As she rises to give a tour of her artwork, Mrs. Newhouse moves with fragile steps through the foyer with the marble checkerboard floor and into her small library.
But, on Sunday, Kim secretly boarded his armored train and chugged across the border with China to meet the most powerful leader in Asia, a man whose decision-making about North Korea may well shape whether the recent, fragile steps toward negotiation end in peace or in recrimination.
That might have been the end of the Panthers' season even before it began for a team that was preparing to take its first fragile steps toward contention in the N.F.L. Yet here they are, preparing to face the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 in Houston, perhaps, in part, because of Fields and Mills.
Many cities' gay villages may be fragile entities, stepping stones for urban change that bring gentrification in their wake.
Iraq's fragile democracy stepped back from the brink this week only to have Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki push it toward the edge once again.
The dephosphorylation of CDC25, the expression of cyclin E, the degradation of the cyclin E-CDK2 complex, and the concentration of the transcription factor E2F were classified as the most fragile reaction steps in the G1/S checkpoint (Table 1, cluster I).
"These are the brilliant, committed people taking critical-but-fragile first steps to address substantive change.
A small fragile old lady steps off the bus and breaks down in tears.
My stepfather had died the year before, and my fragile, cobbled-together step-family was just beginning its long, painful disintegration.
He walks slowly, seeking to maintain a fragile balance with every step and fighting constant, acute pain.
BAGHDAD — After weeks of political stalemate, Iraq approved a law on Sunday to administer a critical national election in January, a significant milestone for its fragile democracy and a step that will allow the rapid withdrawal of American combat forces early next year.
