A Traveller, who passed that way, [Pg 284] Entered the cave one rainy day; The Satyr proved a friend in need.
— from The Fables of La Fontaine Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury and Illustrated by Gustave Doré by Jean de La Fontaine

Before I could read, I was compelled on rainy days to sit at my mother's knee and listen to what she read.
— from Confessions of a Book-Lover by Maurice Francis Egan

“What the devil is that cursed old Rigou doing there?” said Soudry to Guerbet, as they saw the green chaise stop before the gate of the Tivoli.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

If she could only recall definitely that she had locked the window!
— from Making the Nine by Albertus T. (Albertus True) Dudley

So it was with a cry of real distress that she snatched the dish from the table, exclaiming: "Well, I guess you don't need mustard to sharpen your appetite, you greedy thing!
— from Dorothy by Evelyn Raymond

Among the symptoms of degeneration may be noted the retirement of nearly thirty kings and queens into convents or reclusion during the seventh and eighth centuries.
— from The Evolution of States by J. M. (John Mackinnon) Robertson

The expression (in her directions to the governors of Pinerolo, Cavour, and the magistrate at Lucerna), "It is our pleasure that the inhabitants of the valley of Lucerna especially may be able to enter into the bosom of the holy mother church," would seem to recognize the fact that the Vaudois were a community independent of Rome, otherwise we should expect the word return, which is so generally used in reference to heretics, as the Church of Rome delights to stigmatize all who reject her sway.
— from The Vaudois of Piedmont: A Visit to Their Valleys by J. N. (John Napper) Worsfold

On the first floor, behind curtains of red damask, the soft light of a lamp placed upon a low table faintly illumined the room, at the other extremity of which, on a large bedstead supported by spiral columns, around which curtains of the same color as those which deadened the rays of the lamp had been closely drawn, lay De Guiche, his head supported by pillows, his eyes looking as if the mists of death were gathering; his long black hair, scattered over the pillow, set off the young man’s hollow temples.
— from Louise de la Valliere by Alexandre Dumas

It was covered with a cloth of richest damask that should have adorned a royal dining-room, and set out with china, glass, plate, and cutlery of corresponding elegance.
— from The Wreckers of Sable Island by J. Macdonald (James Macdonald) Oxley

A shopkeeper leaves out of his accounts no item analogous to that 6,000,000 l. of its revenues, which Parliament allows to be deducted on the way to the Exchequer. Walk through a manufactory, and you see that the stern alternatives, carefulness or ruin, dictate the saving of every penny; visit one of the national dockyards, and the comments you make on any glaring wastefulness are carelessly met by the slang phrase―“Nunky pays.”
— from Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative; Vol. 3 of 3 Library Edition (1891), Containing Seven Essays not before Republished, and Various other Additions. by Herbert Spencer

Under the influence of the Radical leaders, he sent, on March 23, 1871, a message [2006] to Congress, declaring that in some of the states a condition of affairs existed rendering life and property insecure, and the carrying of mails and collection of revenue dangerous; the state governments were unable to control these evils; and it was doubtful if the President had the authority to interfere.
— from Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama by Walter L. (Walter Lynwood) Fleming