Avoid, if you can, seeing the skeleton in your friend’s closet, but if it is paraded for your special benefit, regard it as a sacred confidence, and never betray your knowledge to a third party.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

Then I went out into the hills and uncovered and cut the secret wires which connected your bedroom with the wires that go to the dynamite deposits under all our vast factories, mills, workshops, magazines, etc., and about midnight I and my boys turned out and connected that wire with the cave, and nobody but you and I suspects where the other end of it goes to.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

We can't control the men, if they see fit to leave the camp at night, but you have every right—-and it's your duty—-to see to it that no disorder is allowed within camp limits.
— from The Young Engineers on the Gulf Or, The Dread Mystery of the Million Dollar Breakwater by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock

I have brought ruin upon your miserable little country, upon your father, upon your fine château, and now, because you still defy me—I bring it upon you!”
— from At the Sign of the Sword: A Story of Love and War in Belgium by William Le Queux

Not reading it as a duty—taking a chapter at night because you feel you must.
— from Quiet Talks on Power by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon

In several of the Balkan States, Roumania, Serbia and Bulgaria—in Italy and in the component parts of Russia—the conditions are no better, yet their right to autonomous government, nay, even to absolute independence, is hardly questioned.
— from The Political Future of India by Lala Lajpat Rai

striving for a power which will curse and not bless you, where is the sweet perfume of your humility?
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 20, October 1874‐March 1875 by Various

After he had the wonderful good fortune to be caressed and named by you I couldn't think of letting him grow up in an ordinary piglike manner.
— from The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey

7. { sic } "The Governor of Canada's words, and the Resolutions of the Five-Nations," said the orator in conclusion, "are now before you. Consult, therefore, what is to be done.
— from Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2) Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable Characters by B. B. (Benjamin Bussey) Thatcher

He, Sir Roger Lorraine, lay under her thumb, as calmly as need be; yet was pleased as the birth of children gave some distribution of pressure.
— from Alice Lorraine: A Tale of the South Downs by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore