They are afraid to go to her father Icarius, asking him to choose the one he likes best, and to provide marriage gifts for his daughter, but day by day they keep hanging about my father's house, sacrificing our oxen, sheep, and fat goats for their banquets, and never giving so much as a thought to the quantity of wine they drink.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

Their corn and wine remain unwasted in their houses with none but servants to consume them, while they keep hanging about our house day after day sacrificing our oxen, sheep, and fat goats for their banquets, and never giving so much as a thought to the quantity of wine they drink.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

At last it was agreed that Augusta should accept the offer if Lord Pembroke would find a surety in the person of some reputable London merchant, for with her beauty and numerous graces she was sure to become Lady Pembroke before long.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

I haven’t had a decent meal for a week,” persisted the beggar; and now Gerald saw him cautiously withdraw his hand from his pocket with an object in it that made his heart leap into his throat.
— from The Golden Key; Or, A Heart's Silent Worship by Sheldon, Georgie, Mrs.

There was no banquet and no golden spike for the last rail in the Canadian Pacific.
— from The Railway Builders: A Chronicle of Overland Highways by Oscar D. (Oscar Douglas) Skelton

But if she had been a nasty girl, she would not have made such a marriage; instead of being anxious to secure respectability, however humble, she would have followed Auntie's suggestions and looked out for another protector instead of for a husband.
— from The Devil's Garden by W. B. (William Babington) Maxwell

[417] Only two years elapsed before a new general statute was adopted, authorizing full divorce on eight grounds.
— from A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 3 of 3 by George Elliott Howard

Come, let me clasp you to my heart again, that I may convince myself you are really flesh and blood, and no glorified spirit, which may some day soar upward from whence it came."
— from A Twofold Life by Wilhelmine von Hillern

We are approaching a time when the edifice will be shaken to its mouldering foundations, and presently, while the Church and the State are wrangling and quibbling, as they soon must be, over the loathsome divorce laws, these mandarins will wake up to find the marriage laws themselves are being threatened by a new generation sick of the archaic tomfoolery that controls them.
— from The Spinners by Eden Phillpotts

The moon sheds a pale light over the city as the two chivalric gentlemen, having rejoined and sworn to have revenge, are seen entering a little gate that opens to a dilapidated old building, fronted by a neglected garden, situate on the north side of Queen street, and in days gone by called "Rogues' Retreat."
— from Justice in the By-Ways, a Tale of Life by F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams

Even the debt for which he was arrested was contracted under the last-mentioned circumstances, and had been paid by a note given solely for the regent's use by this unfortunate courtier.
— from Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume 1 (of 2) Including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte by Hamilton, Anne, Lady