But downstairs is the charitable Guster, holding by the handrail of the kitchen stairs and warding off a fit, as yet doubtfully, the same having been induced by Mrs. Snagsby's screaming.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

“Now,” said the doctor, drawing his chair closer to the fire, and looking mildly but firmly at the semicircle of flaxen heads around him, “I want it distinctly understood before I begin my story, that I am not to be interrupted by any ridiculous questions.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

The machinery which serves reproduction thus finds kindred but higher uses, as every organ does in a liberal life; and what Plato called a desire for birth in beauty may be sublimated even more, until it yearns for an ideal immortality in a transfigured world, a world made worthy of that love which its children have so often lavished on it in their dreams.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

It only remains for me to say that, during my short pre-eminence of popularity, I faithfully observed the rules of moderation which I had resolved to follow before I began my course as a man of letters.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott

I loved my brothers, Elizabeth, and Clerval: these were “old familiar faces;” but I believed myself totally unfitted for the company of strangers.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

This surely cannot be intentional; and if unintentional, he ought to have been instructed by Meletus, and not accused in the court.
— from Apology by Plato

Mr. Winkle’s first impulse was to give a violent pull at the nearest bell-handle, but that unfortunately happened to be immediately behind Mr. Dowler’s head.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Come with us to Marcius, join us in supplicating him for mercy, and bear an honourable testimony to your country, that it never has thought of hurting you, however terribly it has been injured by Marcius, but that it restores you to him uninjured, although possibly it will gain no better terms by so doing."
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

But Faithful answered, "No, I am upon my life, and the avenger of blood is behind me."
— from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan

"That is the consequence of celebrating my birthday in Berlin, my friend," exclaimed the queen laughing; "it is your just punishment for refusing to spend the day with me and the children quietly at our dear Parez, as we always used to do."
— from Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

He passed into a darkness of old distresses, forebodings, grim recollections from his boyhood, inherited bleak memories.
— from The Happy End by Joseph Hergesheimer

There was no longer any danger of fire except from the conflagration itself, and now that the dynamiting had begun in earnest it was possible that the flames would be isolated before midnight.
— from Ancestors: A Novel by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

Before I began my letter to Sir B—— M——. Betty again warned me to conceal nothing from him.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 27: Expelled from Spain by Giacomo Casanova

Have all boats in by "Mess gear" unless special permission is given.
— from Campward Ho! A Manual for Girl Scout Camps by Girl Scouts of the United States of America

Fiscal year: calendar year *Serbia and Montenegro, Communications Railroads: NA Highways: 46,019 km total (1990); 26,949 km paved, 10,373 km gravel, 8,697 km earth Inland waterways: NA km Pipelines: crude oil 415 km, petroleum products 130 km, natural gas 2,110 km Ports: coastal - Bar; inland - Belgrade Merchant marine: Montenegro: 40 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 620,455 GRT/1,024,227 DWT; includes 17 cargo, 5 container, 17 bulk, 1 passenger ship; note - most under Maltese flag except 2 bulk under Panamian flag Serbia: 4 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 246,631 GRT/451,843 DWT; includes 2 bulk, 2 conbination tanker/ore carrier; note - all under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Airports: total: 48 useable: 48 with permanent-surface runways: 16 with runways over 3,659 m: 0 with runways 2,440-3,659 m: 6 with runways 1,220-2,439 m: 9 Telecommunications: 700,000 telephones; broadcast stations - 26 AM, 9 FM, 18 TV; 2,015,000 radios; 1,000,000 TVs; satellite ground stations - 1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT *Serbia and Montenegro, Defense Forces Branches: People's Army - Ground Forces (internal and border troops), Naval Forces, Air and Air Defense Forces, Frontier Guard, Territorial Defense Force, Civil Defense Manpower availability: males age 15-49 2,700,485; fit for military service 2,178,128; reach military age (19) annually 83,783 (1993 est.)
— from The 1993 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

Cases arising between American citizens of the army, or authorized followers of the same, will be investigated by military commissions."
— from General Scott by Marcus Joseph Wright

A corps of men with wagons arranged to carry cords of their little circus-tent telegraph poles would run along after the reel, like a hook-and-ladder company, and were drilled to rapidly pick up the wire and suspend it overhead, where it was not liable to be injured by men or horses coming against it.
— from The Boy Spy A substantially true record of secret service during the war of the rebellion, a correct account of events witnessed by a soldier by Joseph Orton Kerbey