"Diffidently" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... schoolmaster had come to Grande Pointe to stay than outwardly appeared the peaceful-minded villagers. Yet as the tidings floated among the people, touching and drifting on like thistle-down, they were stirred within, and came by ones, by twos, slow-stepping, diffidently smiling, to shake hands with the young great man. They wiped their own before offering them—the men on their strong thighs, the women on their aprons. Children came, whose courage would carry them no nearer than the galerie's end or front edge, where they lurked and hovered, ...
— Bonaventure - A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana • George Washington Cable
... he approached the part of the house that seemed a sort of kitchen. The huge bundle had disappeared. The elder sister showed herself. The two younger girls held back diffidently in the rear. All showed amusement, but the freshness of the bath had wrought a change in manner, and made them still more lovely than before. Said the elder—"Thanks are due for the kindness shown. Though ashamed, deign to accept this trifling acknowledgment as porter's wage." She held ...
— Bakemono Yashiki (The Haunted House) - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 2 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville
... up, a little diffidently.] — I've heard the priests a power of times making great talk and praises of the beauty of the saints. [Molly ...
— The Well of the Saints • J. M. Synge
... diffidently, with an unwonted blush and her pale blue eyes swimming: "I write English so badly. Won't you read the ...
— The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol • William J. Locke
... curiously child-like personality. Naively confiding, communicating to all comers all their joys and sorrows, they ask diffidently for confirmation of their statements, and they pass quickly from tears to laughter. About sexual matters they are extremely timid. A moral innocence pervades their speech and conduct. Usually they have no true conception of crimes of jealousy or passion. The occupations they go ...
— The Glands Regulating Personality • Louis Berman, M.D.
... always, as the violet yielded to the rose, I have known a fear that I had not sufficiently prized this boon of heaven whilst it was with me. Many hours I have spent shut up among my books, when I might have been in the meadows. Was the gain equivalent? Doubtfully, diffidently, I hearken ...
— The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft • George Gissing
... began Mr. Grainger, somewhat diffidently, "if you would care to accept a position in my office. To be sure the remuneration would be small at first and quite insignificant in comparison to the income you have been in the ...
— The Broad Highway • Jeffery Farnol
... him in the interior of the cart; the horse proceeded without guidance or encouragement; the carrier (or the carrier's man), rapt into a higher sphere than that of his daily occupations, his looks dwelling on the skies, devoted himself wholly to a brand-new D penny whistle, whence he diffidently endeavoured to elicit that pleasing melody "The Ploughboy." To any observant person who should have chanced to saunter in that lane, the hour would have been thrilling. "Here at last," he would have ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 7 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... shyly at first, as slender and as gracefully upright as a birch, and her dark hair caught the fire of the sinking sun with a bronze glow like that of the turkey's wing. Her eyes, over which heavy lashes drooped diffidently, were bafflingly deep, as with rich colour drowned ...
— The Roof Tree • Charles Neville Buck
... just called out that it was "ladies' choice," and Happy Jack, his eyes glued in rapturous apprehension upon the thin, expressionless face of Annie Pilgreen, backed diffidently into a corner. He hoped and he feared that she would discover him and lead him out to dance; she had done that once, at the Labor Day ball, and he had not slept soundly for ...
— The Lonesome Trail and Other Stories • B. M. Bower
... dropped the notion since other ideas had been inspired at Fotheringay, could not understand, and pouted the more; but Eleanor, who had been interested, and tried more in earnest, for Margaret's sake, answered diffidently and blushing deeply, 'Un ...
— Two Penniless Princesses • Charlotte M. Yonge
... my historic maiden speech. I am no orator, sir'; voice from Ladies' Gallery, 'Are you not, John? you'll soon let them see that'; cries of 'Silence, woman,' and general indignation. 'Mr. Speaker, sir, I stand here diffidently with my eyes on the Treasury Bench'; voice from the Ladies' Gallery, 'And you'll soon have your coat-tails on it, John'; loud cries of 'Remove that little old wifie,' in which she is forcibly ejected, and ...
— What Every Woman Knows • James M. Barrie
... spent violence, but from gray clouds that hung in trailing wisps along the upper slopes a steady rain sobbed down. After breakfast Bud Sellers who had after all not availed himself of Alexander's permission to spend the night on the raft, came aboard and diffidently approached the girl. ...
— A Pagan of the Hills • Charles Neville Buck
... Rather diffidently Lily put her hand on her mother's. She gave her rare caresses shyly, with averted eyes, and she was always more diffident with her mother than with her father. Such spontaneous bursts of affection as she sometimes showed had been lavished on Mademoiselle. It was Mademoiselle she had hugged rapturously ...
— A Poor Wise Man • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... all,' I said, diffidently producing my document: 'I am only the bearer of a letter ...
— George Silverman's Explanation • Charles Dickens
... unlovely sage and lava rock and sand for mile upon mile, to where the distant mountain ridges reached out and halted peremptorily the ugly sweep of it. The railroad gashed it boldly, after the manner of the iron trail of modern industry; but the trails of the desert dwellers wound through it diffidently, avoiding the rough crest of lava rock where they might, dodging the most aggressive sagebrush and dipping tentatively into hollows, seeking always the easiest way to reach ...
— Good Indian • B. M. Bower
... the dressing—that is to say I forgot—well, anyhow I haven't got it," I began, and we plunged into explanations once more. This station-master was even more unemotional than the last. He asked me if I knew anybody who could vouch for me—I mentioned Herbert diffidently. He had never even heard of Herbert. I showed him my gold watch, my silver cigarette case, and my emerald and diamond tie-pin—that was the sort ...
— The Holiday Round • A. A. Milne
... and stood by the side of it while he said, "I want to thank you for the Christmas remembrance, which pleased and touched me very deeply; and," he added diffidently, "I want to say how mortified I am—in fact, I want ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott
... character who had appeared at the door said diffidently that Professor Mantelish had wanted to be present while his lab equipment was stowed aboard. If the professor didn't mind, things were about that ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz
... suddenly forgetting about his headache in his anxiety to know the explanation of the five cylinders. It was a small suburban town in which they lived, and if something had gone wrong it was a matter of common interest. "Can you tell me about it?" he asked—a little diffidently, for none knew better than he that things could not always be told, and that no lips were locked tighter than Red Pepper's when the secret ...
— Red Pepper Burns • Grace S. Richmond
... of the book," explained Thomas diffidently. "I love the pompous gallantry of these fairy chaps. How politely they used to hack each other ...
— The Voice in the Fog • Harold MacGrath
... diffidently, "I had a natural taste for business. But," and he smiled at his son, "I shouldn't live on what you earn, if I were you. You needn't spend much, but have a good time out of hours. You'll find yourself working side by side with other sons of rich men. And ...
— The Spread Eagle and Other Stories • Gouverneur Morris
... walking home along the King's Road, Hilda suddenly stopped in front of a chemist's shop. "I've got something to buy here," she said diffidently, and then added: "I'll ...
— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett
... understand what's going on, but the man who comes to understand and persists in opposing it." He rose and looked down at me with the queer, disturbing smile I remembered. "I get off at this corner," he added, rather diffidently. "I hope you'll forgive me for being personal. I didn't mean to be, but you rather forced ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... woman in town—one who was always in black. To-day, however, Mrs. Benton wore a knot of pale blue at the throat, though there were tears in her eyes. She spoke of her grief and horror at the accident; then she asked diffidently ...
— Pollyanna • Eleanor H. Porter
... also a double supply of smoking tobacco and a box of gum. When his tongue smarted from too much smoking, he would chew gum for comfort And he read and read, until his eyes prickled and the print blurred. But the next week he diffidently asked Ross if he thought he could get him a book on astronomy, explaining rather shame-facedly that there was something he wanted to look up. On his third trip Hank carried several government pamphlets on forestry. ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower
... right," murmured Rosemary diffidently. "Wouldn't you like something to read? There's a most ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920 • Various
... time, come over to the dam; we can always use a man with a team." Johnson nodded. "After haying is done, maybe. And remember, I'm much obliged to you for looking after my little girl. I won't forget that, either." He reached up diffidently and shook hands with the engineer. Weir's grip ...
— In the Shadow of the Hills • George C. Shedd
... to see you, Teddy, on a very delikit business," said Mr. Kybird, taking a seat and gazing diffidently at his hat as he swung it between his hands; "though, as man to man, I'm on'y doing of my dooty. But if you don't want to 'ear wot I've got to say, say so, and Dan'l Kybird'll ...
— At Sunwich Port, Complete • W.W. Jacobs
... a question which we wanted to ask Father Peter, and finally we went there the second evening, a little diffidently, after drawing straws, and I asked it as casually as I could, though it did not sound as casual as I wanted, because ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... awed by the savants, but not quite to mutism: she conversed modestly, diffidently; not without effort, but with so true a sweetness, so fine and penetrating a sense, that her father more than once suspended his own discourse to listen, and fixed on her an eye of proud delight. It was a polite Frenchman, M. Z——, a very learned, but quite a courtly man, who had drawn her into ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte
... thing else, all the modern writers have merely followed James or Brenton, and I shall accordingly confine myself to examining their assertions. The former begins (vol. iv, p. 470) by diffidently stating that there is a "similarity" of language between the inhabitants of the two countries—an interesting philological discovery that but few will attempt to controvert. In vol. vi, p. 154, he mentions that a number of blanks occur in the American Navy List in the column "Where Born"; ...
— The Naval War of 1812 • Theodore Roosevelt
... that she had learned Arabic! She began to speak diffidently at first, stammering and halting a little, because, though she could read the language well after nine years of constant study, only once had she spoken with an Arab;—a man in New York from whom she had had a few lessons. Having learned what she could of the accent ...
— The Golden Silence • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... me new courage, but how can I let you sacrifice yourself for me?" "Believe me," she said diffidently, "there is no question of sacrifice. Have you never thought of what you might do, that would be even better than the ...
— Old Rose and Silver • Myrtle Reed
... guests, thinking of the past, approached her somewhat diffidently; but if Bela harboured any resentment, she hid it well. She was the same to all, a ...
— The Huntress • Hulbert Footner
... the car clicking slowly over the rail-joints toward the cut, Carson diffidently followed the negro attendant into a luxurious compartment, in which, seated in a big leather-covered chair, was Miss Benham. She motioned Carson to another chair, and in the conversation that followed Miss Benham received a comprehensive estimate of Trevison from Carson's viewpoint. It ...
— 'Firebrand' Trevison • Charles Alden Seltzer
... I don't think I know Mr. Siward well enough to do that," said Plank diffidently. He hesitated, colouring up. "He might misunderstand my going with you—as a liberty—which perhaps I might not have ventured on had he been ...
— The Fighting Chance • Robert W. Chambers
... diffidently, really anxious to detain her footsteps, although from her expression it did not rest assured that the incident was ...
— The Mirror of Kong Ho • Ernest Bramah
... listening to a real orchestra. The mere volume of sound startled them; the verve and decision of the players filled them with confidence; the bright grace of the well-known airs laid them under a spell. They looked diffidently at each other, as if to say: 'This is not so bad, you know.' And when the finale was reached, with its prodigious succession of crescendos, and its irresistible melody somehow swimming strongly through a wild sea of tone, the audience forgot its pose of critical aloofness ...
— Leonora • Arnold Bennett
... the circumstances of the meeting, Hogg has been at pains minutely to record. James Cunningham came forward and frankly addressed the Shepherd, asking if his name was Hogg, and at the same time supplying his own; he then introduced his brother Allan, who diffidently lagged behind, and proceeded to assure the Shepherd that he had brought to see him "the greatest admirer he had on earth, and himself a young aspiring poet of some promise." Hogg warmly saluted his brother bard, and, taking both the strangers to his booth on the hill-side, ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... weren't you?" he says, a little diffidently, but his voice is that of Rachel weeping ...
— Young People's Pride • Stephen Vincent Benet
... stand we found an Italian girl, whose soft lisping accent pronounced her a Genoese, and she, diffidently ...
— Bohemian San Francisco - Its restaurants and their most famous recipes—The elegant art of dining. • Clarence E. Edwords
... these proofs," he said diffidently, "exacts no great mental strain, but is sufficient to—distract my mind. Work, after all, is ...
— The Yellow Claw • Sax Rohmer
... sat before a magnificent fireplace of cut stone gazing into the fire of drift-wood that burned diffidently upon a hearth whose spaciousness would have been more fittingly adorned by Vergil's "no small part of a tree." Out-of-doors the snow was whirling down in small, frozen flakes that the northwest gale ground into powder ...
— The Doomsman • Van Tassel Sutphen
... packed the outfit, and stored the canvas in the protecting top of the box. Then, while Sally turned and strode down creek in search of Lescott's lost mount, the two men rode up stream in silence. Finally. Samson spoke slowly and diffidently. ...
— The Call of the Cumberlands • Charles Neville Buck
... the threshold, Anne peering over her shoulder. Laura Atkins had left the room, but Mildred Taylor, fully dressed, sat at the window looking listlessly out. If she heard Grace's light knock she paid no attention to it. It was not until Grace said rather diffidently, "We heard you were ill and thought we'd come in to see you," that the girl at the window turned toward Grace. Her piquant little face was drawn and pale, and her eyes looked suspiciously red. She eyed Grace ...
— Grace Harlowe's Second Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... Frank, shaking his hand, liking the hearty voice. "Lady Tyrrell, won't you give me your good wishes?" he asked, half diffidently. ...
— The Three Brides • Charlotte M. Yonge
... being used; and it's not a very stimulating one to think of their not being. In either case, it doesn't make one too pleased with one's vocation. And life seems a big enough thing," he added, a little diffidently, "to try pretty hard to get one's self right ...
— The Visioning • Susan Glaspell
... situation ever since you told us about the boss," he said diffidently, "an' if you're goin' to get that paper out, a little poem or two might help ...
— The Coming of the Law • Charles Alden Seltzer
... reminded of the fact. Then seeing she did not resume her seat on the steps, he ventured diffidently, "Will ...
— The Good Comrade • Una L. Silberrad
... any hesitating or diffident way (and you know, my friend, that whatever people may say of me, I often do speak diffidently; though, when I am diffident of things, I like to avoid speaking of them, if it may be; but here I say with no shadow of doubt)—your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy. Both your religion and policy must be based on it. Your honesty must be based, ...
— Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne - Twenty-five Letters to a Working Man of Sunderland on the Laws of Work • John Ruskin
... in Zschokke's Selbstschau thought his "hidden wisdom" a mystical wonder; while the enlightened and accomplished narrator of their united stories, stands alone, in striking advance ever of his own day, when he unassumingly and diffidently puts forward his seer-gift as a simple contribution to psychical knowledge. And thus, my proposed task accomplished, my dear Archy, finally ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 380, June, 1847 • Various
... door opened and, diffidently, but with a kind of professional dignity, the knight of several honourable orders ...
— The Indian Lily and Other Stories • Hermann Sudermann
... soon, if I may," he said diffidently, "unless seeing me reminds you of painful things." His voice ...
— Prisoners - Fast Bound In Misery And Iron • Mary Cholmondeley
... the attention of the public upon an important theme, he is not only authorized, but required, to show, that by industry and earnestness he has entitled himself to a hearing. The author too keenly feels that he has no further claims than these, and he therefore most diffidently asks for his work the ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... thinkin'," remarked the Chief diffidently—one hates to think before the Captain; that's always supposed to be ...
— Love Stories • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... sense of disappointment grew within her. Linda wanted to see him, hear him talk; at times a sharp hurt in the shoulder he had grasped brought him back vividly. The next day it was the same, and finally, diffidently, she approached the hotel desk. A clerk she knew, Mr. Fiske, was rapidly sorting mail, and she waited politely ...
— Linda Condon • Joseph Hergesheimer
... girls with Gladys between them sat in the wide porch swing and Sarah said diffidently, "Would you two young ladies mind keeping the baby for half an hour, while I run down the road a piece to see my ...
— Two Little Women • Carolyn Wells
... that so-and-so was "a very fine commander, sir." He was far too smart a man to have remained a private; in the nature of things, he must have won his stripes. And yet here he was without a pension. When I touched on this problem, he would content himself with diffidently offering me advice. "A man should be very careful when he is young, sir. If you'll excuse me saying so, a spirited young gentleman like yourself, sir, should be very careful. I was perhaps a trifle inclined to ...
— Across The Plains • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Eaton made this suggestion diffidently, for though he was a stockholder and official of the Mesa Ore-producing Company, he was not used to offering its head unasked advice. The latter, however, took it ...
— Ridgway of Montana - (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) • William MacLeod Raine
... Webb remarked, a little diffidently, "if you care to see the fun, you can get a good view from the window of your room. I'll load my gun in ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe
... appreciation, the old-world courtliness of his thanks. With loving hands she laid them down one by one, lingering over each, seeing them through a blur of tears. She was no longer conscious of Grange, as reverently, even diffidently, she opened last of all the little shabby prayer-book that her father had been wont to take with him on all his marches. She knew that he had cherished ...
— The Way of an Eagle • Ethel M. Dell
... beat. The Member for Australia (London address, St. George's, Hanover Square) with characteristic modesty diffidently approached it. Taking his seat last Wednesday, he to-day delivered his maiden speech. It was risky in face of the sound axiom, adapted from nursery discipline, that new Members should (for a reasonable period) be seen, not heard. As a breaker of unwritten ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, January 26, 1916 • Various
... the eve of his attempt, he rather diffidently acquainted her with his intention, was, "Do you really think you ought to?" This was not enthusiastic; but he went ahead with it and made a joke, which amused her, about how funny it would be if she had to start ...
— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson
... Rosalie is hostess in her own cottage this month and has asked him up. I heard him speaking rather diffidently to Dysart about it, and Dysart replied that he didn't 'give a damn who went to the ...
— The Danger Mark • Robert W. Chambers
... gentleman as the young man, wearing an anxious and somewhat surprised expression, entered hesitatingly and diffidently. "You need not look so troubled, I have not sent for you to find fault—quite the reverse. You have 'a friend at court,' as the saying goes. Not that you needed one particularly, for I have had my eye upon you myself, and for some days past have been inclined to ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe
... Stanton. "I don't need one! And frankly—I can't afford one." Shy as a girl, his eyes eluded the doctor's frank stare. "You see," he explained diffidently; "you see, I'm just engaged to be married—and though business is fairly good and all that—my being away from the office six or eight weeks is going to cut like the deuce into my commissions—and roses cost ...
— Molly Make-Believe • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
... Boy's stare—full. But she was embarrassed when she found herself looking away suddenly—blushing. Why couldn't she hold that gaze?—why must she blush? Had he noticed her lack of savoir-faire? More diffidently she peeped at him again to see whether he had. It seemed to her that his expression had altered. It was a subtle change; but, somehow, it made her blush again. And turn her eyes away again—more quickly ...
— Missy • Dana Gatlin
... her music lesson, ma'am,' faltered the girl who had ventured diffidently to impart this information ...
— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon
... mind," she said a little diffidently, turning to her guests after she had seated herself, "I should like to have the gas lowered a trifle. It may seem a little sentimental, but I do not like to be looked at too keenly ...
— The Pagans • Arlo Bates
... Madison diffidently, "this is Mrs. Thornton and her husband, and the little lad, with his parents, who owes so much to the Patriarch, and they have ...
— The Miracle Man • Frank L. Packard
... wanted to tell you, Mrs. Zapp—something that's happened to me. That's why I was out celebrating last evening and got in so late." Mr. Wrenn was diffidently sitting ...
— Our Mr. Wrenn - The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man • Sinclair Lewis
... to tell you some sad things," he said diffidently. "The only consolation is that it's all over now, and certain matters are, or can be, cleared and you'll have no more secrets. Nor shall I! I've had to keep this one jealously guarded for seventeen years! ...
— The Paradise Mystery • J. S. Fletcher
... letters—" he began diffidently. Where the deuce was his tongue? Was he to be tongue-tied all the evening before this Columbine, who, with the aid of her mask, was covertly laughing ...
— The Lure of the Mask • Harold MacGrath
... cadet attempted diffidently to pay the housekeeper for her services, and also for the supper, but she refused his money with a laugh, and said that everything was already settled; and the young soldier had reveled in this manner in boundless ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume IV (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant
... uproariously. Mat became more inflexibly grave than ever. Mr. Blyth felt that he was growing interested on the subject of the Squaw's Mixture. He stirred it diffidently with his spoon, and asked with great curiosity how his host first learnt to ...
— Hide and Seek • Wilkie Collins
... was to ask Mrs. Hastings to stay a few days at the Grange, and then he looked at the girl somewhat diffidently. ...
— Hawtrey's Deputy • Harold Bindloss
... so that there would be no chance of its being otherwise, he rushed in mad haste to get his horse. Joy was the wings which made his feet fly. He came back in quick time, a bit uncertain, riding forward slowly, diffidently, and stopped a little way from them, awaiting word. Then did Sir Launcelot ride to him and place kindly arm about the youth and bring ...
— In the Court of King Arthur • Samuel Lowe
... up the path together and parted diffidently, he watching her flit away with sorrowful eyes, a little disturbed and puzzled at the burden he had voluntarily assumed, but ...
— The Quest of the Silver Fleece - A Novel • W. E. B. Du Bois
... talk of going home—his home, that is—but rather diffidently and tentatively, as if not quite sure whether the proposal will meet with favor in my eyes. He need not be nervous on this point. I, too, am rather anxious and eager to see my house—my house, if you please!—I, who have never hitherto possessed ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton
... to follow the example of his pledge. "Your health," he said, and sipped diffidently at the wine, and then, finding it agreeable, ...
— The Duke's Motto - A Melodrama • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... suffused the cheek of the young girl, but the next moment she turned diffidently ...
— The Crusade of the Excelsior • Bret Harte
... diffidently at breakfast the next morning, expecting incredulous laughter; but Lisle, without making a ...
— The Long Portage • Harold Bindloss
... of cards. Throughout the evening Joe had exhibited an unwillingness to meet the third man's glances directly, but it was impossible for him to remain oblivious to the clicking of the chips. He balanced first on one foot and then on the other for a moment; then diffidently drew up a chair. ...
— Then I'll Come Back to You • Larry Evans
... in rather diffidently, wondering if some of the pretty girls lined up along the marble counter knew that he was ...
— Andy at Yale - The Great Quadrangle Mystery • Roy Eliot Stokes
... "I live," she replied diffidently, "with my two sisters in West Fifty-fourth Street. I am stenographer and typewriter in the offices ...
— Athalie • Robert W. Chambers
... hesitated, then added diffidently: "Don't you think, m'm, you'd better get to bed? You're looking ...
— The Mysterious Affair at Styles • Agatha Christie
... Anne diffidently, seeing that her cousin was in a graver mood this evening, 'do not you think that perhaps if you could be a little more companionable to Kate, and not say things so evidently for the sake of contradiction, you might gain a ...
— Abbeychurch - or, Self-Control and Self-Conceit • Charlotte M. Yonge
... offered Jason. "I'll swear most of the men are decent fellows, but there are always some exceptions. They knew pretty well that Varr was the man who was fighting them—in other words, locking them out. With him out of the way, they knew they could count on better terms from me." He added diffidently, "Mightn't one of them ...
— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston
... sought diffidently to penetrate the mystery surrounding Madame Gilbert, she overflowed with untruthful particulars. She resembles her master Dawson in this—it is unwise to believe one word which she wishes you to believe. Of her early life in Paris she spoke with emotion. She was the beloved only child ...
— The Lost Naval Papers • Bennet Copplestone
... He put all this diffidently before his partners on his return, and was a little startled at their adopting it with sanguine ferocity. They hoped that he would put an end to his thoughts of backing out of it. Such a course now would be dishonorable ...
— Openings in the Old Trail • Bret Harte
... bloods begin to arrive; they approach the counter diffidently and ask the proprietor in a whisper whether any of the private rooms upstairs are disengaged, and then there is a rustling of skirts in the hall and ...
— Married • August Strindberg
... could be a dream meeting. How can we tell?" He hesitated, almost diffidently, before he asked: "Have you met ...
— Storm Over Warlock • Andre Norton
... changed countenance a little at this embarrassingly direct question, and answered diffidently, "Well, sir, to be sure men is men and woming will ...
— The Lunatic at Large • J. Storer Clouston
... into the night blindly. He had to pass the theatre to get back to the main street. Mrs. Wyatt and Christine were just entering a taxi. Christine saw him. She touched his arm diffidently ...
— The Second Honeymoon • Ruby M. Ayres
... white eyebrows and eyelashes and broad cheekbones, in a torn sheepskin and big black felt overboots, waited till the Zemstvo doctor had finished seeing his patients and came out to go home from the hospital; then he went up to him, diffidently. ...
— The Horse-Stealers and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov
... itself rosily before Garth's mind's eye; but his instinct to take care of her made him oppose it. "There is me," he said diffidently; "travelling alone with me, I mean. Even in the North a girl is obliged to consider what people ...
— Two on the Trail - A Story of the Far Northwest • Hulbert Footner
... the moment the matter rested, but the next day Roger had asked her, rather diffidently, if she couldn't find something plainer to wear in ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler
... meal Seaton and Crane held a short consultation, and the former called to the girls, asking them to join in the "council of war." There was a moment's silence before Crane said diffidently: ...
— The Skylark of Space • Edward Elmer Smith and Lee Hawkins Garby
... here," he was saying, half diffidently, still searching deep in her eyes. "He's played hob. And he's likely ...
— The Man From Brodney's • George Barr McCutcheon
... favourite son. Such is the programme as it stood up to last evening."—New York Tribune (editorial), June 20, 1860. "There are plenty of rumours, but nothing has really form and body unless it be a plan to have Virginia bring forward Horatio Seymour, whom New York will then diffidently accept in place of ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander
... her hand and, when he, surprised, somewhat diffidently took it, "Be careful!" she whispered brokenly, her pale sweet face upturned to his. "Oh, do be careful! I ...
— The Lone Wolf - A Melodrama • Louis Joseph Vance
... rather diffidently, "I hope you won't be annoyed, but I have already asked my friend Ford to give notice to Pash ...
— The Opal Serpent • Fergus Hume
... rent it from shoulder to elbow. At the same time another, one of the old "bear-dog" breed, was coming as fast as the light block and chain he had to drag would allow him. Gregory neither spoke, nor moved to attack or retreat. At my outcry the dogs slunk away, and he asked me, diffidently, for a thing which was very ...
— Strong Hearts • George W. Cable
... diffidently interrupted. "I could ask you to take a look on my shoulder, if you please. If you are done setting bones in Mr Hunter. I have a great pain on my shoulder from carrying ...
— Sawtooth Ranch • B. M. Bower
... first notice we have yet met with of the long-famed Patagonians; but their enormous stature in the text is very diffidently asserted. We shall have future opportunities of becoming better acquainted with these South American giants. Perhaps the original may only have said they seemed ten or eleven spans high, and some careless editor chose ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. VIII. • Robert Kerr
... glancing diffidently down at the trail and then up at the neighboring line of disconsolate, low hills. "Ye-es, it is." His eyes came back and met Billy's deprecatingly, almost like those of a woman who feels that her youth and her charm have slipped behind her and ...
— The Long Shadow • B. M. Bower
... so?" said Psmith diffidently. "Well, well, perhaps you are right, perhaps you are right. Did you notice the hired ruffian in the flannel suit who just passed? He wore a baffled look, I fancy. And hark! Wasn't that a muttered ...
— Psmith, Journalist • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
... with the peddler! and how unlike to the diminutive, yelping curs of the settlement! Her bristling hairs smoothed themselves, the skin of her jaws relaxed and set itself about her teeth in a totally different expression; her growling ceased, and she gave an amicable whine. Diffidently the two approached each other, and in a few minutes ...
— The Watchers of the Trails - A Book of Animal Life • Charles G. D. Roberts
... in which the [74] humour we noted, on seeing those two old men diffidently set forth in chaplet and fawn- skin, deepens into a profound tragic irony. Pentheus is determined to go out in arms against the Bacchanals and put them to death, when a sudden desire seizes him to witness them in their encampment upon the mountains. Dionysus, whom he still supposes to be but ...
— Greek Studies: A Series of Essays • Walter Horatio Pater |
