"Lamely" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... boaster, he had no desire to impress Collinson with his penetration, nor the undaunted energy he had displayed in getting up his company and opening the mine, so that he was actually embarrassed by his own understatement; and under the grave, patient eyes of his companion, told his story at best lamely. Collinson's face betrayed neither profound interest nor the slightest resentment. When Key had ended his awkward recital, ...
— In a Hollow of the Hills • Bret Harte
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... brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. ...
— Short Stories of Various Types • Various
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... mean to give out any secrets—I don't remember doing it," Alton apologized, lamely. "You know I can't drink much. I don't remember a thing about it, honestly." Boyd regarded him coldly, but the young man's penitence seemed so genuine, he looked so weak, so pitifully incompetent, that the other lacked heart to chastise him. It requires resistance to develop heat, and against the ...
— The Silver Horde • Rex Beach
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... for was faces. They were what discoursed to you, told the veracious story of lives and emotions—not lamely, as words do, mingling the trivial with the significant, but altogether perfectly. It rested with you ...
— Aurora the Magnificent • Gertrude Hall
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... thoughtfully. He was not so old as Conrad, and quite aware he was not so clever, and he didn't know their game, so he strove as he could to hold the meaning of what he had heard, and ended rather lamely: "Well, too bad about Miguel, but if you, Tomas, are going instead, you had better get your war togs ready. We start tonight from the Junction, and have three ...
— The Treasure Trail - A Romance of the Land of Gold and Sunshine • Marah Ellis Ryan
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... He had forgotten for the moment that the suggestion to follow Percival had come from him. But after a moment's reflection he answered lamely: ...
— The Hero of Garside School • J. Harwood Panting
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... man Plank," he began, louder than he had intended through sheer self-mistrust; and his wife made a quick, disdainful sign of caution, which subdued his voice instantly. "Why can't we take him up—together, Leila?" he ended lamely, furious at his own uneasiness in a matter which might ...
— The Fighting Chance • Robert W. Chambers
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... she stammered some commonplace expression of pleasure, and he replied almost as lamely, then turned to the mother. "I hope you have forgiven me for my action of last night?" Then again to Viola. "I only intended to touch your arm. I trust you suffered ...
— The Tyranny of the Dark • Hamlin Garland
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... to Mr. Wilkins that it must be difficult to scold a Dester who looked like that and so exquisitely said nothing. Mrs. Fisher, he was glad to see, gradually found it difficult herself, for her severity slackened, and she ended by saying lamely, "You ought to have told me you were ...
— The Enchanted April • Elizabeth von Arnim
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... Amy paused, then went on rather awkwardly. "You see, Alice happened to be at the house when the boys came and—well—we brought her along," she finished, lamely. ...
— The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island - Or, A Cave and What It Contained • Laura Lee Hope
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... said May firmly. 'I shall never like it unless it is yours; it will always remind me of a horrid day,' ended up May, somewhat lamely, for she could not say how guilty she felt in ...
— Chatterbox, 1905. • Various
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... to see reason," Tony lamely persisted. "There's just one thing to do, and that is to scoot while there's a chance. If I were alone without the mater and Milly, I'd say let's hang on for a day or two longer and run the risk—though running it might make me overstay my leave. That would be nothing, though. I wouldn't ...
— Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy O'Malley • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
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... of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature, by dissembling Nature, Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time, Into the breathing world, scarce half made up; And that so lamely and unfashionably, That dogs bark at me, as I halt ...
— The Stranger in France • John Carr
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... opponent's throat, which he began to tear open with fingers and teeth. Wrenching himself free with a supreme effort the crocodile shot into the stream and disappeared with a sounding splash of its tail, while the mias waded lamely to the shore with an expression of sulky indignation on its ...
— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne
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... forgetting that he had never suggested buying a typewriter. "I didn't stop to think. I'm sorry," he concluded, lamely. ...
— At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern • Myrtle Reed
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... when they asked him, in horse parlance, with humor that broadened as they put off their reserve. On invitation to show its gait he mounted it, after explaining that it had stepped on a nail and traveled lamely. He circled the fire and came back to them, offering it to anybody who might want ...
— The Duke Of Chimney Butte • G. W. Ogden
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... Hitty, sharply, "I should think you'd—I should think you'd hear the water fallin' on the stove," she concluded, lamely. It was impossible to scold her as she would ...
— A Spinner in the Sun • Myrtle Reed
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... attraction like the call of fate and marched blindfold on her doom. But Archie, with his masculine sense of responsibility, must reason; he must dwell on some future good, when the present good was all in all to Kirstie; he must talk - and talk lamely, as necessity drove him - of what was to be. Again and again he had touched on marriage; again and again been driven back into indistinctness by a memory of Lord Hermiston. And Kirstie had been swift to understand and quick to choke down and smother the understanding; swift ...
— Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson
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... Ydo and Marcia," continued Bea, who was in a loquacious mood and ready to be lured on by Hayden's interest, "was one evening when I happened to see them dining together at the Gildersleeve. They were with Mr.——" Bea hesitated the twinkling of an eyelash, "an elderly man," she concluded rather lamely. ...
— The Silver Butterfly • Mrs. Wilson Woodrow
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... the way one must talk when great folks stand near to hear. The Governor was there!" he said, lamely. ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day
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... suddenly, averting his eyes like a child caught in a wrong act, "That talk we had was so queer—I mean it was as if—don't you know?—as if we were—well, sort of the same at heart. I mean, of course, if he hadn't been German. War is queer," he continued, lamely, raising his cropped head and looking off at the horizon. "Awfully queer," he murmured, watching a dark cloud steal across the water, tarnishing ...
— Four Days - The Story of a War Marriage • Hetty Hemenway
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... hurriedly, "there is no chance of such a thing happening—not the remotest. Black George's bark is a thousand times worse than his bite; this letter means nothing, and—er—nothing at all," I ended, somewhat lamely, for she had turned and was looking at me over ...
— The Broad Highway • Jeffery Farnol
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... a moment, sick with amazed disgust. I suddenly bethought me of old Stuart, out in the greenhouse, and turned and went downstairs. As I did so, I looked up to see Mrs. Stuart moving droopingly and lamely ...
— In the Days of the Comet • H. G. Wells
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... into a system which makes disease contagious instead of health, and asking one of the masters how he reconciled the death of a kid like that, whom everybody loved, with his conception of an all-wise and all-merciful God. He answered, it has always seemed to me very lamely, that if we didn't believe that all was for the best, in this best of all worlds, we ...
— We Three • Gouverneur Morris
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... saw instantly that her remark was an unfortunate one. "Well," she said rather lamely, "because my absence will relieve her of the responsibility of ...
— The House of Whispers • William Le Queux
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... caught himself on the verge of saying that he had tried Ed Brevoort's Luger once. He realized in a flash how close the sheriff had come to trapping him. "I never took to them automatics," he asserted lamely. ...
— The Ridin' Kid from Powder River • Henry Herbert Knibbs
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... clear enough," he replied lamely. He made a pretense of rereading the letter, but only detached phrases penetrated to his consciousness. His imagination was in rebellion against the curbing to which he strove to subject it. When he had borne his answer back to Fitch's office and been discharged with the generous payment ...
— A Hoosier Chronicle • Meredith Nicholson
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... whispered Stella lamely. She was so taken aback at the preposterous fact that a stranger should have addressed her at all, even in a manner of indifference and respect, that she knew not ...
— The Point of View • Elinor Glyn
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... word inventiveness for lack of a better name. It expresses but lamely the peculiar faculty that distinguishes Chekhov. Chekhov does not really invent. He reveals. He reveals things that no author before him has revealed. It is as though he possessed a special organ which enabled ...
— Best Russian Short Stories • Various
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... reached my own room, deeply musing on the state of' things, when a chaise stopped at the rails; and I saw Mr. Fairly and his son Charles alight, and enter the house. He walked lamely, and seemed not yet recovered from his late attack. Though most happy to see him at this alarming time, when I knew he could be most useful, as there is no one to whom the queen opens so confidentially ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay Volume 2 • Madame D'Arblay
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... obliged," she said, "if you would tell him that I wish to see him. I have a message for his sister," she concluded, a little lamely. ...
— A Lost Leader • E. Phillips Oppenheim
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... aunt lamely, "but I don't think they would have run quite so fast to her help if they had not ...
— Beasts and Super-Beasts • Saki
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... I shan't want you, Driver," he told his man awkwardly. "I'm only going for a day or two. I—er—I shan't want you," he said again lamely. ...
— The Phantom Lover • Ruby M. Ayres
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... bride—that was it, it was you goin' to kiss her, and she slap—no, by hokey, she didn't slap you, she just—or was it Rock, now?" Doubt filled his eyes distressfully. "Darn my everlastin' hide," he finished lamely, "there was some kissin' somew'ere in the deal, and I mind her cryin' afterwards, but whether it was about that, or—Say, Sandy, what was it Ford was lickin' the preacher for? Wasn't it for kissin' ...
— The Uphill Climb • B. M. Bower
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... you are quite different to—to what you are at others," stumbled Peggy lamely. It wasn't just what she wanted to say, but as she told herself it expressed ...
— The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings • Margaret Burnham
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... broke its neck before this ark of the covenant. Prelacy and prerogative have bowed down, and given up the ghost at its feet. What a reformation hath followed at the heels of this glorious ordinance! and truly, even among us, as poorly and lamely, and brokenly, as it hath been managed among us. I am confident, we had given up the ghost before this time, had it not been for this water of life. Oh! what glorious success might we expect, if we did make such ...
— The Covenants And The Covenanters - Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation • Various
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... scan your brother man, Still gentler sister woman; Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang, [trifle] To step aside is human. One point must still be greatly dark, The moving why they do it; And just as lamely can ye mark How far perhaps ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson
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... I mean," she went on lamely. "I suppose a gopher peering from its hole in the ground would ...
— The Return of Blue Pete • Luke Allan
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... might withdraw from the bargain. Thoroughly alarmed by that, Jefferson pressed the Senate for a ratification of the treaty. He still clung to his original idea that the Constitution did not warrant the purchase; but he lamely concluded: "If our friends shall think differently, I shall certainly acquiesce with satisfaction; confident that the good sense of our country will correct the evil of construction when it shall produce ill effects." Thus the stanch advocate of "strict interpretation" cut loose ...
— History of the United States • Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard
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... So lamely told I the tale, as I had heard my Aunt Elizabeth tell it, when she knew not I listened or understood. Alicia heard me through and said nothing, save that it was a tale worthy of the Montressors. Whereat I bridled, for I too was a ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1896 to 1901 • Lucy Maud Montgomery
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... Mrs. Morrison, opened her mouth to say something, shut it, opened it again, and remarked very lamely that the heart alone knows its ...
— The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight • Elizabeth von Arnim
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... But he did not follow on with the thought. There was no need of sowing suspicion when he wasn't really certain there were grounds for it. "Well, you never can tell," he continued, lamely. "These writer ...
— The Ragged Edge • Harold MacGrath
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... He broke off lamely. He was confused, painfully conscious of his inarticulateness. He had felt the bigness and glow of life in what he had read, but his speech was inadequate. He could not express what he felt, and to himself he likened himself to a sailor, in a strange ship, on a dark night, ...
— Martin Eden • Jack London
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... "This," I began lamely, "is a present from our housekeeper, Gloriana, to your granddaughter. She asked me to deliver it into ...
— Bunch Grass - A Chronicle of Life on a Cattle Ranch • Horace Annesley Vachell
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... it was a nice letter," said Betty. "Eleanor, why won't you give yourself a chance? Go and see Ethel this afternoon, and—and then set to work to show her what you said you would," she ended lamely. ...
— Betty Wales Freshman • Edith K. Dunton
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... she ... she thought you'd see it in the papers," said Barry rather lamely. "Although it was kept pretty quiet here there were paragraphs about it, of course, and she may have supposed you ...
— The Making of a Soul • Kathlyn Rhodes
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... recovered himself with a start. Evidently he had said more than he intended. It was some time before he answered the question and then he did so lamely. "Its theft by someone interested in its value as a curiosity would enable me to recover it most readily—by the payment, of course, of a ...
— The Ivory Snuff Box • Arnold Fredericks
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... first; more greasy plugs taken out and wiped, and a sharper exchange of compliments with the crowd; more grinding, until the chauffeur's face was steeped in perspiration, and more pistol shots. They were off again, but lamely, spurting a little at times, and again slowing down to the pace of an ox-cart. Their progress became a series of illustrations of the fable of the hare and the tortoise. They passed horses, and the horses shied into the ditch: then the same horses passed ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
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... was the answer—"that is, on the Sedgwick;" and the gentleman baited lamely and glanced furtively and appealingly at his wife. There was that embarrassing, interrogative silence that makes one feel the futility of concealment. It was Miss Lawrence who quickly came to his relief and dispelled the ...
— Found in the Philippines - The Story of a Woman's Letters • Charles King
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... on. I still hoped to pass the gates before they were closed, but the horse went lamely, and we were three miles away when I heard the city bells strike the hour. Still I hoped that they might open the gate for me when I gave my name, which is indifferently well known in the city, but the men at the gate were ignorant of it, and said that without ...
— A March on London • G. A. Henty
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... sighed Sir John, "it was a goodly rogue that writ it, though the verse runs but lamely! ...
— The Line of Love - Dizain des Mariages • James Branch Cabell
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... which will be explained to you by those in greater authority than myself, you are wanted at the house where—" I could not help stammering under the light of her melancholy eyes—"where I saw you once before," I lamely concluded. ...
— The Filigree Ball • Anna Katharine Green
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... ended with the leather but ten yards from the north goal, and a great murmuring sigh of relief went up from the seats and from along the side-lines when the whistle sounded. Then the Hillton players, pale, dirty, half defeated, trotted lamely off the field and around the corner of the stand to the little weather-beaten shed which served for dressing room. And the blue-clad team trotted joyfully down to their stage, and there, behind the canvas protections were rubbed down ...
— The Half-Back • Ralph Henry Barbour
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... know you were to come out this autumn," she protested lamely, not daring to look at Cleopatra, whose attitude she only too ...
— Too Old for Dolls - A Novel • Anthony Mario Ludovici
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... in a minute, if—" Susan stopped short. Her face had grown suddenly red. "That is, I—I think I'd rather take the poetry money, anyway," she finished lamely. ...
— Dawn • Eleanor H. Porter
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... felt warranted in taking an optimistic view of these vague words. "It's awfully good of you"—he began, lamely, and then paused. "I wonder,"—he took up a new thought with a more solicitous tone,—"I wonder if you would mind returning to me that ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic
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... chance than that foolish ant did. Now if I were big and strong, like Old Man Coyote, or had swift wings, like Skimmer the Swallow, or were so homely and ugly looking that no one wanted me, like—like—" Danny hesitated and then finished rather lamely, "like some folks I know, I ...
— The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse • Thornton W. Burgess
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... her to the test at last, but my eyes shrank from her face as I spoke. There was a dead silence, which I broke by adding lamely: "But no doubt Signor Briga ...
— The Descent of Man and Other Stories • Edith Wharton
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... time is the rate at which we live—the speed at which we successively pass through our existence from birth to death. It's very hard to put intelligibly, but I think I know what I mean," he finished somewhat lamely. ...
— The Girl in the Golden Atom • Raymond King Cummings
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... insisted. "I want something modern—English or American. I want to look something up," he lamely concluded. ...
— The Touchstone • Edith Wharton
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... of publishing side by side Imperial Edicts and Presidential Mandates—the first for Chinese eyes, the second for foreign consumption. Never before even in China had such a farce been seen. A rapid perusal of the Mandate of Cancellation will show how lamely and poorly ...
— The Fight For The Republic in China • Bertram Lenox Putnam Weale
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... customs and laws, Decline to your confounding contraries, And yet confusion live! Plagues incident to men, Your potent and infectious fevers heap On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold sciatica, Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt As lamely as their manners! lust and liberty Creep in the minds and marrows of your youth; That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, And drown themselves in riot! itches, blains, Sow all the Athenian blossoms; and their ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce
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... Douglas asked rather lamely, being at a loss for any adequate comment upon a tragedy which the child before him was too ...
— Polly of the Circus • Margaret Mayo
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... aglow with rapture. A quick catch of the breath, a sudden movement of the hand that lay upon her breast, and then she smiled,—a wavering, uncertain smile that went straight to his heart and shamed him for startling her. "I beg your pardon," he began lamely. "I—I startled you." ...
— The Prince of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon
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... hotly, and held his head lower to hide it. "To—to—the picture looks so funny this way," he said lamely, and then, to his great relief, the maid said dinner was ready, and he escaped any further embarrassment for the moment. But only ...
— Paul the Courageous • Mabel Quiller-Couch
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... for leading Japanese newspaper. We wish to know all thing about Chinese animal." Evidently the speech had been rehearsed, for with it their English ended abruptly, and the interview proceeded rather lamely, on my part, ...
— Camps and Trails in China - A Narrative of Exploration, Adventure, and Sport in Little-Known China • Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews
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... Church teachers, as prepared in our Normal Schools, correspond to but Dr. Cook's three items; nay, that instead of exceeding, they fall greatly short of these. The certificate of character which the young candidates bring to the institution answers but lamely to the item 'life;' the amount of secular instruction imparted to them within its walls answers but inadequately to the item 'literature;' while the modicum of theological training received, most certainly not equal to a four years' ...
— Leading Articles on Various Subjects • Hugh Miller
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... Phil," she said, "but I can't. Thanks just as much. I would spoil my lunch," she added, lamely, ...
— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield
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... wonderful Miss Adair. Gilfoyle laughed poorly at her quip. He was surprised to learn from her that Anita Adair was already a sensation among the film stars. He had not chanced to read the pages where her press-matter had celebrated her. He defended himself from the jealousy of Miss Clampett very lamely; for the luscious beauty of his Anita, her graphic art, and her sway over the audience rekindled his primal emotions to ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes
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... you to do," said Reardon. "Tell what you're telling me to a lawyer. And I'll—" he hesitated. He hardly knew how to put it so that her sense of fitness should not be offended. "I'll find the money," he ended lamely. ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown
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... was the unexpected sight of your special standing on the 'Y' that made the passenger engineer lose his head," he countered lamely, evidently striving to recover himself and ...
— The Taming of Red Butte Western • Francis Lynde
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... out with Henry that very night, and to leave Vico Averso at once. If he would not do so much for me, I knew that I might take the diligence back again the way I came, and report my failure. But, for all that, I did not mean thus lamely to fail or go home with my ...
— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett
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... help it," she added lamely; "don't worry about it, Irene," but that seemed only to make matters worse. Irene's face showed that, and her own heart ...
— Anxious Audrey • Mabel Quiller-Couch
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... moved, and debate lamely set on foot again. WALTER LONG, who has greatly helped BONAR LAW in his successful management of Bill, set good example by moving Third Reading without additional word of comment or argument. Example thrown away. More last words spoken under embarrassing accompaniment ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 150, February 2, 1916 • Various
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... to see if that 'Red Rover' had disappeared while we were away," answered the red-headed Larry. "You can't tell about that craft. It's just as likely not to be there as it is to be there," he added lamely, then flushed when his ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat • Janet Aldridge
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... manners, mysteries and trades, Degrees, observances, customs and laws, Decline to your confounding contraries; And let confusion live!—Plagues, incident to men, Your potent and infectious fevers heap On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica, Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt As lamely as their manners! Lust and liberty Creep in the minds and manners of our youth, That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains, Sow all th' Athenian bosoms; and their crop Be general leprosy: breath infect breath, That ...
— Characters of Shakespeare's Plays • William Hazlitt
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... wrong there," returned the lad eagerly. "I should be glad to have your opinion of"—he hesitated, and then finished lamely, "of the Jacobis, I mean. You are such a judge of character, and all that ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey
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... Evelyn was not very comfortable there," he replied. "She seemed out of harmony with her people—she didn't belong. The same thing," he went on lamely, "applies ...
— Vane of the Timberlands • Harold Bindloss
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... season. Then she continued slowly, as if remembering that she must guard her words, "Brother wrote me that they were expecting serious labor troubles, and with father as he is—" Her voice broke and she finished lamely, "Mother is so worried and unhappy. I—I felt that I really ought not to ...
— Helen of the Old House • Harold Bell Wright
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... evenings since to see Kenney's new piece, 'The Alcaid.' It went off lamely, and the Alcaid is rather a bore, and comes near to be generally thought so. Poor Kenney came to my room next evening, and I could not have believed that one night could have ruined a man so completely. I swear to you I ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 61, November, 1862 • Various
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... never shall. And yet if you could know—' He stopped short, and then added quietly, 'Well, will you accept all that as an apology? The very scrubbiest sackcloth made, and the grittiest ashes on the heap....I didn't mean to get worked up,' he ended lamely. ...
— Trent's Last Case - The Woman in Black • E.C. (Edmund Clerihew) Bentley
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... consecrated ground? or is it but a pious fiction, a generous oversight, in the survivors, which thus tricks out men's epitaphs when dead, who, in their lifetime, discharged the offices of life, perhaps, but lamely? Their failings, with their reproaches, now sleep with them in the grave. Man wars not with the dead. It is a trait of human nature, for ...
— The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 • Charles Lamb
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... continued to stare at Chatfield much as he might have, stared at the Sphinx if she had been present—and in the end he could only think of one word. "Well?" he asked lamely. "Well?" ...
— Scarhaven Keep • J. S. Fletcher
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... for his vulgar way of looking at things. "It's no fault of Morten's that his father's like that!" he retorted lamely. ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo
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... it was on business of Flynn's," he evaded at last. "He's a very good friend of mine. It wouldn't interest you in the least, you know," he finished lamely. ...
— Paradise Garden - The Satirical Narrative of a Great Experiment • George Gibbs
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... that perhaps her statement might not be accurate. No such thought had ever suggested itself to him before, and it now filled him with guilty confusion. He met the clear, honest gaze of her eyes for a moment, then he stammered lamely: ...
— In the Midst of Alarms • Robert Barr
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... her eyes brilliant with excitement. "Oh, tell me! I—" She faltered under his surprised stare, and went on rather lamely: "You see, I—we have been immensely interested in the Zariba Dam. The reports all describe it as an extraordinary work of engineering. And so we have been curious to learn something ...
— Out of the Depths - A Romance of Reclamation • Robert Ames Bennet
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... exclaimed, and checked himself. "No," he said, "I have come because—well, I've been only too glad to come, and—I suppose it has got to be a habit," he added, rather lamely. "You see, I've never known any people in the way I have known you. It has seemed to me more like home life than anything I've ever known. There has never been any one but my father and I, and you can have ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott
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... there, old man," I replied. "I've never worked harder or with a clearer head than since I learned that there are"—I hesitated, and ended lamely—"other things in life." ...
— The Deluge • David Graham Phillips
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... awakened once from a faint by a wheeze close in his ear. The wolf leaped lamely back, losing its footing and falling in its weakness. It was ludicrous, but he was not amused. Nor was he even afraid. He was too far gone for that. But his mind was for the moment clear, and he lay and considered. The ship was no more ...
— Love of Life - and Other Stories • Jack London
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... I may call myself your brother's friend," I began lamely. "All my sympathies are ...
— The Jervaise Comedy • J. D. Beresford
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... Histories of that Time for his Friendship to the unfortunate Earl of Essex. It was to that Noble Lord that he Dedicated his Venus and Adonis, the only Piece of his Poetry which he ever publish'd himself, tho' many of his Plays were surrepticiously and lamely Printed in his Lifetime. There is one Instance so singular in the Magnificence of this Patron of Shakespear's, that if I had not been assur'd that the Story was handed down by Sir William D'Avenant, ...
— Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespear (1709) • Nicholas Rowe
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... it ain't a grub-stake," Fred replied, with some sarcasm. "It's a iron stake, growin' right in a nice little clump of grass, and I run on to it and bust my cuttin'-bar all to—that is, all to pieces," he completed rather lamely, taking Zen into ...
— Dennison Grant - A Novel of To-day • Robert Stead
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... blended into some modern structure, and made to serve some modern purpose— a wall, a dwelling-place, a granary, a stable—some use for which it never was designed, and associated with which it cannot otherwise than lamely assort. It is stranger still, to see how many ruins of the old mythology: how many fragments of obsolete legend and observance: have been incorporated into the worship of Christian altars here; and how, in numberless respects, the false faith and the true are fused into ...
— Pictures from Italy • Charles Dickens
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... heartily He would pack them off, and send them anywhere on ass-back or cart (cart preferably), to rid our country of 'em. But now again to the point: for if we fall among the potsherds we shall hobble on but lamely. Since thou art raised unto a high command in the army, and hast a dragoon to hold thy solid and stately piece of horse-flesh, I cannot but take it into my fancy that thou hast some commission of array or disarray to ...
— Imaginary Conversations and Poems - A Selection • Walter Savage Landor
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... home to-morrow," he said. "It looks as if she'd gone for—for the present," he ended lamely, put down his hat and went into the east room and ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown
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... Here are the men who, both by their qualities and their defects, are to have for their span of life the leading—or the wrecking?—of this great fate-bearing force, this "weary Titan" we call our country. Here things are not only debated, but done—lamely or badly, perhaps, but still done—which will affect our children's children; which link us to the Past; which carry us on safely or dangerously to a Future only the gods know. And in this passage, this chequered, doubtful passage from thinking ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward
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... his shoulder, leaning on his staff, along by the folded sheep and the sleeping cattle. But when he got into the high road, Gatesboro' full before him, with all its roofs and spires, he turned his back on the town, and tramped once more along the desert thoroughfare,—more slowly and more, more lamely and more, till several milestones were passed; and then he crept through the gap of a hedgerow to the sheltering eaves of a haystack; and under that roof-tree he and Sir ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
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... sudden. There was his shyness again, so lamely come upon him that it colored his face. And the halting boyishness of the request had warmed Cecille's face too; warmed her through and through. She knew an impulse to hug his head to her breast, a very mature ...
— Winner Take All • Larry Evans
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... the inquiries I made I found that the lady in question was greatly attached to the dead man," replied Fetherston rather lamely. ...
— The Doctor of Pimlico - Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime • William Le Queux
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... Honor," Thompson said, visibly nervous, "I checked it for all kinds of radiation and magnetism. There isn't anything like that coming from it. But," he added lamely, "there wasn't much else to test. Not ...
— ...Or Your Money Back • Gordon Randall Garrett
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... under hands, to see the circling battle that dwindles in the zenith. Then, perhaps, a wild adventurous dropping of one close beneath the other, an attempt to stoop, the sudden splutter of guns, a tilting up or down, a disengagement. What will have happened? One combatant, perhaps, will heel lamely earthward, dropping, dropping, with half its bladders burst or shot away, the other circles down in pursuit.... "What are they doing?" Our marksmen will snatch at their field-glasses, tremulously anxious, "Is that a white flag or no?... If they ...
— Anticipations - Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon - Human life and Thought • Herbert George Wells
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... fifty miles or so," Valentine answered very lamely. It had been an easy thing to invent an ancient aunt Sarah for the mystification of the astute Horatio; but Valentine Hawkehurst could not bring himself to tell Charlotte Halliday a deliberate falsehood. The girl looked at him wonderingly, as he gave that hesitating answer to her ...
— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon
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... before Philura Rice. Then she drew her massive figure to its full height, and again bent the compelling light of her gold-rimmed glasses full upon the small person of her kinswoman. "What—er—I do not understand," she began lamely. "Where did you obtain the money for ...
— The Transfiguration of Miss Philura • Florence Morse Kingsley
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... added lamely "I thought you were—were—were some one else." She paused, then she went on with some slight return of her earlier sternness "Just the same, your ...
— Black Caesar's Clan • Albert Payson Terhune
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... were going to do this. If I had I'd have died before I'd have written that note," he added rather lamely. ...
— The Mucker • Edgar Rice Burroughs
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... two funerals that week, and like a jaded actor came lamely to his work. His prayer was not entirely satisfactory to the older people, they had expected a ...
— Other Main-Travelled Roads • Hamlin Garland
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... destroyed—the remainder of my team of oxen. This made me angry; and in my anger I flung myself upon her, snatched the ring from her thumb, and placed it upon my own finger. And—and—there it is, as you see," I finished lamely. ...
— Through Veld and Forest - An African Story • Harry Collingwood
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... git ye all ye need," protested Huldah with unexpected meekness, "but I'm jest obliged to go over to—" she had all but said Creed Bonbright's, but she caught herself in time and concluded lamely. "I jest have obliged to run down to Clianthy Lusk's and see can she let me have her crochet needle for to finish ...
— Judith of the Cumberlands • Alice MacGowan
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... remembering very long," he said lamely. She smiled and said the statement threw a different light on the question. Whereupon he did not know whether to laugh ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon
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... said Horace, lamely; "these particular things are—are lent by an eccentric Oriental gentleman, as ...
— The Brass Bottle • F. Anstey
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... and on; and he filled his belly with grass. Must he really starve in this interminable wood! He dreamt that night of luxurious city feasts, the turtle, turbot, venison, and champagne; and then how miserably weak he woke. But he must on wearily and lamely, for ever through this wood—objectless, except for life and liberty. Oh, that he could meet some savage, and do him battle for the food he carried; or that a dead bird, or beast, or snake lay upon his path; or that one of those ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper
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... there is absolutely nothing I can do to help you, Mr. Henderson," Saunders said, lamely. "Of course, I mean in regard to this particular matter. If you are in want, however, and any reasonable amount would be of service to you—why, on my own account I ...
— The Desired Woman • Will N. Harben
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... is to turn aside or shut the child up either by pulling rank or cuffing the young offender with an open hand. To have this upstart defend Mrs. Bagley, in whose presence he could hardly lash back, put Mr. Fisher in a very unhappy state of mind. He swallowed and then asked, lamely, "Why does he have to be ...
— The Fourth R • George Oliver Smith
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... write," he said, "or at least try to write. I think I can make a living at it. It's worth trying. There's nothing else, you see," he added, a little lamely. ...
— People of Position • Stanley Portal Hyatt
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... and saw that she was again the young and helpless girl whom I had not seen since that early morning before our first battle. I said, very lamely, "If you are happy, Marie Ivanovna, ...
— The Dark Forest • Hugh Walpole
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... spectacles in the literary world more lamentable than to view a successful author, in his second appearance before the public, limping lamely after himself, and treading tediously and awkwardly in the very same round, which, in his first effort, he had traced with vivacity and applause. We would not be harsh enough to say that the Author of ...
— Guy Mannering, or The Astrologer, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott
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... since to see Kenney's new piece, the Alcaid. It went off lamely, and the Alcaid is rather a bore, and comes near to be generally thought so. Poor Kenney came to my room next evening, and I could not believe that one night could have ruined a man so completely. I swear to you I thought at first it was a flimsy suit of clothes had left some bedside and walked into ...
— Washington Irving • Henry W. Boynton
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... crooked Phrygian river, Meander. He promenades if he walks in a public place, as for pleasure or display. He prowls if he moves about softly and stealthily, as in search of prey or booty. He hobbles if he jerks along unevenly, as from a stiff or crippled condition of body. He limps if he walks lamely. He perambulates when he walks through, perhaps for observation or inspection. (Perambulates is of ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor
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... Then he paused, recalling a certain celebrated wager which he had lost to Mr. Tutt upon the question of who cut Samson's hair. "I bet you don't know who said it!" he concluded lamely. ...
— By Advice of Counsel • Arthur Train
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... purposely to talk plainly to the woman whom she had lovingly dubbed "Aunt Margaret," but she found it very hard when it came to the point, She cast about in her mind for a beginning, then abandoned the quest and blurted out lamely the very thing ...
— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum
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... intention of asceticism and the uselessness of some of the particular acts of which it may be guilty, ought to rehabilitate it in our esteem. For in its spiritual meaning asceticism stands for nothing less than for the essence of the twice-born philosophy. It symbolizes, lamely enough no doubt, but sincerely, the belief that there is an element of real wrongness in this world, which is neither to be ignored nor evaded, but which must be squarely met and overcome by an appeal ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James
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... La Fleche," said I lamely. "I assure you it is utterly impossible for him to come. But believe me, I am wholly yours for whatever service you desired of him. You can see that I have come from him." I took from my pocket her note, and held it out. I ...
— The Bright Face of Danger • Robert Neilson Stephens
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... truth," I concluded lamely, "the place fascinates me and I am in two minds about ...
— The Empty House And Other Ghost Stories • Algernon Blackwood
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... and that he had a book he wanted to read. So he sent me after what he called my mare's nest. It isn't, you see—no, not quite, not quite," Mr. Woods murmured, with an odd smile, and then laughed and added, lamely: "I—I suppose I'm the only person who knew ...
— The Eagle's Shadow • James Branch Cabell
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... my sister found that friends of hers were passing through, so I came back earlier than I meant to do," he said a little lamely; and then, "Is anything ...
— The Chink in the Armour • Marie Belloc Lowndes
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... books, the pleasantest of companions, the easiest of billiard tables. Yet if our hostess were to see us marching out with an umbrella, how odd she would think us. "Where are you off to?" she would ask, and we could only answer lamely, "Er—I was just going to— er—walk about a bit." But now we tell her brightly, "I'm going to see the pond. It must be nearly full. Won't you come too?" And with any luck she comes. And you know, it even reconciles us a little to these streaming days ...
— Not that it Matters • A. A. Milne
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... and uncomfortable. Time drags along lamely; five minutes masquerade as half an hour, and only by repeated glances at the watch do I convince myself that we cannot yet have reached the next objective. I study the map for no particular reason ...
— Cavalry of the Clouds • Alan Bott
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... numbers; but it certainly had not been concerted: however, a majority, shrunk to thirteen, frightened them out of the small senses they possess. Heaven, Earth, and the Treasury, were moved to recover their ground to-day, when the question was renewed. For about two hours the debate hobbled on very lamely, when on a sudden your brother rose, and made such a speech[1]—but I wish anybody was to give you the account except me, whom you will think partial: but you will hear enough of it, to confirm anything I can say. ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume I • Horace Walpole
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... stared in bewilderment. Then he lamely apologized for the trouble he had caused, and tried to thank the women ...
— Heart of the Sunset • Rex Beach
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... and the rest would now retire, he thought impatiently, he might throw himself at the feet of his dear lord. As it was, he was forced to make his petition lamely, calmly, shorn of all that outward self-abasement which the case demanded. It was something, however, to be sure of privacy, to know himself alone with his Emir in knowledge of ...
— The Valley of the Kings • Marmaduke Pickthall
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... his talking shells on the neck of the Duck, and the singing shells in her beak, and though painfully and lamely, yet he followed the sound she made with the shells. From place to place with swift flight she sped, then awaiting him, ducking her head that the shells might call loudly. By and by they came to the country of thick ...
— Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest • Katharine Berry Judson
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... overflow of surprise and amusement was wholly into French, which she struck him as speaking with an unprecedented command of idiomatic turns, but in which she got, as he might have said, somewhat away from him, taking all at once little brilliant jumps that he could but lamely match. The question of his own French had never come up for them; it was the one thing she wouldn't have permitted—it belonged, for a person who had been through much, to mere boredom; but the present result was odd, fairly veiling her identity, ...
— The Ambassadors • Henry James
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... in one way, your decision does you credit, madam," answered the surgeon lamely. "You have done a great deal for the lad, and for that I must be as thankful as he is. When I have proved my claim I will pay you back all the money you have ...
— Young Captain Jack - The Son of a Soldier • Horatio Alger and Arthur M. Winfield
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... weaned and raised on bean soup—and liverwurst," interjected Adolph Kunkel in the lull which followed, and immediately squirmed under Mrs. Symes's blazing eyes. "Of course," he added lamely, "we et other ...
— The Lady Doc • Caroline Lockhart
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... Finance Committee be empowered to recommend the sale of any of our securities," said another well-intentioned director. "And that on their recommendation the securities be sold," he added somewhat lamely. ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble
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... aware of me and the innumerable lies to which I lamely submit. I am the public to him—one of a herd of identical faces drifting by. And this beggar has perfected a technique of attack. It is his duty to sit on the pavement and lay for me and hit me with a slapstick labeled platitude and soak me over the ...
— A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago • Ben Hecht
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... sarcasm. "I know, even though it is their own mother who says it, that my daughters all deserve the admiration which you so impartially bestow upon them. But the fact is, Mr. Grover—why should I not be perfectly frank and open with you?—the fact is—no man can marry three girls," she finished rather lamely. She evidently lacked courage to make the revelation which she ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 10 • Various
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... how difficult your position is," I said; "but don't feel that you are alone. There is—is one here who—who would do anything in the world for you," I ended lamely. She did not withdraw her hand, and she looked up into my face with tears on her cheeks and I read in her eyes the thanks her lips could not voice. Then she looked away across the weird moonlit landscape and sighed. ...
— The Land That Time Forgot • Edgar Rice Burroughs
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... is a matter of moonshine to me, gentlemen. Take it or want it, and fill your glasses"—I had the indescribable gratification to see Sharpe nudge Fowler warningly, and Fowler choke down the jovial acceptance that stood ready on his lips, and lamely substitute a "No—no more wine, please, Mr. Dodd!" Nor was this all: for when the affair was settled at thirty dollars a pound—a shrewd stroke of business for my creditors—and our friends had got on board their whaleboat and shoved off, it appeared they were imperfectly ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
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... really sufficient to make it safe for you to use these gas-kilns. You would be sure to have some serious accident, probably an explosion; and as it is absolutely necessary for you to have instruction, either from the maker or the experienced user of them, it is useless for me to tell lamely what they could show thoroughly. I shall therefore leave this essentially technical part of the subject, and, omitting these details, speak of the few principles which ...
— Stained Glass Work - A text-book for students and workers in glass • C. W. Whall
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... purpose of consulting him with regard to a matter she had decided upon; and it was, the sale of The Crossways. She said that it would have gone to her heart once; she supposed she had lost her affection for the place, or had got the better of her superstitions. She spoke lamely as well as bluntly. The place was hers, she said; her own property. Her husband could not interdict ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
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... uncle had not been present, she might have forgotten her woes, but whenever she glanced at either, the sorrowful face of the Mary girl rose before her. To make matters worse, Jerry proposed to her that they call upon Constance the next day, and Marjorie was obliged to refuse lamely without giving any apparent reason. It was in the nature of a relief to her when the party broke up. In spite of the gratifying knowledge that the girls had pronounced her new white silk frock the prettiest ...
— Marjorie Dean High School Freshman • Pauline Lester
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... Jack, who was present, put on a serious face, and assumed that air of determination which I was beginning to fear. Mrs Neverbend pursed up her lips, and said nothing; but I knew what was passing through her mind. I managed to turn the conversation, but I was aware that I did it very lamely. ...
— The Fixed Period • Anthony Trollope
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... some wonder. He hadn't know that Lounsbury was so well acquainted with the topography of the region. Stranger still, the man started at his glance, flushing nervously. "I heard some one say that Gray Lake was beyond Grizzly River," he explained lamely. "By all means make ...
— The Snowshoe Trail • Edison Marshall
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... part," she laughed. "I suppose I do, too. My hair is matted hopelessly; the curliness makes it worse. My face, too, is rapidly hardening under this sun. If only I had a few more clothes—" She stopped and looked at him. "I feel the need of them," she finished lamely. ...
— Claire - The Blind Love of a Blind Hero, By a Blind Author • Leslie Burton Blades
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... Woodville. Yes, I think he is clever. Quite an old friend, you know," Sylvia added rather lamely. ...
— The Twelfth Hour • Ada Leverson
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... instance.... I can understand that the minds of the dead can affect ours; but I don't see how they can affect matter—in table-rapping, for instance, and still more in appearing, and our being able to touch and see them.... I think that's my position," he ended rather lamely. ...
— The Necromancers • Robert Hugh Benson
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... abates, and the courses of the soul regain their proper motion, and apprehend the same and the other rightly, and become rational. The soul of him who has education is whole and perfect and escapes the worst disease, but, if a man's education be neglected, he walks lamely through life and returns good for nothing to the world below. This, however, is an after-stage—at present, we are only concerned with the creation of ...
— Timaeus • Plato
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... wrappings. He softly touched the keys and began to sing in an undertone. Old Irish love-songs, asleep in his heart since they were first dropped there by the merry mother lips, stirred and awoke. The accompaniment limped along lamely enough; but the singer, with hat over his eyes and lemon-juice on his nose, sang on as only a poet and lover can. His rich, full voice lingered on the soft Celtic syllables, dwelt tenderly on the diminutive endearments, while his heart, ...
— Sandy • Alice Hegan Rice
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... nonplussed and at a loss for words. "O well, it would be silly to pretend to be surprised, wouldn't it?" she said rather lamely, and crossed to the tea-table to pour out her own cup of tea. "And it is superfluous to hope you'll be happy and prosperous and all that; so I'll just say, my dear future-in-law, I think you're a devilish lucky man!..." And Diana snapped it out as if an unaccountable ...
— The Rhodesian • Gertrude Page
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... you do it?" she asked with sudden interest. "It seems, somehow, unnatural in a ... " she hesitated, then finished a little lamely, "a man ...
— Winding Paths • Gertrude Page
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... to be alone, you seemed so abstracted," she said, lamely; and then, as they came out into the sunlight in the circle, she began talking of the garden as she would to any visitor; of its beginnings, its growth, and its future, when her father's plans should ...
— Over the Pass • Frederick Palmer
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... pr'tendin' to be King Arthur when he found out Guinevere was in love with Launcelot," he rather lamely explained as he walked away to the window and stood staring out over the prairie. But for the life of me I can't understand what should have turned his thoughts into that particular channel of romance. Those are matters with ...
— The Prairie Child • Arthur Stringer
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... the interruption, confessed a little lamely: "No, I haven't. I haven't—as it turns out. But I might have—if it wasn't for—" He paused a moment; sadly said, "Anyway, just as I thought I'd got her, I've lost ...
— Once Aboard The Lugger • Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson
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... lonely, he was utterly puzzled to account for the interruption, until on a sudden a huge parrot, green, crimson, and yellow, plunged from among the boughs over his head to the ground, and partly flying, and partly hopping and tumbling along, got lamely, but swiftly, out of sight among the thick underwood; and he could neither start it nor hear it any more. The interruption reminded him of that which befel Robinson Crusoe. It was more singular, however; for he owned no such bird; and its strangeness ...
— J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3 • Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
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... and the parish half-crown, but there is neither room nor food for the father, and he must go to N-. If husband and wife went together, they would be separated at the workhouse door. The parting had to come; it came yesterday. I saw them stumbling lamely down the road on their last journey together, walking side by side without touch or speech, seeing and heeding nothing but a blank future. As they passed me the old man said gruffly, "'Tis far eno'; ...
— The Roadmender • Michael Fairless
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... asked Tom a question in Latin, and Tom answered him lamely in the same tongue. The lords and doctors manifested their gratification ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
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... lamely enough, but presently my remembrance of the young man who conquered all obstacles, who compelled all men he met to follow and obey him, carried me strongly into the narrative. I remembered him, quiet, self-contained, resourceful, a natural leader, at twenty-five a bulwark for the ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
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... Santiago. And for many moments Peters found no excuse to offer, no apology, nothing in extenuation. Lamely at last, weakly, knowing his argument to be of no avail, he muttered something to the intent that Mr. Santiago could have ...
— Tales of Three Hemispheres • Lord Dunsany
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... has not come, Aunt Pike," said Kitty lamely. She felt absolutely incapable at that moment of giving any reason why Betty had absented herself, ...
— Kitty Trenire • Mabel Quiller-Couch
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... "if I were you, I would go and read, or I would lie down if I felt tired; but I wouldn't do that." The patient considered a moment, and vacantly answered, "No, sir, I won't; I'll—I'll go and read," and so he lamely shuffled away into one of the little rooms. I turned my head before we had gone many paces. He had already come out again, and was again poring over the matting, and tracking out its fibres with his thumb and forefinger. I stopped to look at him, and it came into my mind, that probably the course ...
— The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices • Charles Dickens
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