It was like the contrast between a rough, dark, overgrown puppy and a white kitten.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

It had evidently been newly tuned and put in apple-pie order; but, perfect as it was, I think the real charm of it lay in the happiest of all happy faces which leaned over it, as Beth lovingly touched the beautiful black and white keys and pressed the bright pedals.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

For before this time, it seems, when the Persians and Croesus were sitting with him in council, Cambyses asked what kind of a man they thought he was as compared with his father Cyrus; 27 and they answered that he was better than his father, for he not only possessed all that his father had possessed, but also in addition to this had acquired Egypt and the Sea.
— from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus

The sound of drumming and trumpeting came from the Albany Street Barracks, and every church within earshot was hard at work killing sleep with a vehement disorderly tocsin.
— from The War of the Worlds by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Yagodov sits down and looks at himself in the glass and is apparently pleased with his reflection: the looking-glass displays a face awry, with Kalmuck lips, a broad, blunt nose, and eyes in the forehead.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Mistress Mary put her hand on his arm again without knowing it.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

However, does a woman keep a promise, not to marry, but to enter on an engagement to marry at some time?
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Not that Mr. Gollop, having regard for the expressio falsi as compared with the suppressio veri , was strictly a prevaricator or that he told the exact truth, because he had slipped four whole days up his sleeve for his own entertainment; four whole days in which he had not the slightest intention of visiting his firm; four whole days that he intended to devote to art research, and exploration—exploration of a wilderness known as MacDougall Alley.
— from Mixed Faces by Roy Norton

"Miss Taft loves your books and would keenly appreciate the honor of meeting you."
— from A Daughter of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland

The lips of the primitive mouth, however, lie, as we know, at the important point where the outer layer bends over the inner, and from which the two cœlom pouches grow between the primary germinal layers.
— from The Evolution of Man by Ernst Haeckel

"I'm not going to stand it, and he may as well know that at once," Johnny said to one of his friends in the office afterwards.
— from The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope

The usher announced the poet and, at Victor Hugo's name, which at that time was already well known, especially by reason of the ode which had appeared on the death of Louis XVIII.
— from My Memoirs, Vol. III, 1826 to 1830 by Alexandre Dumas

They were both orphans, and were kept, although each had attained his majority, under the guardianship of Monsieur Hochon, for reasons which will be explained when Monsieur Hochon himself comes upon the scene.
— from The Two Brothers by Honoré de Balzac

It may have been the sight of the corsets which caused monsieur Arnauld, whose keen eyes nothing escaped, to take alarm.
— from The Red Book of Heroes by Mrs. Lang

They are well known to the Indians and have formed a staple article of their diet for centuries.
— from Birds and All Nature, Vol. 5, No. 2, February 1899 Illustrated by Color Photography by Various