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Usher   Listen
noun
Usher  n.  
1.
An officer or servant who has the care of the door of a court, hall, chamber, or the like; hence, an officer whose business it is to introduce strangers, or to walk before a person of rank. Also, one who escorts persons to seats in a church, theater, etc. "The ushers and the squires." "These are the ushers of Marcius." Note: There are various officers of this kind attached to the royal household in England, including the gentleman usher of the black rod, who attends in the House of Peers during the sessions of Parliament, and twelve or more gentlemen ushers. See Black rod.
2.
An under teacher, or assistant master, in a school.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Usher" Quotes from Famous Books



... Monogenists," or, at any rate, the more modern among them, hold, firstly, that the present condition of the earth has existed for untold ages; secondly, that, at a remote period, beyond the ken of Archbishop Usher, man was created, somewhere between the Caucasus and the Hindoo Koosh; thirdly, that he might have migrated thence to all parts of the inhabited world, seeing that none of them are unattainable from some other inhabited part, by men ...
— Critiques and Addresses • Thomas Henry Huxley

... replied. 'You have been tricked. M. Lenormand, the usher of the Court, is not the real owner; he is only a screen for your husband. The delightful seclusion you enjoy is the Count's work, the money you earn is paid by him, and his protection extends to the most trivial details of your existence. ...
— Honorine • Honore de Balzac

... in the ante-chamber a full hour. Whilst walking about in the gallery, from the door to the window, from the window to the door, he thought he saw a cloak like Athos's cross the vestibule; but at the moment he was going to ascertain if it were he, the usher summoned him to his majesty's presence. Charles II. rubbed his hands while receiving the thanks of ...
— Ten Years Later - Chapters 1-104 • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... a Recreation that challenges the sublime Epithets of Royal, Artificial, Manly, and Warlike, for its Stateliness, Cunning, and Indurance, claims above all other Sports the Precedency; and therefore I was induced to place it at the Head to usher in the rest; and of which take this concise Definition, viz. That since Nature has equally imparted unto every Beast a wonderful Knowledge of Offence and Security, herein we may observe, The curious ...
— The School of Recreation (1684 edition) • Robert Howlett

... Girl's face, neither vivid blond hair nor luxuriantly ornate furs misled him for an instant. Just as a Preacher's high waistcoat passes him, like an official badge of dignity and honor, into any conceivable kind of a situation, so also does a woman's high forehead usher her with delicious impunity into many conversational experiences that would hardly be wise for ...
— The Indiscreet Letter • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

... the creaking of crickets is heard at noon over all the land, and as in summer they are heard chiefly at nightfall, so then by their incessant chirp they usher in the evening of the year. Nor can all the vanities that vex the world alter one whit the measure that night has chosen. Every pulse-beat is in exact time with the cricket's chant and the tickings of the deathwatch ...
— Excursions • Henry D. Thoreau

... this new life must be in London; there were deadly reasons against Portland, Maine; and the pictures that came to him were of English manners. He saw his boys marching in the procession of a school, with gowns on, an usher marshalling them and reading as he walked in a great book. He was installed in a villa, semi-detached; the name, "Rosemore," on the gateposts. In a chair on the gravel walk he seemed to sit smoking a cigar, a blue ribbon in his buttonhole, ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XIX (of 25) - The Ebb-Tide; Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson

... affections—inclinations, rather, I would say; affection is a word at once too warm and too pure for the subject—had let him see that the cavity of her hollow heart, emptied of his image, was now occupied by that of his usher. It was not without some surprise that I found myself obliged to entertain this view of the case; Pelet, with his old-established school, was so convenient, so profitable a match—Zoraide was so ...
— The Professor • (AKA Charlotte Bronte) Currer Bell

... beautiful as chaste; By whose warm side thou dost securely sleep, While Love the sentinel doth keep, With those deeds done by day, which ne'er affright Thy silken slumbers in the night: Nor has the darkness power to usher in Fear to those sheets that know no sin. The damask'd meadows and the pebbly streams Sweeten and make soft your dreams: The purling springs, groves, birds, and well weaved bowers, With fields enamelled with flowers, Present their shapes, while fantasy discloses Millions ...
— A Selection From The Lyrical Poems Of Robert Herrick • Robert Herrick

... did to help you carry the paper. I am glad you are relieved of a load too heavy for you to bear. Worry yourself no more. Work of course you will, but let there be no further anxiety and nervousness. Suffrage is growing with the oaks. The whirling spheres will usher in the day of its triumph at just the right time, but your full meed of praise will have to ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... hopeless," went on the abbot, staring out into the empty court, where an usher was moving quickly about from table to table setting papers straight. "But any chance that there is must be taken. . . . Will you write for us, Monsignor? or better still, urge the Cardinal? There ...
— Dawn of All • Robert Hugh Benson

... he said, he proceeds to tell them also the matter contained in his errand-to wit, that he brought them news of eternal life, as freely offered in the word of the gospel to them; or rather, that that gospel which they had received would certainly usher them in at the gates of the kingdom of heaven, were their reception of it sincere and in truth—for, saith he, then "the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth you from ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... The usher said: "Yeomen, what would ye have? I pray you tell to me; You might thus make officers shent, Good sirs, of whence be ye?" "Sir, we be outlaws of the for-est, Certain without any lease, And hither we be come to our King, To get us ...
— A Bundle of Ballads • Various

... heard a noise, between a sneeze and a crow; on which the door flew open. Behind it stood a round-eyed maiden, all aghast at the honourable company of calashes, who marched in without a word. She recovered presence of mind enough to usher us into a small room, which had been the shop, but was now converted into a temporary dressing-room. There we unpinned and shook ourselves, and arranged our features before the glass into a sweet and gracious company-face; ...
— Cranford • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... to usher the girls and Bob upstairs to his office without exciting suspicion, and once there the question of how to get to the street was considered. There were still enough people in the corridors to make a quick run down impossible, and ...
— Betty Gordon in Washington • Alice B. Emerson

... he, discovering that she was out of humor, but not divining the cause. "Your housemaid admitted me, and thinking you in your own room, was about to usher me in here, and go to announce me, when I saved her the trouble, telling her that my time was limited, and admitting myself; had I known you were here, I should not have intruded without permission;" then perceiving that her face retained its frigidity, his voice took on a shade of haughtiness ...
— The Diamond Coterie • Lawrence L. Lynch

... perfectly right. What a heedless, inconsiderate masculine idea, to usher a woman directly from a horseback ride into a company of gentlemen to sing before the Emperor! As to the vanity, I do not find much fault with that. It would be far worse if she lacked it. One can not imagine a genuine woman without it. It has been ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... 46; it was effected in a business-like manner, and though he always treated his wife with formal consideration it is probable that he neglected her, and certain that he failed to secure her devotion; it is clear that toward the end of Bacon's life she formed a relationship with her gentleman usher, whom subsequently she married. Bacon's writings, it may be added, equally with his letters, show no evidence of love or attraction to women; in his Essays he is brief and judicial on the subject of Marriage, copious and eloquent on the subject of Friendship, ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... character of our friend Delwood, whom we shall shortly usher into the presence of Miss Winnie Santon, that we may find what success those penetrating eyes, which grew big with mischief even in a prairie home, shall have in lifting the veil which concealed in a measure the true sentiments of a noble heart from the world ...
— Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds • Ferna Vale

... use in narration beside giving the setting of the story; it is often used to accent the mood of the action. In "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Poe, much of the gloomy foreboding is caused by the weird descriptions. Hawthorne understood well the harmony between man's feelings and his surroundings. The Sylvan Dance in "The Marble Faun" is wonderfully handled. Irving, in "The Legend of ...
— English: Composition and Literature • W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

... appeals to the afflicted, a little anecdote was told by the eloquent John B. Gough of his accidental seat-mate in a city church service. A man of strange appearance was led by the kind usher or sexton to the pew he occupied. Mr. Gough eyed him with strong aversion. The man's face was mottled, his limbs and mouth twitched, and he mumbled singular sounds. When the congregation sang he attempted to sing, but made fearful work of it. During the organ interlude he leaned ...
— The Story of the Hymns and Tunes • Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth

... was a learned divine and mathematician in the beginning of the last century. He attacked the doctrine of Aristotle and Scaliger, and wrote a number of sermons on the harmony of the evangelists. With all his merit, he lay in the prison of Bocardo, at Oxford, till bishop Usher, Laud, and others, paid his debts. He petitioned Charles the first to be sent to Ethiopia, to procure manuscripts. Having spoken in favour of monarchy and bishops, he was plundered by the puritans, and twice carried away, a prisoner, ...
— Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 - The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., In Nine Volumes • Samuel Johnson

... Massachusetts, before or early in September, and it would indeed be interesting to know [19]how and through whose hands it passed before reaching Marmaduke Johnson—to his undoing. Hezekiah Usher was the only bookseller in Boston at the time, and possibly his son, John, may have been associated with him. They ordered what they desired from London booksellers and publishers, and may have received voluntary consignments of publications from ...
— The Isle Of Pines (1668) - and, An Essay in Bibliography by W. C. Ford • Henry Neville

... she mentally observed. "Those Jacks are mine; the mixed bouquet is from the Minturns, and I saw Dorrie give the usher those Daybreak pinks. Well, it is queer. I ...
— Katherine's Sheaves • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... by way of usher, smiling. From a little behind, with his Sunday hat tilted forward over his brow and a cigar glowing between his lips, Captain Nares acknowledged our previous acquaintance with a succinct nod. Behind him again, in the top of the stairway, a knot of sailors, the new crew of the Norah Creina, ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... felt constrained to usher the Taoist in; and Chia Jui, taking hold of him with a dash, "My Buddha!" he repeatedly cried out, "save ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... Leicester, resented this affront, and threatened the officer, and he was engaged in an altercation with him on the subject when Leicester came in. Leicester took his favorite's part, and told the gentleman usher that he was a knave, and that he would have him turned out of office. Leicester was accustomed to feel so much confidence in his power over Elizabeth, that his manner toward all beneath him had become exceedingly haughty ...
— Queen Elizabeth - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... footsteps drew near he dashed some brandy into a tumbler and drank it off. Cecil de la Borne entered, followed by the man who had been Andrew's guest and another, a small dark person with glasses, and a professional air. Cecil, who had been a little in front, turned round to usher them in. ...
— Jeanne of the Marshes • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... the vast preponderance of the country over town and city life. Chaucer, like Shakspeare, revels in the simple glories of nature, which he describes like a man feeling it to be a joy to be near to "Mother Earth," with her rich bounties. The birds that usher in the day, the flowers which beautify the lawn, the green hills and vales, with ever-changing hues like the clouds and the skies, yet fruitful in wheat and grass; the domestic animals, so mute and patient, the bracing air of approaching ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VI • John Lord

... passage was obstructed, so that the lady could not alight at the church door, but was forced to leave her coach without. Mull Sack, taking advantage of this, readily presented himself to her ladyship, and having the impudence to take her from her gentleman usher who attended her alighting, led her by the arm into the church; and by the way, with a pair of keen sharp scissors for the purpose, cut the chain in two, and got the watch clear away, she not missing it till the sermon was done, when she was going to see ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury

... fallen,—a remarkable proof of the completeness of their discomfiture. Exhausted with fatigue and hunger,—for, having lost their packs in the morning, they had no food,—the surviving white men explored the scene of the fight. Jacob Farrar lay gasping his last by the edge of the water. Robert Usher and Lieutenant Robbins were unable to move. Of the thirty-four men, nine had escaped without serious injury, eleven were badly wounded, and the rest were dead or dying, except the coward who had ...
— A Half Century of Conflict - Volume I - France and England in North America • Francis Parkman

... which we consider needed advice, we will resume our task, and attempt to usher our student into the weird labyrinth of Solomon's starry temple—"the house not made with hands, ...
— The Light of Egypt, Volume II • Henry O. Wagner/Belle M. Wagner/Thomas H. Burgoyne

... door was at length thrown open again, and the usher announced Don Francisco and his aide, Senor Braxton Wyatt. The five were amazed and indignant at the assurance of the renegade, ...
— The Free Rangers - A Story of the Early Days Along the Mississippi • Joseph A. Altsheler

... any gift from God, it having rather the nature of a torment and punishment, and being some sparkle(214) of hell already kindled in the conscience, yet, hath made it beautiful and seasonable in its use and end, because he makes it to usher in the pleasant and refreshing sight of a Saviour, and the report of God's love to the world in him. It is true, all men are in bondage to sin and Satan, and shut up in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, and bound in the fetters of their own lusts, which ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning

... lamp was brought in, and shed a mellow radiance over the dusky apartment. The volume was finished and dropped upon her lap. The spell of this incomparable sorcerer was upon her imagination; the sluggish, lurid tarn of Usher; the pale, gigantic water lilies, nodding their ghastly, everlasting heads over the dreary Zaire; the shrouding shadow of Helusion; the ashen skies, and sere, crisped leaves in the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir, hard by the dim lake of Auber—all lay with grim distinctness before her; and from ...
— Beulah • Augusta J. Evans

... room, my surprise was great when I recognised in him the lieutenant I knew. He had become captain, and then Prefect of Police. When my name was announced by the usher, he sprang up from his chair and came forward with his face beaming ...
— My Double Life - The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt • Sarah Bernhardt

... guile Gave proof unheeded; others on the grass Couched, and now filled with pasture gazing sat, Or bedward ruminating; for the sun, Declined, was hasting now with prone career To the ocean isles, and in the ascending scale Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose: When Satan still in gaze, as first he stood, Scarce thus at length failed speech recovered sad. O Hell! what do mine eyes with grief behold! Into our room of bliss thus high advanced Creatures of other mould, earth-born perhaps, ...
— Paradise Lost • John Milton

... disbelieved. His lips were opened when he believed. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets, [Footnote: In the strictest sense, John the Baptist was a prophet of the Old dispensation, even though he came to usher in the New. (See Matt. xi. 9-11.) In the same sense, Zacharias was the last prophet of the Old dispensation, before the coming of his son to link the Old with the New.] and as standing nearest to the Messiah, his song takes up the echoes of all the past, and ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... solid gold, set under a pine-tree and overshadowed with eglantine. There sat Charles, the king who ruled fair France, with white flowing beard and hoary head, stately of form and majestic of countenance. No need was there of usher to cry: "Here sits Charles ...
— Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race • Maud Isabel Ebbutt

... charged him with a message of the same tenor to the Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs. But, loyal and conscientious, as was his wont, King Carol added that if circumstances should ever necessitate a radical change in Roumania's attitude, a younger ruler might usher it in, for whom he would not hesitate ...
— England and Germany • Emile Joseph Dillon

... necessary as the book of hymns. In those ancient synagogues and in the temple service the Jews found such books needful. Had we gone into one of their meetings, we would not indeed have found a book waiting for us in the seat or handed to us by the usher. The art of printing was unknown. Books could not be purchased cheaply by the hundred. Each copy had to be written out by hand with pen and ink on a roll of papyrus. But we would probably have discovered ...
— Hebrew Life and Times • Harold B. Hunting

... "Getting sunstroke is the least of my worries, Al," he said, but he allowed Al Crothers to usher him inside. ...
— The Lani People • J. F. Bone

... they coursed about, And shouted as they ran— Turning to mirth all things of earth, As only boyhood can: But the usher sat remote ...
— The Children's Garland from the Best Poets • Various

... first idea, had two chiefs—the chief schoolmaster and the chief domestic—the chief masculine and the chief feminine—the chief with the ferula, and the chief with the brimstone and treacle—the master and the matron, each of whom had their appendages—the one in the usher, the other in the assistant housemaid. But of this quartette, the master was not only the most important, but the most worthy of description; and as he will often appear in the pages of my narrative, long after my education was complete, I shall be very particular in my ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat

... assiduity knows no bounds. He reads his subjects over and over again, to keep them fresh in his memory, like little boys at school, who try to catch a last bird's-eye glance of their book before they give it into the usher's hands to say by heart. He now feels a deep interest in the statistics of the Hall, and is horrified at hearing that "nine men out of thirteen were sent back last Thursday!" The subjects, too, that they were rejected upon frighten him just as much. One ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, November 13, 1841 • Various

... on the street never shakes hands with a lady without first removing his right glove. But at the opera, or at a ball, or if he is usher at a wedding, he keeps his ...
— Etiquette • Emily Post

... attention of Hart Conway, of the Chicago School of Acting, who promptly engaged him as assistant. At the same time, he had the privilege of seeing and studying the greatest stars and the best attractions at the Chicago Grand Opera House, where he began at the very bottom of the ladder as an usher in the gallery, balcony and main floor. Finally he became chief usher—then sold tickets for the gallery—took tickets at the main door. The late Aaron Hoffman, famous playwright, was opera glass boy at that time with him, and the well-known ...
— The Art of Stage Dancing - The Story of a Beautiful and Profitable Profession • Ned Wayburn

... An Usher who does not try to induce the general public, especially the female portion thereof, to mistake him for ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 103, July 23, 1892 • Various

... Schooles throughout the realme, and those verie liberallie endued for the better relief of pore scholers, so that there are not manie corporate townes, now under the queene's dominion that have not one Gramer Schole at the least, with a sufficient living for a master and usher appointed ...
— Early English Meals and Manners • Various

... not be amiss to mention a few useful publications of this sort. Walton's Lives, particularly the last edition by Mr. Zouch; Gilpin's Lives; the Lives of Bishop Bedell and Bishop Bull; of Archbishop Usher; some extracts from Burnet of the Life of the incomparable Leighton, prefixed to a volume of the latter's Sermons; Passages of the Life of Lord Rochester, by Burnet; the Life of Sir Matthew Hale; of the excellent Doddridge, ...
— A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity. • William Wilberforce

... the parson (for the landlord was now otherwise engaged) were smoaking their pipes together, when the arrival of the lady was first signified. The squire no sooner heard her name, than he immediately ran down to usher her upstairs; for he was a great observer of such ceremonials, especially to his sister, of whom he stood more in awe than of any other human creature, though he never would own this, nor did he perhaps ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding

... My looks were turn'd. "Fear not," my master cried, "Assur'd we are at happy point. Thy strength Shrink not, but rise dilated. Thou art come To Purgatory now. Lo! there the cliff That circling bounds it! Lo! the entrance there, Where it doth seem disparted! re the dawn Usher'd the daylight, when thy wearied soul Slept in thee, o'er the flowery vale beneath A lady came, and thus bespake me: "I Am Lucia. Suffer me to take this man, Who slumbers. Easier so his way shall speed." Sordello and the other gentle shapes ...
— The Divine Comedy, Complete - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell • Dante Alighieri

... moment a roar rose from the crowd; and the coach turning into the Corso which led to the ducal palace and the centre of the town, Odo caught sight of a strange procession advancing from that direction. It was headed by a clerk or usher with a black cap and staff, behind whom marched two bare-foot friars escorting between them a middle-aged man in the dress of an abate, his hands bound behind him and his head surmounted by a paste-board ...
— The Valley of Decision • Edith Wharton

... gondolier was giving evidence as to the attack upon his boat. Several questions were asked him when he had finished, and he was then told to retire. The usher then ...
— The Lion of Saint Mark - A Story of Venice in the Fourteenth Century • G. A. Henty

... possible in a short time. He looked upon the world as a huge kindergarten, and the Commentator as its school-book. It was good that the world's knowledge of its own geography should be extended, but the world must not be allowed to detect the authority of the usher's voice. There are a lot of people who, like women at a remnant sale, go about the paths of literature picking up scraps which do not match, and never can be of the slightest use. It was John Craik's business to set out his remnant counter to catch these wandering ...
— The Grey Lady • Henry Seton Merriman

... excited usher rushed to the doctor's seat and whispered a brief message. The occupant rose at once and both men left the orchestra hastily and made ...
— More Toasts • Marion Dix Mosher

... dinner in the Hub, he sought to jest irreverently with the sacred names of Holmes, Emerson, and Longfellow. Again try to fancy the shy, eccentric, improvident genius of "Ulalume," "The Bells," and "The Fall of the House of Usher" at ease in a company that, while delightful, was all propriety and solid intellectuality. No, Poe would no more have fitted into the Century than Balzac or Zola would have fitted into the French Academy which so persistently ...
— Fifth Avenue • Arthur Bartlett Maurice

... inconvenience of passing the night, unhoused, in a mountainous country, even if she were permitted to proceed next day, Lady Bellingham sat trembling in her carriage, in which were her waiting-gentlewoman, chaplain, and gentleman-usher, all highly useful to her in their separate departments and joint occupations of submissive flatterers, but all incompetent to advise what was to be done, and incapable of ...
— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West

... Archbishop Usher, was the name of this king, who is called Pharaoh in Scripture. He reigned sixty-six years, and oppressed the Israelites in a most grievous manner. He set over them taskmasters, to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithon and Raamses. And the Egyptians ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams

... might have ended Heaven knows. The Queen herself seemed to be enjoying it, and was about to make some reply to Mary, when there was a bustle at the door, and an usher ...
— Orrain - A Romance • S. Levett-Yeats

... already, says report, submitted a manuscript tragedy to Richardson's judgement; and something he said at Dr. Milner's table attracted the attention of an occasional visitor there, the bookseller Griffiths, who was also proprietor of the 'Monthly Review'. He invited Dr. Milner's usher to try his hand at criticism; and finally, in April, 1757, Goldsmith was bound over for a year to that venerable lady whom George Primrose dubs 'the 'antiqua mater' of Grub Street'—in other words, he was engaged for bed, board, and a fixed salary ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith • Oliver Goldsmith

... of those born to be a wedding usher, now came swiftly up the aisle on patent leather feet and untied with pearl-gray fingers the great white satin ribbon which restrained them in the pew. Sylvia caught her aunt's eye on her, its anxiety rather less ...
— The Bent Twig • Dorothy Canfield

... said it is within you, and taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come;" but he did [25] not teach us to pray for death whereby to gain heaven. We do not look into darkness for light. Death can never usher in the dawn of Science that reveals the spiritual facts of man's Life ...
— Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 • Mary Baker Eddy

... she sat down on a stone to rest herself; and the lieutenant urging her to rise and come in out of the cold and wet, she answered, "Better sitting here than in a worse place, for God knoweth whither you bring me." On hearing these words her gentleman-usher wept, for which she reproved him; telling him he ought rather to be her comforter, especially since she knew her own truth to be such, that no man should have cause to weep for her. Then rising, she entered the prison, and its gloomy doors were locked and bolted ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin

... by the Revolution. At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr. Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 • Various

... and happy cheer, And smiling face, doth Christmas come, But usher'd in with sword and spear, And beat of the barbarian drum! No more, with ivy-circled brow, And mossy beard all snowy white, He comes to glad the children now, With sweet and ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various

... of some ten shillings downwards, contracted for horse-hire, or perchance for drink, too weak to be put in suit, and he arrests your modesty. He is now very expensive of his time, for he will wait upon your stairs a whole afternoon, and dance attendance with more patience than a gentleman-usher. He is a sore beleaguerer of chambers, and assaults them sometimes with furious knocks; yet finds strong resistance commonly, and is kept out. He is a great complainer of scholar's loytering, for he is sure never to find them ...
— Microcosmography - or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters • John Earle

... a nome came to say that Dorothy and the Wizard had arrived and demanded admittance, so Klik was sent to usher them into the royal presence of ...
— Rinkitink in Oz • L. Frank Baum

... said George to the Yorkshireman,—on one of the fine fresh mornings that gently usher in the returning spring, and draw from the town-pent cits sighs for the verdure of the fields,—as he placed the above mentioned articles on his usual breakfast table in ...
— Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities • Robert Smith Surtees

... many things that have a tendency to deter him from so doing, yet thoughts of the interest promised in the kingdom, and hopes to enjoy it, will make him cut his way through those difficulties, and so save him from the ruin that those obstructions would bring upon him, and will, in conclusion, usher him into a personal possession and ...
— The Riches of Bunyan • Jeremiah Rev. Chaplin

... cries out at the top of a deep sonorous voice a little scraggy-looking Scotchman, who, without coat or vest (his shirt-sleeves rolled up, and the right leg of his nether garment tucked away beneath a coarse deck-boot), acted the double part of usher and constable. Again directing a few legal phrases to the Squire, who bowed acknowledgingly, he turned to those present—hoped gentlemen would take their hats off, and spit in the fire-place, seeing how the Court ...
— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton

... his grandson and me at a disadvantage that we had no excuses of the kind for running away from the grammar school. Dr. Jessop was a little pompous, but he was sometimes positively kind. There was not even a cruel usher. I was no dunce, nor was Fred-though he was below me in class—so that we had not even a grievance in connection with our lessons. This made me feel as if there would be something mean and almost dishonourable in running away from school. "I think it would not be fair to the Doctor," ...
— A Great Emergency and Other Tales - A Great Emergency; A Very Ill-Tempered Family; Our Field; Madam Liberality • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

... set a sum—"If a pound of mutton-candles cost sevenpence-halfpenny, how much must Dobbin cost?" and a roar would follow from all the circle of young knaves, usher and all, who rightly considered that the selling of goods by retail is a shameful and infamous practice, meriting the contempt and scorn of ...
— Boys and girls from Thackeray • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... levier, sink, for evier, Lat. aquarium, whence Eng. ewer. The derivation of Fr. landier, andiron, is unknown, but the iron of the English word is due to folk-etymology. Such agglutination occurs often in family names such as Langlois, lit. the Englishman, Lhuissier, the usher (see p. 90), and some of these have passed into English, e.g., Levick ...
— The Romance of Words (4th ed.) • Ernest Weekley

... and it was responded to from the chalet, where Andregg, his wife, and Pierre were standing watching, and ready to prepare a comfortable meal and usher Gros into the shelter in the lower part ...
— The Crystal Hunters - A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps • George Manville Fenn

... Halifax school till he was eighteen years old. His wit and cleverness appear to have acquired the respect of his master here: for when the usher whipped Laurence for writing his name on the newly whitewashed schoolroom ceiling, the pedagogue in chief rebuked the under-strapper, and said that the name should never be effaced, for Sterne was a boy of genius, ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... an heroic ride back to Paris to warn Fouquet of the danger. Fouquet rushes to the king, and gives him Belle-Isle as a present, thus allaying any suspicion, and at the same time humiliating Colbert, just minutes before the usher announces someone else seeking an audience with ...
— Louise de la Valliere • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... day came, all the court were gathered together, and a great crowd assembled of men, young and old, who thought that they had as good a chance as anyone else to gain both the throne and the princess. As soon as the king was seated, he called upon an usher to summon the first claimant. But, just then, a farmer who stood in front of the crowd cried out that he had a petition ...
— The Olive Fairy Book • Various

... Philemon Holland, with a long Latin epitaph. Fuller says of him: "he was the translator general in his age, so that those books alone of his turning into English will make a country gentleman a competent library for historians." Born at Chelmsford in 1551 he settled at Coventry in 1595, was usher and then master of St. John's Free School for twenty-eight years, and died in 1636 in his eighty-fifth year. During his usher-ship Dugdale was a pupil ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Churches of Coventry - A Short History of the City and Its Medieval Remains • Frederic W. Woodhouse

... old lover nearly frantic with her complaints giving him no peace. Even a rebuff from the Duchesse de Berry, widow of the son of that prince who was afterwards Charles X, did not put her off. She turned up one day at the Tuileries, to be informed by an usher that ...
— She Stands Accused • Victor MacClure

... The usher went out. Then the door opened, and a young officer, spare, erect, came quickly into the room, and bowed respectfully to the President. But Mr. Lincoln's eyes were not on him. They were on the girl. He saw her head lifted, ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... was a compact mass of cheering deputies, all waving aloft in their hands papers and handkerchiefs. From the tribunes of the public gallery shout after shout went up. At the foot of the presidential platform the gray-haired usher, with his 1870 war medals on his breasts, was seated, overcome with emotion, the tears ...
— Paris War Days - Diary of an American • Charles Inman Barnard

... could not find the note it contained. Her desk was locked, and it would not be safe to tamper with it. He had seen enough; the girl received books and notes from this fellow up at the school, this usher, this Yankee quill-driver;—he was aspiring to become the lord of the ...
— Elsie Venner • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... opened the case of the murder of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov. I don't quite remember how he described him. The court usher was told to bring in the prisoner, and Mitya made his appearance. There was a hush through the court. One could have heard a fly. I don't know how it was with others, but Mitya made a most unfavorable impression on me. He looked an awful dandy in a brand-new frock-coat. ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... God (chap. 11). They also contain a prediction of the final reunion and restoration of "the house of Judah" and "the house of Joseph" (ch. 10). The remaining three chapters are occupied with the great and decisive conflict of the last days, which is to usher in the ...
— Companion to the Bible • E. P. Barrows

... trade, perhaps, too, his natural bent not inclining him to mercantile pursuits, he had, when the blight of hereditary prospects rendered it necessary for him to push his own fortune, adopted the very arduous and very modest career of a teacher. He had been usher in a school, and was said now to be tutor in a private family. Hortense, when she mentioned Louis, described him as having what she called "des moyens," but as being too backward and quiet. Her praise of Robert was in a different strain, less qualified: she was very proud of him; ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte

... Every man his own engineer! And still the fire-deluge abates not: even women are firing, and Turks; at least one woman (with her sweetheart) and one Turk. Gardes Francaises have come; real cannon, real cannoniers. Usher Maillard is busy; half-pay Elie, half-pay Hulin rage in the ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine—Vol. 54, No. 333, July 1843 • Various

... to see Townsend last night, Escort to their chairs, with his staff, so polite, The "three maiden Miseries," all in a fright; Poor Townsend, like Mercury, filling two posts, Supervisor of thieves and chief-usher ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... general, as to bring the kingdom of love upon earth. This corresponds to the Millenium, which has always been prophesied, and which the present era fulfills, in all the "signs of the times" that were to usher in The Dawn. ...
— Cosmic Consciousness • Ali Nomad

... humour as you unhappily but undeniably were, you would miss, I fear, the charm of "Daisy Miller." You would admit the unity of effect secured in "Washington Square," though that effect is as remote as possible from the terror of "The House of Usher" or the vindictive triumph of "The Cask ...
— Letters to Dead Authors • Andrew Lang

... as it should have been; and the poet stood motionless in dreamy abstraction, until an usher took his coupons and turned down seven seats. Then the six daughters filed in, and the poet, slowly turning to survey the house, started slightly, as though surprised to find himself under public scrutiny, passed a large, plump hand over his forehead, and slowly ...
— Iole • Robert W. Chambers

... whispers me of times to come? What if it be the mission of that age My death will usher into life, to shake This torpor of assurance from our creed?" (vol. ...
— A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.) • Mrs. Sutherland Orr

... had before acted as usher came in and handed him a slip of paper with a name written on it. M. Grandissime folded it twice, gazed out the window, and finally nodded. The clerk disappeared, and Joseph Frowenfeld paused an instant in the door and then advanced, with a ...
— The Grandissimes • George Washington Cable

... of St. Helena, by Paul Frembeaux. History of a Crime, by Victor Hugo. History of the Captivity of Napoleon, by Count Montholon. Warden's Letters from St. Helena. With Napoleon at St. Helena, by Dr. John Stokoe. Napoleon's Last Voyages, by Sir Thomas Usher. Napoleon and His Fellow Travellers, by Clement Shorter. An Exposition of Some of the Transactions that have taken place at St. Helena since the Appointment of Sir Hudson Lowe as Governor of that Island, by B.E. O'Meara. Facts Illustrative ...
— The Tragedy of St. Helena • Walter Runciman

... way to interdooce me to the lady, kid," said the big fellow. "She won't look my way if you treat me light like that. My name's Earl Usher. Honest truth, 'tis, off the bills! Y'will come ...
— Winnie Childs - The Shop Girl • C. N. Williamson

... phantom stories,—ghastly yarns that serve no purpose but to make the reader's spine creep. The mildest of these horrors is "The Fall of the House of Usher," which some critics place at the head of Poe's fiction. It is a "story of atmosphere"; that is, a story in which the scene, the air, the vague "feeling" of a place arouse an expectation of some startling or unusual incident. ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long

... as not to recognize the portrait here painted, he had only to turn to an article entitled "Intervention," to find the name of the hero who was to usher in the new era. The author of this paper finds his sentiments so nearly identical with those of Stephen A. Douglas, that he resorts to copious extracts from his speech delivered in the Senate on the welcome of Kossuth, "entertaining no doubt that the American people, ...
— Stephen A. Douglas - A Study in American Politics • Allen Johnson

... the piano player had stopped making music. She knew that something was wrong. So did the moving picture man up in his little iron box, and so did the usher—that's the man who shows you where to find a seat. The usher came ...
— Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue • Laura Lee Hope

... was singularly akin to hope. He dared revile no seeming failure, not knowing but just that was the necessary link in the chain of accidents destined to bring him face to face with her. The darkest hour might usher in the sunburst. The possibility that this was at last the blessed chance lit up his eyes ten thousand times as they fell on some ...
— Lost - 1898 • Edward Bellamy

... was the one hour of the day (that of the dinner of the nuns; the picture is in their refectory) during which the treasure could not be shown. The purpose of the musical chimes to which I had so artlessly listened was to usher in this fruitless interval. The regulation was absolute, and my disappointment relative, as I have been happy to reflect since I "looked up" the picture. Crowe and Cavalcaselle assign it without hesitation to Roger ...
— A Little Tour in France • Henry James

... nonage of the day. Youth is bashful, and I give it a cup to encourage it. (Sings.) "Ale that will make Grimalkin prate."—At noon I drink for thirst, at night for fellowship, but, above all, I love to usher in the bashful morning under the auspices of a freshening stoop of liquor. (Sings.) "Ale in a Saxon rumkin then, makes valor burgeon in tall men."—But, I crave pardon. I fear I keep that gentleman from serious thoughts. There be those that wait ...
— The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 • Charles Lamb

... mind, is uncertain. According to the testimony of a schoolfellow, by name Thistlethwaite, Chatterton told him in the summer of 1764 that he had a number of old manuscripts, found in a chest in Redcliffe Church, and that he had lent one of them to Thomas Philips, an usher in Colston's Hospital. Thistlethwaite says that Philips showed him this manuscript, a piece of vellum pared close around the edge, on which was traced in pale and yellow writing, as if faded with age, a poem which he ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century • Henry A. Beers

... allowed to don the brilliant livery which they wore only at long intervals, and in which they did not feel altogether at their ease, stood each in the arcade of his doorway, their splendid pomp tempered by a democratic good-fellowship, like saints in their niches, and a gigantic usher, dressed Swiss Guard fashion, like the beadle in a church, struck the pavement with his staff as each fresh arrival passed him. Coming to the top of the staircase, up which he had been followed by a servant with a pallid countenance and a small pigtail clubbed at the back ...
— Swann's Way - (vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past) • Marcel Proust

... GLADSTONE (who passed through our station in a train going at fifty miles an hour while I was on the platform), Lord SALISBURY whom I met (under similar circumstances, and the back of whose head I feel confident that I actually saw) and the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE of England, who ordered an Usher to remove me from his Court at the Assizes as I was (incorrectly) alleged to be snoring. I should be glad to hear of any leading Publisher who would be likely to offer a good price ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 24, 1892 • Various

... formerly issued by the sovereign, were held to confer in like manner the privileges of an hereditary peerage, subject to certain exceptions specified in the "petition and advice."[2] The Commons, at the call of the usher of the black rod, proceeded to the House of Lords, where they found his highness seated under a canopy of state. His speech began with the ancient address: "My lords and gentlemen of the House of Commons." It was short, ...
— 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

... toward the ballroom door and he did not see Millar usher Olga into the room. The man had brought Olga that she might witness the fulfilment of her plan, and that he might triumph in her jealousy and further thwart them. Elsa saw them come in and seat themselves across ...
— The Devil - A Tragedy of the Heart and Conscience • Joseph O'Brien

... only by his private secretary, Mr. Nicolay, passed the long summer days of the campaign, receiving the constant stream of visitors anxious to look upon a real Presidential candidate. There was free access to him; not even an usher stood at the door; any one might knock and enter. His immediate personal friends from Sangamon County and central Illinois availed themselves largely of this opportunity. With men who had known him in field and forest he talked over the incidents of their common pioneer experience ...
— Abraham Lincoln, A History, Volume 2 • John George Nicolay and John Hay

... the sum of L1800, which they agreed to apply to the purchase of books for a public library, to be founded in the then infant institution of Trinity College. This sum was placed in the hands of the celebrated Dr. Usher, who immediately proceeded to London, and there purchased the books necessary for the purpose. It is a remarkable coincidence, that Usher, while occupied in purchasing these books, met in London Sir Thomas Bodley engaged in similar business, with a view to the establishment of his famous ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various

... and poundage were branded with the same epithet. And even the merchant who should voluntarily pay these duties, were denominated betrayers of English liberty, and public enemies. The doom, being locked, the gentleman usher of the house of lords, who was sent by the king, could not get admittance till this remonstrance was finished. By the king's order, he took the mace from the table, which ended their proceedings,[**] and a few days after the parliament ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part E. - From Charles I. to Cromwell • David Hume

... selected by Mr. Lincoln. I made no change. On the contrary, I shortly afterwards ratified a change determined upon by Mr. Lincoln, but not perfected at his death, and admitted his appointee, Mr. Harlan, in the place of Mr. Usher, who was ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 2 (of 2) of Volume 6: Andrew Johnson • James D. Richardson

... eloquent. It is evident that the other passengers would have been considerably annoyed by the orators of this last group, had there not been stationed in each carriage an officer somewhat analogous to the Usher of the Black Rod, but whose designation on the railroad I found to be 'Comptroller of the Gammon.' No sooner did one of the long-faced gentlemen raise his note too high, or wag his jaw too long, than the ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various

... leadership that should make him a ruler of men. Even Grant's odd mania to take up the cause of the weak—often foolish causes that revealed a kind of fanatic chivalry in him—Mary noted too; and saw the youth a mailed knight in the Great Battle that should precede and usher in the sunrise. ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White

... son of Brigadier-General Edward Montagu, and nephew to the Earl of Halifax. He was member of parliament for Northampton, usher of the black rod in Ireland during the lieutenancy of the Earl of Halifax, ranger of Salsey Forest, and private secretary to Lord North when chancellor of the exchequer. [And of him "it is now only remembered," says the "Quarterly Review," vol. xix. p. 131, "that he was a gentleman-like body ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole

... Pioneer is now dead,' he told us, 'as dead as the Dodo or the Great Auk. No longer need we take Quinine to be "our grim chamberlain to usher us and draw" . . .' (here his memory of Hood failed him). 'No more need we shiver in our Kaffir blankets at Kaffir Stores 'fifty miles from the dead-ends of rail-less post-towns. "Le roi est mort." Malaria is dead or dying so far as Alexandra is ...
— Cinderella in the South - Twenty-Five South African Tales • Arthur Shearly Cripps

... huff, and went yachting with his father, who was his own sailing-master—and, as might be expected, they were both drowned. The title would have gone to her son—but no, of course, she had no son—and so it passed to a stranger—an outsider that had been an usher in a school, or something of that sort. You can fancy what a blow this was to me. Instead of being the grandfather of a Duke, I have a childless widow thrust back upon my hands! Fine luck, eh? And then, to cap all, ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic

... leading the "Grand Alliance" against the French despot Louis XIV. There is war everywhere in Europe, and the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, is but the preparation for the war of the Spanish Alliance, which will usher in the new century. But amid all this political turmoil the march of scientific discovery has gone serenely on; or, if not serenely, then steadily, and perhaps as serenely as could be hoped. Boyle has discovered the law of the ...
— A History of Science, Volume 5(of 5) - Aspects Of Recent Science • Henry Smith Williams

... personality, or complete identification of an individual, lies in the whole body of circumstances that would be sufficient to determine him as a responsible agent in a court of justice. Archbishop Usher and others fancy that Sardanapalus was the son of Pul; guided merely by the sound of a syllable. Tiglath-Pileser, some fancy to be the same person as Sardanapalus; others to be the very rebel who overthrew Sardanapalus. In short, all is confused and murky to the very last degree. And the reader ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. II (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... Iowa was Secretary of the Interior. Caleb B. Smith, who was a member of Mr. Lincoln's original Cabinet, had resigned in order to accept a Federal judgeship in Indiana, and his able assistant-secretary, John P. Usher, had been promoted to the head of the department, fulfilling his trust to Mr. Lincoln's satisfaction. He in turn resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. Harlan who was nominated by Mr. Lincoln, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on the 9th of ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... of sunrises, and loved a good theatrical effect to usher in the day. He had a theory of dew, by which he could predict the weather. Indeed, most things served him to that end: the sound of the bells from all the neighbouring villages, the smell of the forest, the visits and the behaviour of both birds and fishes, the look of the plants in ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 6 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... difficulty he followed his inclinations, and read all the Russian and German books he could obtain, scribbling verses at intervals. In 1777 he managed to obtain a small estate and the rank of bombardier-lieutenant, and left the service to become an usher in one department of the Senate, where he made many friends and acquaintances in high circles. Eventually he became governor of Olonetz, then of Tamboff. In 1779 he began "in a new style," among other compositions therein being an ode "To ...
— A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections • Isabel Florence Hapgood

... denote, King Edward 6th founded a free grammar school on the north east side of the church-yard, and endowed it with the sum of fifteen pounds per annum, (the inhabitants at that time preferring money to land), for a master and usher; which still remains the same to the present day. In the time of King William 3d, when the land-tax was first established, the inhabitants, to express their loyalty, gave an account of their estates, at the full value, and on that ...
— A Description of Modern Birmingham • Charles Pye

... the reserved gallery which had hitherto remained so inopportunely closed, opened still more inopportunely; and the ringing voice of the usher announced abruptly, "His eminence, ...
— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo

... velvet cap, the sight of which provoked even louder jeers than the tunic had done. We marched to church two and two, in old-fashioned style in a "crocodile," but not a boy in the school would walk beside me in my absurd garments, so a very forlorn little fellow trotted to church alone behind the usher, acutely conscious of the very grotesque figure he was presenting. I must have been dressed very much as Henry Fairchild was when he went to visit his little friend Master Noble. On returning from church, I threw my velvet cap into the water-butt, where, for all I know, it probably is still, ...
— The Days Before Yesterday • Lord Frederick Hamilton

... Mrs. Delany speaks of her friend, Richard Colley Wesley, the ancestor of the duke, as having more virtues and fewer faults than any man she knew. She adds a curious circumstance in connection with the ruins of a castle in the town of Dangan. It belonged to King John, and his butler, gentleman-usher and standard-bearer were the ancestors of the duke of Ormond (Butler), Mr. Usher (high sheriff of Dublin that year, 1733), and Mr. Wesley. The first connection of these families with Ireland is sometimes stated to have been in the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 20, August 1877 • Various

... supper when she came, and without quitting the table bade them usher her into his presence. He found her very white, but singularly calm and purposeful in ...
— The Historical Nights' Entertainment • Rafael Sabatini

... artificial, the most capricious of men, who played innumerable parts and over-acted them all, a creature to whom whatever was little seemed great and whatever was great seemed little. To Macaulay he was a gentleman-usher at heart, a Republican whose Republicanism like the courage of a bully or the love of a fribble was only strong and ardent when there was no occasion for it, a man who blended the faults of Grub Street with the faults of St. James's Street, and who ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton

... With a new gentleman-usher, whose carriage is compleat, With a new coachman, footmen, and pages to carry up the meat, With a waiting-gentlewoman, whose dressing is very neat, Who when her lady has din'd, lets the servants not eat; Like ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various

... sometimes precedes the appearance of the rash for twenty-four hours; but the cough, and sneezing, and running at the eyes and nose, which usher in measles are entirely absent. The rash usually appears in the course of twenty-four hours, is never postponed beyond the second day; it begins, like that of measles, on the face, and, like it, travels downwards, but ...
— The Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases • Charles West, M.D.

... room for himself!" exclaimed a backwoods congressman in answer to the exclamation of the White House usher to "Make room for Colonel Crockett!" This remarkable man was not afraid to oppose the head of a great nation. He preferred being right to being president. Though rough, uncultured, and uncouth, Crockett was a man of great ...
— Pushing to the Front • Orison Swett Marden

... advantage for you to secure, if possible, a personal introduction to the performer. However, you must be as discriminating in choosing the person to make that introduction as you would were you selecting an endorser at a bank. A stage-hand or an usher is likely to do you more harm than good. The "mash notes" they may have carried "back stage" would discount their value for you. The manager of the theatre, however, might arrange an introduction that would be of value. At least he ...
— Writing for Vaudeville • Brett Page

... genius of Mr Dickens was never able to explain satisfactorily to the readers of Nicholas Nickleby, why Squeers, who never taught anything at Dotheboys Hall, and never intended anything to be taught there, should have thought it necessary to engage an usher to teach nothing; and exactly in the same way, it is an insoluble problem why the Pontifical Government, which never tells anything and never intends anything to be told, should publish papers, in order to tell nothing. ...
— Rome in 1860 • Edward Dicey

... anticipation of the road she had to take. She knew so well what mantle of repose was over him: how he liked the peeping of the frogs through the open window, and what measure of satisfaction there was for him in the consciousness of full rest and the certainty that next day would usher in a crowding horde of duties he felt perfectly able to administer. Mrs. Dill was a feminine creature, charged to the full with the love of service and unerring intuition as to the manner of it, and she did love to "see ...
— Country Neighbors • Alice Brown

... netted and veined in among right, acute and obtuse angles, sides, bases, perpendiculars, slanting-diculars, producings, joinings of AB and CD, and the rest of it—when one of the doors opened, the servant went up to the desk of the usher in charge, and the hum in the big schoolroom ceased as the usher tapped the ...
— First in the Field - A Story of New South Wales • George Manville Fenn

... three women and three men, following an usher, passed along the aisle just in front of me. I recognized her instantly in spite of the dark suit, large hat and heavy veil, for her walk betrayed her. One of the women was Marcia Van Wyck. Followed by the gaze of ...
— Paradise Garden - The Satirical Narrative of a Great Experiment • George Gibbs

... trifle better born. But Jonson did not profit even by this slight advantage. His mother married beneath her, a wright or bricklayer, and Jonson was for a time apprenticed to the trade. As a youth he attracted the attention of the famous antiquary, William Camden, then usher at Westminster School, and there the poet laid the solid foundations of his classical learning. Jonson always held Camden in veneration, acknowledging ...
— Sejanus: His Fall • Ben Jonson

... peace of mind had she heard of it during her absence from home. But Thaddeus never told her, until it was a matter of ancient history, that when he arrived at home, a little after midnight, he found the place deserted, and was compelled to usher his friend in through the parlor window; that from top to bottom the mansion gave evidence of not having seen a broom or a dust-brush since the departure of the family; that Jane had not been seen in the neighborhood for one full week—this came from those ...
— Paste Jewels • John Kendrick Bangs

... breathlessly, while a servant went to answer the summons, and then heard her usher ...
— His Heart's Queen • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... error, and then all quiet. And so he carried Sir William Batten and I home again in his coach, and so I almost overcome with drink went to bed. I was much contented to ride in such state into the Tower, and be received among such high company, while Mr. Mount, my Lady Duchess's gentleman usher, stood waiting at table, whom I ever thought a man so much above me in all respects; also to hear the discourse of so many high Cavaliers of things past. It was a great content and ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... dear, it is impossible she can love him; his dull soul is ill suited to hers; heavy, unmeaning, formal; a slave to rules, to ceremony, to etiquette, he has not an idea above those of a gentleman usher. He has been three hours in town without seeing her; dressing, and waiting to pay his compliments first to the general, who is riding, and every minute expected back. I am all impatience, though only her friend, but think ...
— The History of Emily Montague • Frances Brooke

... up." Jeffreys, as we know, was very hard up; and as for Mrs Trimble, the amount of worry she had endured since Mr Fison had left was beyond all words. She had had to teach as well as manage, the thing she never liked. And her son and assistant, without a second usher to keep him steady, had been turning her hair grey. For three weeks she had waited in vain. Several promising-looking young men had come and looked at the place and then gone away. She had not been able to enjoy an afternoon's nap for a month. In short, she was getting worn-out. When, therefore, ...
— A Dog with a Bad Name • Talbot Baines Reed



Words linked to "Usher" :   James Usher, Ussher, conduct, guide, usher in, show, prelate, functionary, high priest, hierarch, marshal, doorkeeper, usherette, escort, James Ussher, direct, usher out, lead, archpriest, official



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