"Absently" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... nothing, but absently doled out the last cabbage leaf to the rabbits in such small morsels, that they nibbled at his fingers as if they thought those part of the provender. Jessie was lost in a calculation of whether if Frances and she were ...
— Holiday Tales • Florence Wilford
... swallow, one among the last of the season, which had by chance found its way through an opening into the upper part of the tent, flew to and from quick curves above their heads, causing all eyes to follow it absently. In watching the bird till it made its escape the assembled company neglected to respond to the workman's ...
— The Mayor of Casterbridge • Thomas Hardy
... that she was," said Ismay, absently. "Does she eat anything but milk? Will it do ...
— Further Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... sat in the afternoon sunshine on the steps of his big colonial home looking absently out over the circular drive, and the quaint terraced garden, to the red-tiled roof of the garage beyond. But he was not thinking of the garage; he could not, in fact, even have told you the color of its vivid tiling. No! He had far more important ...
— The Story of Leather • Sara Ware Bassett
... forefinger upon the table. His eyes were wandering around the room absently. His face was ...
— The Betrayal • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... up, absently at first, as if neither seeing nor hearing him. Then intelligence came into ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson
... spread on either hand, and at last, just where the path dipped down to the water-side at Hernersfiord, the traveller stopped. For a while he remained there in the morning sunshine, watching the scene below, and now and then speaking out his thoughts absently in the rapt manner of ...
— Vandrad the Viking - The Feud and the Spell • J. Storer Clouston
... you saw her dancing?" said Pete eagerly. "Aw, yes, nice," he said warmly, "nice uncommon," he added absently, and then with a ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine
... The driver was sitting on his step with his open hand outstretched to hold a dozen bright washers which he was stirring with his forefinger. The hand with the washers sank gently to rest on his knee, and he sighed as he ceased stirring, and looked absently down the garage, his mystical cloak of bone and skin shrouding his thoughts. Idle men all down the garage hung about the cars, each holding within him some private affection, some close hope, something which sent a spurt ...
— The Happy Foreigner • Enid Bagnold
... Francis had made any concessions in her appearance in deference to the committee, for she looked as though she had come straight from her kitchen, a suspicion strengthened by the strand of grass she carried in her fingers and played with absently throughout. She appeared quite at home as she settled herself in the chair, scanning with the greatest interest the faces of the committeemen as if she were memorizing each feature ...
— Greener Than You Think • Ward Moore
... had been for Mary. After reading them, she had passed them to her mother, and sat playing with her tea-spoon absently, till with a sudden recollection she returned to her sewing, which she had kept on her lap ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot
... "Thanks," Plemponi said absently. "Always doing that. Confusing them...." He dropped the tray where it belonged, shoved his hands into the chef's cleaning recess and waved them around, then came back, still looking absent-minded, and stopped before Trigger's chair. He studied ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz
... had apparently caused much grief to Charley just previous to the entry of the choir, and he had absently taken down a small looking-glass, holding it before his face to learn how the human countenance appeared when engaged in crying, which survey led him to pause at the various points in each wail that were more than ordinarily striking, for a thorough ...
— Under the Greenwood Tree • Thomas Hardy
... she spoke, the young girl absently passed the coral necklace, we have spoken of, backward and ...
— The Last of the Foresters • John Esten Cooke
... Andrew absently. "One thing I would do if I had the power," he began again, "I would not take prisoners. Why take prisoners? It's chivalry! The French have destroyed my home and are on their way to destroy Moscow, they have outraged and are outraging me every moment. They are ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
... spoke several times to my principal, but I judge he was not aware of it, for he always referred to his note-book and muttered absently, "I die that ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... dear, no," muttered absently Mr. Vinck, with a vague gesture. The aspect of Willems as a wife-beater presented to him no interest. How women do misjudge! If Willems wanted to torture his wife he would have recourse to less primitive ...
— An Outcast of the Islands • Joseph Conrad
... an uncle from out of town; and George negligently gave the parents the same assurance he had given the daughters, but murmured another form of greeting to the out-of-town uncle, whom he had never seen before. This person George absently took note of as a "queer-looking duck." Undergraduates had not yet adopted "bird." It was a period previous to that in which a sophomore would have thought of the Sharon girls' uncle as a "queer-looking bird," or, ...
— The Magnificent Ambersons • Booth Tarkington
... absently, staring into the distance. "But I can just see it all. Fancy living there, and going out before breakfast ...
— Jonah and Co. • Dornford Yates
... Millar nodded absently and barely replied to Herman's cordial greeting. He was still enraged at the interruption which had prevented the success of his infamous plan. Herman turned quickly to Karl ...
— The Devil - A Tragedy of the Heart and Conscience • Joseph O'Brien
... Soleil nodded, absently, looking at Charley. The moondog gave a strange, electronic whimper. There was an odd expression on the girl's face. A flash of inspiration ...
— Master of the Moondog • Stanley Mullen
... Cloud! the Song of the Acorn!" Dick glanced half absently to her from the pamphlet folded on his finger, and then, with equal pitch ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London
... not hear. She had thrown back her head and was gazing absently above. "Oh, yes, I am mindful of my duty," murmured she. "I have not forgotten the vow I made to my mother and sealed upon her dying lips with my last kiss! I have been a faithful daughter of my fatherland. I have given every thing—there remains ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... sat silent in her place, puzzled, wistful, wounded, her idle hands folded, looking at him for a while, then absently before her, and he knew that her mind was busy again with the preacher feller's books. If he had known better how to explain his heart, if she had known how to show him the impersonal eagerness of her awakening mind—! But, savage and silent, they sat there, ...
— The Branding Iron • Katharine Newlin Burt
... "Can he possibly have spoken to papa first?" thought she. "It is just the sort of matter-of-fact thing he would do." Revolving it over, she walked slowly towards her step-mother, who was revelling in a packet of English letters just received, and began reading out portions to Cecil, who listened absently at first, till a passage in one of them, from ...
— Bluebell - A Novel • Mrs. George Croft Huddleston
... up-stairs slowly. She stood in her dressing-room absently before the mirror. She touched the hard, unyielding stone of the ring under the thin bodice of her gown. She recalled the morning when she had gone to get it, before anything had happened and the lure of life had ...
— The Coast of Chance • Esther Chamberlain
... Waver. I mean—er—(absently takes from his pocket a kodak made like a large turnip watch, and fumbling nervously with it) I mean I've been ...
— Oh! Susannah! - A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts • Mark Ambient
... thoughts new through his mind, James had been absently watching while the cook turned his treasures out upon his bunk, and pawed them over with trembling hands. There were innumerable little things, besides a stiff white shirt, a cheap shiny Bible, a stuffed parrot and several wads of clothes. And among the mess Jim ...
— The Stolen Singer • Martha Idell Fletcher Bellinger
... He heard absently indistinct voices at the open hall window above the porch, where Aunt Isabel was talking to Kathleen Bell. Presently Aunt Isabel moved nearer to the window, and her words came down to Robert ...
— Further Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... remarked. He laid down his fork, he rested his elbow on the table, his forehead upon his hand. Then absently he began to hum over to himself a tune. The rhythm of it was somehow familiar to the Surgeon's ears. Where had he heard it before? Then with a start he remembered. It was this very rhythm, that very tune, which Scrope's fingers had beaten out on the table when he first saw Knightley. ...
— Ensign Knightley and Other Stories • A. E. W. Mason
... a warning that he'll have to respect, cad or no cad," said Bazelhurst, absently spreading butter upon his ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds
... The old man nodded absently, still dazed by the sudden turn of events. Tom hurried past him and met Roger coming down from the radar bridge. "I'm going too!" the blond-haired ...
— Sabotage in Space • Carey Rockwell
... with his own feelings, Grant had been unaware of his companion's. Her face had paled, and she stirred her drink absently. The reflections in her eyes ...
— A Fine Fix • R. C. Noll
... garden gate. He seemed no longer clearly aware of his actions. "I don't drink," he said slowly, coming up the garden path, and after a moment's interval repeated absently, "No—I don't drink. It goes round. ...
— When the Sleeper Wakes • Herbert George Wells
... As I looked absently down the track, I reviewed the past winter months, the long days and evenings spent at my desk in the stuffy little lodgings to which I was limited by my narrow income, interrupted frequently by invasions on various pretexts of the ill-fed chambermaid, who ...
— A Village Ophelia and Other Stories • Anne Reeve Aldrich
... him, one that was not within his horizon at present. He seemed to be looking out into a garden as he had been that morning when, with his mother, Sir Temple and Lady Dacre, he had paid a visit to Madam Pepperell. Looking into this garden absently he had seen Elizabeth. Unaware of visitors in the house, she was going on with her occupation of gathering roses. Archdale the day before, wondering about her complicity with Edmonson's scheme had had this vision of her come between him and any belief in this. It came again that next morning ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2 • Various
... long she did not know—waited, staring down the dreary hall and at the faded carpet and at herself, faded to suit the surroundings. At length she knocked, and Clayton came, only to take her lunch and say absently that he was much absorbed by a new picture and should not be disturbed. Would she bring his meals? He seemed to refuse tacitly an entrance to the studio. So a week passed, and then one day Clayton disappeared again, saying that he was going into the ...
— Literary Love-Letters and Other Stories • Robert Herrick
... pour out the tea. She poured some out now, very unwillingly, for Kathleen, who drew the cup towards her, stirred it absently, and began to read her letters. Presently she uttered ...
— The Rebel of the School • Mrs. L. T. Meade
... long mornings or afternoons, taking trunks out or putting them in. With the trunks set into the corridors and opened for them, they would spend the hours looking the contents over, talking to their neighbors, or rapt in long silences when they hesitated with things held off or up, and, after gazing absently at them, putting them back again. Sometimes they varied the process by laying things aside for sending home, and receipting for them at the office ...
— The Daughter of the Storage - And Other Things in Prose and Verse • William Dean Howells
... own fingers got busy with buttons, zippers, hooks and the other temporary fastenings with which female clothing is encumbered. He was swimming in a red sea of passion and the Egyptians were nowhere in sight. Absently, he got an arm out of his shirt, and at the same time somehow managed to undo the final button of a series. ...
— Pagan Passions • Gordon Randall Garrett
... mused upon this Ma Pettengill sorted the evening mail and to Lew Wee she now took his San Francisco newspaper, Young China, and a letter. Half an hour later Lew Wee brought wood to replenish the fire. He disposed of this and absently brushed the hearth with a turkey wing. Then he straightened the rug, crossed the room, and straightened on the farther wall a framed portrait in colour of Majestic Folly, a prize bull of the Hereford strain. Then he drew a curtain, flicked dust from a corner of the table, and made a slow way ...
— Ma Pettengill • Harry Leon Wilson
... this information, though for the life of her she could not see how it could interest him. At last, eyeing her trunk absently and tapping his chin as if in thought, ...
— Juggernaut • Alice Campbell
... mysterious disgrace, which she felt was always weighing upon her, the other girls, who were not nearly so innocent as people thought, whispered and giggled as they looked at her knowingly, and immediately turned their heads absently, if she happened to look at them. People scarcely greeted her; only a few men bowed to her, and the mothers pretended not to see her, whilst some young blackguards called her Madame Baptiste, after the name of the footman who had outraged ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume III (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant
... millions," him to whom the Board of Trade bowed humbly at home. A great war secretary, whom they had recently dined at the Grand Pacific and whose dictum as to the purchase of supplies meant much to Chicago, but vaguely remembered and absently greeted the man of wealth, yet beamed with pleasure at sight of his small-salaried soldier companion. The secretary drew Hazzard off to one side, in fact, and left the man of ...
— To The Front - A Sequel to Cadet Days • Charles King
... Mirabel answered absently—with his eyes on Francine. He gave her one of those significant looks, which says to a third person, "Why are you here?" Francine's jealousy declined to understand him. He tried a ...
— I Say No • Wilkie Collins
... see the sort of man a cook of London may be, and the sort of woman a Wife of Bath is. How many wretches perish in Froissart! What blood; what hecatombs; and how few tears! Scarcely here and there, and far apart, words absently spoken about so much suffering: "And died the common people of hunger, which was great pity."[530] Why lament long, or marvel at it? It is the business and proper function of the common people to be cut to pieces; they are the raw material ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand
... both are happy and well," she replied absently; "but we can talk of them on some other occasion. I want us to speak of something ...
— Roger Trewinion • Joseph Hocking
... to bed early, saying "good-night everybody" rather absently. She climbed up the stairs wearily. When her mother slipped away from the others, having started the victrola and urged them to dancing, she found Gloria ready for bed but standing before her window, looking out at the first stars. Mrs. Gaynor discovered ...
— The Everlasting Whisper • Jackson Gregory
... She nodded absently. She had sunk into a momentary reverie, from which he did not arouse her until she suddenly looked at her watch. "Why, it's after twelve!" she exclaimed, with more animation than she had yet shown. "We'll go to Delmonico's ...
— Many Kingdoms • Elizabeth Jordan
... of her mind drove her at last almost insensibly towards the low, wide wall facing the unquiet sea. Here she sat down, still absorbed in her thoughts, her gaze resting absently on the incoming tide below. She was conscious of a strange feeling of communion ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler
... deeply absorbed in some scientific subject when the nurse announced the arrival of a boy. "What—who?" stammered the professor absently. "Why interrupt me—isn't my wife ...
— Jokes For All Occasions - Selected and Edited by One of America's Foremost Public Speakers • Anonymous
... letter again and glanced at it absently. When he saw the name he dropped it as if ...
— For Gold or Soul? - The Story of a Great Department Store • Lurana W. Sheldon
... There was Christmas in the very air and Christmas in the storekeeper's till. It had been a very busy day. He thought of it with a satisfied nod as he stood a moment breathing the brisk air of the winter day, absently fingering the coupon the girl had paid for the shawl. A thin voice at his elbow said: "Merry Christmas, ...
— Children of the Tenements • Jacob A. Riis
... me to wear clean lab coats. Be satisfied with a limited victory," Kramer said absently, his eyes staring unseeingly at a row of reagent bottles on the bench. Abruptly he nodded. "Fantastic," he muttered, "but it's worth a check." He left the room, slamming the door behind him in ...
— Pandemic • Jesse Franklin Bone
... nodded absently. He was gazing about the room. Then he walked to the library table, on which lay the revolver. He stooped over it ...
— Death Points a Finger • Will Levinrew
... to recover it again from the engine house dog, whom we found burying it in the back yard. Tish's mind, however, was far away, and she merely brushed it absently with her hand and stuck it on her head. Then she turned ...
— More Tish • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... you," says the professor, absently. He is thinking! He has taken her hand, and held it, and dropped it again, all in a state ...
— A Little Rebel • Mrs. Hungerford
... house fears him like fire?" And he explained how he got the coat. She listened absently as they went silently down the main path of the garden, Vera with ...
— The Precipice • Ivan Goncharov
... continued Ravenslee absently, "I used to dream of the wonderful things I would do when I was a man—by the way, you're quite sure I'm ...
— The Definite Object - A Romance of New York • Jeffery Farnol
... to-morrow for Sunday," replied Jem Agar's stepmother absently. She was thinking of her own son, and therefore did not hear the quick sigh which was almost a gasp; did not note the sudden light in ...
— From One Generation to Another • Henry Seton Merriman
... Jackson turned and hailed the little man on the other side of the car. He looked up absently from the scientific apparatus with which he had been making a test of the room's chemically purified air, then he stepped to the oxygen tanks and closed the flow a trifle, referring to his figures ...
— The Lord of Death and the Queen of Life • Homer Eon Flint
... Durkin absently. Life, at that moment, was confronting him so grimly, so flat and sterile and uncompromising in its secret exactions, that he had no heart ...
— Phantom Wires - A Novel • Arthur Stringer
... with the reins over my arm. The mare was famished and exhausted. The bells were almost silent, for the bullocks stood still in the agony of thirst. The weather was hot; and they had barely sipped the alkaline water at last camp. I was absently observing one white bullock close by, when, with a low bellow, he suddenly darted forward eight or ten yards, and began drinking at the gilgie. That bellow was answered from all sides; and in two minutes his nineteen mates were sharing the discovery. Meanwhile, ...
— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy
... was almost time to set out if they were to go to the club that afternoon, and Lady Alice went to her room for her cloak. She was before the looking-glass, apparently studying the reflection of her own face, when a knock at the door, to which she absently said "Come in," was followed by Caspar's entrance. She, thinking that it was her maid, did not look round, and he came behind her without being perceived. The first token of his presence was received by her ...
— Brooke's Daughter - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... that her daughter said nothing of the events of the morning, and soon went out again; Rosine and her father sat dreamily, he by the window, smoking, and she with an unread magazine before her. She looked absently about the room, with happy eyes, trying to recall the details of the scene between her and Daniel; her glance fell on her father's weary face, and its melancholy expression struck her sharply. She got up, and standing behind him, laid her hand on his shoulder and said, with a little sigh of ...
— Clerambault - The Story Of An Independent Spirit During The War • Rolland, Romain
... repeated, absently Then he felt her tremble. "How do you know he's going?" She turned upon her father, and fixed him sternly ...
— A Modern Instance • William Dean Howells
... Chessman said absently, as he watched, "When the Spanish got to Mexico they didn't understand what they saw, being musclemen rather than scholars. And before competent witnesses came on the scene, Aztec society was destroyed. The conquistadors, who did attempt to describe Tenochtitlan, ...
— Adaptation • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... Dan's glance around the blurred sky line, answered absently, "Usual answer is 'Leave? It's all I can do ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various
... of her shining black hair and wound it round and round her hand meditatively, looking out absently over the calm ...
— The Ebbing Of The Tide - South Sea Stories - 1896 • Louis Becke
... answered the man rather absently; for he was paying attention to the dog, which seemed to have found the track of the bear again. He was just going to add, "Good-bye!" but when he looked at her she was blushing; ...
— The Bridal March; One Day • Bjornstjerne Bjornson
... and murmured something from time to time, but to any one less engrossed by his subject than the captain it would have been evident she was paying little attention. Jed, who was being entertained by Babbie and Petunia, was absently pretending to be much interested in a fairy story which the former was improvising—she called the process "making up as I go along"—for his benefit. Suddenly he leaned ...
— Shavings • Joseph C. Lincoln
... Ponty and I are very good friends," she returned absently. And then she remembered. She was going to ...
— The Halo • Bettina von Hutten
... filled and I turned away to hide the tears when Dr. Gerald continued absently: "As for me, Mistress Beresford, when I go home at night I take my only companion from the mantelshelf and leaning back in my old armchair say, 'Praise me, my ...
— Penelope's Postscripts • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... stopped. Come, Cousin," said the younger Stanton,—"come and view a purchase I have made." Stanton absently alighted, and followed him across a small paved court; the other person followed. "In troth, Cousin," said Stanton, "your choice appears not to have been discreetly made; your house has somewhat of a gloomy aspect."—"Hold you content, Cousin," replied the other; "I ...
— The Lock and Key Library • Julian Hawthorne, Ed.
... isn't," returned Meg absently, her eyes and thoughts on something else. "What does that big ...
— Four Little Blossoms at Oak Hill School • Mabel C. Hawley
... the children were really distressed, with the exception of Friedrich, who had, as usual, given about half his attention to the subject in hand; and who now sat absently humming to himself the account of Bluebeard's position and character, as set forth ...
— Melchior's Dream and Other Tales • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... (absently). What should I say? The Prince is kind. I scarcely heard your words. I listened to ...
— The Poems of Emma Lazarus - Vol. I (of II.), Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic • Emma Lazarus
... He moved to the window, and stood drumming absently on the panes. He was inured to these invasions on the part of Cecile Deshaix and to the bold, unwomanly advances that repelled him. To-day his patience with her was even shorter than its wont, haply because when his official had announced a woman he had for a moment permitted himself to ...
— The Trampling of the Lilies • Rafael Sabatini
... so delightfully restful. I love the cool green lights and the cool grey shadows of the woodlands in early summer," she remarked absently. ...
— The Motor Pirate • George Sidney Paternoster
... silent and reproachful around him. Knowledge and books such as these would soon be added to no longer. He slumped into the chair and gazed at the tiny reading desk with its softly glowing lamp and the small stack of volumes on the rack left by previous users. Absently he stared for a long time at the volume Gordon had given him as if seeing it for the first time. Then with a deliberate effort he opened it and thumbed through slowly only half seeing its pages. The ...
— Security • Ernest M. Kenyon
... said Ryder absently. "I don't want the horse.... But you say the sheik's there? What does he ...
— The Fortieth Door • Mary Hastings Bradley
... than usual; I noticed that," Thurston agreed absently. He was thinking more of Mona just then than of the river. He wondered if she would be at home. He could easily ride down there and find out. It wasn't far; not a quarter of a mile, but he assured himself that he wasn't going, and that he was not quite a fool, he hoped ...
— The Lure of the Dim Trails • by (AKA B. M. Sinclair) B. M. Bower
... I remembered your saying something of the kind," murmured Challis absently. "We are going to have more rain. It will be a ...
— The Wonder • J. D. Beresford
... you. But, say, last night Nora chucked a bunch of daisies out of the window, and as I was nosing around in the vineyard, I came across it. You know how a chap will absently pick a bunch of flowers apart. What do you think ...
— The Place of Honeymoons • Harold MacGrath
... a little absently, with the faintest shadow of regret, her voice lingering on the words. And after a momentary ...
— The Hidden Places • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... be possible," said Clemence to herself one day, as she took her hat and shawl, and put them on absently, "that I have been in Mrs. Vaughn's employment three months?" She looked at the crisp bank notes that lay in her hand, in payment of her first quarter's salary. "I consider myself a young lady of some importance, or, perhaps, I should say 'young woman,' ...
— Clemence - The Schoolmistress of Waveland • Retta Babcock
... the well-fed plutocrat. He scarcely seemed the same man who, nearly two years before, had absently bestowed upon MacRae a dollar for an act of simple courtesy. He wore nondescript trousers which betrayed a shrunken abdominal line, a blue flannel shirt that bared his short, thick neck. And in that particular moment, at least, the habitual sullenness of his heavy ...
— Poor Man's Rock • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... she had forgotten young Boylston and was glancing absently about the room. She was looking for some one, and meant the some one to know it: he knew that Lost-Chord look in ...
— The Greater Inclination • Edith Wharton
... for the life of the desert Indian is never an easy one at the best, and here had been a greater struggle for existence than is usual among the aborigines. As she crouched by the doorway, she seemed almost as lifeless as the old Indian woman on the bed, her gaze fixed absently on the extended view of plain and mountain stretching out before her, the only sign of life being the slow, even rise and fall of her bosom with each succeeding breath. Her dress was similar to that ...
— Old Mission Stories of California • Charles Franklin Carter
... been an extra lot of it lately. My mate who relieves me has got special instructions to keep his eye open in the mornings!" The man grinned. "It wouldn't be a very big case even if he caught anybody!" "No," said Smith absently; "perhaps not. Your business must be a dry one this warm ...
— The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu • Sax Rohmer
... play you some bits of it?" he queried in a gloomy way. I was all eagerness, and presently he was absently preluding at my piano. ...
— Melomaniacs • James Huneker
... lady replied absently; but the next moment, inspired by a hidden thought, she added with quickened interest, "Please don't think me inquisitive, but how can a fortune be made out of a thing like mustard? People take so ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, January 5, 1916 • Various
... the light of the portable lamp by Soriki's com, Lablet settled down, plugged the scanner tubes in his ears, absently accepting a ration bar the captain handed him to chew on while he listened to the playback of the record the com-tech had ...
— Star Born • Andre Norton
... and took his departure. The others drifted up into the billiard-room. Heneage alone remained seated at the end of the table. He was playing idly with his wineglass, but his eyes were fixed steadfastly, if a little absently, upon the ...
— The Avenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... sermon. The scanty congregation, who had been sitting, stolidly immobile in their stiff, Sunday clothes, shuffled to their feet, and the pewful of school children, in clamorous chorus, intoned the final hymn. Anthony stood near the organ, absently contemplating, while the rude melody resounded through the church, Rosa's deft manipulation of the key-board. The rugged lines of his face were relaxed to a vacant, thoughtful limpness, that aged his expression not a little: now and then, as if for reference, ...
— Victorian Short Stories • Various
... speaking, and his gaze wandered absently past her and became lost in the placid sea. The old primal melancholy was strong upon him. He was quivering to it. He had reasoned himself into a spell of the blues, and within few hours one could look for the devil ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London
... and I beat a retreat—feigning boredom, or cessation of interest, of course; and absently carrying the still throbbing heart in ...
— The Mutiny of the Elsinore • Jack London
... edge of the water," his mother said absently, while she tried to fold an organdie gown ...
— Phebe, Her Profession - A Sequel to Teddy: Her Book • Anna Chapin Ray
... caressed his bruised knuckles absently. "Well, then, I guess this is the finish," he said dully, ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower
... eyes, faintly ringed with shadows, to Jim as he came into the library. She looked at him for a moment absently, then smiled. He came over to her and looked at the ...
— Dangerous Ages • Rose Macaulay
... more on those past delights, had less attention for thoughts of music, so she answered absently, "Yes. Oh, Polly, wasn't that Pentagonal Tower fine? What is it they call ...
— Five Little Peppers Abroad • Margaret Sidney
... through his mind, he had stopped insensibly at the window, close to which stood the foot of the bed with the closed curtains. At first he looked at it absently; then he became conscious that his eyes were fixed on it; and then, a perverse desire took possession of him to do the very thing which he had resolved not to do, up to this time—to look ...
— The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices • Charles Dickens
... Devlyn's brother, had entered the box now and was assiduously paying his court. "Damned impertinence of the woman, forcing her relations upon them like that," he thought.—"Oh—er—no—that is, I think the Paris Opera-House is a beastly place," he said, absently, "a dull, heavy drab brown and dirty gilding, and all the ...
— Beyond The Rocks - A Love Story • Elinor Glyn
... lame girl lay in deep thought, still holding Fern's chubby hand in hers, though she had evidently forgotten all about the little stranger children in her concern for the friendless orphan, Lottie. When she spoke, she asked absently, "What was that you were telling me about the Kentucky lady? Where did you ...
— The Lilac Lady • Ruth Alberta Brown
... he put the recommendation of the son and master on the same line as that of the coal. Mr. Headley answered the business matters absently, and ended by saying he ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... she absently folded her hand and in unaccustomed idleness gazed, as if dazed, down the quiet village street as if expecting help from that source. Once, having aroused herself, she had gone to an old trunk, her deceased mother's, and drew out ...
— Pearl and Periwinkle • Anna Graetz
... the atmosphere of the theatre, wandered out into the streets with the note in his pocket. Broadway was thronged with people, a heterogeneous, slowly-moving throng, the hardest crowd to apprehend, to understand, of any in the world. He looked absently into the varying stream of faces, stared at the whirling sky-signs, the lights flashing from the tall buildings, heard snatches of the music from the open doors of the cafes and restaurants. Men, and even women, elbowed him, unresenting, out of the way, without the semblance of an apology. ...
— The Cinema Murder • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... the dressing-table, where she had been absently attending to the candles. She wheeled round and looked at Maggie, who was hospitably sitting on a low chair near the fire. She was sorry for the loneliness of this girl's life. She did not want her to go away just ...
— The Sowers • Henry Seton Merriman
... on the table and looked absently into the crystal carafes containing the arrack. He poured out and drank glass after glass. The conversation with Janina had wearied him; he continued to speak to her, but felt vexed at himself for having said so much. His yellow face, covered with freckles and short reddish hair, ...
— The Comedienne • Wladyslaw Reymont
... Casey waited a minute, knocked again, then pulled the door open a crack and looked in. The old woman sat there rocking back and forth, steadily, quietly. But her thin fingers were rolling a corner of her apron hem painstakingly, as if she meant to hem it again. Her eyes were fixed absently upon the futile task. Casey watched her as long as he dared and cleared his throat twice in the hope that she would notice him. But the old woman rocked back and forth and rolled her apron hem; unrolled it and carefully rolled ...
— The Trail of the White Mule • B. M. Bower
... Tim smiled absently. He looked around for Don. The patrol leader was gone. He walked away slowly, turning one question over and over in his puzzled mind. What new ...
— Don Strong, Patrol Leader • William Heyliger
... utterly prostrated in body as now, his hands lying open on the turf, his face deathly. So dead indeed he was to her that she thought she could kiss his face without his even feeling it. And sadly, absently, she busied her hands with shredding all the roses within her reach. Above her head drooped an enormous cluster which brushed against her hair, set roses on her twisted locks, her ears, her neck, and even threw a mantle of the fragrant flowers across her shoulders. ...
— Abbe Mouret's Transgression - La Faute De L'abbe Mouret • Emile Zola
... and half boiled as usual! My, but it'll be nice to go to your funeral," shrieked Mary. She went out of the kitchen, giving the door such a bang that even Aunt Martha heard it, and Mr. Meredith in his study felt the vibration and thought absently that there must have been a slight earthquake shock. Then he went on with ...
— Rainbow Valley • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... magnifying his red-rimmed eyes, his speech a painful effort, stood leaning against a mud-guard with his hands in the pockets of a shabby raglan. A great bearded sailor, with the clear eyes of youth, prowled restlessly about, absently toying with an enormous blue-steel revolver, which never left his hand. ...
— Ten Days That Shook the World • John Reed
... deny, Cicely?' asked her brother, absently, conscious always, through all the swaying of talk, of the slight childish form of Nelly Sarratt beneath him, in her deep chair; and of the eyes and mouth, which after the few passing smiles he had ...
— Missing • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... as she delicately browned that toast, and scorched her own little cheeks, if Hilda would remember the old days, and the toast which she used to make her; but Mrs. Quentyns seemed to be in a sort of brown study that morning, and thanked the child absently when the crisp hot toast was ...
— A Young Mutineer • Mrs. L. T. Meade
... this head somewhat absently, for he evidently was debating within himself some very serious matter; but his answer was of a sort that Young found entirely satisfactory. In the heart of the city, he said, was the Treasure-house that Chaltzantzin had builded ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier
... Anno 1698. Richardo Powell Armiger Thesaurar." The words, set in four panels, which formed a frieze beneath the pediment of a fine brick portico, summarised the history of one of the tall houses at the upper end of King's Bench Walk and as I, somewhat absently, read over the inscription, my attention was divided between admiration of the exquisitely finished carved brickwork and the quiet dignity of the building, and an effort to reconstitute the ...
— The Red Thumb Mark • R. Austin Freeman
... gloomily from the hotel suite's window at the street below. He peered absently at his thin wrist, looked blank for a moment, then realized all over again that his watch was being cleaned. He stared down at the street once more, his wrinkled ...
— The Common Man • Guy McCord (AKA Dallas McCord Reynolds)
... the road slowly and stopped there, switching his legs absently with the stalk of a horseweed. He was in his shirtsleeves—a respectable, snuffy old figure; evidently a man deliberate in words and thoughts and actions. There was something about him suggestive of an old staid sheep ...
— The Escape of Mr. Trimm - His Plight and other Plights • Irvin S. Cobb
... a quick motion of a caution, pointing to his father, but it was not necessary, as Mr. Swift was absently-mindedly calculating an a piece of paper he had taken from his pocket, and had not heard what Mr. Damon said. The latter, however, knew what Tom meant, and ...
— Tom Swift and his Airship • Victor Appleton
... opened the door and approached the table, stopping just outside the area of illumination shed by the shaded lamp. But since Victor continued to smoke absently, paying no attention, Nogam resigned himself to wait with entire patience: the perfect pattern of a servant tempered by long servitude to the erratic winds of employers' whims; efficient, assiduous, mute unless required ...
— Red Masquerade • Louis Joseph Vance
... good," she assented absently. "Awfully good. And he is a nice furry little enthusiastic thing; like a faun, rather; exciting to play with of course. But it wasn't that. It's you, really—being in love with you the way I am. I suppose that's the very best thing that could ...
— Mary Wollaston • Henry Kitchell Webster
... the veranda. It was unoccupied for chilly evening breezes had driven the loungers indoors. Absently he paced the creaking boards and, having reached a corner of the building, continued his promenade along what seemed to be the rear of the building. Here a line of doors opened on the veranda like the upper staterooms of ...
— Port O' Gold • Louis John Stellman
... his head, and a long silence followed. Once or twice he roused himself, stirred the cup of chocolate which the waiter had set before him, and sipped a teaspoonful of it absently. The corner where the two men sat together was quiet, but from the front of the cafe came the continual clatter of plates and glasses, the echo of feet, and the ring of voices; for it was just midday, and the place was full of ...
— Taquisara • F. Marion Crawford |
