the moment my education was in its initial stages, and turning with a shrug from three scowling faces, I led my friendly ...
— The Firefly Of France • Marion Polk Angellotti
... ruefully. "But I got to thinking how I'll be out after wild horses.... And I'm afraid something might happen. Please marry me ...
— Valley of Wild Horses • Zane Grey
... I need all the aid and sympathy of Christian hearts to sustain my soul," said Mrs. Sykes, with a ruefully pious countenance, ...
— Eventide - A Series of Tales and Poems • Effie Afton
... grandparents, who were coming home to Thanksgiving—they had been on a visit to their youngest son—that Submit crept slyly into the pantry. The turkey lay there on the broad shelf before the window. Submit looked at him. She thought he was small. "He was 'most all feathers," she whispered, ruefully. She stood looking disconsolately at the turkey. Suddenly her eyes flashed and a red flush came over her face. It was as if Satan, coming into that godly new England home three days before Thanksgiving, ...
— Good Cheer Stories Every Child Should Know • Various
... from side to side in sharp tacks, his tail snapping jerkily outward to balance him on the turns. Bullets ripped through the sage about him as Collins emptied his gun. Then he was safe on the far side of a swell and Collins was grinning ruefully at ...
— The Yellow Horde • Hal G. Evarts
... patient indeed too, and uncomplaining, in the worst of times; but now even sighs seemed to be hushed. I looked at the man who was said to be dying. His wide open eyes were intently fixed upon me; very intently; and I thought, less ruefully than a while ago. Then I ...
— Daisy in the Field • Elizabeth Wetherell
... backward, but not as far as the injured man, who sat up ruefully as the bushranger sprang ...
— Stingaree • E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
... assented Jay ruefully, "though it seems sacrilege to say so, for I know these things better than I know myself. But Truth—or Untruth, what's the use of words like that when miracles are ...
— This Is the End • Stella Benson
... seen. Curiously examining the jaws, he laid a rude forefinger on the tesselated plate which stands in the species for teeth, and the disorganised remains, true to the ruling passion, crunched, and Tom ruefully consoled the finger for a fortnight. Hitherto his opinion, founded on contemporary experience and the traditions of his race, had been that a shark would never fight a live man. Was it not the refinement of irony that he should well nigh be deprived of the best part of a ...
— My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield
... ruefully, flinging herself down by the table and resting her head on her hand. "Not unless we can contrive to pay off that detestable mortgage. The day grows farther off instead of nearer now that we haven't paid ...
— Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... truth it does." I ruefully wagged my head so that my bells set up a jangle. "For the rider is a man and the ridden a horse. But," I pursued, in that back-biting strain, which is the very essence of the jester's wit, "were you to make a trio of us, including Messer Ramiro del' Orca, Captain in the army ...
— The Shame of Motley • Raphael Sabatini
... Mayor ruefully. 'I assure you, sir, we Four have done things in Chicago, in the hope of rousing people, that would have discredited Nero. But what do they say? "Very good, Andy. Have it your own way. Anything's better than a Crowd. I'll go back to ...
— A Diversity of Creatures • Rudyard Kipling
... a lot of that," said Burgess ruefully. "One consolation is, though, that that sort of ball is easier to watch on a slow wicket. I must tell the fellows to ...
— Mike • P. G. Wodehouse
... to do?" asked Tom ruefully. He realized, as well as the others, that it would have been useless to have attacked ...
— The Rover Boys on the Plains - The Mystery of Red Rock Ranch • Arthur Winfield |
