I cannot account for it, but she seems to entertain some prejudice against the Danglars.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

People who observed this, accounted for it by saying that it was a part of her amiable and gentle nature always to be light-hearted, happy and contented under any circumstances.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Then turning to the curate he added with a change of tone, “They are fastened in by skipping two holes.” For the benefit of those who are not informed about these instruments of torture, we will say that the stocks are one of the most harmless.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

Ay, four, in buckram suits. FALSTAFF.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

The last night they kept it up in great style, and were getting into a high-go, when the captain called us off to go aboard, for, it being south-easter season, he was afraid to remain on shore long; and it was well he did not, for that very night, we slipped our cables, as a crowner to our fun ashore, and stood off before a south-easter, which lasted twelve hours, and returned to our anchorage the next day.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

As they stole farther and farther in by slight and scarcely perceptible degrees, and with such caution that they scarcely seemed to breathe, the old hag and Squeers little dreaming of any such invasion, and utterly unconscious of there being any soul near but themselves, were busily occupied with their tasks.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

and forced it back some four hundred yards, leaving in his hands for the time two batteries, but the ground and batteries were immediately after recovered by the same troops reenforced.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

Jo saw and felt it, but said nothing at the time, and soon the first impression lost much of its power; for Beth seemed happy, no one appeared to doubt that she was better; and, presently, in other cares, Jo for a time forgot her fear.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

“It is not enough for me to know what I have in me—everyone must know it: Pierre, and that young girl who wanted to fly away into the sky, everyone must know me, so that my life may not be lived for myself alone while others live so apart from it, but so that it may be reflected in them all, and they and I may live in harmony!”
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Posthumus hides his passion under a peasant’s garb, and Edgar his pride beneath an idiot’s rags; Portia wears the apparel of a lawyer, and Rosalind is attired in ‘all points as a man’; the cloak-bag of Pisanio changes Imogen to the Youth Fidele; Jessica flees from her father’s house in boy’s dress, and Julia ties up her yellow hair in fantastic love-knots, and dons hose and doublet; Henry the Eighth woos his lady as a shepherd, and Romeo his as a pilgrim; Prince Hal and Poins appear first as footpads in buckram suits, and then in white aprons and leather jerkins as the waiters in a tavern: and as for Falstaff, does he not come on as a highwayman, as an old woman, as Herne the Hunter, and as the clothes going to the laundry?
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

She did not allude to the circumstance that caused her to leave the room, but endeavoured to withdraw attention from it by some pleasant remarks calculated to interest the visitor and give the thoughts of all a new direction.
— from Home Scenes and Home Influence; a series of tales and sketches by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur

Surely there cannot be a female imprisoned——" "Be silent, in the name of heaven!"
— from The Mysteries of London, v. 2/4 by George W. M. (George William MacArthur) Reynolds

I counted up and found it between sixty and eighty thousand words—about the size of your book.
— from Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 3 (1876-1885) by Mark Twain

She enjoyed the brilliant sky of Italy and the comfort of its mild climate, so necessary to her health; but, if these advantages had not been accompanied by a sumptuous palace and a large circle of fashionable acquaintances, she would have regarded her expatriation as an exile, and found it but slightly mitigated by all the wonders of nature and art by which she was surrounded.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 15, Nos. 85-90, April 1872-September 1872 A Monthly Magazine by Various

This was considered by Murphy as an evasion; and he added further insult by saying that he supposed his antagonist wanted Dutch courage, and that if he did not get wine enough in the cabin, he would not fight at all.
— from Frank Mildmay; Or, the Naval Officer by Frederick Marryat

A wide-lipped bowl, in clear yellow glass, held rosy pippins or sprawling purple grapes on the table in the window, the sideboard carried old jugs and flagons in blackened silver or dull pottery.
— from The Story of Julia Page by Kathleen Thompson Norris

But even to her accustomed faculties it became sickening at the last.
— from Lady William by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

I can only account for it, by supposing that their use and delicacy of form have required more than ordinary care in the construction.
— from Recollections of Europe by James Fenimore Cooper

[319] Belmas says that it had started déjà , and must be right: while Lapéne, who thinks that it was loaded up and sent off after the alarm, fails to account for its being six miles along the road when surprised.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 4, Dec. 1810-Dec. 1811 Massena's Retreat, Fuentes de Oñoro, Albuera, Tarragona by Charles Oman