Why did her hand tremble a little as she put down her cup?
— from A True Friend: A Novel by Adeline Sergeant

Before he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was anxious to discover the will of Heaven; and as the progress of Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the age, the gift of miracles, and the knowledge of futurity.
— 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

We have a cousin of his here, and I daresay he could tell you where he is.”
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

As they were going up by the side-paths, through some rhododendrons, Mr. Wilcox, who was in front, said “Margaret” rather huskily, turned, dropped his cigar, and took her in his arms.
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

But now, in the midst of the dying and the dead, how could a thought of heaven or a sensation of tranquillity possess one of the murderers?
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

These words greatly afflicted Samuel, on account of his innate love of justice, and his hatred to kingly government, for he was very fond of an aristocracy, as what made the men that used it of a divine and happy disposition; nor could he either think of eating or sleeping, out of his concern and torment of mind at what they had said, but all the night long did he continue awake and revolved these notions in his mind. 4.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

the summer duck has ceased to appear, nor do I beleive it is an inhabitant of this part of the country.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

That she should fulfil completely and honourably the duties to which destiny has called her will be the prayer of every patriot, that he should by his own efforts contribute all in his power to further such fulfilment must be his earnest desire.
— from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

Nor indeed is it, even in the modern world, so satisfactory an instrument of the popular will that we can afford wholly to discard his criticism.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Nor do his contemporaries throw any light upon this period of his life.
— from The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner — Volume 3 by Charles Dudley Warner

Thus did the old man prepare for an inevitable and dreadful death, as he believed; yet not a prayer did he offer up, not a thought did he cast at the future.
— from Rob Nixon, the Old White Trader: A Tale of Central British North America by William Henry Giles Kingston

Twenty hours sufficed for the two Aerian vessels to pass over a quarter of the earth’s circumference, and carry their tidings of vengeance and victory to Aeria, and shortly after noon on the day but one after Olga had dropped her challenge from the skies, a meeting of the Ruling Council was held at the President’s house in order to consider the startling and pregnant events which had taken place, and to determine the plan of the war which, after a hundred and thirty years of unquestioned supremacy, they were now called upon to wage not only for the mastery of the world, but for the very lives and liberties of the citizens of Aeria.
— from Olga Romanoff by George Chetwynd Griffith

There is no help for it, however, so he deposits his card, and departs, wondering at “the manners of some people who refuse to observe a time-honored custom.”
— from Lights and Shadows of New York Life or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City by James Dabney McCabe

If any brother should walk disorderly, he cannot be shut out from any ordinance before church censure.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Volume 01 by John Bunyan

I never shall forget the day he came home; we had waited and waited all day long till eleven o’clock at night, and I was thinking of sending the boy to lock the gates, and giving them up for that night, when there came the carriages thundering up to the great hall door.
— from Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth

[Pg 170] From the fact that they laughed so uncontrollably, and that they did not deny his charge, Tom felt sure that he had been made the butt of a foul joke, and he resented it spunkily.
— from The Boy Broker; Or, Among the Kings of Wall Street by Frank Andrew Munsey

"My work?" quoth the captain, in a maze, dropping his chicken.
— from Captain Ravenshaw; Or, The Maid of Cheapside. A Romance of Elizabethan London by Robert Neilson Stephens

Let nobody during the meal disturb his cap lest any hair fall into the dishes.
— from Tudor school-boy life: the dialogues of Juan Luis Vives by Juan Luis Vives