"Whispering" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... is horrid. But then, there's mamma,' said Mysie, whispering, however, as she saw Dolores near, and ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge
... and essayed to calm her fears by whispering that he would soon be fully recovered. It was pleasant to know that he had succeeded in rescuing her from some indefinable though none the less deadly peril, yet the insistent question in his subconscious mind was not connected ...
— Number Seventeen • Louis Tracy
... embrace, her arms around his neck, whispering the horrible truth in his ear brokenly. And as he felt her dear young fragrance of hair in his nostrils, the warm, soft litheness of her body against his, the rage and terror in him flooded his veins. Could such ...
— Brand Blotters • William MacLeod Raine
... of some language not intended for publication, and there was whispering for a few minutes, followed ...
— Blindfolded • Earle Ashley Walcott
... Christian Soldier. He went to his king and rebuked him to his face, like Peter's dealing with Ananias (only David embraced his opportunity and confessed), and unlike the Chocolate Soldiers of today who go whispering about and refusing either to judge, rebuke, or put away evil because of the entailed scandal forsooth. Veritable Soapy Sams. They say "It is nothing! nothing at all! A mere misunderstanding!" As though God's cause would ...
— The Chocolate Soldier - Heroism—The Lost Chord of Christianity • C. T. Studd
... this disclosure, whispering all the time as he leaned his head and shoulder on Robinson's upright desk, they both remained silent for a while. "We have been wrong," he had said; "I know we have." And Robinson, as he heard the words, ...
— The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson - By One of the Firm • Anthony Trollope
... of it, the warmth and stimulus of his admiration, his absorbed companionship, how they changed the world for Martie! There was a witchery in the air, the blood ran quick in her veins. The dirty big hall, with its high windows, was fairyland; the whispering crowd, Rodney's nearness, and the consciousness of her own youth and beauty, her flushed cheeks and loosened bronze hair, acted upon Martie like strong wine. She grew lovely beneath his very eyes; she was nineteen, ...
— Martie the Unconquered • Kathleen Norris
... of men whispering together in small knots or speaking in subdued tones points to disaffection amongst the rank and file. 36. Too frequent rewards signify that the enemy is at ...
— The Art of War • Sun Tzu
... so often, Carlyle just missed a grand truth to which his insight and nobility of soul had led him, through his perverse inability to accept any systematic philosophy, and through his habit to listen to the whispering of his own heart as if it were equivalent to scientific certainty. But the whole book, Past and Present, is a splendid piece and has done much to mould the thought of our time. It would impress us much more than it does, were it not already become the very basis of all sincere ...
— Studies in Early Victorian Literature • Frederic Harrison
... her cheeks, and knew that it was because she had been so naughty that the tears were there, Ruby wanted to bury her head in the pillow beside her mother, and have a good cry there; but she remembered what her father had told her, and kept very quiet. She only kissed her mother, and whispering how very sorry she was, she came away, feeling comforted and forgiven by her mother's kiss. "I don't see how I am ever bad to such a lovely ...
— Ruby at School • Minnie E. Paull
... their curiosity in regard to Allie, nor their wonder. She had heard them whispering together whenever they ...
— The U.P. Trail • Zane Grey
... your Count of Leon—but just then Sancho, the Viscount of Toledo's son, The King's chief Page, takes me his handkerchief And binds it on my eyes, he whispering round Unto his fellows, here you see I've caught A most ferocious cub. Whereat they kicked, And pinched, and cuffed me till I nearly roared As fierce as any lion, ...
— Count Alarcos - A Tragedy • Benjamin Disraeli
... dissipation, was converted to Christ by a text of St. Paul (Rom. xiii. 13, 14), which his eyes first lit upon, as on suggestion of a friend he took up the epistle to read it in answer to an appeal he had made to him to explain a voice that was ever whispering in his ears, "Take and read"; became bishop in 396, devoted himself to pastoral duties, and took an active part in the Church controversies of his age, opposing especially the Manichaeans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians; his principal ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood
... feverish movement in Beaumont-l'Eglise was calmed; a peculiar air of expectation seemed to fill the streets, which were all ready, and where everyone spoke softly, in hushed, whispering voices. The heat had diminished, as the sun's rays grew oblique, and between the houses, so closely pressed the one against the others, there fell from the pale sky only a warm, fine shadow of a gentle, serene nature. The air of meditation was profound, as if the old ...
— The Dream • Emile Zola
... by whispering into Arnold Baxter's ear. At once the rascal's face brightened, and he nodded. ...
— The Rover Boys on the Ocean • Arthur M. Winfield (Edward Stratemeyer)
... remarked (this I thought of afterwards) that the prisoner captain and some of his men had been whispering together a good deal lately; but not being in the slightest degree suspicious ...
— Sketches From My Life - By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha • Hobart Pasha
... There was much whispering and consulting in the room, but unnoticed, as general conversation had now been resumed. The duchess sent for Lothair, and conferred with him; but Lothair seemed to shake his head. Then her grace rose and approached ...
— Lothair • Benjamin Disraeli
... same curious rustling of leaves came whispering from among the trees, and then there was a low expiration of breath, as if some great ...
— Bunyip Land - A Story of Adventure in New Guinea • George Manville Fenn
... 11 P.M. the huge Pacific train, with its heavy bell tolling, thundered up to the door of the Truckee House, and on presenting my ticket at the double door of a "Silver Palace" car, the slippered steward, whispering low, conducted me to my berth—a luxurious bed three and a half feet wide, with a hair mattress on springs, fine linen sheets, and costly California blankets. The twenty-four inmates of the car were all invisible, asleep behind rich curtains. It was a true Temple of Morpheus. Profound sleep was ...
— A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains • Isabella L. Bird
... What a murmur of multitudinous tongues, like the whispering leaves of a wind-stirred oak, as the scholars con over their various tasks! Buz, buz, buz! Amid just such a murmur has Master Cheever spent above sixty years: and long habit has made it as pleasant to him as the hum of a bee-hive, when the insects are ...
— True Stories from History and Biography • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... us to cross over and again we traversed the fields, passing by the base of a small hill, when, as we softly crept up the side, we saw the form of a sentinel against the light of the sky. Our guide whispered, 'Doucement' again, and we gently retreated, my companion whispering to me, 'Tres ...
— Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals - In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Samuel F. B. Morse
... weather had evidently not depressed the spirits of their opponents. The juniors stood about laughing and talking. Julia Crosby moved from one girl to the other whispering slyly. ...
— Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School • Jessie Graham Flower
... went out of the dancing-room. Barefoot heard several people whispering and tittering behind her, but she kept her eyes fixed on the ground. She wondered if she had not ventured too far ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII • Various
... from Annie, who has been whispering in his ear. Beeler nods at Martha in covert approval, as she takes up dishes and goes into ...
— The Faith Healer - A Play in Three Acts • William Vaughn Moody
... or is not this rushing at once in medias res? It is; there's no paltry subterfuge about it—no unnecessary wearing out of "the waning moon they met by"—"the stars that gazed upon their joy"—"the whispering gales that breathed in zephyr's softest sighs"—their "lover's perjuries to the distracted trees they wouldn't allow to go to sleep." In short, "there's no nonsense"—there's a broad assertion of ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, September 12, 1841 • Various
... Louise had watched them whispering, with a stony fare, but, at Ephie's gesture, life came into it. Her eyes opened wide; and drawing back from the girl's outstretched hand, yet without seeming to see it, she turned with a hasty movement, and went over to the window, where she stood with ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson
... pistol as he ran. But within three strides he went down. A tough vine, unnoticed on the ground, looped snakily around one ankle and threw him hard. His gun flew from his hand. As he fell a tiny whispering sound flitted past, followed by a small blow somewhere behind him. Ensued a gruff grunt from Tim and the swift ...
— The Pathless Trail • Arthur O. (Arthur Olney) Friel
... man fashions, the structure he rears, the success he achieves, not less than his marble monument, looks down upon the beholder with a mute appeal for recollection. To each eager aspirant for everlasting remembrance Christ comes whispering his secret of abiding renown. Speaking not as an amateur, but as a master, Christ affirms that he who would save his life must lose it, that he who would be remembered by others must forget himself, that the soldier who flees from danger to save his body shall ...
— The Investment of Influence - A Study of Social Sympathy and Service • Newell Dwight Hillis
... Francisco, with mines on both sides, and numerous flumes which tell of busy times. Halloa! what's this? Dutch Flat. Shades of Bret Harte, true child of genius, what a pity you ever forsook these scenes to dwindle in the foreign air of the Atlantic coast! A whispering pine of the Sierras transplanted to Fifth Avenue! How could it grow? Although it shows some faint signs of life, how sickly are the leaves! As for fruit, there is none. America had in Bret Harte its most ...
— Round the World • Andrew Carnegie
... have I paused on every charm: The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm; The never-failing brook, the busy mill, The decent church that topped the neighbouring hill: The hawthorn-bush, with seats beneath the shade. For talking age and whispering lovers made." ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 2 - "Demijohn" to "Destructor" • Various
... one of those little mountain-brooks which roll their limpid waters over silver sands; hurl by through whispering ledges, the resort of snipe and woodcock; or, varying this quiet and serene existence with occasional action, dart between abrupt banks over mossy rocks, laughing as they fly ...
— The Last of the Foresters • John Esten Cooke
... themselves with tea at their little villa and removing the grime of the journey, the travelers wandered off into the ancient forest, cool and gray and very still, except for the sound of the wind whispering through ...
— The Motor Maids in Fair Japan • Katherine Stokes
... fluted mahogany pillars of a huge four-post bed, he would not have understood its meaning. He would never have divined that the dull gleam shining between her half-closed eyelids was simple hatred of himself, that the restless, twitching lips were whispering curses upon his head, that the half-stunned brain was struggling back to circulation and thought for the sole purpose of devising ...
— From One Generation to Another • Henry Seton Merriman
... and temper their harshness and indifference to suffering with the laws of mercy and humanity, speaking with an authority and equality such as should ensure attention, no longer in home and nursery whispering alone, but with open face asserting and claiming ...
— Modern Broods • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... into the air torn and mangled. There are sudden gaps, but not a man flinches. They look not towards the rear, but towards the front. There are the fallen trees, the hill, the line of two thousand muskets poised between the logs, the cannon thundering from the height beyond. There is no whispering in those solid ranks, no loud talking, nothing but the "Steady! steady!" of the officers. Their hearts beat great throbs. Their nerves are steel, their muscles iron. They grasp their muskets with the grip of tigers. Before ...
— My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field • Charles Carleton Coffin
... companions who were present. But I had no sooner left you," proceeded she, "than I went to my dear mistress again, and was eye-witness to what happened in the evening. I found her in the apartment I told you of; and as she though I came from you, she drew near me, and whispering me, said, 'I am much obliged to you for the service you have done me, but I feel it will be the last.' She said no more; but I was not in a place proper to offer any ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous
... darkness to conceal his presence, though the valley was in such a deep shadow that, as he strained eyes and ears to make out and count the enemy, he could do neither, though he knew now that they had halted just opposite to him, and he could hear them whispering evidently in consultation before they took another step ...
— Yussuf the Guide - The Mountain Bandits; Strange Adventure in Asia Minor • George Manville Fenn
... was half whispering now and his voice was like that of a right old man. "Happy! So was I—so was her ma—out there in the old log house, with the mountains, and the sun shining, and the wind blowing. Curly," says he, "what made her ...
— The Man Next Door • Emerson Hough
... man—from the boat," panted our hero, whispering to himself. "He came back and saw me. I wonder if ...
— Tom Swift and his Motor-cycle • Victor Appleton
... high in the air, to be borne over the land in a salt rain, and, as a rule, the sea repelled her, and she shrank, too, from the great folds of the cliff, with their mysterious-looking grass-grown ledges and cracks, up which came the whispering and gurgling of water, and at times fierce hissings as if sea monsters lived below, and were threatening those who looked down and did not pause to think that these sounds must be caused by air compressed by the ...
— Cutlass and Cudgel • George Manville Fenn
... him to repeat it, but this he steadfastly refused to do. There was a slight intermission between the playing of the first and the second parts of the symphony, and during this pause the librarian handed a note to Von Barwig, whispering to him, "You must read it. The woman is ...
— The Music Master - Novelized from the Play • Charles Klein
... while Mr. and Mrs. Gartney were felicitating each other, cheerily, upon the great good that had fallen to the lot of their cherished child, that child sat by her open window, looking out into the summer night; the tossing elm boughs whispering weird syllables in her ears, and the stars looking down upon her soul struggle, so silently, from ...
— Faith Gartney's Girlhood • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... rose and went quietly out into the porch, while the Frau Foerster, with cold, round gray eyes and a tight mouth, was whispering to her frowning spouse that it was none of his business, and why get himself into trouble? Besides, Mrs Dene's Herr Gemahl, meaning the absent colonel, would come back in a day or two; let him attend ...
— In the Quarter • Robert W. Chambers
... houses wrapped in slumber or showing an occasional light; through thoroughfares which the windows of the shops that thrive, owl-like, at night still made brilliant; down the long avenue of trim-clipped trees whereunder time-defying lovers still sat whispering; past the long garden wall, startling as they crossed the road a troop of horses browsing for fallen figs; along the path that winds, water-lapped, under the hollowed rocks that shelter nightly forlorn outcasts of Sydney. She ...
— The Workingman's Paradise - An Australian Labour Novel • John Miller
... his hands were taking off her snow-wet coat and hat. He was whispering to her his love and gladness while he placed her in a chair and lighted the tiny gas log in ...
— The Place Beyond the Winds • Harriet T. Comstock
... that I had got on the stool. We now got down again without speaking, and each taking a musket, we kneeled down at the lower loop-holes which I have described. On second thoughts, I mounted the stool, whispering to her, "Don't fire till ...
— The Privateer's-Man - One hundred Years Ago • Frederick Marryat
... from Dunkirk, they from Mardyke. By one of them Reynolds solicited permission to pay his respects to the young prince. He was accompanied by Crew, another officer; and, though he pretended that it was an accidental civility, found the opportunity of whispering an implied offer of his services in the ear of the duke. Within a few days he received an order to wait on the protector in London in company with Colonel White, who had secretly accused him; but both were lost[a] on the Goodwin ...
— The History of England from the First Invasion by the Romans - to the Accession of King George the Fifth - Volume 8 • John Lingard and Hilaire Belloc
... Apollo's presence when in act to strike The serpent—Ha, the serpent! certes, she 80 Was none. She burnt, she lov'd the tyranny, And, all subdued, consented to the hour When to the bridal he should lead his paramour. Whispering in midnight silence, said the youth, "Sure some sweet name thou hast, though, by my truth, I have not ask'd it, ever thinking thee Not mortal, but of heavenly progeny, As still I do. Hast any mortal name, Fit appellation ...
— Keats: Poems Published in 1820 • John Keats
... handkerchief at her eyes, fully equal to the proprieties of the occasion, though I fear her grief was not so heartfelt as her husband's, who dried his eyes on his coat-sleeve again and again. There were perhaps twenty of the mourners, and there was much whispering among those who walked last. The minister and some others fell into line, and the procession went slowly down the slope; a strange shadow had fallen over everything. It was like a November day, for the air felt cold and bleak. There ...
— Deephaven and Selected Stories & Sketches • Sarah Orne Jewett
... neck as wry as the chapel weathercock. My lady goes nigh crazed with his ill humours. I warrant thee, Sir William's ghost gaily snuffs up the sport. I have watched him up and down the old stairs, and once i' the chapel; and he told me"—whispering close to the pilgrim's ear—"a ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... 'she behaved fairly well in company, but I saw her tittering and whispering with Emily Trotman in a tone that I thought very ...
— That Stick • Charlotte M. Yonge
... Wouldst thou convey,—what secret thing, O wandering water ever whispering? Surely thy speech shall be of her, Thou water, O thou whispering wanderer, What message dost ...
— Style • Walter Raleigh
... glare in Paul's eyes as Locke unconcernedly withdrew, whispering to the detective, who nodded deferentially to the young scientist who had been assigned by the Department of Justice, strangely, to the very case which now he realized in some unknown way must concern himself and the very mystery of his ...
— The Master Mystery • Arthur B. Reeve and John W. Grey
... across the sea upon the funeral of an Asa. Nanna came, Baldur's fair young wife; but when she saw the dead body of her husband, her own heart broke with grief, and the gods laid her beside him on the stately ship. After this Odin stepped forward and placed a ring on the breast of his son, whispering something at the same time in his ear; but when he and the rest of the gods tried to push Ringhorn into the sea before setting fire to it, they found their hearts too heavy to do it. So they beckoned to the giantess Hyrrokin to come over from Joetunheim and help them. She, with a single ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various
... it is," observed Hsi Ch'un with a chuckle; "soon after the arrival of the Superior, Yue Hsin's wife came over and kept on whispering with her for some time; so I presume it must have ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... little below Gravesend. At night Mr. Sheply returned from London, and told us of several elections for the next Parliament. That the King's effigies was new making to be set up in the Exchange again. This evening was a great whispering of some of the Vice-Admiral's captains that they were dissatisfied, and did intend to fight themselves, to oppose the General. But it was soon hushed, and the Vice-Admiral did wholly deny any such thing, and protested to stand by ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... a ring, the board and festive cheer Removed, and sitting, play a merry game: Each asks, still whispering in a neighbour's ear, What secret pleases best; to knight and dame A fair occasion, without let or fear, Their love, unheard of any, to proclaim. And in conclusion the two lovers plight Their word, to ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto
... cannot get away from it. I try to think—I can't collect my thoughts, I try to pray—but I can't get free by prayer. My lips murmur the words but my heart is far away; as though the evil one were whispering in my ear, and always of such wicked things. And such thoughts rise up within me, that I'm ashamed of myself. What is wrong with me? There's some trouble, something before me! At night I do not sleep, Varia, a sort of murmur haunts me; ...
— The Storm • Aleksandr Nicolaevich Ostrovsky
... this, there is the supernatural communication of a strength not our own, which is the constant result of Christian faith. Christian faith knits the soul and the Saviour in so close a union, that all that is Christ's becomes the Christian's, and every believer may hear His Lover's voice whispering to him what one of His servants once heard in an hour of despondency, 'My grace is sufficient for thee, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Faith joins us to the Lord, and 'he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit'; and that Lord has said to all His disciples, 'I give thee ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren
... commenced a whispered conversation. To Landless, awaiting rather listlessly the outcome of this nocturnal adventure, came now and then a broken sentence. "He hath not the look of a criminal, but—" "Of Puritan breeding, sayest thou?" "We need young blood." Then after prolonged whispering, "No traitor, at least." ...
— Prisoners of Hope - A Tale of Colonial Virginia • Mary Johnston
... tongue to join The lark at his matin hymn, And thence on faith's own wing to spring And sing with cherubim! To pray from a deep and tender heart With all things praying anew, The birds and the bees and the whispering trees, And heather bedropt with dew.— To be one with those early worshippers, And pour ...
— My Life as an Author • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... observed from the cradle. Indeed, the latter, strong in the belief that the terms outside broker and raving maniac were interchangeable, twice dropped her spoon into her soup-plate before she could succeed in lifting it to her mouth, and was unable to prevent herself from whispering to the Prophet,— ...
— The Prophet of Berkeley Square • Robert Hichens
... was silence—for Harry had left the fissure to go into the stope and make an investigation. A long moment and he was back, almost creeping, and whispering as he reached ...
— The Cross-Cut • Courtney Ryley Cooper
... hysteria itself. He returned to the other room, closing the door softly behind him. The man on the bed had not moved, but his eyes were open. His lips seemed to form words. Doctor James bent his head to listen. "The money! the money!" was what they were whispering. ...
— Rolling Stones • O. Henry
... thing in its manner as well as in its subject, and the costume which Lord Hurdly's taste had conceived for her and a French milliner had carried out was a marvel of rich effects. As she paused in front of it her lips parted, and she said, whispering ...
— A Manifest Destiny • Julia Magruder
... was another experience never to be forgotten by the Happy Hexagons. In the parlor of the suite Genevieve and Cordelia kept up such an incessant buzz of husky whispering and tittering that Mrs. Kennedy came out ...
— The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch • Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter
... much prosperity; I warned him against assuming heroic imperatorial airs, and cocking his laurels too jauntily over his ear. I was his conscience, and stood on the splash-board of his triumph-car, whispering, "Hominem memento te." As we rolled along the way, and passed the weathercocks on the temples, I saluted the symbol of the goddess Fortune with a reverent awe. "We have done our little endeavor," I said, bowing my head, "and mortals ...
— Roundabout Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray
... not lie through the domain of Art or the domain of Science where well-known voices quarrel noisily in a misty emptiness; it is a path of toilsome silence upon which travel men simple and unknown, with closed lips, or, maybe, whispering their pain ...
— Notes on Life and Letters • Joseph Conrad
... you whispering?" said the daughter of the house, moistening her lips, as she spoke, in ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various
... person of the teacher to the uttermost of my power;" which open and candid declaration was very grateful to the whole congregation. During the time of this sermon, Mr. Wishart perceived two grey friars standing in the entry of the church, and whispering to every person that entered the door; he called out to the people to make room for them, because, said he, "perhaps they come to learn;" and then addressed them, "requesting them to come forward, and hear the word of truth;" but they still continued to trouble the people, upon which he reproved ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie
... tired to collect wood for a fire. Percy threw himself on the ground in the shade, where Raff had already lain down. Denis seated himself by his side. He had scarcely been there a moment, when he started up, whispering— ...
— Hendricks the Hunter - The Border Farm, a Tale of Zululand • W.H.G. Kingston
... breaking here and there a limb; But every now and then broad sunlit days Lovingly lingered, caught among the leaves. Yes, it had known all this, and yet to us It does not speak of mossy forest ways, Of whispering pine trees or the shimmering birch; But of quick winds, and the salt, stinging sea! An artist once, with patient, careful knife, Had fashioned it like to the untamed sea. Here waves uprear themselves, their tops blown back By ...
— A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass • Amy Lowell
... staff of the two on which a young lady might lean. He did make all these excuses for himself, and determined that they were of such a nature that he might rely upon them with safety. But still there was a pang in his bosom—a silent secret—which kept on whispering to him that he was not the best beloved. He had, however, resolved steadfastly that he would not put that question to Mary. If she did not wish to declare her love, neither did he. It was a pity, a thousand ...
— An Old Man's Love • Anthony Trollope
... yet; but he whose ear Thrills to that finer atmosphere Where footfalls of appointed things, Reverberant of days to be, Are heard in forecast echoings, Like wave-beats from a viewless sea — Hears in the voiceful tremors of the sky Auroral heralds whispering, ...
— An Anthology of Australian Verse • Bertram Stevens
... playing cards, while the bricks of which the wall was made oozed with damp, which collected into drops and slid down the wall. But the little old women became Helen and Nurse McInnis after a time, standing in the window together whispering, whispering incessantly. ...
— The Voyage Out • Virginia Woolf
... across the Tyrrhene sea To some more favored Cyprian sanctuary, Leaving us lonely, longing for her face. O daughter of the gods, though lovelier lands, If such there be, entreat you, do not hear Their whispering voices, heed their beckoning hands; Have only eye for Florence, only ear For Florentine adorers, while their cheer Between your fingers spills ...
— The God of Love • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... claim to consideration was his respectability. He had not a pliant face, he had rather a stiff neck, rather a tight smooth head with short hair clinging to it at the sides, a soft way of speaking, with a peculiar habit of whispering the letter S so distinctly, that he seemed to use it oftener than any other man; but every peculiarity that he had he made respectable. If his nose had been upside-down, he would have made that respectable. He surrounded himself with an atmosphere ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens
... There still come days in the spring when the country seems to get a stranglehold on me and start in pulling. This particular day had been one of them. I got up in the morning and looked out of the window, and the breeze just wrapped me round and began whispering about pigs and chickens. And when I went out on Fifth Avenue there seemed to be flowers everywhere. I headed for the Park, and there was the grass all green, and the trees coming out, and a sort of something in the air—why, say, if there hadn't have been ...
— The Man with Two Left Feet - and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse
... to their lodgings. How might Siegfried, or any else against whom they plotted, ware himself against their wiles? This later brought great sorrow to them all. The king walked whispering with his friends; Hagen of Troneg never let him rest. Enow of the king's liegemen would fain have parted the strife, but Hagen would not give up his plan. On a day Siegfried found them whispering. The hero of Netherland gan ask: "How go ...
— The Nibelungenlied • Unknown
... the plate; and when I had a chance to open it unobserved, and read the words, "Are you mad with me?" I could not occupy my cold and dreary pinnacle a moment longer, but sought an early opportunity of squeezing her hand two seats behind the voluminous asylum of Briggs's toes, and whispering, slightly confused by intensity of feeling, that if I had done any thing I was sorry for, I was willing to be forgiven. From that moment I was Miss Tucker's slave. Oh, woman, woman! The string on which ...
— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various
... which passed slowly from left to right before my consciousness a little way, then vanished, came back, and passed slowly again, from left to right continually; till some prick, or voice, in my brain would startle me into the consciousness that I was staring, whispering the profound confidential warning: You must not stare so, or it is over with you!' Well, lost in a blank trance of this sort, I was leaning over the wheel during the afternoon of the 15th, when it was as if some instinct or premonition in my soul leapt up, and ...
— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel
... much as wondering. Her body ached in sympathy with the panting, racking toil of the man at the oars, the labor of an indomitable pigmy, striving to thwart a giant's will. Suddenly he shouted. The boat spun. Something low and a shade blacker than the dull murk about them, with a white, whispering ripple at its edge, loomed. The boat's prow drove into soft mud as Banneker, all but knocking her overboard in his dash, plunged to the land and with one powerful lift, brought ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... Shalom-Shachno the Matchmaker had started coming into the school a little too often. He always called the teacher outside, where they stood talking together for some minutes, whispering and getting excited. The matchmaker gesticulated with his hands, and shrugged his shoulders. He always finished up with a ...
— Jewish Children • Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich
... particularly busy, and flew here and there, whispering with Bud, who seemed to be in some ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor
... the head of the bed sat the father, holding her hand in his; but when I entered he rose and made way for me, retiring to the foot of the bed, where two of the women were seated. I knelt beside the bed, and Yoletta raised and tenderly placed my right hand on the mother's forehead, and, after whispering to me to let it rest very gently there, she ...
— A Crystal Age • W. H. Hudson
... whispering to each other in a box of an adjoining tavern, three police-constables were making themselves at home in the premises of Sir Richard Brandon. One of these was ...
— Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished - A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure • R.M. Ballantyne
... Signorina?" he said, half whispering. "There are stories—I have heard—the Signorina sees these ilex trees? Over yonder was a great one in my father's day, and the old Count Accolanti would have it cut. He came to watch it as it fell, and the tree tumbled the wrong way and struck him so that he half lost his wits. There ...
— Daphne, An Autumn Pastoral • Margaret Pollock Sherwood
... in the British Museum, and too important not to be reproduced here. The tree in the middle, the human couple stretching out their hands for the fruit, the serpent standing behind the woman in—one might almost say—a whispering attitude, all this tells its own tale. And the authority of this artistic presentation, which so strangely fits in to fill the blank in the written narrative, is doubled by the fact that the engravings on the cylinders ...
— Chaldea - From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria • Znade A. Ragozin
... to his psalter and read and read. Exactly at midnight there was a great blast of wind, the coffin began to rock, its lid flew off. The Soldier jumped quickly on to the stove, hid himself in a corner, guarded himself by a sign of the cross, and began whispering prayers. Meanwhile the witch had leapt out of the coffin, and was rushing about from side to side—now here, now there. Then there came running up to her countless swarms of evil spirits; the room was ...
— Russian Fairy Tales - A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore • W. R. S. Ralston
... than what you are thinking of; supply him {with money} through some other person; suffer yourself to be imposed upon by the artifices of his servant: although I have smelt out this too, that they are about that, {and} are secretly planning it among them. Syrus is {always} whispering with that {servant} of yours;[57] they impart their plans to the young men; and it were better for you to lose a talent this way, than a mina the other. The money is not the question now, but this— in what way we can supply it to the young man with the least danger. For if he once knows the state ...
— The Comedies of Terence - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Notes • Publius Terentius Afer, (AKA) Terence
... contemplation of his motionless figure, Weldon met Dupont's eyes inquiringly. The brother-in-law shook his head, no wiser, evidently. Weldon gestured imperiously toward the fat man, and Dupont tiptoed over to him, whispering hoarsely, "I didn't know he was so attached to Edward, did ...
— The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon • Josephine Daskam Bacon
... two people who are growing old. See?—right down here. One of them must be sixty now, and one about seventy, but they're smiling just as they did when they were young. And they're whispering that they love each other a great deal better now than they did in those days of long ago; that it has grown and grown until it is a bigger thing than the love of youth ...
— The Glory Of The Conquered • Susan Glaspell
... him eminently suited to the situation, and he repeated it over and over again—now in the waltz-time of the old melody, now as a march, and again as a serenade—now in loud, jubilant tones, and then half whispering, as if he were confiding his love and his hope to the moon ...
— Tales of Two Countries • Alexander Kielland
... so impetuously that the foremost man skidded on the polished floor and all but fell. Bland was plucking at his elbow and whispering, "You let me handle the publicity, bo!" The clerk was staring at him, both palms planted firmly on the desk, and men were pushing up and craning for a look at him. Johnny whirled suddenly and retreated to the telephone booth, shutting the door ...
— The Thunder Bird • B. M. Bower
... found a place behind them Snap Naab entered with his wife. She was as pale as if she were in her shroud. Hare caught Mother Ruth's pitying subdued glance as she drew the frail little woman to her side. When August Naab began fingering his Bible the whispering ceased. ...
— The Heritage of the Desert • Zane Grey
... Secretary of War, had been the work of her father, with scarcely a suggestion from without. The Abolitionist had determined to force Lincoln to free the slaves at once or destroy him and his administration. They also were whispering the name of their chosen dictator who would assume the reins of power ...
— The Southerner - A Romance of the Real Lincoln • Thomas Dixon
... when music-loving Pan Still played his flute amid the whispering reeds, When through Arcadian groves the dryads ran, And—symbolizing well man's earlier creeds— A host of sculptured forms, divinely fair, Portrayed the gods, and led men's ...
— Poems • John L. Stoddard
... to a low wing, repeating his cautions, and, in answer to my questions, denying all knowledge of the strangers. Placing me behind a low wall, he now stole forward and tapped at a window, and presently I heard the inmates moving and whispering. The door was soon opened, and a parley took place, in which I heard my assumed name made honourable mention of by my intruder. He led me forward, pushed me gently before him, and I found myself in a dark passage, soft hands welcoming ...
— Tales from Blackwood, Volume 7 • Various
... inland as a hostage to famine, and that must be carefully guarded from the teeth of hungry prowlers, for they would soon be needed to keep the children themselves from starving. Every night at early sunset, when the trees began to groan and the keen winds from the mountains came whispering through the woods, the two pigs were taken into the snug kitchen, where with the dogs they slept so close to the stove that she could always smell pork a-frying. Not a husky dog there but would have killed and eaten one of these ...
— Northern Trails, Book I. • William J. Long
... soon as we know where we must dig, I will help you myself to tear up the foundation stones. My darling boys! It is all for them! For my part, the only thing that troubles me is lest there be some sin in this business that we are whispering about." ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: Spanish • Various
... when fainting under accumulated evils, when almost delirious with sickening and heated thought, to hear at each prompting of the wrung and excited nature, each heave of the black fountain that in no mortal breast is utterly exhausted, one smooth, soft, persuasive voice forever whispering, "Relief!"—relief, certain, utter, instantaneous! the voice of one pledged never to relax an effort or spare a pang, by a danger to himself, a danger of shame and death,—the voice of one who never spoke but in friendship and compassion, profound in craft, and a very sage in ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... in the trees then leafless, the Hudson was visible, even then flaked with ice, while an early snow covered the sloping lawn and whitened the broad-limbed oaks. I remember indistinctly his leading me by the hand through the hallway up the stairs, and softly whispering to me to be quite still, entered the large room dimly lit where my mother, attended by a nurse and a doctor, lay on the white bed. I remember being kissed by her and then being led from the room ...
— The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars • L. P. Gratacap
... hear Professor Seeley whispering in my ear, 'What is this but the old literary groove leading to no trustworthy knowledge?' If by trustworthy knowledge is meant demonstrable conclusions, capable of being expressed in terms at once exact and final, trustworthy knowledge is not to be gained from the witness of history, whose ...
— Obiter Dicta - Second Series • Augustine Birrell
... her pride; but her confidence in his love and truth was entire. Her admiration for him partook of worship, and she steadily sought to reason away any causes for alarm by recalling the state cares which pressed heavily upon him, and whispering to herself that word of "wife," which, coming in passionate music from those beloved lips, had thrown a mist over the present, a glory over the future! and in the king's retention of Adam Warner, despite the Duchess ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... met his ear, and, turning, he beheld his uncle, the hermit, standing before them, staring wildly upon Edith; who, as soon as she discovered the strange-looking being, uttered a faint scream and sunk on Edgar's bosom. "Don't be alarmed," said he, whispering in her ear; "this man will not harm you,"—and then lifting his head to address his uncle, and inquire what brought him there, so far from home at that late hour, he ...
— Eventide - A Series of Tales and Poems • Effie Afton
... song of the sea in the shell, The swish of the grass in the breeze, The sound of a far-away bell, The whispering ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand
... sinking, swaying from side to side, a slender figure poised in the swinging bucket, steadied by a white hand that grasped the rim of steel. She turned from the window resolved to see no more. Her resolution fled. She was again at the window with upturned face and straining eyes, white lips whispering prayers that God might be good to the girl who was risking her life for another. The slender threads even then had vanished. There was only a fleck of black floating high above the rambling town, above the rocks ...
— Blue Goose • Frank Lewis Nason
... to the king with these words: 'Sire, having found that you grow tired of me, I present this lady to you, that you may amuse yourself with her." 'That would be very fine," replied comte Jean; "it would show him that you had profited by my advice." Then, whispering in my ear, "You know, sister, I am capable of the greatest sacrifices for the king." "What are you saying, Comte Jean?" asked the marechale, who had heard some words. "I said to my sister," answered he, coolly, "that she ought to be executed to please the king." "And you, too, brother," ...
— "Written by Herself" • Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon
... automatic action of feet and fingers, I stopped the car. Here was the town that she had shown me on the map that morning when we sat like a pair of whispering conspirators in the garden of the Three Kings. The obstacles which had seemed so great had melted away before us. This ruined village, this heap of stones cross the river, was our goal, the key to our mystery, the last scene of ...
— The Firefly Of France • Marion Polk Angellotti
... murmurs in the next room, and wishing the stranger would only go, so that I might exhibit my new treasures. At last the strange gentleman opened the door softly, talking all the way, across the room, through the entry, and finally whispering himself fairly out-of-doors. When my husband came in, I was eager to show him the Mercury, and the lily, and ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 42, April, 1861 • Various
... at an hostel rested he, and there Tarried the coming of the morn. But ere He fell asleep that night, a wandering thought, Through darkling byeways of the spirit brought, Knock'd at his soul for entrance, whispering low "What if to-night thou dream The Dream, and know To-morrow, when thou wakest from that bliss, The land wherein thou liest to be his Who hath the mystic jewel in his keep?" So, full of flattering hope he fell asleep, And sleeping ...
— The Poems of William Watson • William Watson
... pitiless forces; the dreary years of frost and famine; the harsh and jarring contact with elemental life; the aching void which mere animal existence could not fill. And there, seduction by his side, whispering of brighter, warmer lands, of music, light, and joy, called the old times back again. He visioned it unconsciously. Faces rushed in upon him; glimpses of forgotten scenes, memories of merry hours; strains of ...
— The God of His Fathers • Jack London
... birth From a hole in the earth Well protected by bramble and thorn. For a time 'twas content, Nor on wandering bent, Till the raindrops fell plenteous and free, And disturbed the sweet rest Of the rivulet's breast, By whispering tales of the sea. ...
— The Death of Saul and other Eisteddfod Prize Poems and Miscellaneous Verses • J. C. Manning
... Johnson with a well-known repartee. When the Doctor visited the Parliament House, Erskine was presented to him by Boswell, and was somewhat gruffly received. After having made his bow, Erskine (p. 046) slipped a shilling into Boswell's hand, whispering that it was for ...
— Robert Burns • Principal Shairp
... The sultan had some time before signified to him his intention of bestowing the princess on a son of his; therefore he was afraid, and not without grounds, that the present might change his majesty's mind. Therefore going to him, and whispering him in the ear, he said: "I cannot but own that the present is worthy of the princess; but I beg of your majesty to grant me three months before you come to a final resolution. I hope, before that time, my son, on whom ...
— The Arabian Nights - Their Best-known Tales • Unknown
... each other our respective opinions of the ladies round about us. Look at that charming creature in a pink bonnet and a dress of the pattern of a Kilmarnock snuff-box: a stalwart Irish gentleman in a green coat and bushy red whiskers is whispering something very agreeable into her ear, as is the wont of gentlemen of his nation; for her dark eyes kindle, her red lips open and give an opportunity to a dozen beautiful pearly teeth to display themselves, and glance brightly in the sun; while round the teeth and the ...
— Little Travels and Roadside Sketches • William Makepeace Thackeray
... and retreating, leaping, stamping on the ground, bowing their heads, as they pass, to each other, and muttering certain words; then snapping their fingers, sometimes speaking loud, at other times whispering, moving now slow, now quick, and shaking ...
— A Treatise on the Art of Dancing • Giovanni-Andrea Gallini |
