Yet he liked a slight tribute; the cost, the money-value, did not touch him: a diamond ring, a gold snuff-box, presented, with pomp, would have pleased him less than a flower, or a drawing, offered simply and with sincere feelings.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

But this appeared extremely difficult; for the spinet was nearly sixty feet long, each key being almost a foot wide, so that with my arms extended I could not reach to above five keys, and to press them down required a good smart stroke with my fist, which would be too great a labor, and to no purpose.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World by Jonathan Swift

These things, doubtless, represent a great social power, but it is not the power of love; and no other power could win Philip from his personal reserve.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Accordingly, he persisted both in loving and in spending without stint or measure, till it seemed to certain of his friends and kinsfolk that he was like to consume both himself and his substance; wherefore they besought him again and again and counselled him depart Ravenna and go sojourn awhile in some other place, for 279 that, so doing, he would abate both his passion and his expenditure.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

But this appeared extremely difficult: for the spinet was near sixty feet long, each key being almost a foot wide, so that with my arms extended I could not reach to above five keys, and to press them down required a good smart stroke with my fist, which would be too great a labour, and to no purpose.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

You find the damask rose a goodish stock for most of the tender sorts, don’t you, Mr. Gardener?
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

But whence this inequality arises, whether it be that some of the incident Rays are refracted more, and others less, constantly, or by chance, or that one and the same Ray is by Refraction disturbed, shatter'd, dilated, and as it were split and spread into many diverging Rays, as Grimaldo supposes, does not yet appear by these Experiments, but will appear by those that follow.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

That night dies Ribold, and Guldborg slays herself and dies in his arms.
— from Ballads of Romance and Chivalry Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - First Series by Frank Sidgwick

At the Five Points House of Industry the children who come in for the day receive a general scrubbing twice a week, and the whole neighborhood has a cleaner look after it.
— from The Children of the Poor by Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis

Like the wife in the English ballad of Earl Brand , and the heroine of the Danish Ribold and Guldborg , Svava refuses, but Hedin's last words seem to imply that he is to return and marry her after avenging Helgi.
— from The Edda, Volume 2 The Heroic Mythology of the North Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 13 by L. Winifred Faraday

It was in vain that the wisdom of further postponement seemed to be suggested by the sudden death of his experienced Admiral Santa Cruz, and his excellent Vice-Admiral the Duke of Paliano; he immediately gave the command to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a man wholly without such experience, and the second command to Martinez de Ricaldez, a good seaman.
— from Cassell's History of England, Vol. 2 (of 8) From the Wars of the Roses to the Great Rebellion by Anonymous