There had been hot dispute about the shoes, Mrs. Shimerda finally saying persuasively that she would send Mrs. Harling three fat geese every year to ‘make even.’
— from My Antonia by Willa Cather

cause smells, savours, &c., deceive all the senses; most writers of this subject credibly believe; and that they can foretell future events, and do many strange miracles.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

126 Five thousand and seventy sergeants, most probably foot-soldiers, were supplied by the churches and cities; and the whole legal militia of the kingdom could not exceed eleven thousand men, a slender defence against the surrounding myriads of Saracens and Turks.
— 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

I was wakened by a sensation as if two needles ran into my breast very deep at the same moment, and I cried loudly.
— from Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Lady Caroline asked her crossly what she wanted, and Costanza's head went on one side with delight at the sheer music of her voice.
— from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

If all women were to have the same features, the same disposition, and the same manners, men would not only never be inconstant, but would never be in love.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

After this Caesar came to Berytus, 4 which is a city of Phoenicia, and a Roman colony, and staid there a longer time, and exhibited a still more pompous solemnity about his father's birthday, both in the magnificence of the shows, and in the other vast expenses he was at in his devices thereto belonging; so that a great multitude of the captives were here destroyed after the same manner as before.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

Up, and at the Office all the morning; and at noon, after dinner, to Cooper’s, it being a very rainy day, and there saw my wife’s picture go on, which will be very fine indeed.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

He gone I to dinner, and thence set my wife at the New Exchange, and I to Mr. Clerke, my solicitor, to the Treasury chamber, but the Lords did not sit, so I by water with him to the New Exchange, and there we parted, and I took my wife and Deb.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

At last the door opened; the drums and trumpets sounded merrily; the king entered, and walked with calm composure to his chair.
— from Berlin and Sans-Souci; Or, Frederick the Great and His Friends by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

[73] "I've heard about your driving away the sheep man," returned Patty, with more than a trace of sarcasm in her tone.
— from The Gold Girl by James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx

After gazing with wonder and delight at the still majestic pillars, that, like ghosts of the departed brethren, seemed to protest against the desolation around them, they took their way along the nave, through broken arches, and over prostrate fragments of stone, to the eastern extremity of the fane, and having admired the light shafts and clerestory windows of the choir, as well as the magnificent painted glass over the altar, they stopped before an arched doorway on the right, with two Gothic niches, in one of which was a small stone statue of Saint Agnes with her lamb, and in the other a similar representation of Saint Margaret, crowned, and piercing the dragon with a cross.
— from The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest by William Harrison Ainsworth

All these means of transporting oil cut into the business of the railroads, and they were desperately anxious to successfully meet this competition.
— from Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. (John Davison) Rockefeller

When carefully compared it must be acknowledged that the Mexican is by far the more complex and highly developed, and the same may be said of the social organization, which was controlled by the calendar.
— from The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems by Zelia Nuttall

What did he see—what were those uncouth shapes looming in the distance, amidst the surrounding mist?
— from The Pobratim: A Slav Novel by P. Jones

You're staying with us—here—on the Dark Moon!" CHAPTER VI " Six to Four " Perhaps to every person in that control room there came, as Chet's quiet, emotionless tones died away, the same mental picture; for there was the same dazed look on the countenances of all.
— from Brood of the Dark Moon (A Sequel to "Dark Moon") by Charles Willard Diffin

To weary feet, That have been diligent and fleet, The sleep is deeper and the shade more sweet.
— from Religious Poems, Selected by Various

She turned her back to her husband and went to inform her friends of her determination, and to send messengers all over the city.
— from Louisa of Prussia and Her Times: A Historical Novel by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

Then she seemed to settle down into a dreamy apathy; to sit moping around in shadowy places.
— from What Can She Do? by Edward Payson Roe