‘You have the form and face of an adult’ he said, ‘but as regards soul, and character, and perhaps even intelligence, you are a child in the completest sense of the word, and always will be, if you live to be sixty.’
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

299 "If she only had a servant or two it would be all right," said Amy, coming out of the parlor, where she had been trying to decide whether the bronze Mercury looked best on the whatnot or the mantle-piece.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

"If she only had a servant or two it would be all right," said Amy, coming out of the parlor, where she had been trying to decide whether the bronze Mercury looked best on the whatnot or the mantlepiece.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

He was not hurt, but the girl gave her head a slight bump, and raised such a clamor that Quartilla, in a terrible fright, rushed headlong into the room, giving us the opportunity of making off.
— from The Satyricon — Complete by Petronius Arbiter

At first it had been a republic, such as Connecticut and Rhode Island now were, with 22 governors chosen by the people.
— from The War of Independence by John Fiske

Nor can we fear; our race is not the stuff Servants are made of, but a royal seed, And Christian, owning all mankind as kin.
— from Sonnets and Other Verse by William M. (William Mackay) MacKeracher

His forehead was high and broad, his hair very dark, nearly black, and rather stiff and coarse, his eyebrows were heavy, his eyes dark-gray, very expressive and varied; now sparkling with humor and fun, and then deeply sad and melancholy; flashing with indignation at injustice or wrong, and then kind, genial, droll, dreamy; according to his mood.
— from Sketch of the life of Abraham Lincoln by Isaac N. Arnold

The ponies are from twelve to thirteen hands high, but are remarkably strong and clever.
— from The Inhabitants of the Philippines by Frederic H. Sawyer

Oh, the ship sails fast With silken flags at the mast, And the home-wind blows soft; But a Raven sits aloft, Chuckling and choking, Croaking, croaking, croaking:— 30 Let the beacon-fire blaze higher; Bridegroom, watch; the Bride draws nigher.
— from Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems by Christina Georgina Rossetti

Peter sagely opines that they are holding a tea party! Let us drop into the ‘grain-barn’ and see what Hans’ little brothers are raising such a children’s noise about.
— from The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 Volume 23, Number 5 by Various

I will be all right soon, and can then go home.
— from The Man with a Secret: A Novel by Fergus Hume

Again and again, when historical investigation has refused to afford me the means of resuscitating some remotely ancient scene, I have been obliged to take counsel of imagination and remember the saying that ‘the Poet must be a retrospective Seer,’ and could allow my fancy to spread her wings, while I remained her lord and knew the limits up to which I might permit her to soar.
— from The Emperor — Complete by Georg Ebers