She faltered; touched an eye with her handkerchief; wanly smiled with the resigned martyrdom of a true gentlewoman.
Desire smiled too, wanly and without the least approach to mirth.
There was the stir of morning, movement in the street; dawn touched them wanly, and hope held her yet.
"You'd better take out the piano again," said Mrs. Brown wanly.
And the boy, wanly, but happily smiling, fell into a deep but healthy sleep.
And then, wanly grateful: "You are not the sort of man who lies convincingly, Steve."
Rosa baked a fine cake for him, decorating it tastefully with nine pink candles, but Wilbur regarded it wanly.
"That's good," he said wanly, and he had a moment of physical dizziness that decided him to sit down quickly.
"Not less than a table d'hote will hold you," Charity smiled, wanly.
"I am very much discouraged over Mr. Bradlaugh," she admitted, wanly.
Old English wann "dark, lacking luster," later "leaden, pale, gray," of uncertain origin, and not found in other Germanic languages. The connecting notion is colorlessness. Perhaps related to wane.
