He did away with all affectation of seclusion and retirement among the women, and ordained that the girls, no less than the boys, should go naked in processions, and dance and sing at festivals in the presence of the young men.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

Mat treated the objection with great contempt, and averred in reply, that he made the slaves black in order to obtain a striking effect of contrast, and that, could he have derived a similar advantage from making his heroine blue, blue she should have been.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

"Don't make such a long story of it," said the mother of the winds; "what sort of a place is Bear's Island?" "A very beautiful place, with a floor for dancing as smooth and flat as a plate.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

What could I do at such a fearful moment?
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Even though a great spirit should come in at the door at such a feast time, if the guests had done as Confucius suggests, “Be reverent and distant,” instead of insulting him and making him more malignant than ever, they would have escaped.
— from Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Faries by Yuk Yi

"But, Maggie, I never made him love me," cried Ursula, dismayed and suffering, and feeling as if she had done something base.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

They ought, by declaring themselves royalists, to have endeavoured to prevail on the troops of Savoy, if not on the Swiss, (who had embraced a species of neutrality, which, after the 10th of August, was dishonourable to their ancient reputation,) to send in all haste, soldiery to the assistance of a city which had no fortifications or regular troops to defend it; but which possessed, nevertheless, treasures to pay their auxiliaries, and strong hands and able officers to avail themselves of the localities of their situation, which, when well defended, are sometimes as formidable as the regular protection erected by scientific engineers.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

And as she dropped asleep, she always felt that those figures smelt of glue, shavings, and varnish.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The Romans had now also another advantage, in that their engines for sieges co-operated with them in throwing darts and stones as far as the Jews, when they were coming out of the city; whereby the man that fell became an impediment to him that was next to him, as did the danger of going farther make them less zealous in their attempts; and for those that had run under the darts, some of them were terrified by the good order and closeness of the enemies'
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

But not for long; the sails were speedily lowered down and spread across from gunwale to gunwale to catch the precious moisture, and so heavy was the downpour that in the quarter of an hour during which the shower lasted the voyagers were enabled to almost entirely refill their breakers, the contents of which had by this time very materially diminished.
— from The Pirate Island: A Story of the South Pacific by Harry Collingwood

Mais il n'en ioüit pas long-temps: car vn mois ou deux aprés son arriuée, faisant vn voyage aux Trois Riuieres pour la deliurance d'vn prisonnier Sauuage, son zele luy cousta la vie, qu'il perdit dans le naufrage.
— from History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet in 1634 With a Sketch of his Life by Consul Willshire Butterfield

Then Frina, looked down and straightened a fold of her dress, while Maritza bent to inhale the perfume of the flowers in the vase.
— from Princess Maritza by Percy James Brebner

She was depressed and sad, and felt as though she had small need of other and painful memories, on this, her last evening here.
— from Mrs. Dorriman: A Novel. Volume 1 of 3 by Chetwynd, Henry Wayland, Mrs.

There were good cooks at our call, and the negro servants of the officers fairly grinned with delight at such a feast.
— from Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer by G. Moxley (Gilbert Moxley) Sorrel

Both Dawson and Farmer nodded, then looked questioningly at each other as the junior naval rating did a snappy about face and walked away.
— from Dave Dawson at Singapore by Robert Sidney Bowen

They had seen the horses approach several times in the past two days and shy away from those flapping things with the fearsome man scent.
— from Rebel Spurs by Andre Norton

Lady Linleigh, who had never for one moment relaxed her keen, untiring watch, saw him go up to Lady Doris, and speak a few words to her in a low voice.
— from A Fair Mystery: The Story of a Coquette by Charlotte M. Brame

A picked mustang, of extraordinary mettle and endurance, was placed at her disposal; a strong and fleet horse of the messenger stock, crossed with the mustang,
— from Woman on the American Frontier A Valuable and Authentic History of the Heroism, Adventures, Privations, Captivities, Trials, and Noble Lives and Deaths of the "Pioneer Mothers of the Republic" by William Worthington Fowler