"Whispering" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... hark! at the door were shuffling steps and voices whispering; and presently there came a gentle tap—repeated once or twice. Ser Zenobio rose to see what was passing outside his house. Peering into the gloom he saw two figures—one a girl's—and a voice he ...
— The Tragedies of the Medici • Edgcumbe Staley
... years ago I had a gentleman under my charge who would attempt to execute any order given him while he was asleep by a person whispering into his ear. Thus, if told in this way to shout, he shouted as loud as he could; if ordered to get up, he at once jumped from the bed; if directed to repeat certain words, he said them, and ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 441, June 14, 1884. • Various
... Fogarty. "An' ye'll remimber, if anny wan asks ye, that I ixprissed me contrition for arristin' Snooksy. Whist!" he said, putting his hand alongside his mouth and whispering: "Some wan wanted me t' search th' house here t' see did Snooksy have sivin bottles iv beer an' a silver beer-opener ...
— Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective • Ellis Parker Butler
... man's hand and whispering words of passionate sympathy, while Hal got up and paced the tiny attic, all ablaze with anger. He resolved suddenly that he would not go back to Western City; he would stay here, and get an honest lawyer to come, and ...
— King Coal - A Novel • Upton Sinclair
... trees, Humming-birds and honey-bees; For my sport the squirrel played, Plied the snouted mole his spade; For my taste the blackberry cone Purpled over hedge and stone; Laughed the brook for my delight Through the day and through the night, Whispering at the garden wall, Talked with me from fall to fall; Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pend, Mine the walnut slopes beyond, Mine, on bending orchard ...
— Home Life of Great Authors • Hattie Tyng Griswold
... ordnance, their muzzles projecting far over the low parapet, were easily distinguishable, as were also the great piles of shot, notwithstanding the darkness of the night; but for the moment no sentinels were visible. Whispering his companions to remain where they were, Stukely moved away with noiseless tread, swiftly making the circuit of the gun platform; and presently he rejoined the ...
— Two Gallant Sons of Devon - A Tale of the Days of Queen Bess • Harry Collingwood
... the woods, where the trees are all the time whispering of God, and the little birds singing of Him, don't feel like being quarrelsome, and disobliging, and ugly; no, they leave that to city people, who live in such a whirl that they never remember they have a soul till Death ...
— Little Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends • Fanny Fern
... his most august age. With both chubby hands he plucked at the black beard and held tight. The strange sailor answered laugh with laugh, and released himself right gayly. Then whilst Niobe and Dion watched and wondered they saw the sailor kiss the child full fifty times, all the time whispering soft words in his ear, at which Phoenix ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis
... made a place for her by his side. It was a quiet moment and her entrance attracted attention. The judges in their red armchairs at the green-covered horse-shoe table looked up from their portfolios, and there was some whispering beyond the wooden bar where the public were huddled together. One other face had followed her, but at first she dared not look at that. It was the face of the prisoner in his prison clothes sitting ...
— The Eternal City • Hall Caine
... she begged. "Sit with me for a moment. Can't you see," she added, whispering, "that I have had a shock? Sit with me. I can't go back ...
— The Tempting of Tavernake • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... in the dewy morn I trod through the whispering corn, Cool to my fevered cheek soft breezy kisses were blown; The ribboned and tasselled grass Leaned over the flattering glass, And the sunny waters trilled ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, No. 48, October, 1861 • Various
... the fragments thereof were scattered around. This event Bandarini regarded as an augury of evil, and indeed evil followed swiftly after. Before a year had passed he was dead, some holding that his death had been hastened by the ill conduct of his eldest son, and others whispering suspicions of poison. ...
— Jerome Cardan - A Biographical Study • William George Waters
... in these absolutes. His Spirit of the Universe is absolute truth, absolute goodness, absolute beauty. He is a Neoplatonist, but something more. He ascends into communion with this Universal Spirit whispering the Name of Christ, and by the power of Christ in his soul addresses the ...
— Painted Windows - Studies in Religious Personality • Harold Begbie
... praying is altogether as ridiculous as their preaching; for imagining that in their addresses to heaven they should set out in a low and tremulous voice, as a token of dread and reverence, they begin therefore with such a soft whispering as if they were afraid any one should overhear what they said; but when they are gone a little way, they clear up their pipes by degrees, and at last bawl out so loud as if, with Baal's priests, they were resolved to awake a sleeping god; and then again, being ...
— In Praise of Folly - Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts • Desiderius Erasmus
... hadn't thought. He hadn't even wanted to think. It was as though, somewhere in the back of his mind, something kept whispering that this was all nothing but a very bad dream and that he'd wake up in his cubicle aboard the Naipor at any moment. Intellectually, he knew it wasn't true, but his emotional needs, coupled with wishful ...
— But, I Don't Think • Gordon Randall Garrett
... of hoarse whispering; a sudden gruff sound. A shaft of blazing yellow light darted from the level of the ground into my dazed eyes. A man sprang at me and thrust something cold and knobby into my neckcloth. The light continued ...
— Romance • Joseph Conrad and F.M. Hueffer
... Lisette! Ah, belle Fifine! Anacreon's lesson all must learn; 'O kairos oxus; Spring is green; But Acer Hyems waits his turn! I hear you whispering from the dust, "Tiens, mon cher, c'est toujours so,— The brightest blade grows dim with rust, The fairest meadow white ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 121, November, 1867 • Various
... each, but neither responded graciously, and Lucy went on talking, showing off the room, the chiffonieres, the ornaments, and some pretty Indian ivory carvings. There was a great ottoman of Aunt Maria's work, and a huge cushion with an Arab horseman, that Lucy would uncover, whispering, 'Poor mamma worked it,' while Sophy visibly winced, and Albinia hurried it into the chintz cover again, lest Mr. Kendal should come. But Lucy had full time to be communicative about the household with such a satisfied, capable manner, that Albinia ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge
... garlands thrown, and incomplete, The rites relinquish'd, what the Thebans could They gave: their whispering prayers the matron dame Address'd. With ire the angry goddess flam'd, And thus on Cynthus' lofty top bespoke Her double offspring:—"O, my children! see, "Your parent, proud your parent to be call'd,— "To no celestial yielding, save the queen ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid
... another." No sooner the bond of charity is broken, which is as a wall about Christians, but soon they begin to make havock and spoil of one another; then there is raising evil reports, and taking up evil reports, against each other. Hence it is that whispering and backbiting proceeds, and going from house to house to blazon the faults and infirmities of others: hence it is that we watch for the haltings of one another, and do inwardly rejoice at the miscarriages of others, saying in our hearts, "ha! ha! so we would have it:" but ...
— An Exhortation to Peace and Unity • Attributed (incorrectly) to John Bunyan
... to speak with an odd purpose, because his reason was bedrugged by the beauty and purity of Melicent, and perhaps a little by the slow and clutching music to whose progress the chorus of Theban virgins was dancing. When he had made an end of harsh whispering, Melicent sat for a while in scrupulous appraisement of the rushes. The music was so sweet it seemed to Perion he must go mad unless she spoke within ...
— Domnei • James Branch Cabell et al
... monotonous, gentle voice which he had acquired by years of duty in the confessional, continued whispering in her ear. One evening in the past he had warned her; solitude, he had said, would be harmful to her welfare. No one could with impunity live outside the pale of life. She had imprisoned herself too closely, and the door had opened to ...
— A Love Episode • Emile Zola
... sincere, and are moved by any real danger of the loss of Southern trade, they will simply get their names on the white list, and then, instead of persuading Republicans to do likewise, they will be glad to keep you away! Don't you see that they cut off competition? They would not be whispering around to Republicans to come in and share the profits with them. But if they are not sincere, and are merely trying to fool Republicans out of their votes, they will grow very anxious about your pecuniary prospects; they are afraid you are going to get broken up and ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln
... was an example of plainness and moderation. Her heart and house were open to her friends, whom to entertain seemed one of her greatest pleasures. Prudently cheerful and well knowing the value of friendship, she was careful not to wound it herself nor to encourage others in whispering supposed failings or weaknesses. Her last illness brought great bodily pain, which she bore with much calmness of mind and sweetness of spirit. She departed this life as one falling asleep, full of days, 'like unto a shock of corn ...
— Woman on the American Frontier • William Worthington Fowler
... announced. Occasionally, also, the Contessa addressed some remark to her brother in shrill and voluble Italian, which rather confirmed the gloomy estimate of her table-manners in the matter of talking with her mouth full, for to speak in Italian was equivalent to whispering, since the purport of what she said could not be understood by anybody except him.... Then also, the sensation of dining with a countess produced a slight feeling of strain, which, in addition to the correct behaviour which Mr. Wyse's presence always induced, almost congealed correctness ...
— Miss Mapp • Edward Frederic Benson
... away? Though guiltless thou of mutiny or blame, And free from aught which could disgrace thy name; Though thy pure soul, in honour's footsteps train'd, Was never yet by disobedience stain'd; Yet is thy fame exposed to slander's wound, And fell suspicion whispering around. In vain—to those who knew thy worth and truth, Who watch'd each op'ning virtue of thy youth; When noblest principles inform'd thy mind, Where sense and sensibility were join'd; Love to inspire, to charm, to win each heart, And ev'ry tender sentiment ...
— The Eventful History Of The Mutiny And Piratical Seizure - Of H.M.S. Bounty: Its Cause And Consequences • Sir John Barrow
... After some whispering together, the little girls did as they were bidden, notwithstanding the warnings of their mates the other side of the fence. When they had disappeared from view, Mary Green turned away, and began to hammer, as though she was driving a nail into Mrs. Pike's head, or Jane Holmes's, ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various
... just at supper-time, Elmer Lonnie said: "Hello, pa!" and then they heard pa whispering and Elmer Lonnie came in looking very solemn—or trying to—and said: "Ma, Miss Waldo wants to know if you won't please step ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood
... them is by no means one which we can dwell on with pleasure. Times they were of blinding and driving storm, and howling winds, out of which voices as of evil spirits spoke close in our ears—tauntingly, temptingly, whispering to the mischievous wild beast which lurks in the bottom of all our hearts, now, "Rouse up! art thou a man and darest not do this thing?" now, "Rise, kill and eat—it is thine, wilt thou not take it? Shall the flimsy scruples of this teacher, or the sanctified ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes
... bulging gems. It is superb and grim. You push open the bell-ringer's door, climb the winding staircase, "the screw of St. Giles," to the towers, to the high regions of prayer; you look down and the statues are below you. The row of kings is plunging into the abysm. You hear the whispering of the enormous bells, which vibrate at the kiss of vague zephyrs ...
— The Memoirs of Victor Hugo • Victor Hugo
... carpenter's shop, and in the whist of the woods they talked of love and marriage. They lay together in the warm valleys, listening to the tinkling of the sheep-bell, and one evening, putting his pipe aside, William threw his arm round her, whispering that she was his wife. The words were delicious in her fainting ears, and her will died in what seemed like irresistible destiny. She could not struggle with him, though she knew that her fate depended upon her resistance, and swooning away she awakened in pain, powerless ...
— Esther Waters • George Moore
... and I saw them together in the library, while I still slept, consulting, planning, plotting, writing, erasing, whispering; soon to separate, however, this time. Their arrangements being completed without restraint, for again the old man was absent, doing the duties of another, who, knowing not the motive of such request or bribe, was content to work the will of a conspirator, ...
— Miriam Monfort - A Novel • Catherine A. Warfield
... made a mistake; she heard some whispering. She sprang to her feet and looked through the cracks of the hut. A cart had stopped at the end of the field, and by the pale light from the stars she could dimly see the form of a man or woman throwing out baskets to two others, who carried them into the ...
— Nobody's Girl - (En Famille) • Hector Malot
... and put her hand towards her pocket. Her purse was never well furnished, and now in these bad days was usually empty. At the present moment it was wholly so. "I have nothing to give her; not a penny," she said, whispering to her lover. ...
— Castle Richmond • Anthony Trollope
... Miss Minchin had resumed her usual dress. The pupils had been ordered to lay aside their party frocks; and this having been done, they had returned to the schoolroom and huddled together in groups, whispering ...
— A Little Princess • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... him for a moment without speaking. Her old self was whispering to her. "Take care what you do!" it said. "This is a coarse, common, dirty boy. He smells of the stable; his hair is full of hay; his hands are beyond description. What have you in common with such a creature? He has not even ...
— Queen Hildegarde • Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
... and with it the party of the morning. I was now at my place beneath the oak. I went forward to meet them. Peter and his wife received me with a calm and quiet greeting, and passed forward. The rest of the party had broken into groups. There was a kind of excitement amongst them, and much eager whispering. I went to one of the groups; the young girl of whom I have spoken more than once was speaking: 'Such a sermon,' said she, 'it has never been our lot to hear; Peter never before spoke as he has done this day—he was always a powerful ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
... just one end in view. [Almost whispering.] But you have very different weapons from father and from my stepmother, or from my excellent betrothed—oh, quite different. They are all lambs, all of them, compared to you. Now, now, suddenly, that has become clear as ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann
... hark! and hark! a knock—Tap! tap A rustling stifled noise; Door-latch and tinkling staples ring; At length a whispering voice: ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various
... neither spoke until they reached the shanty itself. There was no sign of human life about it: the door stood open, and the only sound to be heard was the rustle of the wind whispering among the pines upon the mountain side. Both men flung themselves from their horses ...
— "Seth" • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... steady herself and while she stood there, in spite of her efforts, her tears burst forth again uncontrollably. She clasped her hands tightly over her mouth so that the sound of her sobbing might not reach to the table in the centre of the big marquee; and with her lips whispering in all sincerity the vain wish that she were dead ...
— Witness For The Defense • A.E.W. Mason
... or spiritual guide.) Brahmans and members of the religious orders, Bairagis and Gosains, are the Gurus of ordinary Hindus. Most Hindu men and also women of the higher and middle castes have a Guru, whose functions are, however, generally confined to whispering a sacred verse into the ear of the disciple on initiation, and paying him a visit about once a year; it is not clear what happens on these occasions, but the Guru is entertained by this disciple, and a little ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) • R.V. Russell
... officials, after a glance about the room, returned to the hall. Harvey tried the door of each office, then returned to Mattison and Mallory. While they stood whispering,—for at night sound travels through an empty building,—there came the sound of a window sliding in its sash, apparently from ...
— The Short Line War • Merwin-Webster
... if I was never allowed to return here, for these very conversations and discussions upon the subject of the slave system are considered dangerous, and justice and freedom cannot be mentioned safely here but with closed doors and whispering voices.... I pray with all the powers of my soul that God would enlighten these unfortunate slave-holders, and enable them to perceive better the spirit of Christ, who they say never denounced slavery as either an evil or sin; the evil consequences of it to themselves are by far the worst of ...
— Records of Later Life • Frances Anne Kemble
... kissed him on the brow, and to Sir Andrew, who stretched his hand above his head in blessing. Then he turned to Eve and was about to embrace her even before that company, when Sir Andrew looked at him, and, remembering the penance that had been laid upon him, he but pressed her hand, whispering: ...
— Red Eve • H. Rider Haggard
... numerous flumes which tell of busy times. Halloa! what's this? Dutch Flat. Shades of Bret Harte, true child of genius, what a pity you ever forsook these scenes to dwindle in the foreign air of the Atlantic coast! A whispering pine of the Sierras transplanted to Fifth Avenue! How could it grow? Although it shows some faint signs of life, how sickly are the leaves! As for fruit, there is none. America had in Bret Harte its most distinctively national poet. His reputation in Europe proved his originality. The fact is, ...
— Round the World • Andrew Carnegie
... pin drop in that room. The magic words Gold Cross brought every whispering, dallying scout to attention. There was a general rustle of straightening up in seats. The continuous departing ceased. Faces appeared at ...
— Tom Slade's Double Dare • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... him down steps and round corners, along different twisted, corkscrew turnings, till at last a passage a little broader than the others opened before us, where a lamp was burning; he drew back against the wall, pushing me forwards, and whispering some directions ...
— Five Nights • Victoria Cross
... eying the unruffled Brazilian much as an Andulusian bull might glare at a picador. A buzz of angry whispering came from the crew. Even Iris flashed a disdainful glance at the man who uttered this atrocious sentiment. De Sylva raised his hand. He permitted himself the luxury of ...
— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy
... I was sure. I said, "Yes; I have it of James Wilson, and the town is already in an uproar over it." The great philosopher remained deep in thought a moment, while the women sat or stood in fear, or whispering excitement. At last he said he must go, and that it was the beginning of war, and welcome too. Then he bowed gravely and went out. As he left, the stillness which had prevailed ...
— Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker • S. Weir Mitchell
... interminable thin whispering in the back of her head went on and on. "Oh, if he had only died four years ago! Oh, if he had only died the dear, clean-minded, honest boy I used to know! When that noise stops he will be dead. And then, perhaps, I shall ...
— The Eagle's Shadow • James Branch Cabell
... balmy breeze, Soft whispering, fans the leafy trees; The linnet greets the rosy morn, Sweet in yon fragrant flowery thorn; The bee hums round the woodbine bower, Collecting sweets from every flower; And pure the crystal streamlets run ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various
... relaxed. The men dropped more fuel on the fires, coaxing the flame brighter. A whispering comment rose ...
— The Leopard Woman • Stewart Edward White et al
... santi—tutti santi!" at each osculation. Next, they prostrated themselves on the floor and licked the cold stones, and after wallowing there awhile, rose up and began to kiss a small fissure in the masonry of the wall, the old woman whispering, "Santissimo!" A familiar spectacle, no doubt; but one which never fails of its effect. This anti-hygienic crack in the wall, with its suggestions of yoni-worship, attracted me so strongly that I begged a priest to explain to me its mystical signification. But he only said, with ...
— Old Calabria • Norman Douglas
... person that addressed them was Captain Aresby, who, with his usual delicate languishment, smiled upon Cecilia, and softly whispering, "How divinely you look to-night!" proceeded to pay his ...
— Cecilia Volume 1 • Frances Burney
... behind her fan, with many glances, many cunning strokes of the narrator's art. The others had drawn away, for it was understood that Madame von Rosen was in favour with the Prince. None the less, however, did the Countess lower her voice at times to within a semitone of whispering; and the pair ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 7 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... reporters and compositors the news went seething forth in a flood that the Erie Auriferous Consolidated was going to shatter into fragments like the bursting of a dynamite bomb. It rushed with a thousand whispering tongues from street to street till it filled the corridors of the law courts and the lobbies of the offices, and till every honest man that held a share of the stock shivered in his tracks and reached out to give, sell, or destroy it. ...
— Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich • Stephen Leacock
... and I wanted all the help fixed objects could give me. I managed to pick out their feathery lines in the black distance—the darkness made them seem more remote than they were, really. Their branches, when I found them, waved like spirit arms, and I could hear the wind whispering and sighing among the ...
— A Minstrel In France • Harry Lauder
... overlook all your dishonesty and treacherous misrepresentation of me to Lord Cumber—your attempt to oust us out of our farms, and to put your son and M'Slime in our places—your suppressing the fact, besides that we offered a thousand pounds apiece for a renewal—your whispering away our commercial reputation, and thereby bringing us in the end to ruin—all that, I say, I could overlook and forgive; but for your foul and cowardly attempt to destroy the fair fame of our spotless child—for ...
— Valentine M'Clutchy, The Irish Agent - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton
... not believe the whole, you believe the half, Miss Bee," and he added, half whispering, "take care some of us do not believe the other half. But don't look dismal on the matter, only put it into one of your waxen cells, and don't lose sight of it. And if it is any comfort to you, I will allow that perhaps poor Jessie is not the most entertaining companion ...
— Henrietta's Wish • Charlotte M. Yonge
... The General, alone of all the company, waxed not enthusiastic over the advent of The Oskaloosa Kid and his priceless loot. These two sat scowling and whispering in the back-ground. "Dat's a wrong guy," muttered the former to the latter. "He's a stool pigeon or ...
— The Oakdale Affair • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... stare of the crowd, sent a wave of sympathy through all present, and stirred pity in every heart. When Mehetabel had recovered the confusion and alarm into which she was thrown by finding herself in the dock with heads all about her, eyes fixed upon her, and mouths whispering comments, she ...
— The Broom-Squire • S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
... dreary fields, and black masses of woodland. Not one homely roof was visible in the hard, white moonlight, nor the glimmer of a lamp, nor a waft of chimney-smoke; not even the tinkle of a sleigh-bell or a foot-step was to be heard. The silence seemed whispering to the hills. One star glimmered in ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 • Various
... morn, of the morn of the year, Violet-laden breath of spring, To the flowers and the lasses whispering Things that a man's ear cannot hear, In thy friendly grasp I would lay my hand, But thou comest not from ...
— Armenian Literature • Anonymous
... years old when I thus reasoned with myself, sitting in a little obscure room of my father's poor house: If there be a God certainly He must be infinite in Goodness, and I was prompted to this by a real whispering instinct of Nature."[8] Whereupon the child wonders why, if God is so rich, he himself is so poor, possessed of "so scanty and narrow a fortune, enjoying few and obscure comforts," but he tells us that as soon as ...
— Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries • Rufus M. Jones
... awake, Catches his freshness from Archangel's wing: He of the rose, the violet, the spring, The social smile, the chain for Freedom's sake: And lo!—whose steadfastness would never take A meaner sound than Raphael's whispering. And other spirits there are standing apart Upon the forehead of the age to come; These, these will give the world another heart, And other pulses. Hear ye not the hum Of mighty workings?— Listen awhile ...
— Famous Reviews • Editor: R. Brimley Johnson
... any interference with the worship of the congregation. In plain speech, it is his duty to see to it that choir members conduct themselves in a manner appropriate to their position, and that they do not by whispering, laughing, note writing, and other similar frivolities, hinder in any way the development of a spirit of reverent devotion on the ...
— Essentials in Conducting • Karl Wilson Gehrkens
... dingy-grey side-whiskers, who regarded Bert with a peculiar and disconcerting attention. The company sat after ceremonies Bert could not understand. At the other end of the table was the bird-faced officer Bert had dispossessed, still looking hostile and whispering about Bert to his neighbour. Two soldiers waited. The dinner was a plain one—a soup, some fresh mutton, and cheese—and ...
— The War in the Air • Herbert George Wells
... all! To-morrow night, by all means! We shall both be at home, and very glad to see you." She hurried after Miss Carver, loitering on her way to their table, and Lemuel saw them put their heads together, as if they were whispering. He knew they were whispering about him, but they did not laugh; probably they kept themselves from laughing. In coming out from breakfast, Miss Swan said, "I hope your friend isn't very critical, Mr. Barker?" and he answered confusedly, "Oh, not at all, thank you." But he said to ...
— The Minister's Charge • William D. Howells
... living existences. He held out his hand to her, and smiled in the face that was dear to him, as if for a moment he rejoiced in the experience of a feeling which connected him with breathing flesh and blood. The object of her visit was soon explained. Whispering in his ear, as if she were afraid of the sound of her own words, she told him that Walter had promised her a love-token, and that she wished to give him one in return, for which purpose she desired that she might be permitted to use ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, XXII • various
... occupied by a very brilliant little party. The Archduchess was there. It was she whose lorgnettes were still unfalteringly directed towards Isobel. Lady Delahaye sat in the background, and a greater personage than either occupied the chair next to the Archduchess. Soon I saw that they were all whispering together, all still looking from Isobel towards the stage, and from the stage to Isobel; and in the background was a man whose coat was covered with orders, and who held himself like a soldier. He looked at Isobel as ...
— The Master Mummer • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... neither looked nor stirred, but kept whispering to herself with something like awe: "This is what they must endure—my ...
— The Quest of the Silver Fleece - A Novel • W. E. B. Du Bois
... with a ruffled white cap, and when she left, in spite of the sentry, she patted me encouragingly on the shoulder. The owner of the house was more discreet, and contented himself with winking at me and whispering: "Ca va mal pour vous en bas!" As they both knew what was being said of me downstairs, their visit did not especially enliven me. Major Wurth returned and said the staff could not spare any one to go to Brussels, but that my note had been forwarded to "the" general. That was ...
— With the Allies • Richard Harding Davis
... fire-engines, clad in a pea-jacket and a black leather helmet of the Salvage Corps. This, to enable me to pass the cordon of police without question—though not without recognition, as was made apparent to me on one occasion at a fire by a fireman whispering confidentially, "I know what you are, sir, ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, June 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various
... fury. Mrs. Melrose was now too terrified to cry out. She sat motionless and quivering, her baby on her lap, her white pointed face and straining eyes touched every now and then by a ghostly gleam from the lanterns. Beside her—whispering occasional words in Italian to her mistress—sat the Italian nurse, pale too, but motionless, a woman from the Campagna, of a Roman port and dignity, who would have scorned to give the master whom she detested any excuse ...
— The Mating of Lydia • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... I, again whispering, as being more persuasive; "where would be the use of going now? It would be shutting the stable-door after the steed was stolen, and—" (this in a still lower voice)—"we are beginning to get on ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton
... "Oh, surely," he replied, whispering too, and to the full as deeply moved. But when he got away it was to other lands that he turned his eyes, in the search for new interests to occupy his lonely life. With Lily and the baby dead, and Deborah Pennycuick given to another man, Australia had no more ...
— Sisters • Ada Cambridge
... he said; and she was so choking with her emotion that she could not answer a word, she could only shudder and submit to his will. And Mr. Harrison, supposing that her emotions were very different from what they were, rested her head upon his shoulder, smoothing back her tangled hair and whispering into her ear how beautiful she was beyond any dream of his, and how the present moment was the happiest of ...
— King Midas • Upton Sinclair
... is, I fear, That old grey-bearded men appear In corners whispering at the Thing, As if they had bad news to bring. The young sit still,—no laugh, or shout,— More looks than words passing shout; And groups of whispering heads are seen, On buttoned breasts, with ...
— Heimskringla - The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway • Snorri Sturluson
... lead the perjurers to their lodgings. How might Siegfried, or any else against whom they plotted, ware himself against their wiles? This later brought great sorrow to them all. The king walked whispering with his friends; Hagen of Troneg never let him rest. Enow of the king's liegemen would fain have parted the strife, but Hagen would not give up his plan. On a day Siegfried found them whispering. The hero of Netherland gan ...
— The Nibelungenlied • Unknown
... the rules, I couldn't take it. Besides, one of the jumpers had his eye on me. I explained to him, jocosely, that I was doing it for a bet. He was surprised when I handed him his hat, but, the lady whispering to him, he remembered himself ...
— Malvina of Brittany • Jerome K. Jerome
... doubt. For the relations of Wright & Perry were so close to Daniel Sands that no one could mistake the meaning of young Perry's vote, and then had not the whole town read of the "showers" for Anne Sands? Those who opposed the Judge were whispering that the old spider had turned against the Judge. Men who were under obligations to the Traders' Bank were puzzled but not in doubt. There was a general buzzing among the delegations. The desertion of Mortimer ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White
... our blessed Lord whispering to the world of to-day, a tired world from the first, but never so tired as now; through these lips comes God's answer to the cry of five hundred millions of Buddhists, of the millions of Islam, of the Romanist, ...
— Memoranda Sacra • J. Rendel Harris
... and mother were sitting, and at the same moment a boy came up the lane to the other corner; there were sixteen years between the ages of the brothers, who alone were left of the children born into and borne out of the house. The young man waited till they were within whispering distance of each other, and then he gasped: ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... Whispering to Captain Folsom, next in line, to pass the word along that all should stay in the passageway while he investigated the situation outside, Jack squirmed partway through the opening, faced upward, took a good clutch on the shingled edge of the rooftree and ...
— The Radio Boys with the Revenue Guards • Gerald Breckenridge
... my hands as if I were a child. The hour drew nigher. He had so many questions to ask, but the inevitableness of the situation struck him dumb. We were on the platform; the train was about to move out. I made a motion; he gripped me tightly, whispering in ...
— From the Bottom Up - The Life Story of Alexander Irvine • Alexander Irvine
... when I listened to it, I seemed to hear it whispering of the mysterious things of life, of the hidden currents in the great river, of the sorrows, of the terrors, of ...
— Tongues of Conscience • Robert Smythe Hichens
... Good-looking enough he is, but, only a boy; at the same time, a devilish bold one! And he'd think no more of springing through that window and throwing his arms round your neck, the very first moment of his arrival, than I should of whispering how much I ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2 (of 2) • Charles Lever
... scientist was whispering through lips that were blue and stiff. "Leave me here. I'm licked. But you can carry on the work; go to my friends and tell them—everything. Tell them what you saw back ...
— Vulcan's Workshop • Harl Vincent
... asked her, why she did not go to the Company of Witches which were before the Meeting-House Mustering? Did she not hear the Drum beat? They accused her of having Familiarity with the Devil, in the time of Examination, in the shape of a Black Man whispering in her Ear; they affirmed, that her Yellow Bird sucked betwixt her Fingers in the Assembly; and Order being given to see if there were any sign, the Girl that saw it, said, it was too late now; she had removed a Pin, and put it on her Head; ...
— The Wonders of the Invisible World • Cotton Mather
... the Eastern Mediterranean. Already had his might devoured the cherished colonies of the Greeks on the eastern shore of the Archipelago, and every traitor to home institutions found a ready asylum at that despotic court, and tried to revenge his own wrongs by whispering incitements to invasion. 'All people, nations, and languages,' was the commencement of the decrees of that monarch's court; and it was scarcely a vain boast, for his satraps ruled over subject kingdoms, and among ...
— A Book of Golden Deeds • Charlotte M. Yonge
... demands upon me and your threats against me, and then you will leave my cabin quickly, nor do I think that ever again will you, at least, annoy me," and there came a moment's silence in which Tarzan could imagine the woman leaning toward the scoundrel and whispering the thing she had hinted at into his ear. Only a moment of silence, and then a startled oath from the man—the scuffling of feet—a woman's ...
— The Return of Tarzan • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... the night Wherin the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began: The winds, with wonder whist, Smoothly the waters kist Whispering new joys to the mild ocean— Who now hath quite forgot to rave, While birds of calm sit brooding on ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various
... effort to break from it, and resume the general topics of interest, was fruitless. The King himself was grave almost to melancholy, though more than once he endeavored to shake it off, and speak as usual. Men found themselves whispering to each other as if they feared to speak aloud—as if some impalpable and invisible horror were hovering round them. It might have been that the raging storm without affected all within, with a species of awe, ...
— The Vale of Cedars • Grace Aguilar
... the wharf and, taking 'old of my missis by the arm, led her away whispering. At the same moment the skipper walked across the ...
— Night Watches • W.W. Jacobs
... settled around Poopendyke and Britton. They eyed me with a sort of pathetic wonder in their faces. As time went on they began to look positively forlorn and unhappy. Once or twice I caught them whispering in the hallway. On seeing me they assumed an air of nonchalance that brought a grim smile to my lips. I was beginning to hate them. Toward the end of the second day, the four Schmicks became so aggravatingly doleful that I ordered them, ...
— A Fool and His Money • George Barr McCutcheon
... her. There was nothing to mar her delight in the whispers and the dreamy silences, when she listened to the light dipping sounds of the rising fish, and the gentle rustling, as if the willows and the reeds and the water had their happy whispering also. Maggie thought it would make a very nice heaven to sit by the pool in that way, and never be scolded. She never knew she had a bite till Tom told her; but she liked ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 • Charles H. Sylvester
... hunting in the park, and nightly dancing and diversion in the hall,—it is with Hoghton Tower at this season that the present tale has to do, and not with it as it is now—silent, solitary, squalid, saddening, but still whispering of the glories of the past, still telling of the kingly pageant that ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth
... halted at the second turn in the upper hall, his scalp feeling very queer. The lamp had gone out, probably in the draft from the kitchen door, and he had lost his room! Whispering desperate admonitions to the wriggling dog beneath his arm, Jimsy went on tiptoed hunt until, finding a window, a turn and a door that seemed familiar, he heaved a great sigh of relief and turned the knob. As he pushed back the door, a flood of light and warmth fanned out, and Jimsy, tangling ...
— Jimsy - The Christmas Kid • Leona Dalrymple
... comparatively light offences as petty larceny, etc., beating and branding with hot irons must be considered barbarous in the extreme, and more after the manner of savages than Christians. We always thought that the beating of scholars—a practice once very common in schools—for such trifling offences as whispering and looking off the book, was a gross outrage, and the parent knowing and allowing it was in our opinion as guilty as the schoolmaster. Of course we will not deny that teachers did, then as now, have a great deal to put up with from saucy, "good-for-nothing" boys, ...
— The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments • Henry M. Brooks
... pillow. He supposed the two ministers asleep. Their opinion of him was the same. Finally Jake was astonished to see, in the glimmering light of the moon that stole through the cracks in the clapboard roof, the two preachers slip from their bed, and kneel on the floor. His ear caught their whispering prayers that were heard in heaven. As nearly as he could hear, the prayers ran something like this: "O Lord, thou didst have a purpose in sending us through these wooded hills. May we be instrumental in bringing light and salvation to this lonely ...
— The Deacon of Dobbinsville - A Story Based on Actual Happenings • John A. Morrison
... condition the neighbours looked slyly at each other; when her condition announced Vanna, they chattered; the gossip sank to whispering behind the hand as time went on, and ceased altogether when the baby was born. That was a signal for heads to shake. Some pitied the father, many defended the mother: it did not depend upon your sex; sides were taken freely and voices ...
— Little Novels of Italy • Maurice Henry Hewlett
... in astonishment, but he did not speak then, he only waited a few minutes, and then took Lawrence's arm, and sat whispering to him apart, telling him how Mrs Chumley had insisted upon coming to Turkey when he wanted to go to Paris, and nowhere else, and that he was the most miserable man in ...
— Yussuf the Guide - The Mountain Bandits; Strange Adventure in Asia Minor • George Manville Fenn
... is gone; if good, be glad thou hadst such a son. Or art thou sure he was good? It may be he was an hypocrite, as many are, and howsoever he spake thee fair, peradventure he prayed, amongst the rest that Icaro Menippus heard at Jupiter's whispering place in Lucian, for his father's death, because he now kept him short, he was to inherit much goods, and many fair manors after his decease. Or put case he was very good, suppose the best, may not thy dead son expostulate with thee, as he did in the same [3922]Lucian, ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... Save when in whispering tones they speak to each other Of the dear ones at home in the Northland far away, Each leaving with each a message for sister and mother, If he shall fall in the fight that ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No. V, May, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... one spoke. The guide crept on at a slow pace, his every movement copied by the remainder of the party, and on arriving at the rendezvous he motioned the others to lie down, whispering as ...
— The Search for the Silver City - A Tale of Adventure in Yucatan • James Otis
... "But news perhaps to you, but old news for all of that. Have you not heard? The philosophers of Greece were whispering it nigh two thousand years ago. It is because of that news that I put twenty fat farms on my back, live at Court, and am become a dandy. You see, Pons, the world is a most evil place, life is most sad, all men die, and, being dead . . . well, are dead. Wherefore, to escape the evil ...
— The Jacket (The Star-Rover) • Jack London
... vaulted roof, enriched with fretwork, and supported, on three sides, by pillars of marble; beyond these, long colonnades retired in gloomy grandeur, till their extent was lost in twilight. The lightest footsteps of the servants, as they advanced through these, were returned in whispering echoes, and their figures, seen at a distance imperfectly through the dusk, frequently awakened Emily's imagination. She looked alternately at Montoni, at his guests and on the surrounding scene; and then, remembering her dear ...
— The Mysteries of Udolpho • Ann Radcliffe
... whispering and cajoling about the King's conduct towards them, and I see are endeavouring to separate the Whigs from the Mountain; but they will be unable to do this while the Duke of Bedford, Lord Grey, Lord Lansdowne, &c. are ...
— Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) - From the Original Family Documents • Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
... at last some whispering between Miss Baker and her niece, in which Mr. M'Gabbery vainly attempted to join, and the matter ended in one of the grooms being sent into the town, laden with a bunch of keys and a written message for Miss Baker's servant. Before dinner-time, Miss Waddington had comfortably changed her stockings ...
— The Bertrams • Anthony Trollope
... his lip till blood came to keep himself from bursting into imprecations, followed the owner of the den, who, whispering "Come along, little father," led him into a tiny hole of a place behind the wooden counter, whence proceeded a sound of splashing. A wet and bedraggled creature, a sort of sexless and shivering scarecrow, washed glasses in there, bending over a wooden tub by ...
— Under Western Eyes • Joseph Conrad
... the forms, and creaking sounds were periodically heard; the whole indicating that the sitting posture had become uneasy, and that the paint, through warmth, had got tenacious. There was, however, neither talking nor whispering indulged in. The elderly Quakers, with their broad- brimmed, substantial hats, and white neckcloths, kept their eyes closed for a season, then opened them and looked ahead pensively, then shut ...
— Our Churches and Chapels • Atticus
... saw the neat and plausible spinster from whose cruel hands he had rescued a little dumb, wild-eyed child, reduced by ill-treatment to skin and bone—he saw her gloating over the anonymous letter, putting two and two maliciously together, whispering here, denouncing there. He seemed to be actually present in the most disreputable public-house of the village, a house he had all but succeeded in closing at the preceding licensing sessions. How natural, human, inevitable, would be the ...
— The Case of Richard Meynell • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... a land which my footsteps will visit no more. And a heart's requiescat I write on that grave. Hark! the sigh of the wind, and the sound of the wave, Seem like voices of spirits that whisper me home! I come, O you whispering voices, I come! My friend, ask me nothing. "Receive me alone As a Santon receives to his dwelling of stone In silence some pilgrim the midnight may bring: It may be an angel that, weary of wing, Hath paused in his flight from some city of ...
— Lucile • Owen Meredith
... the old game of talking around conversational corners, of whispering behind mental doors. It was insidious, dangerous, and tantalizing. It made between them a bond of lowered voices, of being on the edge of things. Their danger was as spurious as their passion, but Natalie, ...
— Dangerous Days • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... had not Count de Tendilla speedily resorted to measures of precaution to insure public tranquillity. Various bands of veteran soldiers patrolled the streets, where the confused murmur of discontent, or the whispering group of sedition, ...
— Gomez Arias - The Moors of the Alpujarras, A Spanish Historical Romance. • Joaquin Telesforo de Trueba y Cosio
... of the public agony, and dismissed the classes that he was too agitated to instruct. There were no games on the greensward, no swimming in the river, no excursion to the Malvern cherry groves. The streets were filled with blank faces and whispering crowds unable to endure the restraint of routine or the ordinary callings of life. Parties were obliterated, or rather from the flux of this white heat, came out in solidified unity that compact of parties which for four years breathed ...
— The Iron Game - A Tale of the War • Henry Francis Keenan
... hushed War's couchant tigers in their lair The tranquil time to one brings not repose— A voice was whispering to his soul—"Despair! The gods will give the triumph to thy foes." Can sleep, with leaden hand, our eyelids close When throng distempered fancies, and depart, And thought a shadow on the future throws? When shapes unearthly into being start, And, like a snake, ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 2 August 1848 • Various
... and I felt her moist, fiery lips pressed upon mine. Darkness came before my eyes, my head began to swim. I embraced her with the whole strength of youthful passion. But, like a snake, she glided from between my arms, whispering in my ear as she ...
— A Hero of Our Time • M. Y. Lermontov
... white, stood just outside, and he nearly knocked her over in his flight. He pulled her along with him, whispering in her ear excitedly: ...
— Exit Betty • Grace Livingston Hill
... astonished voices went whispering over the courtroom, from back to front, but the judge, ignoring the two revolvers which still lay on the table fifteen feet away, and the livid face of the man from whose pockets they had been drawn, ...
— The Roof Tree • Charles Neville Buck
... sunk to rest; The star o' gloaming gilds the west; The gentle moon comes smiling on, And her veil o'er the silent earth is thrown: Then come, sweet maid, oh, come wi' me! The whispering night-breeze calls on thee; Oh, come and roam o'er the lily lea, An hour i' the ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... was changing under the powerful influence of the newly awakened hope. She folded her hands peacefully, and closed her eyes, whispering: ...
— The Faith Doctor - A Story of New York • Edward Eggleston
... the foot of the throne, when James arose and descended eagerly two steps of the dais in order to greet the ambassador. He would have descended them all had not one of the counsellors plucked him by the sleeve, whispering that he had ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... they hurry to the palace—are received in portentous silence by the ushers and pages in attendance—are conducted to a saloon, where (as in every where else) the silence of night prevails, united with the silence of fear and whispering expectation. All are seated—all look at each other in ominous anxiety. Which is accuser? Which is the accused? On whom shall their suspicion settle—on whom their pity? All are silent—almost speechless— and even the current of their thoughts is frost-bound by fear. ...
— The Caesars • Thomas de Quincey |
