I know not how it is, but in scrutinizing her strange model and singular cast of spars, her huge size and overgrown suits of canvas, her severely simple bow and antiquated stern, there will occasionally flash across my mind a sensation of familiar things, and there is always mixed up with such indistinct shadows of recollection, an unaccountable memory of old foreign chronicles and ages long ago.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

Having found herself impotent either to charm or sting him, hatred was her only resource; and this hatred she expressed in terms so unmeasured and proportion so monstrous, that, after listening for a while with assumed stoicism, my outraged sense of justice at last and suddenly caught fire.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

And there he would have wept, but felt his eyes Harder and drier than a fountain bed In summer: thither came the village girls And lingered talking, and they come no more Till the sweet heavens have filled it from the heights Again with living waters in the change Of seasons: hard his eyes; harder his heart Seemed; but so weary were his limbs, that he, Gasping, 'Of Arthur's hall am I, but here, Here let me rest and die,' cast himself down, And gulfed his griefs in inmost sleep; so lay, Till shaken by a dream, that Gawain fired The hall of Merlin, and the morning star Reeled in the smoke, brake into flame, and fell.
— from Idylls of the King by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

The alterations in the countenance of Sophia had hitherto been chiefly to her disadvantage, and had inclined her complexion to too great paleness; but she now waxed redder, if possible, than vermilion, and cried, “I know not what to say; certainly what arises from gratitude cannot be blamed—But what service can my reading this letter do your friend, since I am resolved never——” Mrs Miller fell again to her entreaties, and begged to be forgiven, but she could not, she said, carry it back.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

When the statesman made remarks in these meetings, he not infrequently alluded with effect to the encouraging spectacle of one of the wealthiest and most brilliant young favorites of society forsaking the light vanities of that butterfly existence to nobly and self-sacrificingly devote his talents and his riches to the cause of saving his hapless fellow creatures from shame and misery here and eternal regret hereafter.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

The child could only shake her head.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Lyabmow, in referring to the scurvy in Kazan, tells us that among 28,000 cases only a few infants were affected, and Rauchfuss made the statement at the International Congress at Copenhagen, in 1884, that although he had seen a great many cases of scurvy, he had never seen it in children one to two years of age.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess

In a long course of service, he had distinguished himself on every frontier of the empire; and though his military talents were formed to obey rather than to command, though, perhaps, he never attained the skill of a consummate general, he was capable, by his valor, constancy, and experience, of executing the most arduous undertakings.
— 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

The buggy rolled off up the road, Isabel bursting with pride, her nose turned up at all the world, Linda Burnell prostrated, and the grandmother rummaging among the very curious oddments she had had put in her black silk reticule at the last moment, for something to give her daughter.
— from Bliss, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

So certain of success had he been at learning they were close on the heels of the Hairy Men, that the final disappointment almost drove him mad.
— from Warrior of the Dawn by Howard Browne

Having found nothing, not even the Council of State, he had come away empty-handed, at all events had turned his steps towards the Palace of Justice, thinking that as he had to search for justice he would perhaps find it there.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

Louise, for whom they rang to order tea, entered the salon at one of the times when Madame de Noirmont’s arms were about her daughter; and the sweet child, in her joy at being so fondled, cried out: “See how happy I am, Louise!
— from The Bashful Lover (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XIX) by Paul de Kock

The quick-eyed Elsie noted it and darted a look at Clover, but Clover only shook her head slightly in return.
— from In the High Valley Being the fifth and last volume of the Katy Did series by Susan Coolidge

The surface is most picturesquely broken, the forests are fine, from this point and that there are views pleasing, poetic, distant, perfectly satisfying in form and variety, and in advantageous situations taste has guided wealth in the construction of stately houses, having ample space in the midst of manorial parks.
— from Studies in the South and West, with Comments on Canada by Charles Dudley Warner

(If Uncle Henry could only see her, he'd be crazy about her!)" "Rose Ellis?
— from The Vehement Flame by Margaret Wade Campbell Deland

Which one was it?" Father Anton, jaw dropped, dumb with amazement, could only shake his head.
— from The Belovéd Traitor by Frank L. (Frank Lucius) Packard

And as there were no such cares on Sunday, Hilary had to choose the time for the greatest event of the human day.
— from Alice Lorraine: A Tale of the South Downs by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

She could only shake her head, and wring her hands, as one not to be comforted.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

Jack said nothing; he could only shake his head sadly.
— from The Yellow Face by Fred M. (Fred Merrick) White