Gently, Grated, Grinned, Groaned, Gruffly Happily, Hotly Impatiently, In a casual tone, In a chiding tone, In a courteous manner In a cur ious tone, In a dry tone, In a flirtatious way, In a level tone In a level way, In a non committal way, In a perpetually tired voice In a quiet way, In a raspin g tone, In a small panicky voice In a soothing tone, In an attempt to , In quiet a mazement, Indulgently, Informed in an easy tone, Innocently, Inquired doubtfully , Invited, Irritably Loftily, Loudly Made the effort to sound reassuring, Meaning the words more seriously than they sounded, Mentally shrugged Naturally, Nodded agreeably, Not wanting to sound pushy Offered, Offhandedly, Optimistically Pleasantly, Politely, Politely smooth, Probed Promised in a motherly/fatherly wa y, Prompted gently Promptly, Protested Quietly Reflectively, Roughly Sadly, Said sympathetically, She went on, Sincerely, Smiled faintly, Smugly, Sob erly, Softly, Sounded slightly brittle, Sparingly, Speculated, Sternly, Suggeste d Tartly, Tautly, Teased softly, Tightly, Truthfully Uncertainly, Unexpectedly, Urgently Vaguely, Voice soft with affection Went on loyally, Wilfully misunderstood, With a controlled smile, With a fond sm ile, With a gloomy sigh, With a note of relief, With a sad grimace, With a sad s mile, With a sense of guilt, With a sigh of irritation, With burgeoning exciteme nt, With conviction, With determination, With fire, With firm persistence, With gentle remonstrance, With gentle teasing, With graceful simplicity, With mock as tonishment, With pleasure, With quiet empathy With simple directness, Without so unding unduly curious, Wryly