"Puzzled" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... first year of my marriage, my first appearance in the country, and I was rather puzzled about my dress for the occasion. We were asked to dinner at seven o'clock. My first idea was to wear full dress—light-blue satin and diamonds—but a niece of Mme. A.'s, who was staying with us and who had been to some entertainments in that part of the country, advised me strongly ...
— Chateau and Country Life in France • Mary King Waddington
... our distresses, perplexities, and troubles of this period, we were not a little puzzled to know how to dispose of the vermin that would accumulate upon our persons, notwithstanding all our attempts at cleanliness. To catch them was a very easy task, but to undertake to deprive each individual captive of life, as rapidly as they could have been taken, would have been a more ...
— American Prisoners of the Revolution • Danske Dandridge
... Wogan was immediately puzzled by the curious look Lady Featherstone gave him. The words were a mere excuse, yet she seemed to take them very seriously. Her eyes ...
— Clementina • A.E.W. Mason
... Now this puzzled him so that he thought he must ask somebody about it. Close to him was a big dock and at the dock was a flat barge. A lot of men were unloading coal from her. He walked up to one. "Please," he said, ...
— Here and Now Story Book - Two- to seven-year-olds • Lucy Sprague Mitchell
... puzzled, and its animation faded away. "None that I know. This is positively the first time we ever ...
— The Puppet Crown • Harold MacGrath
... Animals and Plants under Domestication, Darwin was puzzled by the fact that, in captivity, animals often copulate without conceiving and failed to connect that fact with the processes behind his own theory ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... at once went to these officers. They were as much irritated and puzzled as were their men by the failures which had taken place, and agreed that, next evening, an order should be issued for the men of the three corps to act in combination, and to allow it to leak out that they intended to surprise an American post situated ...
— True to the Old Flag - A Tale of the American War of Independence • G. A. Henty
... boarder in black attire looked so puzzled, and, in fact, "all abroad," after the delivery of this "counter" of mine, that I left her to recover her wits, and went on with the conversation, which I was beginning to get ...
— The Professor at the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes (Sr.)
... instant he thought she meant to refuse, as she drew herself up and met his level eyes; the men around held their breaths, and the O'Malley chiefs glanced at each other in puzzled wonder. Then her quick laugh rippled out and she gave ...
— Nuala O'Malley • H. Bedford-Jones
... been brought up in a bookish atmosphere and that makes such a difference. The other night she was brushing her hair, unusually silent and evidently thinking deeply. At last she looked up at me in my bunk, with the brush in her hand and all her hair swept over one shoulder, and said in the most puzzled way, "What was that nasty thing Mrs. Wilmot was saying all about dead women?" and do you ...
— Olivia in India • O. Douglas
... want your money, my child," said Mr. Breynton, looking troubled and puzzled. "I'm sorry the nymph is gone; but somehow you do seem to be different from other girls. I didn't ...
— Gypsy Breynton • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
... own desk up under one of the delightful windows, and there he sat day after day at hard study. He did not trouble Mr. Middleton much; whenever it was possible to do so by any amount of labor and thought, he puzzled out all his problems and got ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
... made. He turned towards the house, walking slowly with his hands behind him. Kemp watched him—puzzled. The revolver vanished, flashed again into sight, vanished again, and became evident on a closer scrutiny as a little dark object following Adye. Then things happened very quickly. Adye leapt backwards, swung around, clutched at this little object, missed it, threw up his hands ...
— The Invisible Man • H. G. Wells
... model was less shocking than Mildred had imagined; he stood with his hands on his hip, a staff in his hand; and, had it not been for a slight swaying motion, she would hardly have known he was alive. She had never drawn before from the living model, and was puzzled to know how to begin. She was going to ask Elsie to tell her, when M. Daveau drew the curtain aside, and picking his way through the pupils, came straight to her. He took the stool next her, and with a pleasant smile asked if she had ...
— Celibates • George Moore
... He puzzled his brains to imagine how she had learned to know Schilsky in the first instance, and when the affair had begun: what he had overheard that afternoon implied an advanced stage of intimacy; and he revolved measures by means of which a stop might be put to it. The only course he could think ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson
... child of Towsley's age would have been puzzled how to escape from the well-locked and bolted mansion; but the keen-witted gamin of the city's streets had little difficulty. True, the great front door did open rather slowly to his puny grasp, but that was on account ...
— Divided Skates • Evelyn Raymond
... early in the evening when we returned to the museum and let ourselves in with the key that Dr. Lith had loaned Kennedy. He had been anxious to join us in the watch, but Craig had diplomatically declined, a circumstance that puzzled me and set me thinking that perhaps ...
— The Dream Doctor • Arthur B. Reeve
... in fact, that the present state of mind—if we look to men's real thoughts and actions, not to their conventional phrases—is easily definable. It is simply a tacit recognition that the old orthodoxy cannot be maintained either by the evidence of facts or by philosophical argument. It has puzzled me sometimes to understand why the churches should insist upon nailing themselves down to the truth of their dogmas and their legendary history. Why cannot they say frankly, what they seem to be constantly on the verge of saying—Our dogmas and our history are not true, or not ...
— Social Rights and Duties, Volume I (of 2) - Addresses to Ethical Societies • Sir Leslie Stephen
... Helen replied, somewhat puzzled to account for the impression the pale young woman made on her. "It is the invention of my aunt and our family physician. They have a theory that my lungs are affected, and that the air of the pine-woods ...
— Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches • Joel Chandler Harris
... the puzzled girl, "you are putting all your money into it. Mr. Hamilton said that, if this failed, ...
— Bones in London • Edgar Wallace
... that Milton's 'Paradise Lost' must have been bound up with one of Crusoe's Bibles; otherwise I should be puzzled to know where he found all this history of the Old Gentleman. Not a word of it in the Bible itself, I am quite sure. But to be serious. De Foe did not reflect that all these difficulties are attached to a mere fiction, or, at the best, an allegory, supported by a few popular phrases and figures ...
— Literary Remains (1) • Coleridge
... the winter is the marmot, and I often think of them sound asleep under the snow as I pass along the slopes of some high valley. They are said to have breathing holes, but I have never seen them, unless this was the explanation of some holes which puzzled me on the Schiltgrat above Muerren. I was traversing uphill a long way ahead of my party and noticed some isolated holes in the snow, very like Ski stick holes, but with no Ski tracks near. As I passed a ...
— Ski-running • Katharine Symonds Furse
... Albert looked puzzled and a little uneasy. Into his roseate dreams was just beginning to filter the idea that his grandfather's ...
— The Portygee • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... a century later, "it was a game of hide and seek until rations on both sides got low. The Californians would push through the brush, scatter, double backward on their trail, and then camp in the most inaccessible places to be found, and it sometimes puzzled us to locate and camp near ...
— The Book of the National Parks • Robert Sterling Yard
... by a herd of seals, which-stretched on these floating islands, followed the ship with a stupid and puzzled look. We were forcibly struck with the contrast between the fictitious world in which we lived on board the ship, and the terrible realities of nature that surrounded us. Lounging in an elegant saloon, at the corner of a clear and sparkling ...
— Letters From High Latitudes • The Marquess of Dufferin (Lord Dufferin)
... sufficient to produce a succession of small insurrectionary earthquakes on the Opposition benches. Old members from the shires nudged each other in their bucolic way and asked what was the matter, learning with puzzled amusement that there were some who did not think it quite right for the gentlemen of England to be led by a Semitic adventurer. But the Semitic adventurer had the gifts of his race. He was primed to the throat with contempt and scorn, too cold and measured ...
— The Contemporary Review, January 1883 - Vol 43, No. 1 • Various
... at the corners of the court by the diagonal colonnades are novel fountains, surmounted by groups representing the four seasons. It is well to go first to the southwest corner, to the "Fountain of Spring"; then to the northwest corner, for "Summer"; and so on around the court. If one is ever puzzled to understand from the figures which season is represented, a glance at the labeled murals up above in the corridor will give the proper title for statue and murals of ...
— An Art-Lovers guide to the Exposition • Shelden Cheney
... to the puzzled mother, telling her exactly what she wants to know. This book deals reverently with the great ...
— Almost A Man • Mary Wood-Allen
... adversary in a State of great exports and imports, is not less dissatisfied that the whole burden of taxes may be thrown on consumption. This politician discovers in the Constitution a direct and irresistible tendency to monarchy; that is equally sure it will end in aristocracy. Another is puzzled to say which of these shapes it will ultimately assume, but sees clearly it must be one or other of them; whilst a fourth is not wanting, who with no less confidence affirms that the Constitution is so far from having a bias towards either of these dangers, that the ...
— The Federalist Papers • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison
... Emily was puzzled by the request, and, judging from the girl's description that it could not be Maxwell, began to dread ...
— Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue • Warren T. Ashton
... good deal of talk about the Visitors' Cup. Being anxious to test its merits, I went to one of the principal hotels here, and ordered the waiter to bring me a quart of Visitors' Cup, and to be careful to ice it well. He seemed puzzled, but went away to execute my orders. After an absence of ten minutes he returned, and informed me, with the Manager's compliments, that they could not provide me with what I wanted, but that their Champagne-cup was excellent. I gave the fellow a look, and departed. Perhaps this is only another example ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, July 11, 1891 • Various
... about him?" said Breslin, regarding Pringle with a puzzled face. "Granted that the Major might have a motive for shielding Foy—he may even believe Foy to be innocent—why should this stranger put himself in danger ...
— The Desire of the Moth; and The Come On • Eugene Manlove Rhodes
... and kind. I saw him one day walking, as was his custom, with his hands behind his back, head bent forward, the two little Bancrofts and other children following him with pleased faces, and stooping every now and then with broad smiles, after which they would rise and run on again behind him. Puzzled at these maneuvers, I watched closely, and found that although he hardly moved a muscle except to walk, yet from time to time he dropped a penny, for ...
— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb
... puzzled frown in her eyes, a faint flush tingeing her cheeks as, withdrawing her regard from Thornton's departure, she looked to Templeton ...
— Six Feet Four • Jackson Gregory
... had never had to bother his head with school-books, but who had also learned to read, in due time got started on a new interest by a printing-press, which was given to him for Christmas. He puzzled with it and worked over it, until he learned to set up type and operate it very nicely. Then he began printing visiting cards—first for himself, then mother and father, then the servants and friends. It was great fun to take orders from them and charge them ten cents ...
— Heart and Soul • Victor Mapes (AKA Maveric Post)
... strength. Howe had been bitten once by advancing too far into New Jersey and was not going to take risks. He tried to entice Washington from the hills to attack in open country. He marched here and there in New Jersey and kept Washington alarmed and exhausted by counter marches, and always puzzled as to what the next move should be. Howe purposely let one of his secret messengers be taken bearing a despatch saying that the fleet was about to sail for Boston. All these things took time and the summer was slipping away. In the end Washington realized that Howe intended to make ...
— Washington and his Comrades in Arms - A Chronicle of the War of Independence • George Wrong
... from the pane and was about to move away, when he came face to face with a trim young woman in a smart blue serge. "Oh, hello!" she cried pleasantly, bringing up short. Then seeing the puzzled look upon the valet's face, she said: "Don't you remember me? I'm Miss Donovan of the Star. I came up to the apartments the morning of the Cavendish murder with one ...
— The Strange Case of Cavendish • Randall Parrish
... bird, in spite of all his adversary's attempts to the contrary, leads the "greedy game of the deep" to the shore, and delivers it to his master. This is, certainly, a very curious mode of taking pike, and the live trimmer looks very puzzled when the voracious fish is hooked; but the following anecdote, taken from the scrap-book of Mr. M'Diarmid, shows that a Scotchman once adopted the same method, though for a different reason. "Several years ago," he writes, "a farmer, living in ...
— Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches • Henri de Crignelle
... he was as comfortable as a man might be with a raging fever. Feeble as she was, the sudden demand on her had awakened the old woman's faculties and she was stronger than might have seemed possible. One thing puzzled her: in his incoherent mutterings, Darby constantly referred to a furlough and a deserter. She knew that he had a furlough, of course; but it puzzled her to hear him constantly repeating the words. So the day passed and then, Darby's delirium ...
— The Burial of the Guns • Thomas Nelson Page
... Jarrow and Peth from the first. He had been told to play the spy, but he had kept secret his theft of the pistol from Trask's bag, a circumstance which puzzled Jarrow. The captain taxed Peth with having made a blunder so early in the game, and it was not until Doc had declared himself as the dinghy approached the schooner with Jarrow and his men that the secret of who ...
— Isle o' Dreams • Frederick F. Moore
... that he was able to dispose of so many difficulties at one blow. When he showed that the landfall of Vespucius on his first voyage was near Cape Honduras and had nothing whatever to do with the Pearl Coast, he began to follow the right trail, and so the facts which had puzzled everybody began at once to fall into the right places. This is all made clear in the seventh chapter of the present work, where the general argument of Varnhagen is in many points strongly reinforced. The ...
— The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) - with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest • John Fiske
... her head vaguely. She did not seem to take his remark very seriously, but then, she had learned never to take any of his remarks seriously. She had been puzzled at first by his manner of treating everything with a half-joking pessimism, but now ...
— The Runaway Skyscraper • Murray Leinster
... returned for the dead bird. Colonel Hutchinson relates that two partridges were shot at once—one being killed, the other wounded; the latter ran away, and was caught by the retriever, who, on her return, came across the dead bird; "she stopped, evidently greatly puzzled, and after one or two trials, finding she could not take it up without permitting the escape of the winged bird, she considered a moment, then deliberately murdered it by giving it a severe crunch, and afterward brought away both together. This was the only known ...
— Was Man Created? • Henry A. Mott
... heard of Miss Ferris's habit of flashing irrelevant questions at her puzzled auditors, but this was ...
— Betty Wales Freshman • Edith K. Dunton
... speculations, we are permitted a tether. Shakespeare himself is to be adored, not arraigned; but, so we do it with humility, we may a little canvass his characters. There's his Autolycus now, a fellow that always puzzled me. How is one to take Autolycus? A rogue so happy, so lucky, so triumphant, of so almost captivatingly vicious a career that a virtuous man reduced to the poor-house (were such a contingency conceivable), might almost long to change sides ...
— The Confidence-Man • Herman Melville
... print and found my first suspicions confirmed; for, underneath, the quiver was of buckskin, beautifully embroidered with red feathers and porcupine {80} quills of deep red and turquoise blue. The Indian was as much puzzled by my preference for the quill work as I was by his for the ...
— Boy Scouts Handbook - The First Edition, 1911 • Boy Scouts of America
... practice, however, the interest is easily maintained and further progress, especially in teaching the trigger squeeze, is made. Many of the external influences, which on the range affect the firing, being absent, the soldier is not puzzled by results for which, at this stage of his education, he could not account were he advanced to firing with full charges. Furthermore, as there is no recoil to induce nervousness or flinching, the soldier soon finds ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss
... haven't all took a fancy to you," said the puzzled skipper; "the old man's got the speaking-trumpet now. What ...
— Many Cargoes • W.W. Jacobs
... large, but historians find it somewhat easier to praise his works than to read them. As poet, critic, satirist, editor and teacher he loomed as a giant among his contemporaries, overtopping Whittier and Longfellow at one time; but he left no work comparable to Snow-Bound or Hiawatha, and one is puzzled to name any of his poems or essays that are fairly certain to give pleasure. To read his volumes is to meet a man of power and brilliant promise, but the final impression is that the promise was not fulfilled, that the ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long
... no partner, sir," said I. But John, whose reading had lately surpassed mine, and whom nothing ever puzzled, explained that I came from the same old stock as the brothers Phineas and Giles Fletcher. Upon which Mr. Charles, who till now had somewhat overlooked me, took off his hat, and congratulated me on my ...
— John Halifax, Gentleman • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
... why the Bible was written, were questions which Mrs. Garfield answered as well as she was able. Why men were wicked, and what hindered them from being good, puzzled James. To him it was a great mystery that any one could continue to do wrong when God was always willing to help them ...
— The Story of Garfield - Farm-boy, Soldier, and President • William G. Rutherford
... confessed himself puzzled by the mysterious details, thought them important, and said: 'It seems to me this resembles the engine and wings of the James Beckett invention I heard so much about. But I didn't know it was far enough ahead yet to be in use. A pity the inventor ...
— Everyman's Land • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... Cibber's salary for the first twenty years of his dramatic career," was the delicate reply to the above delicate remark. It staggered him for a moment; however, he affected a most puzzled air, then gradually allowed a light to ...
— Peg Woffington • Charles Reade
... in his twentieth year I noticed that a great change came over him, for instead of being cheerful and high-spirited he became very quiet and self-absorbed, and there was often a faraway look in his eyes which puzzled me very much. One morning I went to call him at his usual time for rising and found him in a deep sleep from which I was unable to rouse him. After trying some time without effect his stupor so alarmed me that I immediately sent off for a doctor, who advised that it would be best to let him lie ...
— To Mars via The Moon - An Astronomical Story • Mark Wicks
... puzzled to find any questions more absurd and unreasonable than those in the cram papers in the college examination.—Westminster Rev., Am. ed., Vol. ...
— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall
... words in italics attempt to convey paraphrastically a new construction of a sentence which has puzzled the commentators, and met with many and contradictory interpretations. The original literally is—"I pity the last the most." Now, at first it is difficult to conjecture why those whose adversity is over, "blotted out with the moistened sponge," should be ...
— Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... mean you were puzzled as to how to study the effect of the noises of the French battlefields on ...
— Ned, Bob and Jerry on the Firing Line - The Motor Boys Fighting for Uncle Sam • Clarence Young
... the crushing of Germany—hence the lying "excuse" of Belgium—that apparently is what all good Germans—except those who know better—believe; what every German child is being taught. As I listen to my companion's story, I am reminded, however, of a puzzled remark which reached me lately, written just before Christmas last, by a German nurse in a Berlin hospital, who has English relations, friends of my own. "We begin to wonder whether it really was England who caused ...
— The War on All Fronts: England's Effort - Letters to an American Friend • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... book," says Dr. Johnson, "should help us either to enjoy life or to endure it." Judged by this standard, one is puzzled what to recommend among Johnson's numerous books. The two things which belong among the things "worthy to be remembered" are his Dictionary and his Lives of the Poets, though both these are valuable, not as literature, ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long
... Dick looked puzzled, but Jilly was pulling and he meekly followed her guidance. "I haven't the faintest idea what you are getting me into, young lady, but go ahead, ...
— Chicken Little Jane on the Big John • Lily Munsell Ritchie
... remembered exactly where, during his former life, he had hung his shield, and told his associates. They searched and found the piece of armor, with the initials of the Christian and surname which had belonged to the philosopher in his life as a soldier, centuries before. This puzzled me, for you see—now don't laugh—something had formerly happened to me very much like the Pagan's experience. I don't care much for books, and from a child have always read the same one. I inherited it from my dead father and the work is not printed, but written. I'll show it to you some time—it ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... Troubled and puzzled I turned and walked back to the dead embers of the fire. Kemper had merely changed the timbre of his snore to a whistling aria, which at any other time would have enraged me. Now, somehow, ...
— Police!!! • Robert W. Chambers
... must turn to paradox at the touch of an index finger, that almost faulty abstention from assuming the European tone which has made Hawthorne the traveller appear to certain readers a little crude,—that very air of being the uncritical and slightly puzzled American is precisely the source of his most ...
— A Study Of Hawthorne • George Parsons Lathrop
... me, Ike, you were let off easy." The old gentleman smiled grimly down upon the cowboy, who was still wrathful, but more puzzled than wrathful. The smiling man at the pony's head looked so thoroughly good-natured that it was hard to push a quarrel, but still Ike's dignity had ...
— The Prospector - A Tale of the Crow's Nest Pass • Ralph Connor
... determines to create an impression, and he at once draws you into the conversation. "Now, sir, you and I are scholars—I am an old Balliol man myself—and I was explaining to these good lads the meaning of the phrase which had puzzled them, as it has puzzled many more. Casus belli, sir—that is what we find in this local rag of a journal; and status quo ante bellum. Now, sir, these ignorant souls couldn't tell what was meant, so I have been enlightening ...
— The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions - Joints In Our Social Armour • James Runciman
... meant to be in the path of a stampede; but, strangely enough, all her fear left her. She was puzzled, that was all. Had she been alone, she could easily have escaped by jumping on Dan's back and riding hard. Dan could have distanced the cattle, even when they were stampeding. But now she had helpless Scylla to take ...
— Southern Stories - Retold from St. Nicholas • Various
... Rather puzzled as to how this would turn out, he got up and looked about him. He had slept out of sight of Oceaxe. He was anxious to learn if she were still on the spot, but before going to ascertain he made up his mind to bathe ...
— A Voyage to Arcturus • David Lindsay
... the Snowdon family happened to glance over the list of names which hung in the registrar's office during these weeks. The only interested person who had foreknowledge of Clem's wedding was Jane Snowdon, and Jane, though often puzzled in thinking of the matter, kept her promise to speak of it to no one. It was imprudence in Clem to have run this risk, but the joke was so rich that she could not deny herself its enjoyment; she knew, moreover, ...
— The Nether World • George Gissing
... made out to hinder him at all!" said Mrs. Derrick, looking a little puzzled. "But I'm much obliged ...
— Say and Seal, Volume I • Susan Warner
... her head, eyeing the document with a puzzled expression. Gradually bewilderment changed to ...
— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield
... A matter which puzzled him greatly was the familiar voice of the raider. Retief, as he knew him, spoke with a pronounced accent, but now he only heard the ordinary tones of ...
— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum
... awoke in the next street to his home, he is as effectually abroad as if the stage-coach had been whirling him away all night. Yet should he reappear, the whole project is knocked in the head. His poor brains being hopelessly puzzled with this dilemma, he at length ventures out, partly resolving to cross the head of the street and send one hasty glance toward his forsaken domicile. Habit—for he is a man of habits—takes him by the hand ...
— Twice Told Tales • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... Jadwin had suddenly decided to give himself a holiday, and that Laura had been quick to take advantage of it. Was it true, then, that Jadwin had but to speak the word to have Laura forget all else? Was it true that the mere nod of his head was enough to call her back to him? Corthell was puzzled. He would not admit this to be true. She was, he was persuaded, a woman of more spirit, of more pride than this would seem to indicate. Corthell ended by believing that Jadwin had, in some way, coerced her; though he fancied that for the few days immediately following the ...
— The Pit • Frank Norris
... over-fed sheep, and his voice suited his figure. There was a fixed, unvarying mask of childish wonder upon his face. If you paid him, he was as one marvelling at your wealth; if you sent him away, he seemed puzzled at your hard-heartedness. Never was Jew more unlike his dread breed. Ephraim wore list slippers and coats of duster-cloth, so preposterously patterned that the most brazen of British subalterns would have shied from them in fear. Very slow and deliberate was his speech, and carefully ...
— Life's Handicap • Rudyard Kipling
... but the note had opened his eyes to the fact that he had sadly injured his reputation, and he was angry at his companions because he had done so—although how they could be blamed for that, it would have puzzled a sensible boy to determine. But, after all, his case was not an isolated one. It is by no means uncommon for boys, when they get angry, to revenge themselves upon some innocent thing. We remember that, on a certain rainy day, several boys were congregated in a barn, amusing themselves ...
— Frank Among The Rancheros • Harry Castlemon
... o' care'—alane wi' Wullie, who stands to me, blaw or snaw, rain or shine. And whiles I'm feared he'll be took from me." He spoke this last half to himself, a grieved, puzzled expression on his face, as though lately he had dreamed ...
— Bob, Son of Battle • Alfred Ollivant
... be puzzled for reasons to vindicate such a conduct, while they seem to crowd in upon me in support of a contrary one. The United States trust to the justice of their cause, and the rectitude of their intentions, to open the way for them into ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. VIII • Various
... no doubt that he was desperately anxious for her formal word; there was a feverish eagerness in his eyes. It puzzled her, but it ...
— The Long Portage • Harold Bindloss
... know how to meet the situation, for she had no idea what had caused the laughter. It bubbled forth again and again during the evening, and each time Miss Anthony received the demonstration with the same air of puzzled surprise. When we had returned to our hotel rooms I explained the matter to her. I do not remember now where I had acquired my own sinful knowledge, but that night I faced "Aunt Susan" from the pedestal of ...
— The Story of a Pioneer - With The Collaboration Of Elizabeth Jordan • Anna Howard Shaw
... short of, or different from, our ordinary meaning of miraculous, as applied to this subject, and yet the same as that suggested by the Gospel account? We have no doubt what Mr. Maurice does believe on this sacred subject. But we are puzzled by what he means to disavow, as an "untrue meaning" of the word miraculous, as applied to what he believes. And the Unitarians whom he addresses must, ...
— Occasional Papers - Selected from The Guardian, The Times, and The Saturday Review, - 1846-1890 • R.W. Church
... oddest fellow I ever came across in my life," said Eustace, fairly puzzled as soon as he was gone. "It is my belief," tapping his forehead significantly, "that he is a little touched here. I don't believe he quite knows what he is talking about. Why, the other night he would have nothing ...
— Vera Nevill - Poor Wisdom's Chance • Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron
... fortune and virtually an exile from New York, where, as in New Jersey, he had been indicted for murder after the duel with Hamilton, Burr visited the South-west and became involved in the so-called conspiracy which has so puzzled the students of that period. The traditional view that he planned a separation of the West from the Union is now discredited. Apart from the question of political morality he could not, as a shrewd ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various
... eastern in their habits, all stayed at home and sent their husbands, and the social extension committee entered the drawing room to find it occupied by rows of Italian workingmen, who seemed to prefer to sit in chairs along the wall. They were quite ready to be "socially extended," but plainly puzzled as to what it was all about. The evening finally developed into a very successful party, not so much because the committee were equal to it, as because the Italian ...
— Twenty Years At Hull House • Jane Addams
... Indeed not! I don't want to go home in the dark, sir." The captain was puzzled. "Because I love my California, and I haven't seen her for two years," Farrel replied, to the other's unspoken query. "It's been so foggy since we landed in San Francisco I've had a hard job making my way round the Presidio. But if I take the eight-o'clock ...
— The Pride of Palomar • Peter B. Kyne
... surprised to find her aboard the Manatee, but she had told him that she was going home, that her health had been much benefited, and that she felt she could not remain away longer. It had seemed to Prale that she avoided him purposely, and that puzzled him a bit. He could not understand why any woman should absolutely dislike him. His record in Honduras was a clean one; it was known that he did not care much for women, and surely she had learned that he was a man of means, and did ...
— The Brand of Silence - A Detective Story • Harrington Strong
... it out of sight directly, he felt sure that the whole matter was no secret from Jane, and that she had been an accomplice in the trick that had been played on him, and he smiled to himself at the thought of how he had outwitted her, and of how puzzled she must be to know what had become ...
— Zoe • Evelyn Whitaker
... promptly produced cards and 'chips.' And in five minutes the game was in progress. Used as he was to the vagaries of his gambling friend, Minky was puzzled at the way he was discussing Suffering Creek with these strangers. His talk about James and the gold-stage was too rankly absurd for anything, and yet he knew that some subtle purpose must be underlying ...
— The Twins of Suffering Creek • Ridgwell Cullum
... interesting. We were approached one day by a tall, exceedingly solemn individual who asked for a copy of a book the name of which sounded to us like the title of what "the trade" knows as "a juvenile." "Who wrote it?" we inquired, puzzled. In a deep, hollow voice the unknown ...
— Walking-Stick Papers • Robert Cortes Holliday
... like the savage trembling in a thunderstorm, to be frightened at what will happen next. It is like moving in familiar surroundings among familiar people. Not all that goes on may be pleasant, but we can within limits predict what will happen, and are not puzzled and pained by continuous shocks and surprises. We like order in the places in which we live, in our homes, in our cities, ...
— Human Traits and their Social Significance • Irwin Edman
... looks at him severely, says nothing, turns to MATT. LUCAS looks puzzled, goes away, and again looks furtively into conservatory ...
— Dolly Reforming Herself - A Comedy in Four Acts • Henry Arthur Jones
... a conscience that never found fault, he met the searchlight gaze that the junior partner turned upon him without flinching. Quite calm, although somewhat puzzled by the other's manner, he stood ...
— Salthaven • W. W. Jacobs
... would read it and explain it to him, it would be so helpful to you both, and so inspiring. It deals so ably with the problems of child-training. You must be puzzled many times in the training of so many little minds, and Dr. Parker really does throw wonderful light on all the problems that confront mothers. And I am sure the mother of nine must have a ...
— Sowing Seeds in Danny • Nellie L. McClung
... You are one of those who creep into widows' houses, and for pretence make long prayers. You, sir, I will hear," I went on, turning to the dear old man who had sat by shaking his white locks with a sad and puzzled ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al
... peculiarly struck with an act of self-denial which also involved for Jane a slight humiliation, that he could not but wonder at her submission. He looked at her in astonishment and he did not know whether he admired her self-control and generosity or not. The circumstance puzzled and troubled him. That afternoon he had to go to Yoden to see his brother, and he came home ...
— The Measure of a Man • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
... been revealed, that good is the one thing to be done, at all risks, for its own sake; that good is absolutely and infinitely better than evil, whether it pay or not to all eternity. Ask one of them: "Is it better to do right and go to hell, or do wrong and go to heaven?"—they will look at you puzzled, half angry, suspecting you of some secret blasphemy, and, if hard pressed, put off the new and startling question by saying, that it is absurd to talk of an impossible hypothesis. The human portion of their virtue is not mercenary, for they are mostly worthy men; the religious part thereof, that ...
— Sanitary and Social Lectures and Essays • Charles Kingsley
... sight is meant. Bornemann, if the article be added, thinks that the village in which the palace stood is intended. The passage seems to me decidedly better without the article; for, if it be inserted, the reader is puzzled to know why Xenophon changes the number, when he had just before said that the palace stood in the midst ...
— The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis • Xenophon
... to repeat and reiterate the foregoing circumstances, so that a great number of honest and truly excellent Reformers may be able clearly to account for some part of my conduct, which may hitherto have appeared inexplicable. Thousands of very worthy friends of liberty, must have been puzzled and staggered by the violent attacks and calumnies that have been levelled at me, in those public prints that have been generally understood to be the staunch supporters of the principles of freedom; but if they will look back, and narrowly examine into the objects and views of these public ...
— Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 2 • Henry Hunt
... supposed pursuer. Apparently the pursuer did not know him. Very well; he would take advantage of that bit of stupidity on the part of the pursuer's superior officers. It was like them to send a man who did n't know him! "You wish to see some one in the house?" he asked, looking at Paul's angry and puzzled face. ...
— Captain Dieppe • Anthony Hope
... what sort of place this could be, and why Mrs. Donaldson had not been allowed to take her with her. She puzzled her head over it in vain. Only one thing was clear: that both her companions had been brought here against their will, and were ...
— Little Folks (November 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... immediate practical bearing. A savage can comprehend a carved image, but not so readily a picture. An Indian whom Catlin painted with half his face in shadow became the laughingstock of the tribe, as "the man with half a face." It is not necessary to suspect Mr. Catlin's chiaroscuro; what puzzled them was, doubtless, the bringing together in one view what they had seen only separate. They were accustomed to see the man in light and in shadow; but what they cared for, and therefore what they saw, was only the effect in making ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 76, February, 1864 • Various
... time Editor Surtaine retaliated upon the foe, employing the news of the slow progress of Miss Cleary, the nurse, to maintain interest in the topic. Protests invariably followed, sometimes from sources which puzzled the "Clarion." One of the protestants was Hugh Merritt, the young health officer of the city, who expressed his views to McGuire Ellis ...
— The Clarion • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... puzzled. "The Ball of the Willing Hand?" he repeated; "I do not know any Ball of the ...
— A Chair on The Boulevard • Leonard Merrick
... from the white chalk was formerly puzzled by meeting with certain bodies which they call larch-cones, which were afterwards recognised by Dr. Buckland to be the excrement of fish (see Figure 262). They are composed in great part of ...
— The Student's Elements of Geology • Sir Charles Lyell
... (Friday, April 16th) I called up Stephan, but received no reply. As I was within a few miles of our rendezvous, and as he would not be cruising after dark, I was puzzled to account for his silence. I could only imagine that his ...
— Danger! and Other Stories • Arthur Conan Doyle
... characterized the performance as being, in its main features, "a complete failure," and the stage setting "incredibly awkward and wooden" (very different from what it is in Dresden to-day). Mme. Schroeder-Devrient was an admirable "Senta," and received enthusiastic applause; but the opera itself puzzled the audience rather ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIV • John Lord
... we, therefore, soon after our arrival, walked down the rugged Rue de la Lamproie to an auberge which has for its sign a board on which is inscribed, "Aux Vreux-Antiquites Romaines." The meaning of this mysterious word, which has puzzled many people, is this: Here formerly existed a house which belonged to a bishop of Evreux; and was, consequently, called Hotel d'Evreux. The last proprietor, imagining that the word Evreux meant Roman Antiquities, was seized with ...
— Barn and the Pyrenees - A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre • Louisa Stuart Costello
... have to think something, and that was the aspect of the matter that puzzled them most. Why did everybody find it necessary to be thinking about it at all? Why did everybody consider it his business? As Thyrsis phrased it—"Why the hell can't they ...
— Love's Pilgrimage • Upton Sinclair
... think I'm the first 'Co-ed' he ever has seen; the first girl who voted and didn't let her skirts sag and still loved good candy! I mean that when he found in one half hour that I knew he wore nine dollar neckties and that I was for Roosevelt, the man nearly expired; he was that puzzled! I'm not quite the type of working girl whom Heaven protects and he chases, but—I mean I think he is wondering just how far Heaven really will protect my kind! When he decides," she confided in a final burst of laughter, and tucking away her overflowing red hair, ...
— The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me • William Allen White
... uncounted. in a state of uncertainty, in a cloud, in a maze; bushed, off the track; ignorant.&c. 491; afraid to say; out of one's reckoning, astray, adrift; at sea, at fault, at a loss, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus; puzzled &c. v.; lost, abroad, dsorient; distracted, distraught. Adv. pendente lite[Lat]; sub spe rati[Lat]. Phr. Heaven knows; who can tell? who shall decide when doctors disagree? ambiguas in ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget |
