"Aback" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Tom, shaking me warmly by the hand, "we were all taken aback, old boat and all. What a shindy you have made, bowling us all down like ninepins! Well, my boy, I'm glad to see you, and notwithstanding your gear, you're ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat
... astonishment. Every one knew something of the story of Caspar's married life, and was taken aback by the appearance of his wife. But when Maurice Kenyon led the way by clapping his hands vigorously, someone took up the word, and cried, "Three cheers for Mrs. Brooke." And Lady Alice started at the new title, and thought that ...
— Brooke's Daughter - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... crest, Looking over the ultimate sea, In the gloom of the mountain a ship lies at rest, And one sails away from the lea: One spreads its white wings on a far-reaching track, With pennant and sheet flowing free; One hides in the shadow with sails laid aback,— The ship ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin
... aback.) Should you indeed. (A pause.) And so you're Cyrus, the little boy that kicked and tried to bite in that historic affray of thirty ...
— The Great Adventure • Arnold Bennett
... we lost the trade-wind, and were suddenly taken aback, with the wind from the N.N.W. At this time our latitude was 29 deg. 50', and our longitude 170 deg. l'. As the old running ropes were constantly breaking in the late gales, we reeved what new ones ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 • Robert Kerr
... was quite taken aback. They looked at each other with the slightly amused smile prevalent on such occasions, and Saleta ...
— The Grandee • Armando Palacio Valds
... think I did? I went straight up to her and looked her full in the face. But d'you think she moved a muscle? She simply looked at me as if she'd never set eyes on me before. Well, I was taken aback, I can tell you. I thought she'd faint. ...
— Orientations • William Somerset Maugham
... said I'd shot your cat. Now,' I says, straightenin' myself up and lookin' proud, 'I couldn't scarcely believe that, and you and me such good friends, so I've just come to ask you if you did say that. She was a bit took aback at this, so I asked 'er again. 'Well,' she says, 'I didn't exactly say that.' 'What did you say then?' I asked her. 'I told Mr. CHALMERS,' she says, 'that our old cat 'ad been shot what never did no 'arm, and I thought ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, January 28, 1893 • Various
... start of surprise. His face was as white as death when he opened it, and he had no sooner glanced at it than he gave a sort of stagger, and if it hadn't been for the verandah-rail I believe he'd have fallen. He was so taken aback that I thought he was going to faint. I was standing where you may be now, and I called out to him to know whether I could do anything for him. I liked the man, you see, and pitied him for his loneliness. What's more, he and my husband had always ...
— My Strangest Case • Guy Boothby
... him two sovereigns, and the runner could not have been more taken aback had the donor "landed him" on ...
— The Stowmarket Mystery - Or, A Legacy of Hate • Louis Tracy
... delighted with the generosity of the Major's good-humour. On the contrary, it quite took aback and disappointed poor Pen, whose nerves were strung up for a tragedy, and who felt that his grand entree was altogether baulked and ludicrous. He blushed and winced with mortified vanity and bewilderment. He felt immensely inclined to begin to cry—"I—I—I didn't know that you ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... made purchases worthy of my appearance and carriage, half an ox tail and some chitterlings. Then I proffered a handbill. The man in blue accepted it and, before I had opened my lips, returned it to me wrapped round the ox tail. I was too taken aback to explain. In fact, when he held out his hand, I mechanically gave him another bill for ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Feb. 5, 1919 • Various
... taken aback by Irene's self-assertion was Mrs. Haxton. A firm attitude on the girl's part came as an unpleasing novelty. An imperious light leaped to her eyes, but she checked the words which might have changed a trivial incident into a sharp ...
— The Wheel O' Fortune • Louis Tracy
... for you, Dick, and yet—she's fit to marry Lord Nelson! By the Flag of Old England, I can't look at her unmoved. ROSE. Sir, you are agitated— RICH. Aye, aye, my lass, well said! I am agitated, true enough!—took flat aback, my girl; but 'tis naught—'twill pass. (Aside.) This here heart of mine's a-dictatin' to me like anythink. Question is, Have I a right to disregard its promptings? ROSE. Can I do aught to relieve thine anguish, for it seemeth to me that thou art in sore trouble? ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
... taken aback and showed it. He recovered himself as quickly as possible, and realized that he had been living in a fool's paradise so far as the condition of his companion was concerned. He realized, also, that the first move in the ...
— The Illustrious Prince • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... with astonishment, and marched into the dining-room, which certainly looked a chaos—with dusty chairs, tables, half-emptied hampers, books, pictures, all jumbled up together with no sort of arrangement, just as the men had deposited them from the vans. Here, however, she paused, slightly taken aback by the sight of another dark head, which raised itself over the sofa-cushions, while another pair of brown eyes regarded her with ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... I feared above all things began, AUTOMATICALLY. We were suddenly flooded with light! Yes, on our side of the wall, everything seemed aglow. The Vicomte de Chagny was so much taken aback that he staggered. And the ...
— The Phantom of the Opera • Gaston Leroux
... after a hair's breadth of hesitation. He was so taken aback by Stanton's attitude that he feared the other man might be drawing him out in some ...
— A Soldier of the Legion • C. N. Williamson
... equally surprised, but for a different reason. It was not so much the enormity of Ruthven's proceedings that took him aback. He believed him, with that cheerful intolerance which a certain type of mind affects, capable of anything. What surprised him was the fact that Ruthven had had the ingenuity and even the daring to conduct a campaign ...
— The Gold Bat • P. G. Wodehouse
... made the raft on which they sent me down the river, sitting and playing cards with a number of South Carolinians! They were thunderstruck, and I have to confess that I was almost as much taken aback as they were. But I spoke to them and said, "Gentlemen, good evening." Then I explained, as well as I could, what had befallen me, and that I had come in for assistance. But they were dumb—they never spoke a word. I waited till my position became ...
— Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler • Pardee Butler
... the top-gallant-sails clewed up, neither of which we could do, as we had neither clue-garnets, bunt-lines, or leach-lines left. However, we got the top-gallant-sails down, with most of the stay-sails, and the mizen-topsail aback; but finding we still outsailed him, I had no other method left but that of sheering across his hawse, first on one bow, then on the other, raking him as we crossed, always having in view the retarding ...
— The Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth • Edward Osler
... Alice, taken aback by this apparent irrelevance. "My father disapproved of it. But I was there once. I saw the ...
— Cashel Byron's Profession • George Bernard Shaw
... perplexed. However, he put a good face on it, and when he was ready to go out he told his foot man to follow him. The footman, who had his instructions, replied that he had no time, and that he was busy carrying out my orders, and he must obey me first. For the moment the child was taken aback. How could he think they would really let him go out alone, him, who, in his own eyes, was the most important person in the world, who thought that everything in heaven and earth was wrapped up in his welfare? However, he was beginning to feel ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
... this—I suppose in a very excitable manner—my husband looked, as our young sailor-friend would phrase it, quite taken aback. "You were always quick at contriving, Leah," he said; "but how in the world came you ...
— After Dark • Wilkie Collins
... flushed crimson. Was she laughing at him? It looked like it. He was taken aback, discomfited. He did not know how to go on, but she gave him no chance, for she spoke herself, emphasizing her words by rapid gestures and much energetic waving of her ...
— A Bachelor's Dream • Mrs. Hungerford
... Taken aback by this, I was on the point of giving him a jolly good blowing up, but her ready acquiescence caused me to desist. Really, I began to wonder if he had her hypnotized; and, furious—indeed, quite a good deal hurt—by the cool way she obeyed him and began to ignore ...
— Wings of the Wind • Credo Harris
... and won't go out for her drive this afternoon, and I'm helping Jane get out all the old bits of furniture that used to belong in his room before ever he went abroad. 'Twas his only sending a telegram yesterday so sudden like, and no letter nor nothing to prepare us, that has taken us so aback. He's to have his old room, the one at end of the passage. It's going to rain, so you'd best stay in the nursery this afternoon, and I ...
— 'Me and Nobbles' • Amy Le Feuvre
... aback and pained by the wording of this speech. Her national susceptibilities were again wounded by the implication that a rare and beautiful woman—for so she termed Helen Buchanan—might be forced, not only to hope for marriage, but to seek it; the implication ...
— Franklin Kane • Anne Douglas Sedgwick
... Each man, taken aback, looked at his neighbor and then all at me, as I stepped forward. The captain regarded me ...
— The Ape, the Idiot & Other People • W. C. Morrow
... sickly—looking gentleman (probably a curate) came up, and sez he, "Have you got anything for Pitman?" or "Wili'm Bent Pitman," if I recollect right. "I don't exactly know," sez I, "but I rather fancy that there barrel bears that name." The little man went up to the barrel, and seemed regularly all took aback when he saw the address, and then he pitched into us for not having brought what he wanted. "I don't care a damn what you want," sez I to him, "but if you are Will'm Bent Pitman, there's ...
— The Wrong Box • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne
... were so taken aback at the horrid sounds that they ran scurrying right and left. In another minute the three were out of the castle and singing their way through the gloomy garden. Dorothy stuck to the Three Blind Mice. Sir Hokus sang verse after ...
— The Royal Book of Oz • L. Frank Baum
... had such a question asked me before, nor had I ever canvassed it. I was quite taken aback, and before I could find myself had sillily ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London
... adopt his noble neighbor as his master. He was told that he must provide himself with all the necessaries for such an important and lofty position; and he assured his master that he would bring along his very best donkey. The mention of this ignoble animal somewhat took the knight aback. He ransacked his memory for any instance in which any other mount than a horse had been used, but he could recall none. However, he could not very well have an attendant on foot, so he decided to take him ...
— The Story of Don Quixote • Arvid Paulson, Clayton Edwards, and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... chain-plates were broken, and we continued toiling in a confused hollow sea till midnight, when a light gale sprung up at N.W. which soon blew very hard; but at two in the morning, we were again taken right a-head by a sudden and violent squall at west, which at once threw all our sails aback, and before we could get the ship round, was very near carrying all by the board. With this gale we stood north, and in the forenoon the carpenters fixed new chain-plates to the main shrouds, and one to the fore shrouds, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr
... to a muffled murmur at the casements, and every other lodger was out, that Auld Jock slept soundly. He awoke late to find Bobby waiting patiently on the floor and the bare cell flooded with white glory. That could mean but one thing. He stumbled dizzily to his feet and threw a sash aback. Over the huddle of high housetops, the University towers and the scattered suburbs beyond, he looked away to the snow-clad slopes of the Pentlands, running up to heaven and shining ...
— Greyfriars Bobby • Eleanor Atkinson
... took Stormonth aback, for even he saw there was here a necessity as strong as his own; yet the power of invention went to ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XXIII. • Various
... suggested that a telegraph message should be immediately sent off to London. Mr Harding who had really been somewhat surprised to find Dr Grantly, as he thought, so much affected, was rather taken aback; but he made no objection. He knew that the archdeacon had some hope of succeeding to his father's place, though he by no means knew how highly raised that hope ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope
... idea. Do me a lot of good. I was feeling awfully down, Vivie, when you came. I wasn't altogether taken aback at your coming, dearie, 'cos Praddy had given me a kind of a hint you might turn up. But somehow, though everything goes well in business—we seldom had so busy a time as during this last Humanitarian Congress of the Powers—all the diplomats ...
— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston
... you look as though you'd been standing double watch for a week of Sundays! I never see the beat! Has that crazy gal coming here set ye all aback this way?" ...
— Sheila of Big Wreck Cove - A Story of Cape Cod • James A. Cooper
... already met the squire of Rushbrooke Grange or that she expected to meet him here to-night; so that, when presently a tall man of about thirty-five with brick-dust cheeks came into the close, he was not taken aback when Esther greeted him by name with the assurance of old friendship. Nor was he astonished that even in the wan light those brick-dust cheeks should deepen to terra-cotta, those hard blue eyes glitter with recognition, and the small ...
— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie
... them with terror. Some, indeed, overwhelmed with affright, cowered on the earth; a few of the outlying bands, who had wandered farthest, turned tail and fled over the ridges. But the majority, veterans in fight, though taken aback, and fully recognising the desperate circumstances under which they found themselves, hastened with all speed towards Tu Kiu, whose post was in a hedge, in which stood three low ash-trees by a barn. This was about the centre of the plain, and thither the squadrons and companies hurried, ...
— Wood Magic - A Fable • Richard Jefferies
... aback. Who was this taking upon himself to bless my little heart and prophesy that I should be proud? Then all of a sudden it occurred to me this remark may have been intended to refer not to me, but to the "little chap" the gentleman had just now spoken ...
— The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch • Talbot Baines Reed
... somewhat taken aback at the production of the plan. It was drawn in ink on a white sheet of paper of foolscap size, with a slightly bluish tint. The paper was by no means clean, for Birchill had carried it about in his pocket. The witness reluctantly admitted that the plan was the one he had given to ...
— The Hampstead Mystery • John R. Watson
... true, my dear. I was with Mrs Hearn just now, and she had it direct from Mrs Dale's own lips. Mrs Hearn said she'd never been taken so much aback in her whole life. There's been some quarrel, you may be ...
— The Small House at Allington • Anthony Trollope
... taken aback. In the case of the pig, for instance, whose last outcry had now passed into stillness, he had considered the chapter as finally closed. Whatever innocent mirth the holidays might hold in store for Edward, that particular pig, at least, would not be a contributor. ...
— Dream Days • Kenneth Grahame
... dressing-gown with a bed-candle to look for it—and about that dream of mine, did I tell you? I dreamt the comet came into our drawing-room, and the leg of a Chinese table turned into a snake and snorted at it, and the comet looked so taken aback that I woke myself with a shout of laughter. And then we talked of popular superstitions about comets, and dreams, and ghosts— particularly ghosts, and I told a number of creepy stories, and one old gentleman pretended he didn't believe in them, but he did, and so ...
— Ideala • Sarah Grand
... still, and ne'er takes wing, But with a silent charm compels the stern 30 And tort'ring Genius of the bitter spring, To shrink aback, and cower ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... in. He was very much surprised to see three strange lads drawn up in a row to receive him. And he was still more taken aback when he learned that they were his nephews, on their way home from Kansas. He had heard of his brother's going out to Kansas, and he had not approved of it at all. He was inclined to think that, on the whole, it would be better ...
— The Boy Settlers - A Story of Early Times in Kansas • Noah Brooks
... the office, Fru Falkenberg was there. I was taken aback at finding her there. I made a bow and stood over by ...
— Wanderers • Knut Hamsun
... had been entirely taken aback by fright, which turned into surprise, but they began to shout joyfully now, for the prospect of being invited to the castle was an event nobody could have predicted. For years they had only seen the mysterious shuttered doors ...
— Maezli - A Story of the Swiss Valleys • Johanna Spyri
... taken aback that he was almost speechless. In all his long acquaintance with Jed Winslow he had never seen him ...
— Shavings • Joseph C. Lincoln
... covered half the distance between the bend and the deserted house, and they could plainly see the man sitting alongside the chauffeur leaning forward, as though eagerly scrutinizing them. Rod imagined he was a little taken aback by their halting, and was ...
— The Big Five Motorcycle Boys on the Battle Line - Or, With the Allies in France • Ralph Marlow
... as much taken aback as yourself. For all he had to say about her gay clothing, I expected a different result. The girl on the highway was neither Mrs. Ransom nor her sister. We have made a confounded ...
— The Chief Legatee • Anna Katharine Green
... aback by this sudden appeal, and he moved uneasily in his chair; but after a little reflection, and a good long look at the ...
— Aunt Phillis's Cabin - Or, Southern Life As It Is • Mary H. Eastman
... Mrs. Welden was a little taken aback by an attitude which, satisfactory to her own prejudices though it might be, was, taken in connection with fixed customs, ...
— The Shuttle • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... was taken aback and his fluency deserted him. On the question being repeated, he began to say that he had many mercies to be thankful for. Then he higgled and hammered and fumbled for the said mercies, and tried to enumerate them, but in phrases ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade
... Critical situation of the ship near the Island of Falconera. Consultation and resolution of the officers. Speech and advice of Albert; his devout address to heaven. Order given to scud. The fore stay-sail hoisted and split. The head yards braced aback. The ...
— The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer - With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]
... rather taken aback by praises to which she had not been accustomed. She certainly placed little confidence in anything said by her visitor; yet flattery has some sweetness in it, even from the lips of Folly. Let no little girl who reads my story despise poor Nelly for smiling ...
— The Crown of Success • Charlotte Maria Tucker
... times, tides and ends, Nought's a trouble from duty that springs, For my heart is my Poll's, and my rhino my friend's, And as for my life it's the King's; Even when my time comes, ne'er believe me so soft As for grief to be taken aback, For the same little cherub that sits up aloft Will look out a good ...
— Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913 • Evelyn Baring
... so great that were the Devil himself against him he had slain him even as a man; might he die, he had there lost his life. Sir Gawain sat by the wayside in sorry plight, with his hands bound; but the good knight Morien so drave aback the folk who had brought him thither that they had little thought for him. He defended him so well with his mighty blows that none might come at him to harm him; he felled them by twos and by threes, some under their horses, some beside them. The space began to widen ...
— The Romance of Morien • Jessie L. Weston
... my mouth up, set me a-stare, all eyes, no tongue? People have urged "You visit a scare too hard on a lad so young! You were taken aback, poor boy," they urge, "no time to regain your wits: Besides it had maybe cost you life." Ay, there ...
— Browning's England - A Study in English Influences in Browning • Helen Archibald Clarke
... rather taken aback; and then she bursts out laughing. "Sarah, only I know you to be trustworthy, I should ...
— Molly Bawn • Margaret Wolfe Hamilton
... embarrassed by the brow-beating and examination of the counsel, and sometimes give such replies as turn the sting upon their examiners; having like the Irish a sort of tact for repartee, they are not often to be taken aback; the lower classes in Paris are naturally extremely shrewd and penetrating, they recognise a foreigner instantly, before he speaks, as a friend of mine found to his cost, who although an Englishman would anywhere in his own country be set down for a Frenchman from his ...
— How to Enjoy Paris in 1842 • F. Herve
... Completely taken aback, Mary Antony's ready tongue failed her. She stood stock still and stared at the Bishop. Her gums began to rattle and she clapped her knuckles against them, horror and ...
— The White Ladies of Worcester - A Romance of the Twelfth Century • Florence L. Barclay
... swift purposes; Some shame of grossness, that would cling upon The errand of their holy speed, and here Heapt up and strewn into the place wherein The mind and being of man wander darkly. Behold him coming here!—Against my sight, Warning aback the gleam of sacred heaven, Is vast forbiddance raised; creatures like hills, Or darkness surging at the coasts of light, Stand, a great barricade behind our lives, Rankt as Eternity had put on stature. The sharp sides of the peaks are finger'd white With flame, lit ...
— Emblems Of Love • Lascelles Abercrombie
... too. I'se warrant there waur plenty o' room 'twixt his carcase and the wa'. That I'd bin there i'stead! There shouldn't ha' bin room to cram a herrin' tail atween me an' the ghost's substance. I would ha' hedged him up thus, an' then master ghost, taken aback, says, 'Friend, by yere sweet leave I would pass;' but I make out elbows, and arms this'n, facing till him so. ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 (of 2) • John Roby
... aback by the Master's having discovered my last—yes, and bona-fide my last—translation in the volume I sent to your Library. I thought it would slip in unobserved, and I should have given all my little contributions to my ...
— Letters of Edward FitzGerald in Two Volumes - Vol. II • Edward FitzGerald
... stammered, wholly taken aback. "I don't believe you're anything but a play doctor, but, as things is, I reckon you'll ...
— A Spinner in the Sun • Myrtle Reed
... to decide whether it was more delightful to be taken aback in this way or to prepare for Jamie. Sudden excitement was bad for her according to Hendry, who got his medical knowledge second-hand from persons under treatment, but with Jamie's appearance on the threshold Jess's health began to improve. This time he kept ...
— A Window in Thrums • J. M. Barrie
... officers alighted, and invited his companions to follow him into the office of the Leverett Street Jail. They obeyed. The Professor asked what it all meant; he was informed that he must consider himself in custody, charged with the murder of Dr. George Parkman. Webster, somewhat taken aback, desired that word should be sent to his family, but was dissuaded from his purpose for the time being. He was searched, and among other articles taken from him was a key some four or five inches long; it was the missing lavatory key. Whilst one of the officers withdrew ...
— A Book of Remarkable Criminals • H. B. Irving
... the manhood within him and his days and their doings blight? So I thrust my pride away, and I did what I deemed was right, And left him down in our country. And well may you think indeed How my sad heart swelled at departing from the peace of river and mead, But I held all sternly aback and again to the town did I pass. And as alone I journeyed, this was ever in my heart: "They may die; they may live and be happy; but for me I know my part, In Paris to do my utmost, and there in Paris to die!" And I said, ...
— The Pilgrims of Hope • William Morris
... Deborah utters these words she and Franklin perceive each other. Deborah is utterly taken aback and quite speechless. ...
— Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People • Constance D'Arcy Mackay
... gone to the party, was amazed and greatly excited, that, "when our neighbors were dying around us," our child, knowing the fact, should be permitted to make one of a gay and thoughtless crowd! I was taken aback, for I had not realized the distressing condition of the wounded, and undertook to explain; but feeling condemned, mortified, and chagrined, I immediately proposed to send for her, which he promptly approved of, and, ...
— A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Character of Joseph Charless - In a Series of Letters to his Grandchildren • Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless
... head to the northward; and at four A.M. the pilot having expressed a wish to go about, the helm was accordingly put down, and on rising tacks and sheet, it was discovered that the ship was aground. As we had then a light breeze at west, the sails were all laid aback, the land being in sight from the starboard-beam, apparently at some distance, I immediately ordered the master to sound round the ship, and finding that the shoal lay on the starboard quarter and astern, ordered the ...
— Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 • William O. S. Gilly
... who carries a deceit, however innocent, with him through life is apt to be somewhat handicapped in that unfair competition. He is like a ship at sea with a "sprung" mainmast. A side breeze may arise at any moment which throws him all aback and upon his beam-ends. He runs illegitimate risks, which are things much given to dragging at a ...
— The Sowers • Henry Seton Merriman
... expression of contempt mixed with condescension came over their faces, as if each was thinking inwardly, "What a nuisance!" but neither moved nor uttered a single word. The newly arrived guest was not in the least taken aback by this reception, however; on the contrary ...
— Virgin Soil • Ivan S. Turgenev
... passed the noisy crowd, the merry songs ceased. The reservists, taken aback, stepped aside, and amid startled ...
— 'Jena' or 'Sedan'? • Franz Beyerlein
... didn't really matter. Generally it was a dead calm, or else faint airs so changing and fugitive that it really wasn't worth while to touch a brace for them. If the air steadied at all the seaman at the helm could be trusted for a warning shout: "Ship's all aback, sir!" which like a trumpet-call would make me spring a foot above the deck. Those were the words which it seemed to me would have made me spring up from eternal sleep. But this was not often. I have never met since such ...
— The Shadow-Line - A Confession • Joseph Conrad
... got?" asked an American Minister of the duke of the period, after meeting a fresh gardener, during a long afternoon stroll through the grounds, at each new turn of the path. "Oh, I don't know—I fancy about forty," replied the duke, somewhat taken aback by this demand for precise information concerning the facts of his own establishment, which, until that moment, he probably supposed had been attended to by Providence. And really, the machinery of life in such a place is so hidden, it is so nearly automatic, that one might easily believe it to ...
— Hawthorne and His Circle • Julian Hawthorne
... hatless, conversation-book in hand. He was rather taken aback—never having spoken to a person so well-dressed as this English girl, who nodded quickly ...
— Tomaso's Fortune and Other Stories • Henry Seton Merriman
... with chores ter do ter fly; But I paid no sorter attention ter all the talk ontell She come in her reg'lar boardin' raound ter visit with us a spell. My Jake an' her had been cronies ever since they could walk, An' it tuk me aback to hear her kerrectin' ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various
... leaving Trenby rather taken aback by her sudden submission. But it pleased him, nevertheless. He liked a woman to be malleable. It seemed, to him a truly womanly quality—certainly a wifely one! Moreover, almost any man experiences a pleasant ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler
... land on her lee; And the boatswain's shrill whistle resounding Came over and over the sea. The breezes blew fair and were guiding Her swiftly along on her track, And the billows successively passing, Were lost in the distance aback. The sailors seemed busy preparing For anchor to drop ere the night; The red rusted cables in fathoms Were haul'd from their prisons to light. Each rope and each brace was attended By stout-hearted ...
— The Poems of Henry Kendall • Henry Kendall
... father at home mind your having any friends?" Ch'in Chung was the first to ask. But this sentence was scarcely ended, when they heard a sound of coughing coming from behind. Both were taken much aback, and, speedily turning their heads round to see, they found that it was a fellow-scholar of theirs, called ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... little taken aback.] Ah! You know, she—she's in a very delicate position, living by herself in London. [LEVER looks at him ironically.] You [very nervously] see a good deal of her? If it had n't been for Joy growing so fast, we shouldn't have had the child down here. Her mother ought to have her with her. Eh! ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... not dead? And that was Hargus, that wretched, broken—whew! I don't want to think of it, Sam!" And Jadwin, taken all aback, sat for a ...
— The Pit • Frank Norris
... aback when, a quarter of an hour after the young lover's ecstatic return to his quarters, Gale knocked at his door, for the trader's visit, coupled with the late hour and his sombre countenance, ...
— The Barrier • Rex Beach
... stampeded by a surprise, and after having screwed up her spirit to the point of facing Fownes in his fortress, the stable, Miss Meredith's courage deserted her on almost stumbling over him a hundred yards nearer than she expected. So taken aback was she that all the glib explanation she had planned was forgotten, and she held out the miniature to him without a ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford
... specification of the repairs and additions required, and understand that anything you suggest shall be done. In the meantime pray order at once the water-engine and new pedal-board of which you speak, and inform me as to the cost.' He took me quite aback, and was gone before I had time to say anything. It puts me in a very equivocal position; I have such an antipathy to the man. I shall refuse his offer point-blank. I will not put myself under any obligation to such a man. You would ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner
... utterly taken aback. If the question had come from any one but Mabel, he would have quite failed to connect it with the letter. But there had distinctly been an "incident" over the letter, though so far closed, as he had imagined, that he was ...
— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson
... at me as if taken aback a little by my assurance and the seemingly transparent candour of my speech, and in his face I saw that he believed me. A moment he ...
— The Shame of Motley • Raphael Sabatini
... He took the chair one night at a sort of people's concert. I was singing there. As an amateur, you know: half a guinea for expenses and three songs with three encores. He was so pleased with my singing that he asked might he walk home with me. I never saw anyone so taken aback as he was when I took him home and introduced him to my father, his own manager. It was then that my father told me how nobly he had behaved. Of course it was considered a great chance for me, as he is so rich. And—and—we ...
— Heartbreak House • George Bernard Shaw
... which is this highly important document. The Director of the Police, who is a very shrewd man, seemed anxious to make your acquaintance before you began your investigation. He asked me if you would call upon him, but seemed taken aback when I told him you were my wife's friend and a guest at our house, so he suggested that you would in all probability wish first to see the scene of the explosion, and proposed that he should call here with his carriage and accompany you to the Treasury. He wished ...
— Jennie Baxter, Journalist • Robert Barr
... taken aback at first. It seemed that he was about to plunge into the midst of the whole Iroquois nation, and at a time, too, when something of extreme importance was going on, but a little reflection showed that he was fortunate. Amid so ...
— The Scouts of the Valley • Joseph A. Altsheler
... aback to see his poor haggard face, and the way in which he took the trouble, for it was plain enough to see how he was cut to the heart by Miss Ross's treatment of him. But for all that, he was the officer and the gentleman; he had his duty to do, and he was doing ...
— Begumbagh - A Tale of the Indian Mutiny • George Manville Fenn
... for the numerous progeny we left behind us. But let us revert to the merry meeting previously alluded to. It is half-past two in the afternoon, we are gaily going through the figures of a country-dance, 'Speed the plough' perhaps, when the music stops short, everyone is taken aback, and wonders at the cause of interruption. The arrival of two prelates, Bishop Plessis and Bishop Mountain, gave us the solution of the enigma; an aide-de-camp had motioned to the bandmaster to stop on noticing the entrance of the two high dignitaries of the respective churches. ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine
... There are no bicycles in all Eszek save ours - though Mr. Freund, who has lately returned from Paris, has ordered one, with which he expects to win the admiration of all his countrymen - and Igali and myself are lionized to our hearts' content; but this evening we are quite startled and taken aback by the reappearance of the assistant editor, excitedly announcing the arrival of a tricycle in town. Upon going down, in breathless anticipation of summarily losing the universal admiration of Eszek, we find an itinerant cobbler, who has constructed a machine that would ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens
... think of him? What did you make of him?' she panted. I was too taken aback for the moment to reply. Her voice broke as she stooped to the dog at her knees. 'O Harvey, Harvey! You utterly worthless old devil!' she cried, and the dog cringed and abased himself in servility that one could scarcely bear to look upon. ...
— A Diversity of Creatures • Rudyard Kipling
... been quite taken aback when the first of these invitations came, felt it her duty to warn Hester against a love of rank, reminding her that it was a very bad thing to get a name for running after ...
— Red Pottage • Mary Cholmondeley
... will not swear that black is white, But I suspect in fact that white is black, And the whole matter rests upon eye-sight:— Ask a blind man, the best judge. You'll attack Perhaps this new position—but I'm right; Or if I'm wrong, I'll not be ta'en aback:— He hath no morn nor night, but all is dark Within—and what seest thou? A ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron
... looked at it as if it were an apparition, with every demonstration of terror in his countenance; his eyes glared upon the animal with horror and astonishment, and he fell down in a swoon. The whole of the ship's company were taken aback—they looked at one another and shook their heads—one only remark was made by Jansen, who muttered, "De tog is no tog ...
— Snarleyyow • Captain Frederick Marryat
... bit taken aback at this rejoinder; then with a prodigiously sorrowful look he exclaimed in a hushed voice, ...
— Lige on the Line of March - An American Girl's Experiences When the Germans Came Through Belgium • Glenna Lindsley Bigelow
... said a long-legged Yankee, who, with his boots on the stove—-the day had got raw and cold—and his knees considerably higher than his head, was gazing intently at me, "'I guess I've fixed you." I was taken aback by the sudden identification of my business, when he continued, "Yes, I've just fixed you. You air a Kanady speculator, ain't ye?" Not deeming it altogether wise to deny the correct ness of his fixing, I replied I had lived in Kanady for some time, but that I was not going to begin speculation ...
— The Great Lone Land - A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America • W. F. Butler
... all the time he had been speaking—"don't mind him, he'll come to; 'twas only last night he was an-axing me, and an-axing me, and all the more because I said I could not think of it for years to come, and now he's only taken aback with the suddenness of the joy; but you know, Jem, you are just as full as me about wanting ...
— Cranford • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... middle of a bright tropical afternoon that we made good our escape from the bay. The vessel we sought lay with her main-topsail aback about a league from the land, and was the only object that broke the broad expanse of ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville
... opened his small eyes in amazement,—he was completely taken aback. He tried to grasp the bearings of this new aspect of the situation thus presented to him, but could not realise anything save what in his own mind was he pleased to call ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli
... day by day still bears The burden on my back, With weeping eyes and wat'ry tears, To hold my hope aback. ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan
... battle, bearing down upon an enemy in like order, did not steer in each other's wake, unless specially ordered; and there is something difficult to understand in the "Niagara" with her topsail sharp aback to keep from running on board the "Caledonia," although the fact is in evidence. The expression in Perry's report of the action, "at 10 A.M. ... formed the line and bore up," would by a person familiar with naval battles be understood to mean that the line was first formed ...
— Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 - Volume 2 • Alfred Thayer Mahan
... and hauling lines attached. If it is not troubling you too much, perhaps you will kindly hail them and explain my intentions, presently. I shall shave athwart her stern, as closely as I dare, with my main-topsail aback, so that you may have plenty of time to tell them what, our plans are, and what we want ...
— The Castaways • Harry Collingwood
... her hand impulsively to him, as though her gratitude carried her away. "How good you are to us—a real friend to two lone, lorn women!" and here something twinkled in Elizabeth's eyes; but perhaps she was a little taken aback when Malcolm very quietly and reverently raised the hand to his lips, as though he were vowing knightly service to ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... rather taken aback by this home-thrust, and in a very bad humor besides at the interruption, "almost; but address yourself in preference to the prior of the convent. Run to the chateau, ring at the convent-gate; ring loudly, and reserve me for a ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851 • Various
... herself on her cunning contrivance. Presently in walked the lady, who no sooner set eyes on her husband sitting by the old trot than she knew him and guessed how the case stood; nevertheless, she was not taken aback and without stay or delay bethought her of a device to hoodwink him. So she pulled off her outer boot and cried at her husband, "Is this how thou keepest the contract between us? How canst thou betray me and deal thus with me? Know ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton
... taken aback at the consequences of his own imprudence. He had never dreamed for a moment that any one would have suspected such a thing; and he had thrown out the suggestion to Sheila almost as a jest, believing, of course, that it compromised no one. And here, before he had ...
— Lippincott's Magazine. Vol. XII, No. 33. December, 1873. • Various
... bishop was taken aback. Realizing, however, that there was nothing else for him to do, he took off his hat and bestowed it with commendable cheerfulness upon ...
— The Drama of the Forests - Romance and Adventure • Arthur Heming
... of her," replied Ben, also getting up; "but Mistress Saunders seems taken all aback, anyhow. Jack, run and fetch a bucket ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat
... "I did not. I was so taken aback," he explained; "he was so ignorant, so cocksure, that he made me mad. And I just ordered him out, and I told him, told him for his own good, of course," the Consul added hastily, "that he ...
— The White Mice • Richard Harding Davis
... I was taken aback with the vision of the Wolf figure in the grimy passage, a fiend in the intoxication of opium, and stammered ...
— Blindfolded • Earle Ashley Walcott
... Cornwall which puzzled me. Suddenly she exclaimed: "Why, the atmosphere here is like Spain! Everything swims in a sea of coloured lights!" I thought she'd spent all her life at school in France, and I mentioned the impression, upon which she replied, with an air of being taken aback: "I mean, from what I have heard of Spain." Can she have had an escapade, I wonder? But that is Dick's business, ...
— Set in Silver • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson |
