Ethel in her graver and more diffident beauty had already begun to taste the sadness of the world.
Rose and Milly simply ignored her diffident advances, and even Ethel was not responsive.
I'm so sorry," she murmured, raising her beautiful dark eyes in a diffident apology.
A rather cynical smile, now and then, at the random and diffident ways of England was the only freedom he allowed to the foreign strain within him.
It should be carefully pointed out to diffident children, that attentive patience can do as much as quickness of intellect.
John Rosedew, shy and diffident in so many little matters, was not a man to be dismayed when the soul is moving vehemently.
The wavering glance of the diffident moon, uncertain yet what the clouds meant, slipped along the buttressed walls, and tried to hold on at the angles.
Why, to say I am willing," said Monica, with some confusion, for she felt diffident about expressing what she meant even to her greatest friend.
So she was astounded when the maid replied, in answer to her diffident enquiry, that the other young ladies had not arrived yet.
There had always been in her countenance an expression of benevolence, but it had not indicated a gentle or diffident mind.
I have been very diffident in proponing any plan for their assistance, knowing that some former proposals have failed of accomplishing the end.
Applied to persons who are diffident in the house of a stranger, or who are backward in describing an article out of their usual way of business.
Addressed to children who are diffident in accepting a "piece.
There was a diffident air about this tired-looking individual--a something that might be shyness or might be guile--that put him on his guard.
After that the amenities flowed in the most friendly channel, though Forsyth suffered agonies, and it required all his skill as an amateur actor of repute to sustain the part of a diffident lover hovering on the brink of a declaration.
I'll answer for Sir Gervaise, who is always a little diffident about boasting of the superiority of a ship, over a house.
On the contrary, he is rather diffident and unassuming.
The news of his arrival shook the nerves of the Russian Emperor, and it was reserved for the usually diffident King of Prussia to combat all notion of retreat.
Palestrina thought that if she were going to be really fast she had better talk about divorce, and I heard her ask Anthony in a diffident whisper if he had read any divorce cases lately.
The ordeal of appearing on the stage would be a terrible one, but my experience is that when a diffident man does become familiar with his surroundings he has more impudence than his neighbors.
Once or twice as I crossed the moorland on Sundays I looked in on him; but on such occasions he was shy and ill at ease so that I felt diffidentabout calling to see him.
Still, the inference is so flattering that one would naturally feel a little diffident about believing that Martial's suppositions were correct.
Well," she ventured, with a little diffident glance at him, "some day you will go back into the Bush.
His little gray eyes flashed in a face aglow with the fire of his profound thoughts; and his uneasy movements and diffident manner sunk themselves beneath the wave of righteous indignation that came sweeping over him.
Upon the threshold stood Corporal Richard Roe, looming gigantic in the narrow doorway, who, having saluted Barnabas with his shining hook, spoke in his slow, diffident manner.
His specific criticism was as gentle and diffident as his general censure of Ludlow was blunt and outright.
With young and diffident men Alicia had a pleasant instinct for conducting herself as smilingly as though they were the greatest wits about the town.
Little dreaming how much hung on a mere introduction, Mrs. Jerwin-Speedy led up to the Baroness an apparently nervous and diffident young man.
But," gasped the diffident nobleman, "they would find out the next time they saw me.
He had exceedingly good parts, but was somewhat diffident and bashful.
Maurice, of a shy and diffident disposition, does not seem to have attached himself to Lamennais, although he admired and looked up to him, and although the insidious portion of his teaching was making havoc with his faith.
She had the manner of one well trained, but was strangely diffident before this lady of the other world.
His manner was neitherdiffident nor overconfident--there was a certain admirable poise to it.
She often found, when it was too late, that she had been deceived; and the consequence was, that she became diffident of her own judgment, and anxious to be guided by that of others.
And his reverence for you is so strong and deep, that it makes him more diffident than ever.
You are dreadfully diffident yourself, papa, you know you are; and that makes me so despise all boastful people.
For her young companion became so nervous and so much confused, and I myself so diffident and deeply occupied, that our only object was to fill the lady housekeeper’s mouth, and keep it running over with nothing worse than fruit.
Diffident and frightened, she nevertheless began to flirt with Fritz.
He had not entered the house for several months, and felt diffident about the visit, but Lance had urged him to come.
The television tugged in their diffident movements to plush, white, upholstered chairs and these chairs kept saying to Jatupon that he and his brothers had no right to sit there.
