1 In vain Meg begged him to stop.
2 "I'll try not to be vain," said Amy.
3 Meg reasoned, pleaded, and commanded, all in vain.
4 It's only the vain part of me that goes and cries in this silly way.
5 It was gone directly however, for Laurie said, with a vain attempt at dignity.
6 I don't wish to make you vain, but I must confess that I'm prouder of my handsome husband than of all his money.
7 It was such a surprise to look up and find you, just as I was beginning to fear you wouldn't come, she said, trying in vain to speak quite naturally.
8 "No, nor felt such thorns," returned Laurie, with his thumb in his mouth, after a vain attempt to capture a solitary scarlet flower that grew just beyond his reach.
9 In trooped the whole family, and everyone was hugged and kissed all over again, and after several vain attempts, the three wanderers were set down to be looked at and exulted over.
10 She would not ask him to stay at home, but felt injured because he did not know that she wanted him without being told, entirely forgetting the many evenings he had waited for her in vain.
11 Margaret, the eldest of the four, was sixteen, and very pretty, being plump and fair, with large eyes, plenty of soft brown hair, a sweet mouth, and white hands, of which she was rather vain.
12 Evening meditation and morning work somewhat allayed her fears, and having decided that she wouldn't be vain enough to think people were going to propose when she had given them every reason to know what her answer would be, she set forth at the appointed time, hoping Teddy wouldn't do anything to make her hurt his poor feelings.
13 So poor Meg sang and rocked, told stories and tried every sleep-prevoking wile she could devise, but all in vain, the big eyes wouldn't shut, and long after Daisy had gone to byelow, like the chubby little bunch of good nature she was, naughty Demi lay staring at the light, with the most discouragingly wide-awake expression of countenance.