So when John finds that he likes Mary best of all the girls he knows, this won't be a subject for "kidding" and sly innuendo, and blushes and Simpering on Mary's part, but an occasion for decent and sensible talk about what each of them really is, and what each thinks the other to be.
"The Book of Life: Vol. I Mind and Body; Vol. II Love and Society"
Upton Sinclair
He prophesied that Mrs. Burton would be the next to come Simpering round, and in this he was not mistaken; but Stella did not receive this visitor, for on the following day she was in bed with an attack of fever that prostrated her during the rest of his leave.
"The Lamp in the Desert"
Ethel M. Dell
He was a decidedly handsome, elderly man, made ridiculous by a mincing dancing-master deportment, an assumed Simpering smile, and a costume in the highest fashion of George the Third's day.
"The Master of the Ceremonies"
George Manville Fenn