"Oh, sir," exclaimed the woman as she caught sight of a youth of eighteen, but a man in stature and bearing; "you will surely do something for me!
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

He looks as if he'd like to know us; but he's bashful, and Meg is so prim she won't let me speak to him when we pass," said Jo, as the plates went round, and the ice began to melt out of sight, with "Ohs!" and "Ahs!" of satisfaction.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of revellers.
— from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

CHAPTER XV SOLA TELLS ME HER STORY When consciousness returned, and, as I soon learned, I was down but a moment, I sprang quickly to my feet searching for my sword, and there I found it, buried to the hilt in the green breast of Zad, who lay stone dead upon the ochre moss of the ancient sea bottom.
— from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

A sister or a brother can never, unless indeed such symptoms have been shown early, suspect the other of fraud or false dealing, when another friend, however strongly he may be attached, may, in spite of himself, be contemplated with suspicion.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

And, indeed, it happened unfortunately for the poor fellow, that he was known to bear a most inveterate spite against the old gentlewoman; and, consequently, that never any ill accident happened to her
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot

“This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening, in summer; the windows are full west.”
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I saw the new houses— saw them plainly enough—but they did not affect the older picture in my mind, for through their solid bricks and mortar I saw the vanished houses, which had formerly stood there, with perfect distinctness.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

I do not find other people so willing to do business as myself I slept most of the sermon I was very angry, and resolve to beat him to-morrow Ill humour to be so against that which all the world cries up In some churches there was hardly ten people in the whole church Insurrection of the Catholiques there It must be the old ones that must do any good Jealous, though God knows I have no great reason John has got a wife, and for that he intends to part with him Justice of proceeding not to condemn a man unheard Keep at interest, which is a good, quiett, and easy profit King was gone to play at Tennis Lady Castlemaine hath all the King's Christmas presents Lay long in bed talking and pleasing myself with my wife Lay very long with my wife in bed talking with great pleasure Lay chiding, and then pleased with my wife in bed Liability of a husband to pay for goods supplied his wife Many thousands in a little time go out of England Matters in Ireland are full of discontent Money, which sweetens all things Most flat dead sermon, both for matter and manner of delivery Much discourse, but little to be learned My maid Susan ill, or would be thought so
— from Quotations from Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys

The king was wholly averse from the new ministers, but hoped to win upon them as he had done upon Strafford, Loudon, and Montrose; and indeed, after their appointment, a bolder and more independent spirit seemed to awaken in the Lords.
— from Cassell's History of England, Vol. 2 (of 8) From the Wars of the Roses to the Great Rebellion by Anonymous

The ghost of Lady Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, who always appears in white, carrying her child in her arms, has long been, as Mr. Ingram says, [83] ‘an enduring monument of the bloodthirsty spirit of the age in which she lived.’
— from The Ghost World by T. F. (Thomas Firminger) Thiselton-Dyer

"Well," said the peasant, putting down the basket and melon, "I shall leave these things here, any way, and I beg your Reverence to have a care of yourself.
— from Agnes of Sorrento by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Begin at the beginning, and make it simple."
— from In the Misty Seas: A Story of the Sealers of Behring Strait by Harold Bindloss

Martha Savory devoted to this work of mercy much time and personal exertion; but a more important service was also designed for her.
— from Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel by John Yeardley

Why should the pope be ashamed to be a messenger, if St. Peter himself is no more?
— from Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume I) by Martin Luther

I think that if Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas had not come to my help, like a good cavalier, the second time that they knocked me to the ground, by placing his own body above mine, I should have been in much greater danger than I was.
— from The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542. Excerpted from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-1893, Part 1. by George Parker Winship