pertness

But this young woman was not at all disposed to tremble before him, and was just as far removed from pertness as from humility.

Nothing—no pertness, no audacity, no silliness, no affectation—could impair the extraordinary charm.

Avoid sarcasm; it will, unconsciously to yourself, degenerate into pertness, and often downright rudeness.

Before him stood a boy, in a military dress, whose mien bore all the boldness and pertness of a page.

What madness it was, what pertness and unbelief, to reject that faith in which the best and wisest of all ages had lived and died!

Now all her pertness to the former, she says, fly in her face.

The clerk who waited on him had the pertness and superior airs of youth, sometimes seen even fifty years ago.

Polly held her head high at the thought that he had not forgotten her pertness.

But he said she was clever, and she is, if pertness and a ready tongue counts for cleverness.

But aside from the pertness of the answer, already it was dimly recognised as an offence for one to stay up longer than the other.