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Fretfully

adverb
1.
In a fretful manner.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Fretfully" Quotes from Famous Books



... in the wind with you women I know nothing of," he said fretfully, "but you do have some unlikely ...
— A Singer from the Sea • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... drawn to a pregnant woman who had evidently been sitting in a thin strip of shade by the fence; but now the sun was beating down on her bare head. She sat with her arms hanging along her sides, the palms of her hands turned upwards. A baby hardly a year old twisted fretfully on her lap, fumbling at her breast with a little red hand. But she looked steadily over the baby's round head, a curiously intent expression in her dark eyes, as though she were looking at something so far away that she must concentrate all herself ...
— Trapped in 'Black Russia' - Letters June-November 1915 • Ruth Pierce

... me with any more doctors!" he cried fretfully. "I have had enough of that kind of thing. The man can do nothing for me. I am knocked up with over exertion and excitement—that's all; my strength will come back to me sooner or later ...
— Fenton's Quest • M. E. Braddon

... said Ida rather fretfully, "father might have gone that rainy day as well as not. Now we shall never see nor hear from them again, and George will be so disappointed." But George's disappointment was soon forgotten in the pleasures and excitements of school, and if occasionally ...
— The English Orphans • Mary Jane Holmes

... hamesick ere a twelvemonth, laird," said the dominie; and the laird answered fretfully, "A twelvemonth is a big slice o' life to ...
— Scottish sketches • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... like that," said Victoire fretfully. "Isn't it bad enough to wait and wait, without your croaking like a ...
— Arsene Lupin • Edgar Jepson

... he complained fretfully. "I don't know what's the matter with me. That fortune woman, she knew. Last week it was I went. 'You're making a plan to end up your business,' she says to me, 'and so you will, mister, but not the way ...
— While Caroline Was Growing • Josephine Daskam Bacon

... in a hurry. She smelled the starch scorching; Robbie was crying fretfully, and the baby was so quiet she feared he was asleep; the main point was, to get rid of her callers as soon as possible. She asked few questions, and knew as little about the projected entertainment as possible, save that she was ...
— The Chautauqua Girls At Home • Pansy, AKA Isabella M. Alden

... coming," protested she fretfully. "You never seem to come when you're wanted. Drat the ...
— Carl and the Cotton Gin • Sara Ware Bassett

... be a flower," she exclaimed, almost fretfully, "I want to be a worth while member of society—that's what I want! What's the use of being a decoration in a garden! What's the use of knowing only the sunshine? I want to know storms, too, and gales of wind. I want to share the tempests that you go through!" She hesitated; ...
— The Island of Faith • Margaret E. Sangster

... frightfully high horse lately," sighed Mrs. Blithers fretfully. "It—it can't be that young Scoville, ...
— The Prince of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon

... are able to get for dinner, or what somebody else his been able to get. I, like other foreign visitors coming to Russia after feeding up in other countries, am all agog to make people talk. But the sort of questions which interest me, with my full-fed stomach, are brushed aside almost fretfully by men who have been more or less hungry for two or three ...
— The Crisis in Russia - 1920 • Arthur Ransome

... Claire, fretfully, leading the way down the grillroom stairs, 'that you wouldn't let all London sponge on you like this. I keep telling you not to. I should have thought that if any one needed to keep what little money he has got it ...
— Uneasy Money • P.G. Wodehouse

... sure this is the right place?" asked Mr. Damon, somewhat fretfully, of Abe, as they ate supper that night in the airship, sheltered as it was ...
— Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice • Victor Appleton

... think what we can do, Almira," said Evaline fretfully. She depended on her sister always to do the thinking. "I'm afraid we wont ...
— A Missionary Twig • Emma L. Burnett

... lady, dressed for an outdoor walk, but her hands were pressed over her eyes as though she were in pain. A little boy lay tossing fretfully on the sofa, but his peevish cry ceased for a moment as they entered the room. Miss Gertrude seated herself beside him, and said, ...
— Christie Redfern's Troubles • Margaret Robertson

... hell!" he finally muttered fretfully. "And no more jump in this horse nor a cow. I can do without grub, but water! Oh, Lord! I could ...
— 'Me-Smith' • Caroline Lockhart

... ship was plunging heavily, and the livid waves were racing before the wind. The horizon was lit with a yellow brightness in the quarter to which she turned, and a pallid gleam defined her profile. Captain Jenness was walking fretfully to and fro; he glanced now at the yellow glare, and now cast his eye aloft at the shortened sail. While Staniford stood questioning whether she meant to say anything more, or whether, having discharged her conscience of an imagined offense, she had now reached one of her final, precipitous ...
— The Lady of the Aroostook • W. D. Howells

... complaint, he fretfully threw away the basket, and, washing his nets from the slime, cast them a third time, but brought up nothing except stones, shells, and mud. No language can express his disappointment; he was almost distracted. However, when day began ...
— The Arabian Nights - Their Best-known Tales • Unknown

... just too late to get a wire through to her," went on Pargeter, fretfully, "I mean to that God-forsaken place where she's staying with Madame de Lera; but I've arranged for her to be wired to early in the morning. If I'd been half sharp I'd have sent the trolley ...
— The Uttermost Farthing • Marie Belloc Lowndes

... harboured by our good Cistercian brothers of Pontigny, where he makes hay and reaps and see visions. He is hounded thence. These things ignite wars, and thereout come conferences. Thomas will not compromise, and even Louis fretfully docks his alimony and sends him dish in hand to beg; but he, great soul, is instant in excommunication, whereafter come renewed brawls, fresh (depraved) articles. Even the king's son is crowned by Roger of York, "an execration, not a consecration." ...
— Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln - A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England • Charles L. Marson

... you the dreams I have!" he cried fretfully. "Silliest rotten stuff. I try to tell 'em to the woman here or her husband sometimes, but they won't listen. Shouldn't be surprised if they think I'm a bit off. They say I'm always talking to myself. I'm sure I'm not.—I wish I could get ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... with all mine heart;" and was sinking down to his knees, with his hands joined, but the monk stopped him half fretfully...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade

... Emilius arose fretfully. It grew darker, and Roderick came not, and he was wishing to tell him of his love for an unknown fair one, who dwelt in the opposite house, and who kept him all day long at home, and waking through many a night. At length footsteps sounded up the stairs; the door opened without anybody ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... load mother up with things like this, Ralph," he exclaimed fretfully. "Did you ever try washing this damned ...
— One of Ours • Willa Cather

... one remembered many things which tainted Jimmy with villainy and crassness. Stuart turned away, his hand heavy on the bit, so that Johnny Reb, unaccustomed to this style of taking pleasure sadly, tossed his head fretfully and widened his scarlet nostrils ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck

... here is Judge Sharp," said Mrs. Farnham, fretfully; "I won't be teased in this way about a parcel ...
— The Old Homestead • Ann S. Stephens

... steadfastly at her aunt until the worthy lady was somewhat disconcerted, and asked fretfully, "What do you mean by ...
— The Earth Trembled • E.P. Roe

... lacking some months, unless Providence interposed. Adelaide was oblivious of the child, but Desmond thumped his glass on the mahogany to attract it, for its energies were absorbed in swallowing its fists and fretfully crying. When Murphy announced coffee in the parlor, the nurse took it away; and after coffee and sponge cake were served the visitors drove off. That afternoon some friends of Adelaide called, to whom she introduced me as "cousin." She gave graphic descriptions of them, after their departure. ...
— The Morgesons • Elizabeth Stoddard

... while; when I opened my eyes he broke out fretfully: "How was I to dream that McCraw could be so near!—that he dared raid us within a mile of the house! Oh, I could die of shame, Ormond! die of shame!... But I won't die that way; oh no," he added, with a frightful smile that left his face distorted ...
— The Maid-At-Arms • Robert W. Chambers

... no,' said Venus fretfully. 'I was down at the water-side, looking for parrots brought home by sailors, to buy ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens

... far into the cloudy Monday morning, to wake steeped in sleep, lethargic, and fretfully haunted by inconclusive remembrances of the night before. When Sheila, with obvious and capacious composure, brought him his breakfast tray, he watched her face for some ...
— The Return • Walter de la Mare

... it is one o'clock, Emmie?' returned her husband rather shortly. He was tired and sore, poor man, and in no mood to hear of his daughter's sufferings. 'The deuce take the woman!' he said to himself fretfully, as Mrs. Ross meekly turned away without another word; but he was certainly not alluding to his wife when he spoke. 'From the days of Eve they have always been in some mischief or other'—from which it may be deduced that Mrs. Ross was not so far wrong when she thought her husband was ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... replied Michael. 'But I say, Teena, I really don't believe this claret's wholesome; it's not a sound, reliable wine. Give us a brandy and soda, there's a good soul.' Teena's face became like adamant. 'Well, then,' said the lawyer fretfully, 'I won't ...
— The Wrong Box • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... Colonel Brodie, of Hootawa." His wife, beside whom I sat at table d'hote, retained traces of former beauty. She was thin, and still tight-laced; was somewhat acid in manner; censorious concerning the other visitors; singularly devoted to her tedious husband, and fretfully attached to the beautiful daughter, for whose pleasure and education they were visiting Rome. I gathered ...
— Masques & Phases • Robert Ross

... know about that," the Marquis said, fretfully, "but in any event I hope that no more people will come to Bellegarde upon missions which, compel me to have them hanged. First there was this Achon, and now you, Mr. Bulmer, come to annoy me.—Listen, ...
— Gallantry - Dizain des Fetes Galantes • James Branch Cabell

... whooshed sadly round the house, the window clattered dismally in its frame, the curtains tugged fretfully before the cold breeze which blew in at the broken pane. But the silence ...
— The Yellow Streak • Williams, Valentine

... for a long time holding the fence with both hands and staring blankly into the darkness. At last he turned away, and went stumbling and blundering towards the rose garden. A spray of creeper tore his face and distressed him. He thrust it aside fretfully, and it scratched his hand. He made his way to the seat in the arbour, and sat down and whispered a little to himself, and then became very still with his arm upon the back of the seat and his ...
— Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells

... small hamlet of Big Bone Lick, there is an interesting picture beneath the way-post: a girl in a blue calico gown, her face deep hidden in her red sunbonnet, sits upon a chestnut mount, with a laden market-basket before her; while by her side, astride a coal-black pony, which fretfully paws to be on his way, is a roughly dressed youth, his face shaded by a broad slouched hat of the cowboy order. They have evidently met there by appointment, and are so earnestly conversing—she with her hand resting lovingly, perhaps deprecatingly, ...
— Afloat on the Ohio - An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo • Reuben Gold Thwaites

... that had almost left it resumed its efforts to penetrate the congealing flesh, while the mittened hands he beat upon his breast fell solidly on his wrappings without separate motion of the fingers. Once or twice the horse stamped fretfully, but a touch of hand and heel quieted him, for though the frozen flesh may shrink, unwavering obedience is demanded equally from man and beast enrolled in the service of the ...
— Winston of the Prairie • Harold Bindloss

... indistinguishable. The rain dripped again steadily, splashing the creeper that framed the casement. A few lights showing dimly in the windows on the opposite side of the quadrangle served only to intensify the gloom. The time dragged. Fretfully he drummed with his fingers on the leaded panes, his ears alert for any sound beyond the closed door. The echo of a distant organ stole into the room and the soft solemn notes harmonised with the melancholy pattering of the raindrops and the ...
— The Shadow of the East • E. M. Hull

... Juliet put in fretfully. "They bark all the time at something. They bark when they're hungry and when they've eaten too much, and they bark at the sun and moon and stars, and when they're not barking, some or all of 'em are ...
— Old Rose and Silver • Myrtle Reed

... General, somewhat fretfully, and knitting his brows, "your style of speaking has touched my granddaughter's weak side. Her dreams are of independence, and her illusion is to be indebted ...
— Major Frank • A. L. G. Bosboom-Toussaint

... interest in me it was cold, and could not be fitted for me, a poor worn creature, whose deep unhappiness demanded much more than his worldly heart could give. When for a moment I imagined that his manner was cold I would fretfully say to him—"I was at peace before you came; why have you disturbed me? You have given me new wants and now your trifle with me as if my heart were as whole as yours, as if I were not in truth a shorn lamb thrust out on the bleak ...
— Mathilda • Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

... like you when you're that way, girls," he said in a hopeless tone. "See how you worry sister!" for Lucy was calling fretfully, ...
— Joyce's Investments - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry

... they git the chanst," Applehead retorted fretfully. "'N' if you don't wanta loose that there red mop uh yourn ye better keep yer eyes open, now I'm tellin' yuh!" He refilled his rifle magazine and took up his station beside Lite Avery where he could watch the Frying-pan through the bushes without exposing himself to ...
— The Heritage of the Sioux • B.M. Bower

... said Mrs. Evringham fretfully. "And I lack just a little of that lace braid, or I could finish your yoke. I suppose Forbes would think it was a dreadful thing if I asked her to let ...
— Jewel - A Chapter In Her Life • Clara Louise Burnham

... jerked a thumb toward the open door beyond which the big rangy black pawed fretfully at the street. "Mebbe we might make a trade. I got one good as him 'er better. It's that sor'l standin' t'other side ...
— The Texan - A Story of the Cattle Country • James B. Hendryx

... strength and mind both failing her now that she was out of danger. She staggered weakly into a big, dim church, by the door of which the parting happened to have taken place. Here she sank down in a heavy, death-like swoon in front of one of the side altars, with her baby wailing fretfully at her breast. When she came to herself again she was seated in the sacristy, and her hair and face were wet with the water they had flung over her. By her side stood a black-robed, kindly-faced cure and two or three women, who were trying ...
— The Strand Magazine: Volume VII, Issue 37. January, 1894. - An Illustrated Monthly • Edited by George Newnes

... stop arguing. It makes me tired. Cut along and get the book, can't you? Why waste all this time fussing?" burst out the invalid fretfully. "How am I ever going to get well, or think I am well, if you keep reminding me every minute that I am a helpless wreck? It is enough to discourage anybody. Why can't you treat me like other people? If you chose to sit in ...
— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett

... turned away. Her heart sank a little. Then, with a shrug, she turned to the advertisements of flats to let in London which she found in various newspapers; and made notes of the addresses of house agents. This occupation she continued until Gaga called almost fretfully from the next room, when she turned off the electric light and joined him. An hour later, while Gaga still lay staring into the darkness, Sally was fast asleep. She had no dreams. For the present she was occupied with facts alone; and she did not suspect that she ...
— Coquette • Frank Swinnerton

... not be useful, in this garden," said the little Viscount, fretfully. "There are plenty of gardeners to destroy the insects, and, if needful, we can have more. But the toad shall not remain. My mother would faint if she saw so hideous a ...
— Melchior's Dream and Other Tales • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... As the two stood fretfully debating, the door of the room again opened. There appeared an athletic, adventurous-looking officer in brilliant uniform who was smiling at something called after him from the antechamber. His blue coat ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... to," protested Davie, fretfully, and hurrying off his clothes, to tuck into bed, where ...
— The Adventures of Joel Pepper • Margaret Sidney

... I care for this life," she said fretfully. "Death is always about you everywhere, and a girl can never go out to ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine

... turned her head fretfully on the pillow. Margaret, who knew her ways well, sat silent for some minutes, and ...
— Margaret Montfort • Laura E. Richards

... mingle-mangle talk," ordered Mr. Meredith, fretfully. "Is 't not enough to have French gibberish ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford

... contempt," and from Max down they were all accustomed to hearing similar noises whenever they spent nights in the open. The owl would whinny or hoot according to his species; the loon send forth his agonizing and weird shriek from some distant lake; a fox might bark sharply and fretfully, or two quarrelsome 'coons dispute over a bit of food they had discovered—all this went with the camping business, and indeed it would have seemed odd to those boys had the ...
— At Whispering Pine Lodge • Lawrence J. Leslie

... hand fondly] Oh, you are a dear darling boy, Henry; but [throwing his hand away fretfully] you're no use. I want somebody to tell me ...
— How He Lied to Her Husband • George Bernard Shaw

... fretfully, "this is all beside the question. What is most urgent is to shield and save you now when the peril ...
— The Passenger from Calais • Arthur Griffiths

... singing, the sick boy had lain motionless; but now he began to nestle, and called fretfully, "Water! Water! Do give me ...
— Polly of the Hospital Staff • Emma C. Dowd

... space of minutes these old pictures occupied the mind of the man on the pinto horse. The led buckskin moved fretfully and tugged on the lead rope, rousing the man from his abstraction. Distant strings of prairie schooners and ox-bows faded from his mind's eye and he way once more conscious of the red steer with the Three Bar brand that had stirred up the train of reflections. He turned for another ...
— The Settling of the Sage • Hal G. Evarts

... place, I suppose," said he, fretfully. And he stepped back and looked up at the house. Then he approached the door, and searched for a bell or knocker; but of neither of these appendages could the dwelling boast. First, he rapped with his knuckles, then with his cane. ...
— The Lights and Shadows of Real Life • T.S. Arthur

... lady, my lady, forgive me," she said, sobbing fretfully as she spoke. "I thought but of my own—I did not think of you. Nor of Miss Lesley, though I did love her—yes, I did, and tried my best to save her from that wicked man. Mr. Brooke will tell you what ...
— Brooke's Daughter - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... you will be lucky if your wheels and axles don't snap on the rough roads." Now, here was a man who had travelled much in Norway, spoke the language perfectly, and might be supposed to know something; but his face betrayed the croaker, and I knew, moreover, that of all fretfully luxurious men, merchants—and especially North-German merchants—are the worst, so I let him talk and kept my ...
— Northern Travel - Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland • Bayard Taylor

... pesters me!" he said fretfully. "I chanced upon her at the Middle Fort one evening—down by the river. And what are our wenches coming to," he exclaimed impatiently, "that a kiss on a summer's night should mean to them more than a kiss on a ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers

... expression of terror and suspicion, from person to person, and from object to object, in all parts of the room. Whenever the wind and sea whistled and roared at their loudest, he muttered to himself and tossed his hands fretfully on his wretched coverlet. On these occasions his eyes always fixed themselves intently on a little delf image of the Virgin placed in a niche over the fire-place. Every time they saw him look in this ...
— After Dark • Wilkie Collins

... my hat," he said fretfully at last. "That settles it: I'll HAVE to go back to the palace. I can't leave without my hat. How could I appear in Puddleby with this ...
— The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle • Hugh Lofting

... to the front of the cabin. The horse neighed shrilly. The call was repeated in the forest. The Indians continued silent. I heard it first; that is to recognize it. For I had heard it the day before. The voice of a man shouting fretfully, much as an angry child complains. Cousin understood it when a whimpering ...
— A Virginia Scout • Hugh Pendexter

... at last to have gained its desire, by lulling the wind, and, instead of bursting, fretfully, through squally clouds, now shone forth with warmth and unblemished splendour. Many ladies and gentlemen walked up and down on a promenade, evidently a favourite and fashionable lounge, within ...
— A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden - 2nd edition • W. A. Ross

... see what business," said Mrs. Copley fretfully; "and you can't do anything here, in a strange place. You'd better get Mr. St. Leger to do it ...
— The End of a Coil • Susan Warner

... out Merriton, fretfully, as the butler began to show other parts of his anatomy round the corner of the door. "Come in, or go out, which ever you please. But for the Lord's sake, do one or the other! There's a beastly draught. ...
— The Riddle of the Frozen Flame • Mary E. Hanshew

... his foot fretfully as he eyed his companions melting among the hillocks, but the gun-team adjusted their bets ...
— Traffics and Discoveries • Rudyard Kipling

... restless, Ethel; why can't you keep quiet like me?" said Mrs. Bradford fretfully. "It is a great mercy you didn't break ...
— The Privet Hedge • J. E. Buckrose

... just before the child had gone to Boston to begin her art lessons. She had come to Janway's Mills to see a poor woman who had worked for her mother. The woman lived in the house in which Susan had her bare room. She began to talk about the girl half fretfully, half contemptuously. ...
— In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... PROSERPINE (fretfully). It's well you and I are not ladies and gentlemen: I'd talk to you pretty straight if Mr. Marchbanks wasn't here. (She pulls the letter out of the machine so crossly that it tears.) There, now I've spoiled this letter—have to be done all over ...
— Candida • George Bernard Shaw

... known that this was going to happen, I would never have troubled to cultivate their acquaintance," said Lady Grace fretfully. "I knew of course that that artful little minx was running after the man, but that he could ever be foolish enough to let himself be caught in such an obvious trap was a possibility that I never ...
— Greatheart • Ethel M. Dell

... mood for wit-thrusts," replied Hart as he fretfully paced the room. "You played that scene like ...
— Mistress Nell - A Merry Tale of a Merry Time • George C. Hazelton, Jr.

... too much upset to entertain any one today," he declared, fretfully; "that trouble last night spoiled my rest. I knew the woman Margeret lied when she came back and said it was only an accident. I'm nervous as a cat today. The doctors forbid me every form of excitement, yet they quarter a Yankee spy in the room over ...
— The Bondwoman • Marah Ellis Ryan

... not cough for my own amusement," replied Kitty fretfully. "When is your next ball ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen

... pacing the room fretfully, and now turned and went through the archway towards the balcony, from which the noise of a distant crowd still came in gusts and cadences. The cropheaded lad handed the tailor a roll of the bluish satin and the two began fixing this in the ...
— When the Sleeper Wakes • Herbert George Wells

... does," the infantry captain assented. He glanced casually at the sky. When his eyes had lowered to the green-shadowed landscape before him, he said fretfully: "I wish those fellows out yonder would quit pelting at us. They've been at ...
— The Little Regiment - And Other Episodes of the American Civil War • Stephen Crane

... at Douglas; then he said fretfully, "I don't see why Grandma Brown had to go and make me drive the gregus old stage for a week. I deponed to her that I had to get up there and take care of you. When that preacher comes, you'll need me, Doug. There's lots of ...
— Judith of the Godless Valley • Honore Willsie

... to the end of our compound with Ayah, to see the Colonel's funeral pass. The procession seemed endless. The horse he had ridden two days before by my mother's side tossed its head fretfully, as the "Dead March" wailed, and the slow tramp of feet poured endlessly on. My mother was looking out from the verandah. As Ayah and I joined her, a native servant, who was bringing something in, said abruptly, "Gordon ...
— Six to Sixteen - A Story for Girls • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... in that moment, a rush of gliding forms, that makes one sure that a visitant is there, who has brought with him a wicked company; and then one has to wait in sadness, with now and then a timid knocking, even happy, it may be, if the soul sometimes call fretfully within, to say that it is ...
— The Thread of Gold • Arthur Christopher Benson

... ole wheels," he said fretfully, "them wheels at the fact'ry; when I git to sleep they keep ...
— Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch • Alice Caldwell Hegan

... really can't help it,' said Bruce rather fretfully. 'I should be at the front if it weren't for my neurotic heart. The doctor wouldn't hear of passing me—at least one wouldn't. Any fellow who would have done so would be—not a careful man. However, I don't know that it wouldn't have been just as good to die for ...
— Love at Second Sight • Ada Leverson

... boys down thar whar the gals is at, playin'?" inquired Jim Cal fretfully. "Looks like to me ef I was a young feller an' not wedded I wouldn't hang around whar the old ...
— Judith of the Cumberlands • Alice MacGowan

... in books what diseases other folks have got, Phyllie?" he asked fretfully when I told him about Tiny Tim and the "Christmas Carol." "Do you reckon that little boy had rheumatiz and didn't know any plaster ...
— Phyllis • Maria Thompson Daviess

... determined artifice. Arnaud had failed swiftly in the past months; and, while she was inspecting the impaired supports of an arbor in the garden, he came to her with an unopened telegram. "I abhor these things," he declared fretfully; "they are so sudden. Why don't people write decent letters any more! It's like the telephone.... Good manners ...
— Linda Condon • Joseph Hergesheimer

... bug-chaser and that other unlovable man from Wyoming fed just as close to the Flying U boundary as their guardians dared let them feed; a great deal closer than was good for the tempers of the Happy Family, who rode fretfully here and there upon their own business and at the same time tried to keep an eye upon their unsavory neighbors—a proceeding as nerve-racking as ...
— Flying U Ranch • B. M. Bower

... cayuse!" he said fretfully. "This is as much your funeral as mine—seeing yuh started out all so brisk to find that pinto. Do yah suppose yuh could find a horse if he was staked ten feet in front of your nose? Chances are, yuh couldn't. I reckon you'd have trouble finding ...
— The Lonesome Trail and Other Stories • B. M. Bower

... golden rays of the morning sun came in bravely and strong. They touched with radiant color the form of a small fat man, who snored in stuttering fashion. His round and shiny bald head glowed suddenly with the valor of a decoration. He sat up, blinked at the sun, swore fretfully, and pulled his blanket over the ornamental ...
— Men, Women, and Boats • Stephen Crane

... fretfully; 'but you have not appeared as a bride. The straw bonnet—you see people cannot tell whether you ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge

... it looks as if the girls were going to have their fun, too!" He laughed, but there was a nervous catch in his voice. He hadn't counted on any policeman taking part in the comedy. "Where the devil is Scott Circle, anyhow?"—fretfully. He tugged at the reins. "Best draw up at the next corner. I'll be hanged if ...
— The Man on the Box • Harold MacGrath

... would not be pleasanter to share one's rambles with a congenial companion; but it is not easy to find one; either there are differences of opinion, or the subtle barriers of age to overleap, or one is conscious that there are regions of one's mind in which a friend will inevitably and fretfully miss his way—there are not many friends, for anyone, to whom his mind can lie perfectly and unaffectedly open; and thus, though I do not hesitate to say that I would prefer the society of the perfect friend to my loneliness, yet I ...
— The Silent Isle • Arthur Christopher Benson

... him, half fretfully. "But," she added, "you don't preach, either. You don't say things are so when you can't know.... Do you think anything about that, Peter—about going on? I don't ...
— The Lee Shore • Rose Macaulay

... fretfully to his niece, but her strength and sweetness kept him from becoming too touchy. The deep ...
— A Dream of the North Sea • James Runciman

... dressmaker has put no tape to my dress," fretfully responded Caroline. "Martha is sewing ...
— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood

... play ghost," he said, fretfully; "I don't know nothin' 'bout it, an' I want more ...
— Left Behind - or, Ten Days a Newsboy • James Otis

... interrupted the other fretfully. "I tell you I'll be all broken out tomorrow! And it's perfectly beastly, too. You have blisters all over you and they itch so you can hardly ...
— The Adventure Club Afloat • Ralph Henry Barbour

... to see Flossy gather her up to comfort her. It is so easy to dry a child's tears with a little love. But she rang for the nurse and fretfully exclaimed, ...
— The Love Affairs of an Old Maid • Lilian Bell

... a big room with ancient, handsome furniture in it. There was a low fire glowing faintly on the hearth and a night light burning by the side of a carved four-posted bed hung with brocade, and on the bed was lying a boy, crying fretfully. ...
— The Secret Garden • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... of the train the little child in the Young Electrician's lap woke fretfully. Then, as the bumpy cars switched laboriously into a siding, and the engine went puffing off alone on some noncommittal errand of its own, the Young Electrician rose and stretched himself and peered out of the window into the acres and acres of snow, and bent down suddenly and ...
— The Indiscreet Letter • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

... in the house all the time I had been amusing myself. I do not know why the idea annoyed me so. 'How I wish he would keep away sometimes!' I thought fretfully. 'He will think I am practising for to-morrow: I will not sing if they press me to do so.' And with this ill-natured ...
— Uncle Max • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... for once compelled the most superficial lovers of romance to submit themselves to the magic of his genius. The readers of Dickens voted him, with three times three, to the presidency of their republic of letters; the readers of Hawthorne were caught by a coup d'etat, and fretfully submitted to a despot whom they could ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 • Various

... reported the Baxter fortune as sadly diminished, but there were still maids and the faithful Emma; there were still the little closed carriage and the semi-annual trip to Coronado. Nor did Peter appear to have suffered financially in any way; although Mrs. Baxter had somewhat fretfully confided to the girls that his uncle had suggested that it was time that Peter stood upon his own feet; and that Peter accordingly had entered into business relations with a certain very wealthy firm of grain brokers. Susan could ...
— Saturday's Child • Kathleen Norris

... second man said fretfully, "an' don't waste time chinnin' here when p'rhaps we oughter be gettin' out ...
— Down the Slope • James Otis

... purple wistaria draping the long porch; and it was under a pendulous shower of blossoms that we found the General seated with the evening newspaper in his hand and his bandaged foot on a wicker stool. As we entered the gate he was making a face over a glass of water, while he complained fretfully to Dr. Theophilus, who sat in a rocking-chair, with Robin, the pointer, stretched on ...
— The Romance of a Plain Man • Ellen Glasgow

... Aunt Dahlia, who had taken one nibble at her whatever-it-was-on-toast and laid it down, begged us—a little fretfully, I thought—for heaven's sake to cut out the cross-talk vaudeville stuff, as she had enough to bear already without having to listen to us doing our imitation of the Two Macs. Always willing to oblige, I dismissed Jeeves with a nod, and he flickered for a moment and was gone. Many a spectre ...
— Right Ho, Jeeves • P. G. Wodehouse

... Almost at once a queer, long, sharp nose was poked out of the little hole she had made, and a squeaky voice asked fretfully, "Do I have ...
— The Burgess Animal Book for Children • Thornton W. Burgess

... she responded, half fretfully, half gratefully, as Mr. Gryce followed her mother into the adjoining room. "I've had a bad enough time of it without being blamed for what I ...
— Initials Only • Anna Katharine Green

... look of crushed and helpless waiting. She spread out her materials and gave her directions and the girls set soberly to work. Seventeen heads bent in silence over the table; scissors creaked; upstairs a baby cried fretfully. There leapt into Jane's mind a memory picture of Nannie Slade Hunter before the joyfully hailed arrival of the Teddybear,—the tiny, white, enameled chiffonier with its little bunches of painted flowers spilling ...
— Jane Journeys On • Ruth Comfort Mitchell

... woman to the other, and said, fretfully, "A man canna tak' twa contrary orders at the same minute o' time. What will ...
— A Knight of the Nets • Amelia E. Barr

... Ambrose said fretfully, dragging at his mother's hand. 'I thought I was to see Mr Sidney, and that he would let me ride again. I am so ...
— Penshurst Castle - In the Days of Sir Philip Sidney • Emma Marshall

... girls will bring in their money tomorrow; and it mortifies me to be behind the others." The daughter spoke fretfully. Mr. Walcott waved her aside with his hand, and she went ...
— The Wedding Guest • T.S. Arthur

... the darkness beyond them was no longer dreaming, but terror-filled. She wanted to refuse, but he was so fretfully demanding that ...
— The Job - An American Novel • Sinclair Lewis

... Victor swore fretfully and lashed out a random fist, which struck Lanyard's cheek a glancing blow that carried just enough sting to kindle resentment. So the virtuous householder was rather more than unceremonious about yanking the princely housebreaker inside ...
— Red Masquerade • Louis Joseph Vance

... controlled by the same set of strings, each stopped short and looked up curiously at the blind, dark house and at the figure lounging in the doorway, then hurried on without a word, leaving the silent policeman fretfully mopping his moist face and tugging at the wilted collar ...
— The Escape of Mr. Trimm - His Plight and other Plights • Irvin S. Cobb

... South. The grey hills and overgrown lanes of her old home haunted the Captain's wife by night and day, and home-sickness (that weariest of all sicknesses) began to take the light out of her eyes before their time. It preyed upon the Captain too. Now and then he would say, fretfully, "I should like an English resting-place, however small, before every-body is dead! But the children's prospects have to be considered." The continued estrangement from the old man was an abiding sorrow ...
— The Peace Egg and Other tales • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... sister—but I wish you would not talk so of our age," Miss Roberta said, rather fretfully for her. "You were only seventy-two last November, and I shall not be sixty-nine until March—and if you remember, Aunt Agatha lived to ninety-one, and Aunt Mildred to ninety-four! So we are not so ...
— Halcyone • Elinor Glyn

... Ailsa were back in New York," said the boy fretfully. "I don't see why the whole family should get into hot ...
— Ailsa Paige • Robert W. Chambers

... himself for sources of rich streams of conversation. He found a dry soil. "What you goin' to talk about?" he demanded, fretfully. "I won't go a step farther till I know what I'm goin' to say ...
— The Best American Humorous Short Stories • Various

... dickens did he get the encouragement?" cried Carington fretfully. "Psha! he has not put that ...
— Sally of Missouri • R. E. Young

... so far in a somewhat desultory fashion, interspersing her words with brief caresses to the pug who was curled up in her lap. Now she put down the little dog with a brusqueness which hurt his dignity; he pawed fretfully at Mary's dress, and, attracting no attention, trotted of to his basket on the rug, where he settled himself with a short growl of discontent. And Lady Garnett, with a sudden change of tone and a new tenderness in her voice, just stooped a little ...
— A Comedy of Masks - A Novel • Ernest Dowson and Arthur Moore

... the sergeant, with his soldierly salute; and a little later, as Captain Buxton was fretfully complaining to his subaltern of the ill fortune that seemed to overshadow his best efforts, the latter, thinking to cheer him and to divert his attention from his trouble, referred to ...
— Starlight Ranch - and Other Stories of Army Life on the Frontier • Charles King

... never did set much store by black hair—shows gray too soon," retorted Mrs. Snow. She spoke fretfully, but she still held the ...
— Pollyanna • Eleanor H. Porter

... of me?" asked Mr. Fletcher, as fretfully as a sick child; for he knew where her short holiday would be passed, and his temper got ...
— Work: A Story of Experience • Louisa May Alcott

... But John fretfully refused. He would have no nurse but Lizzie, share no roof but Amos'. "You're the only folks I got," he ...
— Lydia of the Pines • Honore Willsie Morrow

... but a bare coast, the muddy edge of the brown plain with the sinuosities of the river you had left, traced in dull green, and the Great Pagoda uprising lonely and massive with shining curves and pinnacles like the gorgeous and stony efflorescence of tropical rocks. You had nothing to do but to wait fretfully for the balance of your cargo, which was sent out of the river with the greatest irregularity. And it was open to you to console yourself with the thought that, after all, this stage of bother meant that your departure from these shores was ...
— Falk • Joseph Conrad

... very little effort to resist the pressing hospitality of his friends, and to have complied only too readily with the convivial customs of the time. He returned to Helpstone moody and discontented, and in his letters to Mrs. Emmerson he complained fretfully of the hardship of his lot in being compelled to spend his days without any literary companionship whatsoever. About this time that lady wrote to him two letters, which as illustrations of the style of her correspondence are ...
— Life and Remains of John Clare - "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" • J. L. Cherry

... looked so absolutely content," fretfully murmured one swathed mummy in a deck chair to another, as the pair passed them, on the tenth round of a long tramp, one gray morning when the wind was more than ordinarily chill. The speaker's black eyes, heavily lidded in a pale, discontented ...
— Under the Country Sky • Grace S. Richmond

... dear, when does Garvington ever mean anything?" said the other woman fretfully. "He is so selfish; he leaves ...
— Red Money • Fergus Hume

... lounge and smoked with violence. Presently he saw the Evershams in the doorway talking to Robert Falconer, and he jumped up and hurried to join them. As he approached he heard the word Alexandria spoken fretfully by ...
— The Palace of Darkened Windows • Mary Hastings Bradley

... play to-day," Reuben answered, almost fretfully. "Let us try again. No. There's nothing the matter. Nothing in the world. ...
— Aunt Rachel • David Christie Murray

... of him—you must see that I can't," said Mrs. Preston, fretfully. "I can't expose my life without doing him ...
— Only An Irish Boy - Andy Burke's Fortunes • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... Pallas To th' erring Needle's point was more than callous. But ah the poor Arachne! She unarm'd 35 Blundering thro' hasty eagerness, alarm'd With all a Rival's hopes, a Mortal's fears, Still miss'd the stitch, and stain'd the web with tears. Unnumber'd punctures small yet sore Full fretfully the maiden bore, 40 Till she her lily finger found Crimson'd with many a tiny wound; And to her eyes, suffus'd with watery woe, Her flower-embroider'd web danc'd dim, I wist, Like blossom'd shrubs in a quick-moving mist: 45 Till vanquish'd the despairing ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... cried Betty fretfully. "How I do—" And then at the very moment of repeating her protestations of dislike, Pam's serious childish face rose before her sight, and she heard the sweet shrill voice ...
— Betty Trevor • Mrs. G. de Horne Vaizey

... come over the children," Mrs. Boyd said, fretfully. She sat rocking persistently in the dreary little parlor. Her chair inched steadily along the dull carpet, and once or twice she brought up just as she was about to make a gradual exit from the room. ...
— A Poor Wise Man • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... get the poor critter some whiskey?" he queried, fretfully. "Ye used to be peart enuff before." As Flip turned to the corner to lift the demijohn, Fairley took occasion to kick the squaw with his foot, and indicate by extravagant pantomime that the bargain was not to be alluded to before the girl. Flip poured out some whiskey in a tin cup, and, ...
— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte

... care about that!" burst out Drusilla fretfully, "it's easy to explain anything, afterwards! But of course if you think more of gold and silver than you do of ...
— Silver and Gold - A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp • Dane Coolidge

... Arnold fretfully, "those fellows will have all the coin in a minute and not leave any ...
— Boy Scouts in Southern Waters • G. Harvey Ralphson

... about 11:30 o'clock when Jim got out of bed and began to mope around the flat, tramp nervously up and down the private hall and scuffle through the closets, the cupboard and among the pots and pans, which fretfully clashed in a heap upon the floor when he sought to unhook his favorite, the upper story of the double boiler. I wondered what ailed him now. From the way the alleged murderer was rattling the crockery and ...
— Cupid's Middleman • Edward B. Lent

... by Nancy's cry, was now whimpering fretfully. Pete went to the cradle and rocked it with one foot, crooning in ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine

... plate glass in the windows, each smooth-running drawer, each undreamed-of convenience in the closet with its electric light for dark days, impressed her afresh with a sense of wondering pleasure. The lady of her name who had so recently dwelt among these luxuries had accepted them fretfully, as no more than her due; the long glass which now reflected Julia's radiant dark eyes lately gave back a countenance impressed with lines of ...
— Jewel's Story Book • Clara Louise Burnham

... very little," she told him; "the work here absorbs me; and, unfortunately, my eyes are not strong. They require constant rest." He expressed regret once more for any disturbance he might have caused; and, after hesitating awkwardly, left with Eunice hanging fretfully at his hand. What, in God's name, was he to do with the child? He walked slowly, his face half lost in the fur of his overcoat, oblivious, in his concentration on the difficulties of her situation, of Eunice progressing discontentedly ...
— The Three Black Pennys - A Novel • Joseph Hergesheimer

... peace of my life, Elsie," Lucy said fretfully; "one can't help sympathizing with one's children, and my girls ...
— Elsie's children • Martha Finley

... awoke; he went up to his room, had a bath, shaved, and put on a tweed suit. Coming down to the study again, he opened the shutters and looked out. It would be light soon, and he could go away. He was fretfully impatient of staying. He drank some whiskey and soda-water, and smoked a cigar as he walked up and down. Yes, there were signs of dawn now; the darkness lifted over the hill on ...
— Tristram of Blent - An Episode in the Story of an Ancient House • Anthony Hope

... came fully the youths grew apparently sad. The solemnity of the gloom seemed to make them ponder. "Light the gas, Wrinkles," said Grief fretfully. ...
— The Third Violet • Stephen Crane

... darned thing?" he asked fretfully, turning to Luck, who was scowling abstractedly into ...
— The Phantom Herd • B. M. Bower

... the street about the bank, now, and—I'd give a good deal to know where it comes from." The junior Nelson had heard similar echoes, but he held his tongue. "I never did like your way of doing business," the speaker resumed, fretfully. "We've overreached. You wanted it ...
— Flowing Gold • Rex Beach

... He is everywhere cold—more willing to wound than bold to strike; and yet he fretfully commits himself before he gets through, in defence of slavery and ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... into "David Copperfield" and "Little Dorrit," was quite as sordid, to what extent probably none knew so well as Dickens, pere et fils, for here it was that the father fretfully served ...
— Dickens' London • Francis Miltoun

... was muttering fretfully to himself. It annoyed him that words in his own vision should have no meaning for him. How did words come to him in a dream that he had no knowledge of when wide awake? The Seapink—that was the name of this ship; but a pink was long and ...
— Widdershins • Oliver Onions

... a good time and did not wish to be bothered, it was tiresome to have to decide momentous questions, she told herself almost fretfully, as she was borne swiftly and smoothly downtown one afternoon. There was the usual detention at the Y.M.C.A. corner, and Margaret Elizabeth looked out and almost into the Candy Wagon before she knew it. But there was no cause for alarm. Beneath the white cap of the Candy Man shone ...
— The Little Red Chimney - Being the Love Story of a Candy Man • Mary Finley Leonard

... father, fretfully, "what are you doing out there so long in the hall? Don't you know that Mr. Wilde is waiting here to talk ...
— Jolly Sally Pendleton - The Wife Who Was Not a Wife • Laura Jean Libbey

... write to this King of France?" fretfully asked Elizabeth. "Why should I do it? It is a long time since he has sent me any new dresses, although he might well know that nothing is more important for an empress than a splendid and varied wardrobe! Why, then, should I write to ...
— The Daughter of an Empress • Louise Muhlbach

... returned Don Juan hurriedly. "But, you see, it's time that you should think of your future—or at least prepare for it. I mean you ought to have some more regular education. You will have to go to school. It's too bad," he added fretfully, with a certain impatient forgetfulness of Clarence's presence, and as if following his own thought. "Just as you are becoming of service to me, and justifying your ridiculous position here—and all this d—d nonsense that's gone before—I mean, of course, Clarence," he interrupted ...
— A Waif of the Plains • Bret Harte

... be dull enough, anyhow," said Dolly, fretfully. "Besides, it's awfully bourgeois to go to the theater ...
— Dolly Dialogues • Anthony Hope

... see it at all," said the Mouse, fretfully, "and what's more, I don't see you, in fact, I don't think you ought to be hiding in the bushes and chattering at ...
— The Admiral's Caravan • Charles E. Carryl

... stay here?" demanded Amos Garwood fretfully. "I don't want to injure you, boys; but if you belong to my enemies, then I shall be forced to hurt you. Run away before I lose my temper. I am always sorry afterwards when I have lost ...
— The Grammar School Boys in Summer Athletics • H. Irving Hancock

... you don't," said the Hole-keeper, fretfully. "But you see I haven't any trowsers on, and I don't fancy having a lot of strange Billyweazles nibbling at my legs. In fact, if you don't mind, I'd like to ...
— Davy and The Goblin - What Followed Reading 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' • Charles E. Carryl

... he exclaimed, fretfully. "I have had the devil's own luck. I shall play no more for the present. We ...
— Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... the band would strike up an air," said the Grafin von Tolb fretfully; "it is stupid waiting here ...
— When William Came • Saki

... see people sullenly hoard up things," said Zell snappishly. Then she dawdled about the house, yawning and saying fretfully, "I do wish I knew what to ...
— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe

... number of police gathered around the vehicle port. Ravick must have his doubts about how the price cut was going to be received, and Mort Hallstock was mobilizing his storm troopers to give him support in case he needed it. I called in about that, and Dad told me fretfully to be sure to stay out ...
— Four-Day Planet • Henry Beam Piper



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