The Key — Vocabulary
Eudora Welty
(Auto-generated)

How intensified, magnified, really vain all attempt at expression becomes in the afflicted!†2 more

As he held the match close he gazed straight ahead, and in his eyes, all at once wild and searching, there was certainly, besides the simple compassion in his regard, a look both restless and weary, very much used to the comic.†1 more

The woman looked resigned for a moment to hopelessness.1 more

Little walls of reproach went up about them all.†1 more

But Ellie did not comprehend this.†

His youth by now did not seem an important thing about him; it was a medium for his activity, no doubt, but as he stood there frowning and smoking you felt some apprehension that he would never express whatever might be the desire of his life in being young and strong, in standing apart in compassion, in making any intuitive present or sacrifice, or in any way of action at all-not because there was too much in the world demanding his strength, but because he was too deeply aware.†

They were so intent, so very solemn, wanting to have their symbols perfectly understood!†

...she sat there ... as if to endure some nameless apprehension rising and overflowing within her at the thought of travel.

He looked very strong and active; but there was a startling quality, a willingness to be forever distracted, even disturbed, in the very reassurance of his body, some alertness which made his strength fluid and dissipated instead of withheld and greedily beautiful.†

But you wondered, seeing Albert, whom talking seemed rather to dishevel, whether it had not continued to be a rough and violent game which Ellie, as the older and stronger, had taught him to play with her.†

Every now and then, as though he perceived some minute thing, a sudden alert, tantalized look would creep over the little man's face, and he would gaze slowly around him, quite slyly.

To him it was always something postponed, like the paying off of the mortgage.†

It was the feeling of conspiracy.

Her face worked and broke into strained, hardening lines, as if there had been a death-that too-explicit evidence of agony in the desire to communicate.†

You could hear their embroidering movements in the weeds outside, which somehow gave the effect of some tenuous voice in the night, telling a story.†

But the little man you were startled by a look of bravado on his face.†

A flicker of amusement touched the young man's face as he observed the startled but controlled and obstinately blank faces which turned toward him for a moment and then away.†

The key had materialized to show him the enormity of this venture.†

There was an excess of energy about him that separated him from everyone else, but in the motion of his hands there was, instead of the craving for communication, something of reticence, even of secrecy, as the key rose and fell.†

Every now and then, as though he perceived some minute thing, a sudden alert, tantalized look would creep over the little man's face, and he would gaze slowly around him, quite slyly.†