Meanings of sudden sternness in English

The smile upon the prefect's face changed to sudden sternness.

He died hard, did John Adams, says Case, with a kind of a sudden sternness.

The sudden sternness of his speech, the compulsion of his look, took swift effect upon her.

His features took on a sudden sternness.

There was a sudden sternness in the young girl's voice, and a glance of warning in her eye.

She'd noticed them when she was sitting in the henhouse, stroking Helen-Melon's feathers and fretting over Lucy's sudden sternness.

And, Mr. Merriwell," with sudden sternness, "I think you will have to settle with me for it."

"Just stop tramping," he said, with sudden sternness, "and listen to me!

"No, no," said the pacific Bayne, alarmed at the sudden sternness of his tone.

"Selma, you are talking nonsense," Littleton exclaimed with sudden sternness.

"Setting fire to houses-whichis what your society is advocating-anddoing-hardly counts as 'views,'" he said, with sudden sternness.

"Lady Lydiard's nephew, Mr. Felix Sweetsir," Moody answered, with a sudden sternness of tone, and a sudden coldness of manner, which surprised Isabel.