He has taken a masterly advantage of our
helplessness; and has imposed terms on us, for performances at Derby and Nottingham, with such a business-like disregard of all interests but his own that -- fond as I am of putting things down in black and white -- I really cannot prevail upon myself to record the bargain.
And they may unfold a tale of narrow escape, of steady ill-luck, of high winds and heavy weather, of ice, of interminable calms or endless head-gales; a tale of difficulties overcome, of adversity defied by a small knot of men upon the great loneliness of the sea; a tale of resource, of courage - of
helplessness, perhaps.
My first impulse was to tell her of my love, and then I thought of the
helplessness of her position wherein I alone could lighten the burdens of her captivity, and protect her in my poor way against the thousands of hereditary enemies she must face upon our arrival at Thark.
And all he could do was growl and rage his
helplessness. For, unlike the other dogs, he would not howl or whimper his pain.
It is no pleasant picture I can conjure up of myself, Humphrey Van Weyden, in that noisome ship's galley, crouched in a corner over my task, my face raised to the face of the creature about to strike me, my lips lifted and snarling like a dog's, my eyes gleaming with fear and
helplessness and the courage that comes of fear and
helplessness.
The old
helplessness was threatening once more to overcome her.
He wished it were not so; and very still he waited, feeling stricken by a blind man's
helplessness.
There was something in the
helplessness of the little animal held so tightly in his arms that gave him courage.
And, to cap the climax of their base ingratitude and fiendish barbarity, my grandmother, who was now very old, having outlived my old master and all his children, having seen the beginning and end of all of them, and her present owners finding she was of but little value, her frame already racked with the pains of old age, and complete
helplessness fast stealing over her once active limbs, they took her to the woods, built her a little hut, put up a little mud-chimney, and then made her welcome to the privilege of support- ing herself there in perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning her out to die!
After each question he tilted me over a little more, so as to give me a greater sense of
helplessness and danger.
But the wind was wanting; and to complete our
helplessness, down came Hunter with the news that Jim Hawkins had slipped into a boat and was gone ashore with the rest.
I should say to my children: "For your father you need not pray; but for his Excellency, I bid you pray until your lives shall end." Yes, dear one--I tell you this in all solemnity, so hearken well unto my words--that though, during these cruel days of our adversity, I have nearly died of distress of soul at the sight of you and your poverty, as well as at the sight of myself and my abasement and
helplessness, I yet care less for the hundred roubles which his Excellency has given me than for the fact that he was good enough to take the hand of a wretched drunkard in his own and press it.