I fancied this morning, when I was lying here alone, that there was something almost like a
palpitation - a quicker beat.
As a result I awoke with mouth parched and dry, with a slight heaviness of head, and with a mild nervous
palpitation in the stomach.
Indeed, I always get something like a
palpitation of the heart just before the priest utters those final fateful words, "I declare you man and-- wife." Half a second before you were still free, half a second after you are bound for the term of your natural life.
They were sombre blues, opaque like a delicately carved bowl in lapis lazuli, and yet with a quivering lustre that suggested the
palpitation of mysterious life; there were purples, horrible like raw and putrid flesh, and yet with a glowing, sensual passion that called up vague memories of the Roman Empire of Heliogabalus; there were reds, shrill like the berries of holly -- one thought of Christmas in England, and the snow, the good cheer, and the pleasure of children -- and yet by some magic softened till they had the swooning tenderness of a dove's breast; there were deep yellows that died with an unnatural passion into a green as fragrant as the spring and as pure as the sparkling water of a mountain brook.
Casaubon, who had risen early complaining of
palpitation, was in the library giving audience to his curate Mr.
cit.): "Fear and joy may both cause cardiac
palpitation, but in one case we find high tonus of the skeletal muscles, in the other case relaxation and the general sense of weakness."
Presently, as I went on, still gaining velocity, the
palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous greyness; the sky took on a wonderful deepness of blue, a splendid luminous color like that of early twilight; the jerking sun became a streak of fire, a brilliant arch, in space; the moon a fainter fluctuating band; and I could see nothing of the stars, save now and then a brighter circle flickering in the blue.
"My dear Monsieur d'Artagnan!" said Planchet, with a horrible
palpitation of the heart.
They come back to me now almost with the
palpitation they caused, the successive feelings that accompanied my consciousness that as the door of the room closed behind me I was really face to face with the Juliana of some of Aspern's most exquisite and most renowned lyrics.
Sometimes it was a
palpitation, sometimes a flutter; sometimes it was a sort of gasp or gurgle.
He read it with a sickening
palpitation of his heart, but gave no outward sign of surprise.
Cornelius put his hand on his heart, to repress as it were its violent
palpitation, and listened.