"What for" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... for you,' he said to Joseph. 'You were present when the murder was committed in the Rue Montorgueil!' 'Why, no, I was not present——' 'That will do. I am well informed, come.' 'Where to?' 'To my newspaper office.' 'What for?' 'To tell me about the murder.' 'But I've already told all I know, there, in that house.' 'Come, you will still remember a few more little incidents—and I will give you twenty francs.' 'Twenty francs!' 'Come, come.' Another hall, another ...
— International Short Stories: French • Various
... thy will Is ever prest to further my desire: In sign whereof, to quiet all things well, And to suppress betimes the secret fire, That I perceive would break and mount up higher: This to prevent, content ye here to stay, To mark awhile what for themselves they say. And, Venus, here I charge thee on my grace, Not that I found thee heretofore untrue, But for thine adversary is not yet in place, Thou tell uprightly whence your quarrel grew; What words betwixt you thereof did ensue. Say, lovely daughter; tell us flat thy ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI • Robert Dodsley
... stand for actual needs. The size of their following, the intensity of their demands are a fair index of what the statesman must think about. No lawyer created a trust though he drew up its charter; no logician made the labor movement or the feminist agitation. If you ask what for political purposes a nation is, a practical answer would be: it is its "movements." They are the social life. So far as the future is man-made it is made of them. They show their real vitality by a relentless growth in spite of all the little fences ...
— A Preface to Politics • Walter Lippmann
... "What for? To see if there isn't a little human pity in him for a fellow-being in agony—to end my suspense and know whether or not he means to ruin me and my happiness ...
— In the Arena - Stories of Political Life • Booth Tarkington
... inch below the knee, or slightly more powerful quarters? What's the use o' them advantages to you? Man the Oppressor comes along, an' sees you're likely an' good-lookin', an' grinds you to the face o' the earth. What for? For his own pleasure: for his own convenience! Young an' old, black an' bay, white an' grey, there's no distinctions made between us. We're ground up together under the remorseless teeth o' ...
— The Day's Work, Volume 1 • Rudyard Kipling
... have no love for my scheme. Your heart is in what you call science, and in the boy. You wish to frighten me—frighten me from the work which every day draws nearer to success. Shall I tell you what for? So as to drive me back to the Fatherland that you may keep all to yourself, my boy—the boy of your dead sister. Ach! I see ...
— The Hero of Garside School • J. Harwood Panting
... "What for? Why, goodness me! Don't you suppose my friends were glad that I wasn't drowned," retorted Polly, in amazement. "Everyone that ever knew me, sent love and flowers, so I never thought it strange that you sent ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... 'Frisco Kid, as he passed him the article in question. "Wash down the decks, and don't be afraid of the water, nor of the dirt either. Here 's a broom. Give it what for, and have everything shining. When you get that done bail out the skiff. She opened her seams a little last night. I 'm ...
— The Cruise of the Dazzler • Jack London
... killin' him? What for? How did he come into it?" Cole's boyish face wrinkled in perplexity. "I don't make head or tail of this thing. Cunningham's enemies couldn't be his enemies, too, ...
— Tangled Trails - A Western Detective Story • William MacLeod Raine
... are going into the country," her aunt said, a little ungraciously. "Heaven knows what for! Your uncle hates shooting and always catches cold if he gets ...
— Nobody's Man • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... come from station; bring massa two bottel, and I show um.' Den dey say, 'Where you massa?' and I say, 'At um house at Ryde'—(den dey tink dat you my massa, Massa Farren)—so dey say, 'Yes, we know dat, we watch him dere, but now you tell, so we beat you dead.' Den I say, 'What for dat; massa like drink, why you no gib massa some tub, and den he never say noting, only make fuss some time, 'cause of Admirality.' Den dey say, 'You sure of dat?' and I say, 'Quite sure massa nebber say one word.' Den dey talk long while; last, dey come and say, 'You come wid ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat
... drover from Castell On passed through the yard when I was milking, and oh, there's praising her he was! 'Would Ebben Owens sell her, d'ye think?' he asked, and he patted her side; but Daisy didn't like it, and she nearly kicked my pail over. 'Sell her!' I said. 'What for would 'n'wncwl Ebben sell the best cow in his herd? No, no,' said I. 'Show us one as good as her, and 'tis buying he'll ...
— Garthowen - A Story of a Welsh Homestead • Allen Raine
... and she spat on the floor with a sovereign contempt. "Ah, Massa Ralph, me lub you dearly—dat sleep here to-night—me lose my reputation—nebber mind you you. What for you no run, Dorcas, a get me, from Massa Jackson's store, bottle good port? Tell him for me, Missy Bellarosa. You Phebe, oder woman of colour dere, why you no take Massa Ralph, and put him in best bed? Him bad, for certainly—make haste, or poor ...
— Rattlin the Reefer • Edward Howard
... "What for?" said the tiger: "Tell me first why you are looking for me," said the man: "To eat you," answered the tiger; then the man said, "Well I have been hunting for you to catch you and take you away. I have caught three or four like you and if you don't believe me, let me get down ...
— Folklore of the Santal Parganas • Cecil Henry Bompas
... plant down, spider's web, grass, and pieces of paper!" replied Jenny. "That's a funny thing about Redeye; he dearly loves a piece of paper in his nest. What for, I can't imagine. He's as fussy about having a scrap of paper as Cresty the Flycatcher is about having a piece of Snakeskin. I had just a peep into that nest a few days ago and unless I am greatly mistaken Sally Sly the Cowbird has ...
— The Burgess Bird Book for Children • Thornton W. Burgess
... "What for?" he asked huskily. "You haven't got nothin' on me. It was suicide—cor'ner's jury says so. Lord! It has to be, him layin' there, all hunched up on the floor, his gun so tight in his mitt that they had to pry the fingers ...
— The Million-Dollar Suitcase • Alice MacGowan
... stand up with assistance from the bed-post and totter feebly to an arm-chair by the fire, where I sit in a dressing-gown and weep. What for? I couldn't say, except that it seems a fit ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, April 18, 1917 • Various
... civilization of men. The circulation of ideas and commodities over the face of the earth, and the discovery of the gold regions, have given enhanced rapidity to commerce in other countries, and the diffusion of knowledge. But what for Africa? God will do something else for it; something just as wonderful and unexpected as ...
— The Personal Life Of David Livingstone • William Garden Blaikie
... But what for? I knew your aunt had turned you down: Mrs. Fisher told me about it. But I understood you ...
— House of Mirth • Edith Wharton
... on Lightfoot's face. "What for?" he demanded. "I can't imagine anybody being thankful to hunters ...
— The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer • Thornton W. Burgess
... eaten nothing since morning. As I sat there under the tree I fell asleep, and was dreaming of home, and warm biscuit, with honey, and a feather bed, when I was rudely awakened by a corporal who told me to mount. I asked him what for, and told him that I didn t want to ride any more that night. What I wanted was to be let alone, to sleep. He said to get on the horse too quick, and I found there was no use arguing with a common corporal, ...
— How Private George W. Peck Put Down The Rebellion - or, The Funny Experiences of a Raw Recruit - 1887 • George W. Peck
... my dear!" said the woman, looking at the speaker round-eyed. "Praises him! A-mussy me, what for?" ...
— Trapped by Malays - A Tale of Bayonet and Kris • George Manville Fenn
... feel it, I assure you, to be charming. But what I meant—if you'd only give me time, you know, to put in a word—is what for that matter I've already told you: that it almost spoils my pleasure for you to keep reminding me that a bit of luck like this—luck for ME: I see you coming!—is after all for you but a question of business. Hang business! Good—don't ...
— The Awkward Age • Henry James
... he resembled him in all else, came that impersonality in what are usually personal relationships, against which even the Parson beat in vain. Through all his passionate sinning James Ruan had held himself aloof from the sharer in his sins. What for him had been the thing by which he lived no one ever knew; his sardonic laughter barred all ingress ...
— Secret Bread • F. Tennyson Jesse
... prince a mighty emperor, But his demands have spoke him proud and poor; He proudly at my free-born sceptre flies, Yet poorly begs a metal I despise. Gold thou mayest take, whatever thou canst find, Save what for sacred uses is designed: But, by what right pretends your king to be The sovereign lord of all the ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II • Edited by Walter Scott
... Says she, 'When the earl has grand estates in England, what for does he come to a barren place like the Spittal to be married! It's gey like,' she says, 'as if he wanted the marriage to be got by quietly; a thing,' says she, 'that no woman can stand. Furthermore,' Elspeth says, 'how has the marriage been postponed twice?' We ken what the servants ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie
... "What for?" inquired the older man, as he put on his large-brimmed hat and took up the sword-cane that he was wont to twirl like a man who will face three or four footpads ...
— Father Goriot • Honore de Balzac
... Lamia? What for Lycius? What for the sage, old Apollonius? Upon her aching forehead be there hung The leaves of willow and of adder's tongue; And for the youth, quick, let us strip for him The thyrsus, that his watching eyes may swim Into forgetfulness; and, ...
— Lamia • John Keats
... "What for?" There was a dangerous light in the girl's eyes. "Because you have suffered for the wrong you did, you think you can ease your conscience by confessing to Cap'n Billy, and making him suffer again?" Devant stared ...
— Janet of the Dunes • Harriet T. Comstock
... so astounded at the intelligence of what for the nonce seemed Viviette's wanton fickleness that he quite omitted to look at the second letter; and remembered nothing about it till an hour afterwards, when sitting in his own ...
— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy
... ye, Miss Prudence," Bridget scoffed. "An' what for wud the blacks be touchin' Grizzel? Isn't yur Pa the kindest gintleman in the whole wurrld to thim, dirrty things ...
— The Happy Adventurers • Lydia Miller Middleton
... library, when breakfast was over; and then it was that Mr. Blake, taking me aside, whispered, "Charley, it's right I should inform you that Sir George Dashwood there is the Commander of the Forces, and is come down here at this moment to—" What for, or how it should concern me, I was not to learn; for at that critical instant my informant's attention was called off by Captain Hammersley asking if the hounds ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever
... Fanny Atwater's commiserating adjective, though the clerk's own pity was expressed in argot. "The poor nut!" he explained to his next client. "Wants to buy a ticket on a train that don't pull out until ten thirty-five to-night; and me fillin' it all out, stampin' it and everything, what for? Turned out all his pockets and couldn't come within eight dollars o' the price! Where ...
— Gentle Julia • Booth Tarkington
... muttered in the bewildered and slightly-pathetic voice of a child at once frightened and puzzled. "What for? ...
— The Bittermeads Mystery • E. R. Punshon
... are all ready; but we want to know what allowance you are willing to make. You must take into consideration that we are banished, and have to leave everybody we know. What will you allow for Elizabeth, and what for little Frank?' ...
— Mr. Hogarth's Will • Catherine Helen Spence
... froo his dolly in my mouth; some of her hair went in, any how, an' I didn't want his dolly in my mouth, so I sent it back to him, an' the foot of the bed didn't stick up enough, so it went from the door to your bed—that's what for." ...
— Helen's Babies • John Habberton
... first seemed to be disastrous; the language became broken up and spoilt: but this was only for a time; and by and by, out of roughness and chaotic grammar there grew up a beautiful and stately speech meet for great poets to sing in, and great men and women to use. So it is that what for a time seems to be disastrous may one day be ...
— Our Catholic Heritage in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days • Emily Hickey
... Wilkinson sent for Mr. Witworth, and asked him if he had observed either Ferrers or Louis go into the study during the afternoon, and if he knew what each brought out with him. Mr. Witworth replied that both went in, but he did not know what for. ...
— Louis' School Days - A Story for Boys • E. J. May
... "What for?" panted Bert, as he struggled with the oars, trying to swing the boat out of danger. "There's nobody aboard to steer the ...
— The Young Firemen of Lakeville - or, Herbert Dare's Pluck • Frank V. Webster
... So I say to de steward von morning, 'I gan no more dake dot medticine. I must haf some oder kind.' Vell, sir, you should haf seen dot feller look at me. He lifts up his hands und says, 'I shoost adtmire you, Hans.' 'What for you adtmire me?' 'Pecause you vos de piggest kicker dot efer comes into dis hoshpital. Now look at yourself. You vos oxamined und put into de ped to which you pelong. Dere ish de card hanging ofer your hedt vot tells vot ...
— Doctor Jones' Picnic • S. E. Chapman
... low that it was permissible for her not to hear them. Perhaps she meant at first to make use of this privilege, but when a minute or more had gone by she said: "What for?" ...
— The Letter of the Contract • Basil King
... anybody's back," broke in Otto, straightening up. "I don't know what you are talking aboud, Mr. Crow,—and needer do you," he added gratuitously. "What for do I haf to get your consent to get married for? I get myself's consent and my girl's consent and my fadder's consent—Say!" His voice rose. "Don't you think I am of ...
— Anderson Crow, Detective • George Barr McCutcheon
... was made for man's devices or God's service, I have seen ower muckle sin done in it in my day, and far ower muckle have I been partaker ofay, even here in this dark cove. Mony a gudewife's been wondering what for the red cock didna craw her up in the morning, when he's been roasting, puir fallow, in this dark holeAnd, ohon! I wish that and the like o' that had been the warst o't! Whiles they wad hae heard ...
— The Antiquary, Complete • Sir Walter Scott
... "What for you shrug your shoulders?' said he on one occasion to a man from whose shoulders he was removing a ...
— Red-Tape and Pigeon-Hole Generals - As Seen From the Ranks During a Campaign in the Army of the Potomac • William H. Armstrong
... What is it?... My pocky-anky?... Keep it, it won't bite you ... send it to the wash!... No, really, do keep it if you don't mind—keep it till Brahms on Thursday. Remember! Good-night." But it isn't quite good-night, for Sally arrests departure. "Stop! What a couple of idiots we are!... What for?—why—because you might have stuffed it in the letter-box all along." And the incident closes ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan
... the shrill blast of the Tyrrhene trump, Fulfilled with mortal breath, thro' the wide air Peal a loud summons, bidding all men heed. For, till my judges fill this judgment-seat, Silence behoves,—that this whole city learn, What for all time mine ordinance commands, And these men, that the cause ...
— The House of Atreus • AEschylus
... knew he had, for he lived so niggardly; others said the coal trade was not what it was; and there were not wanting people who hinted that old Betty Bodger's house and garden—which had been given to her years ago by the old squire, what for, nobody knew—had been first mortgaged to Josiah and then sold to him and "taken out in coals." A very cunning man was Snooks; kept his own counsel—I don't mean a barrister in wig and gown on his premises—but ...
— The Humourous Story of Farmer Bumpkin's Lawsuit • Richard Harris
... prayers will burst that swelling heart with pride. Be the fierce impulse of his rage obey'd, Our battles let him or desert or aid; Then let him arm when Jove or he think fit: That, to his madness, or to Heaven commit: What for ourselves we can, is always ours; This night, let due repast refresh our powers; (For strength consists in spirits and in blood, And those are owed to generous wine and food;) But when the rosy messenger of day Strikes the blue mountains with her golden ray, Ranged at the ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer
... body of our inferior water-color painters, we might yet laugh all efforts of the old masters to utter scorn. But one among our water-color artists, deserves especial notice—before we ascend the steps of the solitary throne—as having done in his peculiar walk, what for faithful and pure truth, truth indeed of a limited range and unstudied application, but yet most faithful and most pure, will remain unsurpassed if not unrivalled,—Copley Fielding. We are well aware how much of what he has done depends in a great degree upon particular ...
— Modern Painters Volume I (of V) • John Ruskin
... have come at the wrong time. Mrs. Maroney is as mad as blazes, and would have shot De Forest if it had not been for me. I can't tell what for, but, by the Eternal, she would have ...
— The Expressman and the Detective • Allan Pinkerton
... "What for? You've never seen him, and he's lots of fun," said Howard, without the faintest appearance of respect for ...
— In Blue Creek Canon • Anna Chapin Ray
... in a new, different aspect; only then she realized that the question did not affect her only— with whom she would be happy, and whom she loved—but that she would have that moment to wound a man whom she liked. And to wound him cruelly. What for? Because he, dear fellow, loved her, was in love with her. But there was no help for it, so it must be, so ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy
... and tea for the old woman, and trimmings at two shillings the yard for the sister's dress, and what for Martin? what for the boy that worked for them the twelve months long? Me that used to go a mile beyond Cloon every morning to break stones, and to deal for two stone o' meal every Saturday to feed the childer when there was nothing in the field. And it's ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 6, June, 1891 • Various
... difference, however, between the Roman civil conflict and the American one. The war of Pompey and Caesar divided the Roman people promiscuously; that of the North and South ran a frontier line between what for the time were distinct communities or nations. In this circumstance, possibly, and some others, may be found both the cause and the justification of some of ...
— Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War • Herman Melville
... wouldn't; what for? I like Rag and he likes me, and we have been faithful to each other; it would be downright hypocrisy on his part to like you after ...
— Flamsted quarries • Mary E. Waller
... admits no manner of comparison with ours, either in its nature or its action, the modes or the strength of its operations. It is no contradiction to reason that it should do things that we cannot do, and effect what for us is impracticable: differing from us in all respects, in its acts yet more than in other points we may well believe it to be unlike us and remote from us. Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough
... "What for?" replied his new friend. "Why shouldn't you be paid for it, just as well as anyone else? Come in tomorrow, maybe we can dope out some other ...
— Plotting in Pirate Seas • Francis Rolt-Wheeler
... 'I'll tell you what for,' answered Bazarov, who possessed the special faculty of inspiring confidence in people of a lower class, though he never tried to win them, and behaved very casually with them; 'I shall cut the frog open, and see what's going on in his inside, and then, as you and I are much the same as ...
— Fathers and Children • Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
... "What for!" she echoed, her mouth quivering into pathetic droops. "For rest, of course. You may be used to this kind of locomotion, but I'm not very well upholstered, and I'm shaken to bits. Fact is, I'm just all pegged out, old man. Have a heart, and stop for repairs. What's your rush, anyway? ...
— Penny of Top Hill Trail • Belle Kanaris Maniates
... There is no action in this second and last act save that sprung of this stranger's entrance and quarrelsomeness, and his interruptions of an old, old man's story of what he knows of Peg's life. The stranger listens while Parry Cam tells of the cause of her madness, but when he repeats what for years has been the gossip of the countryside about her supposed killing of her babe, the "traveling man" interrupts and declares he is the son whom it was rumored she had drowned. In the end he is turned out of the house, not altogether unkindly, but as much for decency's sake ...
— Irish Plays and Playwrights • Cornelius Weygandt
... "Keep him! What for?—to watch everything we do, and hear everything we say, and arrange for the cutting of our throats when we land at New York? You've a fine ...
— The Iron Pirate - A Plain Tale of Strange Happenings on the Sea • Max Pemberton
... "What for?" Davis replied, "Saving our lives from those horrible savages." Jim answered, "Why, durn it all, ain't that what you are paying us for? We just done our duty and no more, as we intend to do ...
— Chief of Scouts • W.F. Drannan
... saw what for a moment made her head swim with the thought that she too was going mad. Just issuing from the shadows, as if in answer to his words, were a young man and a girl, his arm upon her waist, his eyes upon her face. At the first glance Miss Rood was impressed with a ...
— A Summer Evening's Dream - 1898 • Edward Bellamy
... God has allowed to prosper more, far more, than I ventured to hope. All my days I have longed to behold the restoration of the religious life to our country, and now when my eyes are dim with age I am granted the ineffable joy of beholding what for too long in my weakness and lack of faith I feared was never likely ...
— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie
... "What for a lookin' place was paradise?" And then follered 800 questions about paradise. Josiah sweat, and offered to let the boy come back, and set with me. He had insisted, when we started from the meetin'-house, ...
— Sweet Cicely - Or Josiah Allen as a Politician • Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
... indicate a slowly rising interest in providing schools for the education of all. This rising interest in education was greatly stimulated by the introduction from England, about this time, of a new and what for the time seemed a wonderful system for the organization of education, the Lancastrian ...
— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY
... thing!' wailed Hazel. 'You munna do it, Foxy, or he'll drown you dead. What for did you do it, ...
— Gone to Earth • Mary Webb
... medical gentlemen whose aid I invoked, was, I think, the one who replied to my inquiry for his bill, "What for? I have done you no good, and have learned more from you than you ...
— The Opium Habit • Horace B. Day
... good, kind, smiling, cordial, pretty, clever, fascinating, serene, accomplished, hospitable, and altogether unparalleled widow, Jack would calmly, quietly, and deliberately go over to the Bertons', and stay there as long as he could. What for? Was he not merely heaping up sorrow for himself in continuing so ardently this Platonic attachment? For Louie there was no danger. According to Jack, she still kept up her teasing, quizzing, and laughing mood. Jack's break-up ...
— The Lady of the Ice - A Novel • James De Mille
... lays if you say so. But where'd you come from: and what for do you turn road agent and ...
— The Killer • Stewart Edward White
... preparing to celebrate the "Fourth," to-morrow week. What for? The doings of that day had no reference to the present; and quite half of you are not even descendants of those who were referred to at that day. But I suppose you will celebrate, and will even go ...
— American Eloquence, Volume III. (of 4) - Studies In American Political History (1897) • Various
... "What for? What was your object? Show me the letter." Mrs. Epanchin's eyes flashed; she was almost trembling ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... day, "you must give me just a point each about those wretched old two, so that I will remember them again. I must have a sort of keynote. Shelley's would do with that horrible statue of him drowned, at Oxford, that would connect his chain—but what for Keats?" ...
— Halcyone • Elinor Glyn
... name of the wood, and again he say—"Box, Sir."—Well, I hold myself with patience, but it was difficilly; and we keep with great gallop, till we come at a great crowd of the people. Then I say, "What for all so large concourse?" "Oh!" he response again, "there is one grand boxing match—a battle here to-day." "Peste!" I tell myself, "a battle of boxes! Well, never mind! I hope it can be a combat at the outrance, and they all shall destroy one ...
— The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun; • Various
... "What for?" said Gem rather languidly,—for when the thermometer stands in the eighties, the ...
— The Old Stone House • Anne March
... Ipswich, three on Suffolk minstrelsy, and these sketches written in the Suffolk dialect. Of that dialect my father was a past-master; once and once only did I know him nonplussed by a Suffolk phrase. This was in the school at Monk Soham, where a small boy one day had been put in the corner. "What for?" asked my father; and a chorus of voices answered, "He ha' bin tittymatauterin," which meant, it seems, playing at see-saw. I retain, of course, my father's own spelling; but he always himself maintained that to reproduce the dialect ...
— Two Suffolk Friends • Francis Hindes Groome
... fulfill his commission, not knowing exactly what for until all came together in the ...
— The Bobbsey Twins in the Country • Laura Lee Hope
... decanter, in return, and, hang them, cracked it!—Curse me, say I, if this life is worth having! It's all the very vanity of vanities—as it's said somewhere in the Bible—and no mistake! Fag, fag, fag, all one's days, and—what for? Thirty-five pounds a-year, and 'no advance!' (Here occurred a pause and revery, from which he was roused by the clangor of the church-bells.) Bah, bells! ring away till you're all cracked!—Now do you think I'm going to be mewed ...
— Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. • Samuel Warren
... makes you feel so nice and warm and homey. If I had a house I'd have everybody I know—I mean all the nice everybodies—to spend Christmas with me. Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for—for—I don't know what for, exactly, but it's something you don't mind so much not having ...
— How It Happened • Kate Langley Bosher
... down into the street, his little blood-shot eyes blinking like a pig's. "What for?" ...
— Hidden Gold • Wilder Anthony
... times indications of a rather contemptuous attitude toward a world less highly trained than himself. She turned to Pollen, trying to recollect what for the last few moments he had been saying to her. He perceived her more scrutinizing attention and faced toward her. From under lowered eyelids he had been watching, with a moody furtiveness, Mary Rochefort and Burnaby, who were ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... vision of himself: the thief caught in his crime by his conscience—or whatever it was, what for want of a better name he must call his conscience: this thing within him that revolted from his purpose, mutinied against the dictates of his Self, and stopped his hand from reaping the harvest of his ...
— The Lone Wolf - A Melodrama • Louis Joseph Vance
... "you tink everyting foreign should be for English. You swagger off with other people's country and say, 'This mine.' You like old J——b and G——d; they speak all the time same as you. English, English, everyting English! an' I say what for you stay? I Greek, an' I stay because ...
— Looking Seaward Again • Walter Runciman
... am I going?" he thought suddenly. "Strange, I came out for something. As soon as I had read the letter I came out.... I was going to Vassilyevsky Ostrov, to Razumihin. That's what it was... now I remember. What for, though? And what put the idea of going to Razumihin into my head just now? ...
— Crime and Punishment • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... away and leave me, and leave thy mother, in our old age? My heart thou would break. My gray hairs to the grave would go in sorrow. Katrijntje, my dear, dear child, what for me, and for thy mother, ...
— The Bow of Orange Ribbon - A Romance of New York • Amelia E. Barr
... it in my bosom without alarming her ears, as my sudden motion did her eyes—Up she flew in a moment: Traitor! Judas! her eyes flashing lightning, and a perturbation in her eager countenance, so charming!—What have you taken up?—and then, what for both my ears I durst not have done to her, she made no scruple to seize the stolen letter, ...
— Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9) - History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson
... 'Why, what for? If I don't want him, somebody does, mayhap' (winking at me). 'Besides, he's a pretty tidy fortune, Peggy, you know—not such a catch as Wilmot; but then Helen won't hear of that match: for, somehow, ...
— The Tenant of Wildfell Hall • Anne Bronte
... brings ye here this time o' day? What for are ye no at the school? Ye'll hae little eneuch o' 't by an' by, whan the ...
— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald
... in jail. I don't know what for, never did know. One the men says to me to come with him and takes me to the woods and gives me an ax. I cuts rails till I nearly falls, all with chain locked 'round feet, so I couldn't run off. He turns me loose and I wanders 'gain. Never had a home. ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Texas Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration
... "What for?" he muttered. "Can't waste ammunition." Then he walked quickly to where Tippet lay sprawled upon his face. By this time James, Brady and Sinclair were at his heels, each ...
— Out of Time's Abyss • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... a touch of what for want of a better word we must call cynicism in the humorous indifference with which the old philosopher is said to have discussed his own burial. Finding, as the story goes, that there was not money enough in the house ...
— Royal Edinburgh - Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets • Margaret Oliphant
... not been altogether wasted," he said. "I played what for me was a bold stroke, for as you know, my dear fellow, I prefer to leave to your nimble and penetrating mind things that want dash and boldness. But to-night, yes, I was warmed with that wonderful port and ...
— The Blotting Book • E. F. Benson
... out of the Indian's eyes. Mary translated: "What for you want go down rapids? No Kakisas ...
— The Woman from Outside - [on Swan River] • Hulbert Footner
... instant, came the ironical question: 'What for?' She thought of the colliers' wives, with their linoleum and their lace curtains and their little girls in high-laced boots. She thought of the wives and daughters of the pit-managers, their tennis-parties, and their terrible struggles to be superior ...
— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence
... course," said the major, in a sympathizing tone; "it's bad business. But if you had these suspicions before, what for ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various
... "What for ask? If Nick say no, cap'in t'ink he lie. Even fox tell trut' some time; why not Injin? ...
— Wyandotte • James Fenimore Cooper
... sneered her ladyship. "Go! You had best go—back to him. What for did ye leave him? Did ye dream there could be ...
— The Lion's Skin • Rafael Sabatini
... looking-glasses, needles, files, knives, I climbed over the cliffs with him to his hut. Down on the floor we sat. Wilfrid put his treasures between his knees before him, I sat opposite, and the barter began. "What for this fellow, huh?" and he held up a piece of carved ivory, a little triangular mincing-knife, a fur mat that his wife had made, or the skin of a baby-seal. The first thing he asked for was scented soap, the ring that I was wearing, and my porcupine-quill hat-band which looked ...
— The New North • Agnes Deans Cameron
... to deal with you in such a manner? Do you suppose that I should not have told you the truth about that packet? However, that is over. You know the truth now. We five are all members of the Council who are sitting practically night and day, waiting—you know what for. Do not keep us in suspense any longer than you can help. Tell us where ...
— The Devil's Paw • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... off the pony, Barbie," sez I, an' she threw her little leg over the saddle an' hit the grass like an antelope. The pony never stirred. Ol' Jabez stood watchin' her with his eyes poppin' out. "Turn the brute loose!" he shouts. "What for?" sez she. "'Cause I say so!" he ...
— Happy Hawkins • Robert Alexander Wason
... "What for?" I demanded. "I mean, of course, if you like," for I saw she was white to the lips, though her eyes met mine steadily, like a man's. "Do you mean you ...
— The La Chance Mine Mystery • Susan Carleton Jones
... 'No! What for? I shall know your handwriting; there is no need for you to be there, and I should think it would be rather uncomfortable for you,' ...
— A City Schoolgirl - And Her Friends • May Baldwin
... of them were in my chain Ytied; and now, what for unwieldy age And unlust, they may not to love attain: And sain that "Love is but very dotage!" Thus, for that they themself lacken courage, They folk exciten by their wicked saws For to rebell against ...
— Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse • Various
... one, "white man come to live in black man's country? What for can't white man stop in own country? Much better for white man, than black ...
— A Voyage Round the World, Vol. I (of ?) • James Holman
... "What for? Washing your faces? No, I don't. She's a funny mother if she does. It's easier work to sell milk than to do washings, and I should think you'd try to help her all you can so she won't get sick and die and all of you have to ...
— Heart of Gold • Ruth Alberta Brown
... to what for her was the practical. "Some of us are in the Stone Age as it is. I'm sure Rash Allerton is as nearly an elemental as one can be, and still belong to clubs and drive ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King
... a detail that Woltmann thinks represents a repetition of the one phrase, and that I imagine to have suggested what for some reason Holbein did not wish to proclaim:—"In all honour. [In all love.]" But nothing can shake my conviction that in it we hear the faint far-off echoes from some belfry in Holbein's own city of Is. The realities of that chime ...
— Holbein • Beatrice Fortescue
... mathematical attainments. It is difficult to conceive of such a waste of labor by enlightened princes, acquainted with astronomical and mathematical knowledge and mechanical forces, for Herodotus tells us that one hundred thousand men toiled on the Great Pyramid during forty years. What for? Surely it is hard to suppose that such a pile was necessary for the observation of the polar star; and still less probably was it built as a sepulchre for a king, since no covered sarcophagus has ever been found in it, nor have even any ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume I • John Lord
... "What for? why to keep, to love, and to look at," he said laughing. "I have been away from my little girl so long, that now I want her close by my side, or on my knee, all the time. Do you not like to ...
— Elsie Dinsmore • Martha Finley
... for Zoe. And for all I know, my brother-in-law means to turn up dutifully too. A little family event. It's extremely pleasant to think of. Delightful. A charming family party. We three against the world—and all that sort of thing. And what for. For a girl that ...
— Chance - A Tale in Two Parts • Joseph Conrad
... after clouds and sadness. It was natural that the effects of the Old One's strange words should pass away and be almost forgotten, except by the lawyer, who feared disaster. He did what for him was a novel thing. He made an offering to Jupiter. After all, there might be something in this worship of the gods; it was safer to be on ...
— Virgilia - or, Out of the Lion's Mouth • Felicia Buttz Clark
... put his arm around her an' kiss her wet eyes. He were more to her than what the garden was, I'll lay, or God either. That's the bitter black God o' my faither. What for did He let the snake in the garden 'tall if He really loved them fust poor fools? Why dedn' He put they flamin' angels theer sooner. 'Twas the snake they should have ...
— Lying Prophets • Eden Phillpotts
... with a changed manner. "But what for? Why is she concerned? There's something behind this, Tom—I can tell by your looks. Speak out, for ...
— The Mystery of Murray Davenport - A Story of New York at the Present Day • Robert Neilson Stephens
... room up, and one down, like the other, only a shade larger. Damp, insanitary, cold—bad water, bad drainage, I'll be bound—bad everything. That girl may well try her little best. And I go making up to that man Boyce! What for? Old ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... what for? I thought I heard you say, Jule, that the child got on excellently well there,—that ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb
... "What for?" said the latter, as he brought the car to a standstill. "Don't say you want to go and watch the rector's wife bidding against her conscience and ...
— Berry And Co. • Dornford Yates
... "What for?" Skinny asked as they moved toward the barn. "There ain't no hurry about getting back to the ranch. We won't be going out till to-morrow or next day—there ain't no use ...
— The Ramblin' Kid • Earl Wayland Bowman
... see me?" ejaculated Father Ambrose, wrinkling a perplexed brow. "I wonder what for. Can he have any knowledge ...
— The Sword Maker • Robert Barr
... the same time, and has naethin' wrong wi' him except that he belongs to Forfar and has a perpetual drouth, tells me that our twa friends were juist in and oot, no mair than a week wi' the dragoons. My idea is that they went wi' Livingstone to get to us. And what for—aye, ...
— Graham of Claverhouse • Ian Maclaren |
