When Halcyone plunged into the sea in despair after the shipwreck and death of her husband King Ceyx, Thetis transformed both husband and wife into the birds called kingfishers (halcyones), which, with the tender affection which characterized the unfortunate couple, always fly in pairs.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens

His want of tact had deeply offended her— not by seeing what he could not help, but by letting her know that he had seen it.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

The cat obediently lay down on his mattress and closed his eyes.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

It’s a charming house altogether,” she went on, sitting down opposite her brother.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Of these some are cold and dry, others hot and dry, [1070] varying according to their mixtures, as they are intended, and remitted.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

On one side of him is the King, whose safety depends on his death, and who has done his best to murder him; on the other, Laertes, whose father and sister he has sent to their graves, and of whose behaviour and probable attitude he must surely be informed by Horatio.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. (Andrew Cecil) Bradley

He had been still writing in his hiding-place, and still dwelling on his grievances, hour after hour.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Lastly, our friends of Tlascalla had secretly informed Aguilar that the Mexicans, for the last two days, appeared to have some evil design on hand.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

The tendency to retch from a fetid odour is immediately strengthened in a curious manner by some degree of habit, though soon lost by longer familiarity with the cause of offence and by voluntary restraint.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

That he was a man well fitted for the responsible post he occupied in the Government could not be denied, and that he had carefully and assiduously carried out the duties of his office was patent to all.
— from The Under-Secretary by William Le Queux

The many-gabled, turreted building had formerly belonged to a family of Gordons, who had been deprived of house and lands in the far north of Culloden, after the brutal soldiery of the Bloody Duke had laid waste the wild and extensive country of Badenoch, burning every cottage and house, murdering every man, and more than murdering every woman and child, and “giving their flesh to the eagles,” as the old song hath it.
— from Annie o' the Banks o' Dee by Gordon Stables

(11) Again, when through the too cruel exercise of her presidency, as men thought, Athens was deprived of her empire, is it not the case that even in those days, (12) as soon as we held aloof from injustice we were once more reinstated by the islanders, of their own free will, as presidents of the naval force?
— from On Revenues by Xenophon

The old devil, failing to ruin Ivan’s kingdom with soldiers, transformed himself into a nobleman, dressed exquisitely, and became one of Ivan’s subjects, with the intention of compassing the downfall of his kingdom—as he had done with that of Tarras.
— from The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Restless, travelling incessantly, fearful of darkness, of his own shadow, he was like an Oriental magician who had summoned malignant spirits from outer space only to be destroyed by them.
— from Ivory, Apes and Peacocks by James Huneker

It combines the humour and irony, the vivid characterisation and lively dialogue of his earlier works, with the larger and more serious view, the more constructive and statesmanlike aims of his later life.
— from A Short History of Greek Philosophy by J. (John) Marshall

The nation fasted and prayed, and the king led the devotions of his people.
— from Broken Bread, from an Evangelist's Wallet by Thomas Champness

Even at a distance both seemed familiar, and presently he identified the lithe and dainty figure in the blue dress as that of the daughter of his vestryman, Francis Ferguson.
— from The Inside of the Cup — Volume 07 by Winston Churchill