His wife, however, would listen to nothing that he said, and scolded and reproached him without end.
— from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Wilhelm Grimm

Its ponderous Walls tinged by the moon with solemn brightness, its old and partly-ruined Towers lifting themselves into the clouds and seeming to frown on the plains around them, its lofty battlements oergrown with ivy, and folding Gates expanding in honour of the Visionary Inhabitant, made me sensible of a sad and reverential horror.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

Do not cast yourself against such a rock; he would break you like glass.”
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

In the mean time the governor of the north gate presented a petition to this high court of the empire, offered himself [440] as Mr. Judson's security, obtained his release, and took him to his house, where he treated him with every possible kindness, and to which I was removed as soon as returning health would allow.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

Nothing is beyond the reach of his ambition, and his ambition soars at random; he is light-hearted, generous, and enthusiastic; in short, the fledgling bird has discovered that he has wings.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

So we went all in a body; and the meagre old maid-servant, that opened the door, ushered us into an apartment such as Rose had described to me as the scene of her first introduction to Mrs. Graham, a tolerably spacious and lofty room, but obscurely lighted by the old-fashioned windows, the ceiling, panels, and chimney-piece of grim black oak—the latter elaborately but not very tastefully carved,—with tables and chairs to match, an old bookcase on one side of the fire-place, stocked with a motley assemblage of books, and an elderly cabinet piano on the other.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

O f Family Matters, Cares, Hopes, Disappointments, and Sorrows Although Mrs. Nickleby had been made acquainted by her son and daughter with every circumstance of Madeline Bray’s history which was known to them; although the responsible situation in which Nicholas stood had been carefully explained to her, and she had been prepared, even for the possible contingency of having to receive the young lady in her own house, improbable as such a result had appeared only a few minutes before it came about, still, Mrs. Nickleby, from the moment when this confidence was first reposed in her, late on the previous evening, had remained in an unsatisfactory and profoundly mystified state, from which no explanations or arguments could relieve her, and which every fresh soliloquy and reflection only aggravated more and more.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

She knew that little Ted would turn up again in time, safe and rosy, dirty and serene, and she always received him back with a hearty welcome, for Jo loved her babies tenderly.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

They were white and strong and regular, he decided, as he looked at them.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

“You’re right,” he exclaimed, coming to a standstill and rapping his knuckles sharply upon a small table carrying one slender vase.
— from Night and Day by Virginia Woolf

Bartlett drops the pencil, and starts away, releasing his arm: "Oh, no, no!"
— from A Counterfeit Presentment; and, The Parlour Car by William Dean Howells

“The countess will be rejoiced—we are all rejoiced, your ladyship; the storm was so heavy, the roads so fearful, we scarcely dared to hope that your carriage would reach Newmarket to-night,” continued the host, all smiles again, rubbing his hands and flourishing before her ladyship.
— from My Lady Clancarty Being the True Story of the Earl of Clancarty and Lady Elizabeth Spencer by Mary Imlay Taylor

She had now seen him several times; all shame and reserve had been cast off; her criminal love and its object were fully avowed; and, entangled in the snares of the impostor and his unprincipled associate, she was ready to engage in any rash act, however disgraceful, to accomplish her dark and vicious purposes.
— from Arabella Stuart: A Romance from English History by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

As soon as Rosa had been fetched away by her friends at the manor-house her brothers started on their expedition, without waiting for dinner or tea.
— from Life's Little Ironies A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters by Thomas Hardy

Will o' th' Green's few men hurried them with their arrows; and soon as Robin had come down to level ground he fell to streaming his shafts into the rout.
— from Robin Hood by Paul Creswick