‘It’s a very unpleasant thing, Dick,’ said Miss Brass, pulling out the tin box and refreshing herself with a pinch of snuff; ‘but between you and me—between friends you know, for if Sammy knew it, I should never hear the last of it—some of the office-money, too, that has been left about, has gone in the same way.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

He used likewise to sell by lot among his guests articles of very unequal value, and pictures with their fronts reversed; and so, by the unknown quality of the lot, disappoint or gratify the expectation of the purchasers.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

This prince, alarmed by the concourse of the shepherds hastily crowding round the stranger, whom they charged with open murder, after he heard the act and the cause of the act, observing the person and mien of the hero to be larger, and his gait more majestic, than human, asked who he was?
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

‘But look at him,’ groaned Mr. Gradgrind. ‘Will any coach—’ ‘I don’t mean that he thould go in the comic livery,’ said Sleary.
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens

All that troubled him but little; and he gave a warm reception every evening to the wine of the royal vintage of Chaillot, without a suspicion that several flasks of that same wine (somewhat revised and corrected, it is true, by Doctor Coictier), cordially offered to Edward IV. by Louis XI., would, some fine morning, rid Louis XI. of Edward IV.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

Little by little, as he gazed at her, he grew calm and regained possession of his freedom of mind.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

See, here and there around us high Piled up in heaps cleft billets lie, And holy grass is gathered, bright As strips of shining lazulite.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

Then together they went out and wherever a boundary line came in sight, or fields and meadows were divided from each other, Hans pointed with his finger and then slapped either a large or a small patch on his smock-frock, and said, "That patch is mine, and that too, my dearest, just look at it," meaning thereby that his wife should not stare at the broad land, but look at his garment, which was his own.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

Borís looked at his general inquiringly and immediately saw that he was being tested.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Because the temptation to make use of the secret creeps over him little by little and he gives way to it.
— from The Hollow Needle; Further adventures of Arsene Lupin by Maurice Leblanc

It was in this strangely picturesque town, rich in remarkable buildings and in traditions both literary and historic, guarded by fantastic mountains and traversed by unruly torrents, that Gabrielle Vernois passed her childhood—mixing in a society both refined and devout though somewhat prejudiced and circumscribed of outlook, the members of it being more distinguished for the magnitude of their united ages and the multitude of their quarterings, than for the length of their purses or their acquaintance with the world as it now actually is.
— from Adrian Savage: A Novel by Lucas Malet

Mrs. Brady looked at her granddaughter wonderingly.
— from The Girl from Montana by Grace Livingston Hill

What we want is that every boy should be in his place at the proper moment; not that he should be late, and have good excuses for it.
— from The Teacher Moral Influences Employed in the Instruction and Government of the Young by Jacob Abbott

He longed to drop off this “self” which held him back like a heavy garment.
— from The Saint by Antonio Fogazzaro

The short day was nearly ended, the warmth of the sun had given place to a raw, cold wind, and my pack being large and heavy got in the way.
— from Among the Canadian Alps by Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone) Burpee

Hence the wisdom of those 'Masters,' in whose name Madame Blavatsky speaks, has ever denied the knowledge which is power until Love's lesson has been learned, and has given only into the hands of the selfless the control of those natural forces which, misused, would wreck society.
— from Annie Besant: An Autobiography by Annie Besant

Humboldt, in his "Researches" on the origin of the first inhabitants of Spain, falls into errors which are to be lamented; as his great name may afford sanction to the dreams of others.
— from Béarn and the Pyrenees A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre by Louisa Stuart Costello

“Don’t yo’ strike at me, suh!” panted the major, his face red as a boiled lobster, and his gray mustache bristling.
— from Dick Merriwell's Pranks; Or, Lively Times in the Orient by Burt L. Standish