I am not a vain man where women are concerned, but I remembered certain evidences, too lightly thought of at the time, perhaps, but which certainly seemed to indicate—— My pleasing thoughts were interrupted by the sudden entrance of Miss Howard.
— from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

] Note 129 ( return ) [ Bedder Houneene, twenty miles from Medina, and forty from Mecca, is on the high road of the caravan of Egypt; and the pilgrims annually commemorate the prophet's victory by illuminations, rockets, &c. Shaw's Travels, p. 477.]
— 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

Who your father may be, I really cannot say, but perhaps the Honorable Henry Boltrope, Captain R. N., may be able to inform you.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

King's procureur M. Ethys de Corny and officials are there; the Cure of Saint-Etienne du Mont marches unpacific, at the head of his militant Parish; the Clerks of the Bazoche in red coats we see marching, now Volunteers of the Bazoche; the Volunteers of the Palais Royal:—National Volunteers, numerable by tens of thousands; of one heart and mind.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolifick dyet, there are more children born in Roman Catholick countries about nine months after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of Popish infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of Papists among us.
— from A Modest Proposal For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick by Jonathan Swift

It is tremendously kind of you, Mr. Aslaksen; but I really cannot understand the necessity for all these precautions.
— from An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen

“Oh, I wish I could,” she said slowly, “but I really can’t, Gilbert.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

The parents of Barbara had been in reputable circumstances.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

But I reserve constructive proposals for Chapter VII.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes

It was not more than forty feet across at the mouth, but it rapidly closed until it ended in an acute angle, too straight and smooth for an ascent.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

Convolvuli ran over the bushes in rich clusters, the star-shaped jessamine, with its pink undersides, and the magnificent specimens of mesembryanthemums, or fig-marigolds, of which there are hundreds of different species, having little transparent pellicles, containing pure liquid, scattered over the leaves, giving them the appearance of being sprinkled over with ice, and [200] scarlet geraniums, attaining a height of ten or twelve feet amidst the thick bush, glowed on every side.
— from The Story of the Zulu Campaign by Edmund Verney Wyatt Edgell

A weir for lamprey eels used to be built in Redwood Cr. near by.
— from California Athabascan Groups by Martin A. Baumhoff

But the Americans do not confine themselves to foreign wines or liquors; they have every variety at home, in the shape of compounds, such as mint-julep and its varieties; slings in all their varieties; cocktails, but I really cannot remember, or if I could, it would occupy too much time to mention the whole battle array against one’s brains.
— from Diary in America, Series Two by Frederick Marryat

But I really can't think of anything to talk about .
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 107, September 8, 1894 by Various

"Your brother is right," cried the old man to the Memphite.
— from The Bride of the Nile — Volume 01 by Georg Ebers

'It's too bad of me to be out of sorts this morning, my pet, when I ought to be so happy; but I really can't help it.
— from Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 725, November 17, 1877 by Various

It came as a surprise to all the world because its real causes were hidden.
— from The War in the Air by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

What strange tribes, what ruins of an earlier civilisation, what wealth in forests or minerals lie behind its ranges can only be conjectured.
— from The Last Frontier: The White Man's War for Civilisation in Africa by E. Alexander (Edward Alexander) Powell

The bride’s was spread out on the floor around her just like the old pictures, embroidered in heavy rose peonies, her undergarment and the lining of the black, in rose color.
— from Letters from China and Japan by Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey