It was well washed, however, and properly rebleached, it acquired its former snowy whiteness, and was the softest and best linen I ever saw.—L. H. H. “Uplift the cloths, oh Holly,” said Ayesha, but when I put out my hand to do so I drew it back again.
— from She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

Their method of divining by lots is exceeding simple.
— from Tacitus on Germany by Cornelius Tacitus

She would have liked to hear nothing, to see nothing, so as not to disturb the meditation on her love, that, do what she would, became lost in external sensations.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

This is the Court of Chancery, which has its decaying houses and its blighted lands in every shire, which has its worn-out lunatic in every madhouse and its dead in every churchyard, which has its ruined suitor with his slipshod heels and threadbare dress borrowing and begging through the round of every man's acquaintance, which gives to monied might the means abundantly of wearying out the right, which so exhausts finances, patience, courage, hope, so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart, that there is not an honourable man among its practitioners who would not give—who does not often give—the warning, "Suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here!"
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

behead, bowstring, electrocute, gas &c. (execute) 972. hunt, shoot &c. n. cut off, nip in the bud, launch into eternity, send to one's last account, sign one's death warrant, strike the death knell of.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

He had been attacked the day after I left, and the fever had been upon him, with but little intermission, ever since.
— from Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I. by John L. Stephens

But if you wish to know more about the treatment of tenants by landlords in England, Scotland, and Ireland, get a book called Land Nationalisation , by Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, published by Swan Sonnenschein, at 1s.
— from Britain for the British by Robert Blatchford

Although I of course had no opportunity of learning arithmetic or any of those things that boys learn in English schools, yet I had my brain exercised by such studies as spooring and the observation necessary to enable me to practise the art.
— from The White Chief of the Caffres by Alfred W. (Alfred Wilks) Drayson

But elsewhere there has been but little improvement, except so far as it may be better to draw from an object without guidance, or with quite ineffective guidance, than to draw from a flat copy.
— from What Is and What Might Be A Study of Education in General and Elementary Education in Particular by Edmond Holmes

And if the South soon finds her winding sheet in garments rolled in blood, it will not be because of what the North has told her, but because, like impenitent Egypt, she hardened her heart against it, whilst the voices of some of her own children were crying in agony, ‘O!
— from Letters to Catherine E. Beecher, in reply to an essay on slavery and abolitionism, addressed to A. E. Grimké by Angelina Emily Grimké

A specimen, say, of a line-engraved stamp produced by lithography immediately excites suspicion, and a close examination shows it to be an undoubted counterfeit.
— from Peeps at Postage Stamps by Stanley C. (Stanley Currie) Johnson

The thorough Fletcherite is a philosopher, with a solid foundation for his or her faith in the Good that may be lodged in even seeming misfortune, and the recovery from the shock of disappointment, in order to discover the Good at next hand, is as speedy as desired.
— from Fletcherism: What It Is; Or, How I Became Young at Sixty by Horace Fletcher

The most beautiful land I ever saw any where, was in Iowa, between Davenport, on the Mississippi shore, and Iowa City, in the interior.
— from John Smith's Funny Adventures on a Crutch Or The Remarkable Peregrinations of a One-legged Soldier after the War by A. F. (Ashbel Fairchild) Hill

At three o'clock people began to get up and go away, and we could fully appreciate how Australian buildings let in every sound.
— from The Last Voyage: To India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' by Annie Brassey

When I think of it I seem to be lost in endless space, for melodies and harmonies rush upon me, which can make the most unfeeling tremble and raise the soul to God.
— from The Life of Carmen Sylva (Queen of Roumania) by Natalie Stackelberg