"And I will, Monsieur; but it must be arranged in my own way: nobody must meddle; the things must not be forced upon me.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

There was a kind of nobleness in this that took my breath away; if my uncle was certainly a miser, he was one of that thorough breed that goes near to make the vice respectable.
— from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

When they have done with masters, the state again compels them to learn the laws, and live after the pattern which they furnish, and not after their own fancies; and just as in learning to write, the writing-master first draws lines with a style for the use of the young beginner, and gives him the tablet and makes him follow the lines, so the city draws the laws, which were the invention of good lawgivers living in the olden time; these are given to the young man, in order to guide him in his conduct whether he is commanding or obeying; and he who transgresses them is to be corrected, or, in other words, called to account, which is a term used not only in your country, but also in many others, seeing that justice calls men to account.
— from Protagoras by Plato

O Mrs. Jervis! replied I, there all thanks are due, both from you and me: for our dear master granted me this blessing, as I may justly call it, the very first moment I begged it of him.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

But the fright was not yet near so great in the city, abstractly so called, and particularly because, though they were at first in a most inexpressible consternation, yet as I have observed that the distemper intermitted often at first, so they were, as it were, alarmed and unalarmed again, and this several times, till it began to be familiar to them; and that even when it appeared violent, yet seeing it did not presently spread into the city, or the east and south parts, the people began to take courage, and to be, as I may say, a little hardened.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

I had made trial of all sorts of Oriental rubber and bath attendants in my day, but the silent little Soodopsy who laved and rubbed and tapped and stroked me exceeded them all in dexterity, added to which was a new charm, for I was not obliged to listen to long and senseless tales of adventure and intrigue, but was left quite alone to my own thoughts.
— from Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey by Ingersoll Lockwood

This conclusion is confirmed by a more minute examination of the poem, which proves that the poet has given, not merely a general account of the foundation of the mysteries, but also in more or less veiled language mythical explanations of the origin of particular rites which we have good reason to believe formed essential features of the festival.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

Wood, brass, and ivory, might be successively employed.
— 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

Another example will make the same thing plain: a man is standing with his back turned, another comes up and strikes him, and after striking him takes to flight, without waiting an instant, and the other pursues him but does not overtake him; he who received the blow received an offence, but not an insult, because an insult must be maintained.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Never assertive, he drew and captured the heart by an irresistible magnetism.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

There seems to have been nothing to specially disturb the fair building and its ministering priests till 1090 (William Rufus), when, in a tremendous storm that sent the monks to their knees, and shook the very saints from their niches over portal and arch, the roof of Bow Church was, by one great wrench of the wind, lifted off, and wafted down like a mere dead leaf into the street.
— from Old and New London, Volume I A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places by Walter Thornbury

Exceptional in these respects was the anniversary, on May 16, of the battle of Albuhera in 1811, on which occasion the 57th Regiment earned the soubriquet of “The Die-hards,” 99 of which it is so justly proud, the esprit de corps maintained thereby as well as through anniversary celebration being among its most valuable heritages.
— from Recollections of Thirty-nine Years in the Army Gwalior and the Battle of Maharajpore, 1843; the Gold Coast of Africa, 1847-48; the Indian Mutiny, 1857-58; the expedition to China, 1860-61; the Siege of Paris, 1870-71; etc. by Gordon, Charles Alexander, Sir

“No, but I did my best, and if my lariat had been a little longer, I’d have had a different story to tell, for I made as straight a throw for his head as I ever made in my life.
— from Snowed Up; or, The Sportman's Club in the Mountains by Harry Castlemon

A tool, a vehicle, or the human frame may be clumsy in shape or build, awkward in motion.
— from English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by James Champlin Fernald

All depends on the inclination of the Shereef, or Commandant, of the caravan; but the journey from Fez to Alexandria cannot, by the quickest caravan, be accomplished in much less time than three months and a half, or one hundred days.
— from Travels in Morocco, Volume 2. by James Richardson

The bridle fell from his hand, and he made ready his rifle as if by an instinctive movement.
— from Two Arrows: A Story of Red and White by William O. Stoddard

"Ten t'ousand pardons, señor," he began in English, "but am I mistaken if I say your name is 'Elmsworth?"
— from The Kidnapped President by Guy Boothby