The four-family red brick house on 96th Street in East Flatbush where Mae Ruth Little has lived for more than three decades seems worn and frail these days, just like its 76-year-old owner.

The girl followed close behind him, seeming tiny and frail between the two men.

Ordinary Russians yawned; Mr. Yeltsin, 67, has seemed frail and drained ever since August's fiscal crisis erupted.

Morgase would have ha to tie her to a chair to leave her behind, and she was not certain that the old woman would have let herself be tied; she had always seemed frail, and had always been far stronger than she seemed.

To Rachel Medea's pale citizens had seemed frail, unathietic, until now.

Again the master shook his head, seeming very frail and sad as long as one did not look into his eyes.

He had never been strong, even ten years ago when he had dragged her back to reality, and in the last few months he had seemed increasingly frail, as if he had finally reached a point at which even his iron will and determination were not enough to keep him going much longer.

His wife had always seemed frail to him, delicate, with her human constitution.

The other was white-bearded and old, and might have seemed frail, except that he was sitting here in the heart of Richard's camp, watching Richard with a dark and steady stare.

Ten months later he had severe gastrointestinal bleeding and seemed terminally ill and frail, but his mind was clear and he maintained a great deal of correspondence.