"Bending" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... dead silence, which seemed to her fevered nerves intolerable. From all around them came the quiet drip, drip, of the rain, from the bending boughs on to the damp soaked ground, and at that moment a slight breeze from over the moorland stirred amongst the branches, and the moisture which hung upon them descended in little showers. From below, the dull roar of the sea came up to them in a muffled undertone, like a melancholy background ...
— The New Tenant • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... and looking about us, we beheld above and around us, certain indications, which it would have been far more interesting and agreeable to contemplate from beneath the shelter of a snug and comfortable dwelling. The wind moaned through the bending tree-tops; the face of the heavens was black as night, and the waters of the lagoon, and of the ocean, had darkened to a steely blue beneath their frown. Before we had fairly shaken off our drowsiness, ...
— The Island Home • Richard Archer
... There, bending down the tough reeds like grass, a mighty herd of buffalo was coming slowly forward, the first two or three just emerging into the clearing. All together, there must have been sixty or seventy of ...
— The Rogue Elephant - The Boys' Big Game Series • Elliott Whitney
... "Greet thee, maiden!" "Thanks—art weary? Wait, and quickly I'll appear!" "What art thou?"—"A Bayadere, And the home of love is here." She rises; the cymbals she strikes as she dances, And whirling, and bending with grace, she advances, And offers him flowers as ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 348 • Various
... removed his coon-skin hunting-cap and bending his head down, he parted the hair with his long, horny fingers, so that all saw very distinctly the scar of a wound that must have endangered ...
— In the Pecos Country • Edward Sylvester Ellis (AKA Lieutenant R.H. Jayne)
... disconcertingly reassuring. She was dressed, if we might so far discriminate, less as a young lady than as an old one—had an old one been supposable to Strether as so committed to vanity; the complexities of her hair missed moreover also the looseness of youth; and she had a mature manner of bending a little, as to encourage and reward, while she held neatly together in front of her a pair of strikingly polished hands: the combination of all of which kept up about her the glamour of her "receiving," placed ...
— The Ambassadors • Henry James
... the tall grass stood fair, Waving and tossing in sweet summer air, Dipping and bending around her white knee; "Look," cried Miss Pops, "it is bowing to me, Bowing ...
— Our Young Folks at Home and Abroad • Various
... passing a corn-field owned by Sam Pitman—a farmer of weak character and sullen disposition who had been a moonshiner as long as the law had permitted the business to yield profits—he was surprised to see Dixie near the centre of the field. She was bending over something or somebody, and, fearing that an accident had happened, he hastily climbed the fence and walked rapidly over the ploughed soil toward her. He could not make out what the object of her attention ...
— Dixie Hart • Will N. Harben
... gazed at him glowed with maenad-like desire, and bending suddenly she covered his hand with ...
— The Malady of the Century • Max Nordau
... occupied two great towns, and several minor villages. The eastern of the two towns, near Victor, was called Gandougarae. The western, on Honcoye creek, nearly always, in all localities, took the name of the stream, which signifies 'bending.' It is said that when the League was first formed, it was agreed that the two great Seneca towns should be called by the names of two principal sachems; but I am unable to find that this was carried out in practice. In La Hontan's ...
— The Iroquois Book of Rites • Horatio Hale
... insulting mouth When it proclaimed—Pym's mouth proclaimed me ... God! Was it a word, only a word that held The outrageous blood back on my heart—which beats! Which beats! Some one word—"Traitor," did he say, Bending that eye, brimful of bitter fire, ...
— Browning's England - A Study in English Influences in Browning • Helen Archibald Clarke
... would come again with all speed. In the meantime the other seven had provided themselves with all the weapons they could find in the house, and John Foxe took a rusty old sword without a hilt, which he managed to make serve by bending the hand end of the sword ...
— The True Story Book • Andrew Lang
... at the river-side, once more bending over her with starting eyes, once more the attentive ear listening for the soundless breath. No sound! not even a sigh! Oh! what would he have given for her shriek of anguish! No change had occurred in her position, but the lower part of her face had fallen; ...
— Some Diversions of a Man of Letters • Edmund William Gosse
... The rock walls were bold and often sheer, and the upper line of mountain horizon was graceful and varied. The cliffs were mostly limestone, and presented remarkable examples of folding and dislocation. The long roots of trees, following exposed rock surfaces downward for yards, and twisting and bending to find lodgment in the crevices, were curious. Great tufts of a plant with long, narrow, light-green leaves hung down along vertical rock faces. In little caverns, at the foot of cliffs, were damp spots filled with ferns and broad-leaved ...
— In Indian Mexico (1908) • Frederick Starr
... circulation becomes sluggish causing congestion, which may develop into inflammation. Under these conditions the uterus gradually becomes displaced, falling backward, forward or downward as the case may be. The blood vessels by which the uterus is supplied thus have their caliber diminished by bending; the circulation through them is retarded just as the flow of water in a rubber tube is obstructed by a kink. A very good idea of what occurs in the uterus under the conditions just described may be obtained by winding ...
— Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XV., No. 388, June 9, 1883 • Various
... sight of her flushed cheeks and her staring eyes, she hurriedly turned out the gas again and climbed back into bed. Here she lay like some trapped thing, panting and helpless. Over and over again she whispered, "I'm not! I'm not!" as if some one were bending over her and taunting her with the statement. Then she whispered, "It isn't true! Oh, it isn't true!" She denied it fiercely—vehemently. She threw an arm over her eyes even there ...
— The Wall Street Girl • Frederick Orin Bartlett
... was under the impression that he was the only man in Europe who ever read it), in which there is an exquisite theory that the stars of heaven in their courses and the lines of winding rivers and bending corn, the curves of shells and minerals, rocks and trees, yes, of all the shapes of all created things, form the trace and letters of a stupendous writing or characters spread all over the universe, ...
— Memoirs • Charles Godfrey Leland
... background that he might not himself be seen, he looked out into the passage. The count and Noel had not yet reached the end. They were going slowly. The count seemed to drag heavily and painfully along; the advocate took short steps, bending slightly towards his father; and all his movements were marked with the greatest solicitude. The magistrate remained watching them until they passed out of sight at the end of the gallery. Then he returned to his seat, heaving a ...
— The Widow Lerouge - The Lerouge Case • Emile Gaboriau
... and the latter offered the reins to Sam, who was never a skillful horseman, and felt a mortal terror of the high-mettled steed beneath him. With a most frightened expression upon his face, he grasped the saddle pommel with both hands, and bending ...
— Bad Hugh • Mary Jane Holmes
... in the distance spoke, And like a whisper died? No—'twas the swan that gently broke In rings the silver tide! Soft to my ear there comes a music-flow; In gleesome murmur glides the waterfall; To zephyr's kiss the flowers are bending low; Through life goes joy, exchanging joy with all. Tempt to the touch the grapes—the blushing fruit, [15] Voluptuous swelling from the leaves that bide; And, drinking fever from my cheek, the mute Air sleeps all liquid in ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller
... premises. She contented herself by preserving a solemn and stony silence, when in company of Pitt and his rebellious wife, and by frightening the children in the nursery by the ghastly gloom of her demeanour. Only a very faint bending of the head-dress and plumes welcomed Rawdon and his wife, as those prodigals returned to ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray
... structural change in the affected joints. This change may consist of induration, exostosis, or even anchylosis. These structural changes about the joints may lead to permanent deformity, such as the bending of the neck. Fever is not so constant in the chronic form as in the acute, and the latter may lapse into ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture
... by a scream. Even as she opened her eyes a dark cloud, a dull suffocating terrifying pain, descended upon her. When she again became conscious, she was lying upon a mass of canvas on the levee with three strange men bending over her. She sat up, instinctively caught together the front of the nightdress she had bought in Bethlehem the second day there. Then she looked wildly from ...
— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips
... stroke grasp the handles of your oars firmly near the ends, lean forward with arms outstretched and elbows straight, the oars slanting backward, and, by bearing down on the handles of the oars, lift the blades above the water. Then drop them in edgewise and pull, straightening your body, bending your elbows, and bringing your hands together one above the other. As you finish the stroke bear down on your oars to lift the blades out of the water again, turn your wrists to bring the flat of the blades almost parallel with the water but with the back edge ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard
... up and down the box-bordered paths, Miss Lydia talking in her gentle, monotonous voice, and Dan bending his head as he flicked at the tall grass with ...
— The Battle Ground • Ellen Glasgow
... travel to stimulate rather than satisfy the appetite, and it does not seem that any who have once entered on the vocation are able or willing to withdraw themselves from it. The charm of perpetual motion is upon them, as upon that unfortunate Jew, who, bending beneath the weight of eighteen hundred years, is still supposed to be roaming over the face of ...
— Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century • W. H. Davenport Adams
... branded sheep, flop and fall of dung, the breeders in hobnailed boots trudging through the litter, slapping a palm on a ripemeated hindquarter, there's a prime one, unpeeled switches in their hands. He held the page aslant patiently, bending his senses and his will, his soft subject gaze at rest. The crooked skirt swinging, ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... a lovely, lovely orchard!" cried Hildegarde, in delight; and indeed it was a pretty place. The apple-trees were old, and curiously gnarled and twisted, bending this way and that, as apple-trees will. The short, fine grass was like emerald; there were no flowers at all, only green and brown, with the sunlight flickering through the branches overhead. They found the seat, which was curiously wedged into the double trunk ...
— Hildegarde's Holiday - a story for girls • Laura E. Richards
... lamp from the table to the bureau, and at her entrance was bending over something that lay there, so engrossed that he did not at once ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson
... infantry were very heavy, and their weight was increased by the long thick pole of oak on which they were mounted. I was bending forward and attempting to detach the Eagle from its pole, when one of the many bullets which the Russians were firing at us went through the back part of my hat, very close to my head. The shock was made worse by the fact that the hat was ...
— The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot, Translated by - Oliver C. Colt • Baron de Marbot
... next. Invention is really nothing but a step by step movement; a little addition here, another accretion there, and so on, so that invention has been shown to be, not a matter of quantity, but of quality. The mere bending of a wire, if it produces a new and useful result, is just as much entitled to the dignity of an invention, as a room full of ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: The Tribesmen • Roger Finlay
... Fresh guests arrived every minute. The ladies in their most graceful and dignified courtesies were constantly bending as other guests were announced, while the gentlemen, with low bows and each shaking his own hands, received their friends. The clothes of the men, though of a more sombre hue, were richer in texture than those of the women. Heavy silks and satins, embroidered with dragons in gold thread, ...
— Court Life in China • Isaac Taylor Headland
... stones, some in their original position, some bending over like old men, some lying prostrate, suggested the thoughts which took form in the following verses. They were read at the annual meeting, in January, of the class which graduated at Harvard College in the year 1829. Eight of the fifty-nine men who graduated ...
— Our Hundred Days in Europe • Oliver Wendell Holmes
... the service of the State. Nothing could be more interesting as an educational spectacle to any sympathetic foreigner than some of this elementary teaching. In the first room which I visit a class of very little girls and boys—some as quaintly pretty as their own dolls—are bending at their desks over sheets of coal-black paper which you would think they were trying to make still blacker by energetic use of writing-brushes and what we call Indian-ink. They are really learning to write Chinese and Japanese characters, stroke by stroke. Until ...
— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan • Lafcadio Hearn
... pursued the man, bending forward, and fixing his eyes with savage earnestness upon his listener's face. 'I am alone, old, wounded, weak,—a stranger to your nation,—a famished and a helpless man! Should I venture into your camp—should I ...
— Antonina • Wilkie Collins
... "Tieded," he murmured, and Catherine, bending closer to investigate, discovered that the key was so secured to the child's apparel that sharp steel was ...
— The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted • Katharine Ellis Barrett
... again, their punishment must come; and if they do not yield, they are pirates for life. If a sailor resist his commander, he resists the law, and piracy or submission are his only alternatives. Bad as it was, it must be borne. It is what a sailor ships for. Swinging the rope over his head, and bending his body so as to give it full force, the captain brought it down upon the poor fellow's back. Once, twice—six times. "Will you ever give me any more of your jaw?" The man writhed with pain, but said not a ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana
... A face was bending over her, a pale little face framed in a lace boudoir cap. Katherine recognized Carmen Chadwick. "What's the matter?" ...
— The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin • Hildegard G. Frey
... shaving will require less force the smaller the taper of the wedge. On the other hand, the wedge must be strong enough to sustain the bending resistance and also to support the cutting edge. In other words, the more acute the cutting edge, the easier the work, and hence the wedge is made as thin as is consistent with strength. This varies all the way from hollow ground razors to cold-chisels. For soft wood, the cutting angle ...
— Handwork in Wood • William Noyes
... ears. As the boy's eyes came back to earth they seemed to have reflected in them something of the bright sunshine above, and then down on his knees he dropped. Placing his little clasped hands against the old trunk in front of him, and bending his golden head till it rested likewise against the tree, Teddy prayed aloud, slowly, and ...
— Teddy's Button • Amy Le Feuvre
... out of a chair without bending your body forward or putting your feet under it, that is, if you are sitting squarely on the chair and not on the edge ...
— Camping For Boys • H.W. Gibson
... of the English system is the attitude naturally assumed by the judge. No one, says Fitzjames, 'can fail to be touched' when he sees an eminent lawyer 'bending the whole force of his mind to understand the confused, bewildered, wearisome, and half-articulate mixture of question and statement which some wretched clown pours out in the agony of his terror and confusion.' The latitude ...
— The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., K.C.S.I. - A Judge of the High Court of Justice • Sir Leslie Stephen
... that he was unable longer to testify for Christ on his death-bed, his loved ones bending over him, and putting their ears down to his lips to catch his last articulations, they heard him praying, not for himself, but for Allen Street Presbyterian ...
— Gathering Jewels - The Secret of a Beautiful Life: In Memoriam of Mr. & Mrs. James Knowles. Selected from Their Diaries. • James Knowles and Matilda Darroch Knowles
... to the words of the desperado, but bending forward on the horse with his full weight, drove his spurs deeply into its flanks. Startled and stung with pain, the noble animal, at one wild bound, leaped far beyond where Bill and his friends stood, and in a second more sped in ...
— Wild Bill's Last Trail • Ned Buntline
... muttered 'Virginie,' as they half-roused him by their movements out of his stupor; but Jacques thought he was only dreaming; nor did he seem fully awake when once his eyes opened, and he looked full at Virginie's face bending over him, and growing crimson under his gaze, though she never stirred, for fear of hurting him if she moved. Clement looked in silence, until his heavy eyelids came slowly down, and he fell into his oppressive ...
— My Lady Ludlow • Elizabeth Gaskell
... costal cartilages closely resembled those to the ribs. Perforation, bending from injury to the inner aspect, and comminution were observed. The latter condition differed from the similar one seen in the case of the ribs only in so far as the tougher consistence of the cartilage did ...
— Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 • George Henry Makins
... day with mercurial ointment. Wish this job was over. Dreadful work bending one's back all day, and rooting amongst the ...
— The Bushman - Life in a New Country • Edward Wilson Landor
... like the flower he tramples, Bending from his golden tread, Full of fair celestial ardours, She would ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... Bending over one still form, he pressed his hand on the heart. It was beating! The man was alive! Amazed, he moved to another and another: they were all breathing, slowly and regularly—were all alive! A curious look in their eyes staggered him for a moment. He could swear that they recognized him, ...
— Astounding Stories, February, 1931 • Various
... great gloomy cloister vibrated with mysterious music which seemed to float in from afar through the heavy walls. It was Chopin, bending over the piano composing his Nocturnes. The novelist, by the light of the candle was writing "Spiridion," the story of the monk who finally forsook his faith; but frequently she laid aside her work to rush to the musician's side and give him medicine, alarmed at the frequency of his cough. ...
— The Dead Command - From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... whose big Italian eyes would presently begin looking soulfully at some one else. Had they already looked like that at Paula? Jealousy itself wasn't a base emotion. Betraying it was all that mattered. You couldn't help feeling it for any one you loved. Paula, bending over that furry faun-like head, reading off the same score with him, responding to the same emotions from the music.... Fantastic, of course. There could be no sane doubt as to who it was that Paula was in ...
— Mary Wollaston • Henry Kitchell Webster
... took refuge in the illuminated conservatory, the doors of which were thrown invitingly open. It was mid-summer, but the flowers had been restored to brighten their winter shelter during the fete. He had thought to find himself alone; but yonder, bending over richly-tinted clusters of azaleas and odorous heliotropes, a group of youthful heads unconcernedly thrust their lifeless chaplets in challenging contrast with nature's living loveliness, while flowing robes recklessly swept their floral imitations against her shrinking originals. ...
— Fairy Fingers - A Novel • Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
... Kennedy was now bending every effort to locate the missing artist. When he left Danbridge, he seemed to have dropped out of sight completely. However, with O'Connor's aid, the police of all New ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds
... brute, his curling tail Flourished in air, low bending, plies around His busy nose, the steaming vapour snuffs Inquisitive, nor leaves one turf untried, Till, conscious of the recent stains, his heart Beats quick. His snuffing nose, his active tail, Attest ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt
... how she had kissed Dick flashed across her mind, but in an instant it was gone; and bending her head, she laid her lips to her husband's. It in no way disgusted her to do so; she was glad of the occasion, and was only surprised at the dull and obtuse anxiety she experienced. They then spoke of indifferent things, but the flow of conversation was ...
— A Mummer's Wife • George Moore
... left at peace. At first this treatment was congenial to his temperament; but by and by it became annoying, then painful, then almost unendurable. Tugging at his oar, digging up to his waist in slime, or bending beneath his burden of pine wood, he looked greedily for some excuse to be addressed. He would take double weight when forming part of the human caterpillar along whose back lay a pine tree, for ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke
... pale light, more colourless than ever in the leaden dawn, he saw her coming, trailing herself along the floor towards him—a white wreck of hair, and dress, and wild eyes, pushing itself on by an irresolute and bending hand. ...
— The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices • Charles Dickens
... Jimmie sprang out of the canoe and gained the cockpit, the three were in a tangle, with Frank sitting on the hand which held the weapon. French surrendered the revolver and sat up with a sickly grin on his face when he saw the three bending over him, ready to take a ...
— Boy Scouts in the Philippines - Or, The Key to the Treaty Box • G. Harvey Ralphson
... examples, who are the converse of the type which our senses demand. To give him any pleasure her profile was too sharp, her skin too delicate, her cheek-bones too prominent, her features too tightly drawn. Her eyes were fine, but so large that they seemed to be bending beneath their own weight, strained the rest of her face and always made her appear unwell or in an ill humour. Some time after this introduction at the theatre she had written to ask Swann whether she might see his collections, which would interest her so much, ...
— Swann's Way - (vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past) • Marcel Proust
... his unusual flow of words, and perhaps by prolonged propinquity with the decanters, was bending over the latter to ...
— House of Mirth • Edith Wharton
... are bending over a basso-relievo with a Greek inscription, when the king enters; he is accompanied by a gentleman, who has on either arm a fair young girl in the spring of her youth and beauty. The king invites M. von ...
— Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century • W. H. Davenport Adams
... took off his hat, and made a profound obeisance to Belle, whilst Mrs. Petulengro rose from the stool, and made a profound curtsey. Belle, who had flung her hair back over her shoulders, returned their salutations by bending her head, and after slightly glancing at Mr. Petulengro, fixed her large blue eyes full upon his wife. Both these females were very handsome—but how unlike! Belle fair, with blue eyes and flaxen hair, Mrs. Petulengro with olive complexion, ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow
... is what I earn by giving lessons on the harp and piano. I give, for two shillings, the same instruction for which my father paid half a guinea a lesson; if I did not I should have no pupils. It is more than a month since my mother left her bed; and my youngest sister, bending beneath increased delicacy of health, is her only attendant. I know her mind to be so tortured, and her body so convulsed by pain, that I have prayed to God to render her fit for Heaven, and take her from her sufferings. Imagine the weight of sorrow that crushed me to my knees with ...
— Turns of Fortune - And Other Tales • Mrs. S. C. Hall
... when he sat, wrapped in blankets, in an armchair near the window, where he could see the grass waving in the sunlight on the slope above the cottage, and the pines bending in the breeze high up the hill. Marion, near him, her hands folded in her lap, looked sometimes out of the window but more often at him, though his eyes avoided hers. She was scarcely less pale than he, and very tired and worn. ...
— The Heart of Thunder Mountain • Edfrid A. Bingham
... taste. She loved the old doctor, with his frosty hair and sunny smile, and lay quietly in her mother's arms, quite resigned to her fate, surprising as it was. But when she beheld a strange and youthful face bending over her, with a pair of penetrating, dark eyes, that looked as if they could read the deepest secrets of the heart, she shrank back in dismay, assured the mystery of her illness would all be revealed. The next glance reassured her. She was sure he would be kind, and not give ...
— Helen and Arthur - or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel • Caroline Lee Hentz
... chain he broke off a fragment of stone which he used as a file, and in this way he liberated his left hand. The iron ring around his waist was fastened only by a hook to the chain attached to the wall. Trenck placed his feet against the wall, and bending forward with all his strength, succeeded in straightening the hook so far as to remove it from the ring. And now there only remained the heavy wooden chain fastened to his feet, and also made fast to the wall. By a powerful effort he broke two ...
— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach
... her breath and raised herself suddenly in his arms. The whole church was bending and stretching to see her, but she forgot the staring people, and was thinking only of her beautiful robe, the kid shoes, and the ...
— The Biography of a Prairie Girl • Eleanor Gates
... strawberries in yonder fields, or whortleberries from the adjacent shrubbery. The breezes of fragrant morning, and the sighs of the evening gale, will be mingled with the songs of the thousand various birds which frequent the surrounding groves. We will gather the bending fruits of autumn, and we will listen to the hoarse voice of winter, its whistling winds, its driving snow, ...
— Alonzo and Melissa - The Unfeeling Father • Daniel Jackson, Jr.
... bending until his stomach almost touched the ground, came worming toward Jim, making ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May, 1930 • Various
... a time, I had been at a loss about the real objects of the present manner of conducting prison affairs, but it had become evident that money-making and punishing were those objects. To the former the prison agent and warden seemed bending their united energies as best they could. They would make a better exhibit of gains than ever before, a great compliment to the one as a financier and to the other as a prison manager. To this end, they would bend their efforts ...
— The Prison Chaplaincy, And Its Experiences • Hosea Quinby
... who had made up his mind to some extraordinary course, from which no wavering or weakness on his part was likely to turn him aside, whatever the opposition of others might compel him to abandon or determine. Bending his tall figure slightly, he addressed the money-lender in ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 • Various
... Angela, when the time drew near, bending down over the dog to hide a tear, as she had once before bent down to hide a blush; "poor Aleck, I shall miss you almost ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard
... object was to reach the court-house, and there could be little difficulty in finding it, for the throng of persons in the street were all eagerly bending their way thither. I accordingly followed with the stream, and soon found myself among an enormous multitude of frize-coated and red-cloaked people, of both sexes, in a large open square, which formed the market-place, one side of which was flanked by the court-house—for as such I immediately ...
— The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete • Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
... on his knees, made a rapid examination with expert hands. As he felt, one of the relighted torches suddenly lit up Victor's face and the faces of those bending over him. ...
— The Conflict • David Graham Phillips
... Bending down towards the grave as he spoke, he seemed to give closer attention to what he saw there; keeping in his stooping position till his face began to get a purple aspect, for the erudite doctor was of that make of man who has to be kept right side uppermost with care. At length ...
— Septimius Felton - or, The Elixir of Life • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... I, 'shall the present generation—he who now sinks in misery—and he who now swims in pleasure, alike pass away and be forgotten.' My heart swelled with the reflection; and, as I turned from the scene with a sigh, I fixed my eyes upon a friar, whose venerable figure, gently bending towards the earth, formed no uninteresting object in the picture. He observed my emotion; and, as my eye met his, shook his head and pointed to the ruin. 'These walls,' said he, 'were once the seat of luxury and vice. They exhibited a singular instance ...
— A Sicilian Romance • Ann Radcliffe
... up to her full breast, and a cry mounted in her throat. The eyes opened. The white lips parted, as if to smile; a voice whispered: "Now, don't be silly!" The girl's cry changed into a little sob, and bending down she put her lips to the ringed hand that lay outside the quilt. The hand moved faintly as if responding, the voice whispered: "The emerald ring is for you, Augustine. Is it morning? Uncover Polly's cage, and open ...
— Tatterdemalion • John Galsworthy
... upright rod to the top of which a piece of cloth is tied, or at the base of a sacred jar (blanga). The participants join hands, and the movement is slow because an essential feature consists in bending the knees—heels together—down and up again, slowly and in time; then, moving one step to the left and bringing right heel to left, the kneeling is repeated, and so on. The men danced for a long time, at first by themselves, then ...
— Through Central Borneo: - An Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters - Between the Years 1913 and 1917 • Carl Lumholtz
... string of a bow in order to let fly an arrow. The expression "bend a bow" was used, and as the result of pulling the string was to curve the wooden part of the arrow, people came in time to think that "bending the bow" was this making the wood to curve. From this came our general use of "bend" to mean forcing a thing which is straight into a curve or angle. We have, of course, also the metaphorical use of the word, as when we speak of ...
— Stories That Words Tell Us • Elizabeth O'Neill
... "Why do you think?" return'd she tenderly: "You have deserted me;—where am I now? Not in your heart while care weighs on your brow: No, no, you have dismiss'd me; and I go From your breast houseless: ay, it must be so." He answer'd, bending to her open eyes, Where he was mirror'd small in paradise, "My silver planet, both of eve and morn! Why will you plead yourself so sad forlorn, While I am striving how to fill my heart 50 With deeper crimson, and a double smart? How to entangle, trammel up and snare ...
— Keats: Poems Published in 1820 • John Keats
... not think I am infected. I cannot imagine how Jane caught diphtheria. I did see her bending down over a drain the other day. She had dropped her pencil and was trying to find it. I told her not to do it, and even dragged her away. I am sure I am all right, and I should not allow her to breathe on me, and I think ...
— A Modern Tomboy - A Story for Girls • L. T. Meade
... in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky. In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which, advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin; when, bending my eyes downward as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow in his hands, and a quiver at his back. In the mean time, I felt at least forty more of ...
— The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old Favorites • Eva March Tappan
... are bending o'er him, The scent of calycanthus fills the air, And on the ivied parapet ...
— Poems • John L. Stoddard
... briefly said the commander by way of dismissal; and then, bending over the poop-rail, he called out, "Bosun's mate! Pipe all hands ...
— Crown and Anchor - Under the Pen'ant • John Conroy Hutcheson
... vanished and she went among the betel-nuts on the branch of the tree. "Where did the girl go? I did not see her when she vanished," said Aponitolau to himself. Not long after he went home with his head bent for he was very sorrowful. When he arrived at their house, "Why are you bending your head Aponitolau?" said his mother. "What are you bending your head for? you say, and I went to the well of Lisnayan and talked with Aponibolinayen, but after a while she vanished and I could not see her anymore." "Did you not give her any betel-nut?" asked ...
— Traditions of the Tinguian: A Study in Philippine Folk-Lore • Fay-Cooper Cole
... sight, and glistened under the sunlight like spun silver. "Isn't this tin hollyhock going to seed?" asked the Wizard, bending over the flowers. ...
— The Emerald City of Oz • L. Frank Baum
... gone, I woke, and found myself alone; With choking sob and stifled scream To bless my God 'twas but a dream! To smooth my damp and stiffen'd hair, And murmur out the Saviour's prayer— The first to grateful memory brought, The first a gentle mother taught, When, bending o'er her children's bed, She bade good angels guard my head; Then paused, with tearful eyes, and smiled On the calm slumbers of her child— As God himself had heard her prayer, ...
— Roughing it in the Bush • Susanna Moodie
... blocked, for he had noticed how it stood. Clare looked about for a stone, picked one up by the roadside, and went to the back of the cart, while Johnstone patted the mule's head, and busied himself with the buckles of the harness, bending low as he did so. Clare also bent down, trying to force the stone under the wheel, and did not notice that the carter was sitting up by the roadside, feeling ...
— Adam Johnstone's Son • F. Marion Crawford
... and turning even accidents to account, bending them to some purpose is a great secret of success. Dr. Johnson has defined genius to be "a mind of large general powers accidentally determined in some particular direction." Men who are resolved to find ...
— Self Help • Samuel Smiles
... is so well known to most, and to some present so vividly, from personal intercourse and friendship. We all know what a battle he fought, how nobly and well, first striving by patient plodding effort to remove his own ignorance, cheerfully bending himself to every kind of work that came in his way, and seeking to gain not only manual expertness, but a mastery of principles. We know how he went on toiling, observing, experimenting, saying little—for he was never given ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various
... day," he said, bending down a little and plunging his glance into the black eyes of the woman so that she should not observe the trembling of his lips. "Yes, I stayed at home. As my actions are remembered and written about, then perhaps you are aware that I was not seen at the lectures next day. Eh? You didn't ...
— Under Western Eyes • Joseph Conrad
... that point while she sang, but as she ended they dropped for an instant on an eager, girlish countenance bending from a front seat; then, with her hasty little bow, she went quickly back among the children, who clapped and nodded as she passed, well pleased with the ballad ...
— Rose in Bloom - A Sequel to "Eight Cousins" • Louisa May Alcott
... discourse! So versatile; so bending to the changes of the occasion; so obsequious to my curiosity, and so abundant in that very knowledge in which I was most deficient, and on which I set the most value, the knowledge of the human heart; of society as ...
— Arthur Mervyn - Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 • Charles Brockden Brown
... playful chime from the palm-tree clime, From the land of rock and mountain: And roll the song in waves along, For the hours are bright before us, And grand and hale are the elms of Yale, Like fathers, bending o'er us. ...
— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall
... unsteadily. Once he might have fallen had not the child thrown one little arm around a bending knee. "You 'most tumbled down. Uncle Dan'l," said she. Her little voice had a surprised ...
— The Copy-Cat and Other Stories • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... and the heart into vigorous action. Office workers should take exercises for the part of the body above the waist, plus some walking each day. All should take enough exercise to keep the spine straight and pliable. Bending exercises are good for this purpose, keeping the knees straight and touching the floor with the fingers. Then bend backward as far as possible. Then with hands on the hips rotate the body from ...
— Maintaining Health • R. L. Alsaker
... and playfully prolongs the meal, which the careful father has prepared with his own hand, or, if he has been angered, rests his head upon his mother's breast, while his palm is pressed against her cheek, as, bending down, she sings to him; once more, he sits among his toys, or fondles and plays with the white-haired goat, or walks up and down in the arms of the steward, who has a boy of just his age, at home, now waiting to ...
— Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. II • Margaret Fuller Ossoli
... attracted was a large tree, a branch of which spread to within a few feet of the sill. Upon this branch now they both discovered the subject of their recent conversation, a tall, well-built boy, balancing with ease upon the bending limb and uttering loud shouts of glee as he noted the terrified expressions upon ...
— The Son of Tarzan • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... I must be right," he said softly, getting to his feet at last. "'A rope of fear' was what he said, wasn't it? 'A rope of fear.'" He crossed suddenly to the safe, and bending over it, examined the handle and doors critically. And at the moment Mr. Brent reappeared. Cleek switched round upon his heel, and ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes - Detective Stories • Various
... bending his ear close to the ground, he listened attentively for several minutes. Somehow, he fancied that a strange, murmuring sound came to his ears; but he was not quite sure that it proceeded from the ...
— Varney the Vampire - Or the Feast of Blood • Thomas Preskett Prest
... way, and out of which the handsome young man now sitting opposite to me had plucked me, bruised and senseless, only a few short hours ago. I shuddered and could feel myself turn pale as I looked. George seemed to read my thoughts; he smiled, but said nothing. Then bending all his strength to the oars, he sent the Water Lily spinning on her course. All my skill and attention were needed for the proper management of the tiller, and for a little while all morbid musings were ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 2, February, 1891 • Various
... dropped the antique stethoscope back into the pocket of his tight dress coat, and, still bending over Uncle Meshach, but turning slightly towards John and Leonora, smiled ...
— Leonora • Arnold Bennett |
