| There was something half painful in their jocund gayety and archness. |
| Moreover, his fascination with B-movies, science fiction and the rest of pop culture was self-conscious but not qualified by archness or irony. |
| It can also be nihilistic: archness as a perpetual defence against the vulnerability of being sincere. |
| The archness doesn't really get in the way of the crime fighting, but it does lift this book from potentially boring to perfectly diversionary summer reading. |
| The archness fled from her smile, and her eyes grew pensive and far-seeing. |
| All her animation and archness had not rendered it half so pleasant to look upon. |
