He stood looking down at her for a moment, wondering what could have reduced her to this condition.

) hung on a hook on the wall, and underneath it I could see his tie, knotted, ready to be slipped over his head, a black badge of frayed respectability that ought never to have left his neck.

I was at once disappointed, although just what I had expected him to look like I could not have explained.

As he lowered himself on the chair behind his desk I wondered what this dapper, slightly ridiculous man could possibly have to do with the workings of the hall.

No man could have reached his spot nor held it without being ruthless, and Hague had made a virtue of ruthlessness all of his life.

At once my ears were drowned by a flow of what I took to be Spanish, but -- the driver's white teeth flashing at me, the road wildly veering beyond his glistening hair, beyond his gesticulating bottle -- it could have been the purest Oxford English I was half hearing ; ;

with more time I could have loosened a small burr or cotter pin --

She realized I'd have to notify the police, but fervently hoped I could avoid mentioning her name.

They were married over the week-end, though he was easily sixty and she could not have been even thirty.

Her form was silhouetted and with the strong light I could see the outlines of her body, a body that an artist or anyone else would have admired.

If it were not that I knew who it was I could have mistaken it for my Aunt so well did her clothes fit him.

This was the worst thing I could have said.

and I have heard many say that they are content to earn a half or a third as much as they could up North because they so much prefer the quieter habits of their home town.

What steps have been taken to guard against the one sort of mishap that could trigger the destruction of continents??

This and other fears of the solar system have disappeared gradually, first, with the Ptolemaic system and its built-in concept of periodicity and then, more firmly, with the Newtonian innovation of an universal force that could account quantitatively for both terrestial and celestial motions.

The conversation that ensued may have been engrossing but it could hardly be called world-shattering.

The part of the mind that preserves dates and events may remonstrate, `` It could have been like that for only a little while '' ; ;

I have no picture in my mind of the garden as a whole -- that I could not see -- but certain aspects of certain corners linger in the memory: wind-blown, frost-bitten, white chrysanthemums beneath a window, with their brittle brown leaves and their sharp scent of November ; ;

Such problems are of extreme interest as well as importance and are so much like fighting in a rain forest or guerrilla warfare at night in tall grass that we might have to re-examine primitive conflicts for what they could teach.

Any attempt to reconcile this statement of the central issue in the campaign of 1956 with the nature of the man who could not conceive it as the central issue will at least resolve our confusions about the chaotic and misleading results of the earnestness of both doctors and President in a situation which should never have arisen.

Actually, you could wish for some passion, now and then, but when you look around the world and see the little volcanos of current history which partisan social passions have wrought, you are glad that in these pamphlets there is at least some civilized calm.

Given the conceptual context within which ancient thought thrived, how could anyone have questioned this principle??

He might have been the man in the moon for all you could have understood him.

If you had screamed right there in the street where we stood, I could not have felt more fear.

If they opted for illusion, it could only be illusion per se -- an illusion of depth, and of relief, so general and abstracted as to exclude the representation of individual objects.

) The militia could not be compelled to serve overseas, but it was seen as a training reserve for the army, as bounties were offered to men who opted to ' exchange ' from the militia to the regular army.

Michel opted not to seek re-election because he had been isolated in the caucus by Minority Whip Newt Gingrich and other younger and more aggressive congressmen ; so it would have been unlikely that Michel could have retained a House leadership post in the succeeding session of Congress.

Circa 2009, French athlete Guy Dupuy demonstrated the ability to perform a between-the-legs elbow hang ; however, Guy opted not to hang on the rim by his elbow, likely because the downward moment could have resulted in injury.

In the 1990s, Mushroom missed out on what could have been one of its biggest signings ; the label was reportedly in the front-running to sign rising new Australian band Silverchair, but the group opted to sign with Sony instead.

Of these the Canon EOS IX and the Nikon Pronea could use the existing 35 mm SLR lenses, whereas Minolta opted to create a new lens line-up later shared with an early digital SLR.

First, the channel opted to carry more violent fare that HBO would only show at night, and then Cinemax decided it could compete by airing more adult-oriented movies that contained nudity and strong sexual content.

* Pre-Strike Game — Miami Barracudas versus Washington Sentinels: Sentinels QB Eddie Martel could have run in for the winning score at the last second, but opted for sliding down before the goal line to avoid possibly getting hurt.

Canizaro knew that the Breakers could not hope to compete with the Saints, and opted to move before the 1985 season rather than play a lame duck season in New Orleans.

Minkow opted to plead guilty to the conspiracy charge rather than face charges of securities fraud and market manipulation, which could have sent him to prison for life.

Instead, they opted to gather every ship they could and make for the island of Lade, off the coast of Miletus, in order to " fight for Miletus at sea ".

Before they could sign, Gloria Williams opted to leave the group for a life as a public social worker.

) Instead of continuing the evacuation, von Schwerin opted to surrender the city to Allied forces ; however, on 13 September, before he could deliver a letter of capitulation he had written, von Schwerin was ordered to launch a counterattack against American forces penetrating southwest of Aachen, which he did, using elements of his panzergrenadier forces.

Recognizing that the South could not continue with its entrenched segregationist policies much longer but fearful of Congress imposing sweeping change upon the South, he opted for a course of change from within.

Instead, they opted to gather every ship they could, and make for the island of Lade, off the coast of Miletus, in order to " fight for Miletus at sea ".

They opted for choosing the best Yugoslavian players in order to create an equipe which could immediatelly compete at continental level, and even become a candidate for the European trophy.

Hewlett declined, still soured from his previous Hollywood experience, and opted to wait until he could control things on the project himself.

Pam Barrett resigned the leadership of the Alberta New Democrats in 2000, but for health reasons she opted not to retain the leadership until her successor could be chosen, instead announcing that her resignation was effective immediately.

Although the Pabst website features user-submitted photography, much of which features twenty-something Pabst drinkers dressed in alternative fashions, the company has opted not to fully embrace the countercultural label in its marketing, fearing that doing so could jeopardize the very " authenticity " that made the brand popular ( as was the case with the poorly received OK Soda ).

Since Reynolds preferred baseball to football, and felt he could earn more money playing baseball, Reynolds opted not to sign.

For the first time in years, a cartoon series could feature a muscular superhero who was actually allowed to hit people ( although he more typically used wrestling-style moves rather than actually punching enemies ), though he still could not use his sword often ; more often than not He-Man opted to pick up his opponents and toss them away rather than hit them.

" SMU then opted not to field a team in 1988 as well, claiming it could not put together a competitive squad.

Upon his graduation, he opted to join his father to learn what he could about acting from one of the stage's most respected actors.

The time they could use the school chapel was limited, so Anderson opted to shoot those scenes not in colour.