Ute stood sternly before us.

I spoke to each and petted each one briefly while Marie stood sternly over them to make sure that they behaved.

When she was satisfied that things were right, she stood before Bartle3 and said almost sternly, 'It now depends on thee.'

Captain Servadac, with clenched teeth and knitted brow, stood sternly, almost fiercely, regarding the boundless waste of water.

Standing there sternly, his arms folded, his brow furrowed with concern.

The image was captured most starkly at a news conference in Jakarta in January, when television cameras whirled as Michel Camdessus, the managing director of the I.M.F., stood sternly over Mr. Suharto with his arms folded as the Indonesian leader signed an interim rescue agreement.

And Jesus, endowed with the Spirit, breathed love and fellowship and yet stood sternly for the truth.

I hadn't seen him in the chapel or round the graveside, and he didn't come back to the hotel, but Billy assured me that it was him, standing sternly in the rain by the graveside, his hands clasped together in front of him.

Commodore Wilson stood sternly in the aisle, supervising as the diesel boats reported in.

They passed through a music room where a harp stood sternly apart from them, with never a jangle of strings to mark their footfalls.