The young men who belonged to the Progressive Euchre Club used to drop in late and risk a tiff with their sweethearts and general condemnation for a waltz with ‘the hired girls.’
— from My Antonia by Willa Cather

I got very dirty, though, and I have no doubt I looked as ridiculous as I felt, and for that I expected to be tenderly dealt with; but when I went to ask after the child, a few days later, a neighbour told me that its mother was out, and it was a good thing too, as she had been heard to declare she would 'go for that lady the next time she saw her, for flingin' of her bairn about!'"
— from Ideala by Sarah Grand

Transitory movements of the body are noted and transcribed with merciless precision; an Italian hill-side, with its olive trees and winding ways and crown of turrets, forms the background of one scene; in another the drama is localised amid Renaissance architecture of the costliest style.
— from Renaissance in Italy, Volume 3 (of 7) The Fine Arts by John Addington Symonds

"Remember and let them remember," said the Advocate, "that the reforms which they are pretending to make there by relieving the subjects of contributions tends to enervate the royal authority and dignity both within and without, to diminish its lustre and reputation, and in sum to make the King unable to gratify and assist his subjects, friends, and allies.
— from Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland : with a view of the primary causes and movements of the Thirty Years' War, 1614-17 by John Lothrop Motley

Whenever the scene of my audience with the Emir of Bokhara, or of the agonies of thirst in the Khalata desert, and the terrible image of Kulkhan, the Turcoman slave-dealer, come before me in my dreams, even to this day I look anxiously round and rejoice when I find that it is only a dream and not reality.
— from The story of my struggles: the memoirs of Arminius Vambéry, Volume 2 by Ármin Vámbéry

In the Sperry correction mechanism the value of the quantity b is represented by the distance between the centre of the dial B and the centre of the pin C when the radial slot in the dial is lying at right angles to the bar D E. 4 The value of the north steaming error is numerically equal to ( a K cos C)/cos L, where K is the ship’s speed, L the angle of latitude, C the angle between the course and the north and south direction, and a a constant involving the speed of rotation of the earth.
— from The Gyroscopic Compass: A Non-Mathematical Treatment by T. W. (Thomas Wightman) Chalmers

Dickon is long and rawboned, a powerful fellow, strong of limb, and twice my build; but he sips too often at the brown brandy, and after the first burst I can head him.
— from The Amateur Poacher by Richard Jefferies

They speak with youth, and never speak amiss; Of such are you; and what is youth but this? {136} RUPERT BROOKE (DIED APRIL 23, 1915) To-day I have talked with old Euripides; Shakespeare this morning sang for my content Of chimney-sweepers; through the Carian trees Comes beating still the nightingales’ lament; The Tabard ales to-day are freshly brewed; Wordsworth is with me, mounting Loughrigg Fell; All timeless deaths in Lycid are renewed, And basils blossom yet for Isabel.
— from Poems, 1908-1919 by John Drinkwater