asperity

"Decima is sure to be at some work or other for Jan," was the answer, the asperity of Lady Verner's tone not decreasing.

This consciousness mingled an ingredient of asperity with their genuine pity for May.

"It is unseemly to go about on a night like this without a lantern," he said with asperity.

"It's one of Madam's cast-offs, I expect," said Mrs. Hopkins, with some asperity of manner.

"I was talking neither mechanics nor religion," affirmed the Bride, with the faintest possible tinge of asperity.

"Now, that will do, Mr. Atkins," he observed with some asperity.

Miss Carrington heard the bustle in the class, so she sat up and looked out over the room with asperity.

That undercurrent of asperity is less noticeable here than in many towns of the peninsula.

She looked down from her perch like a hen from a ladder, and laid down the law to David with seriousness and asperity.

"You ought to know," asserted Miss Margery, with some asperity.