She had relations, to my certain knowledge, with one of the few men in London (in the money-lending line) who would advance a large sum on such a notable jewel as the Moonstone, without asking awkward questions, or insisting on awkward conditions.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

O gladly, yes!” exclaimed Tom excitedly, adding to himself with a lively sense of satisfaction, “In truth, being a king is not all dreariness—it hath its compensations and conveniences.”
— from The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

Apart from the mode of valuation, it appears that a like system of selection was continued by the Ming, and that some such selection from the daughters of the Manchu nobles has been maintained till recent times.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

Out of this room you passed into a little gallery, with which the other best rooms (only two) communicated, and so, by a little staircase of shallow steps with a number of corner stairs in it, considering its length, down into the hall.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

I think we have been at least six or seven times at the opera and the feste di ballo, which, as in Vienna, begin after the opera, but with this difference, that at Vienna the dancing is more orderly.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

only a pretence, so must our Order also in a nobler way try to conceal itself behind a learned society or something of the kind....
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

The vigilant humanity of Julian had embarked a very large magazine of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the soldiers, but he prohibited the indulgence of wine; and rigorously stopped a long string of superfluous camels that attempted to follow the rear of the army.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

hough you’d suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and toe? . . .
— from Bliss, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

This bold robber was so afraid lest some one should gain possession of the magic ring, that he had buried himself alive with it in a mound in Bretland.
— from Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas by H. A. (Hélène Adeline) Guerber

Beyond the seas we know stretch seas unknown, Blue and bright-colored for our dim and green; Beyond the lands we see, stretch lands unseen With many-tinted tangle overgrown; And icebound seas there are like seas of stone, Serenely stormless as death lies serene; And lifeless tracks of sand, which intervene Betwixt the lands where living flowers are blown.
— from Poems by Christina Georgina Rossetti

" For some time David continued in a state of great dejection, a lovelorn swain of seventeen years.
— from David Crockett: His Life and Adventures by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott

Dragonfly looked half crazy standing there tied to the tree and with a grin on his face, watching Poetry stack a little stack of sticks in one place for our imaginary fire.
— from The Sugar Creek Gang Digs for Treasure by Paul Hutchens

It has tried to undercut, has been badly hit by a long series of small fires, and it hasn't been able to reinsure.
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

Yet as he possessed a large share of sound common sense, he never made such a silly display of his proclivities in this respect as most half-breeds are in the habit of doing.
— from Willem Adriaan Van Der Stel, and Other Historical Sketches by George McCall Theal

He was in the act of taking a pipe from the mantel-shelf, in order to the more deliberate and satisfactory cogitation on such an unusual event, when he was startled by a loud shout, or scream rather, from above.
— from The Experiences of a Barrister, and Confessions of an Attorney by Samuel Warren

Over this he spread a large square of silk, and over this, again, a large shawl nearly covering the space he had cleared.
— from Tales of the Argonauts by Bret Harte