Yet there were qualities in him which escaped her, a possibility of metallic hardness, a pitiless fire of purpose.

A thick wall, I am informed, requires several years before it is set throughout, and has acquired its full hardness, or rather toughness; and good mortar, as is well known, will acquire extreme hardness with age, probably from the very same cause that it did when it was limestone in the earth.

"If I thought she had the slightest suspicion," declared her ladyship with a sudden hardness of her lips, "I'dI'd close her mouth very quickly.

Its lakes have been formed quite regardless of the lie of the rocks, though not regardless of their relative hardness.

Or, it may have been that, under all the cruel, world-hardness of the thoughts expressed, the young man sensed an undertone of pathetic sadness.

Everything leads to the belief that they were extracted from pre-existing coal deposits that already possessed a definite hardness and bulk, at the same time as were the gravels and sand in which they are imprisoned.

The High Priest Caiphas and his retinue did not lose their presence of mind, and by the outward tranquillity which their diabolical hardness of heart enabled them to preserve, they calmed the confusion in a great degree, and then did their utmost to prevent the people from looking upon these stupendous events as testimonies of the innocence of Jesus.

His very evident hardness of heart so horrified the old ladies that they all began to attack him at once.

Crabbe felt these successive repulses very keenly, but it is not necessary to tax North, Shelburne, and Thurlow with exceptional hardness of heart.

Any excessive hardness of the skin caused by friction or pressure.

The mortar is of extraordinary hardness; it is easier to break the bricks themselves, than to separate them from it.

In the moment when the first fold of the clod-mantle, that trails about us all at the last, fell protectingly over her, I was in that condition of superlative misery that cries out for something to the very welkin that sends down such harsh hardness; and I hurried my eyes out of the open grave, only to find them again arrested by the same soul that had stood beside Doctor Percival and Alice in her death.

And as Buxtorfius adds, "so ignorant and self-willed withal, that amongst their most understanding Rabbins you shall find nought but gross dotage, horrible hardness of heart, and stupendous obstinacy, in all their actions, opinions, conversations: and yet so zealous with all, that no man living can be more, and vindicate themselves for the elect people of GOD."

There was woolwork run riot over cushions of incredible hardness; there were candle-shades guaranteed to catch alight at the mere sight of a match; there were crochet dressing-table mats, and there was a three-legged stool on which even a fairy could not have sat without danger of a break-down.

The boy shuddered and went out into the sunlight, dazed with this glimpse he had got of the inexorable hardness of life.

Every time the train gave a joltwhich it did every few secondsI clung wildly to the straps to keep myself from descending suddenly and violently to the floor; and in less than an hour every bone in my body was crying out against the inhuman hardness of my couch.

He died almost instantly, and the chief surgeon had said: "Here goes another one!" His parents had always treated him barbarously; she preferred not to see them again, and they made no advances, either from forgetfulness or out of innate hardness.

So shall thy presence and thine every motion, The grateful knowledge of thy sad devotion Melt out the passionate hardness of his grief, And break the flood-gates of the pent-up soul.

Upon examination, I found that what they imagined to be a dead child, is a protuberant hardness in the region of the liver, extending nearly all over the abdomen.

As I noted the awful changes his new life was making in every line of his face, the rigid hardness, the haunted, nervous look of desperation, which seemed a forerunner of madness, I could not see, either, where his millions brought any happiness.

The well-propp'd courage of my look, The sportive language, airy tone, To wounded love and pride bespoke A selfish hardness not my own!

" The wife nearly lost self-control, but as Oldfield talked on, reassuring her of her husband's safety, she gradually became calm, and then the look of settled hardness came back into her face.

The slight hardness of her expression was lost in the dim blue twilight which still waited for the moon.

It may be modelled by hand or in a mould, and when dried in the sun, or a moderate oven, attains sufficient hardness to be mounted in gold or silver.

Why are the fine crystals of quartz used as a substitute for glass in spectacles? Because, from their superior hardness, they do not so readily become scratched as glass: they are then termed pebbles.