reluctance

• I trust in God there is no real cause for apprehension, and that my reluctance is a mere weakness and folly. —  The Settlers in Canada
• I shall hope to make it appear that the saving grace of morality is directly operative in life; needing no proof from any adventitious source, because it proves itself under observation I shall address myself to an individual protagonist whom I shall designate in the second person; and whom I shall suppose to exhibit that yielding reluctance which is the mark of a mind that for very love of truth will not too readily assent As I am to prove morality to you, I accept the burden of proof; but you are not on that account totally without responsibility in the matter. —  The Moral Economy
• Her indifference (which he confused with her innocence) fascinated him; her reluctance was as a challenge to his languid blood. —  The Divine Fire
• Orsino watched the faces of both Madame d'Aranjuez put out her hand mechanically and with evident reluctance, and Orsino guessed that but for his own presence she would not have given it. —  Don Orsino
• This fit of shyness, pride, reluctance--who knows what?--continued with Leam for many days after this. —  Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 098, February, 1876

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