fingertip & vainly

Quotations:

Complete Works of Virginia Woolf: The Voyage Out

"Produce your instances, Miss Vinrace," he went on, Joining his finger-tips. "I'm ready to be converted." He waited, while Rachel vainly tried to vindicate her sex from the slight he put upon it.

Definitions: 

fingertip:

the end of the finger that is furthest from the hand;

vainly:

without success.

vain:

failing to have or unlikely to have the intended or desired result;