Some of what was said at this time Pollyanna again thought she could not have understood, too, for it sounded almost as if they did not care at all what the money DID, so long as the sum opposite the name of their society in a certain “report” “headed the list”—and of course that could not be what they meant at all!
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

Eliza would have replied, but I interrupted her by saying as calmly as I could, though in a tone which betrayed, no doubt, some little of what I felt within,—‘We have had enough of this subject; if we can only speak to slander our betters, let us hold our tongues.’
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

And since there is among them also an unlearned rabble, they are stirred up as by the authority of the learned to hate us more bitterly, thinking in their inexperience that things which have happened unwontedly in their days were not wont to happen in other times gone by; and whereas this opinion of theirs is confirmed even by those who know that it is false, and yet dissemble their knowledge in order that they may seem to have just cause for murmuring against us, it was necessary, from books in which their authors recorded and published the history of bygone times that it might be known, to demonstrate that it is far otherwise than they think; and at the same time to teach that the false gods, whom they openly worshipped, or still worship in secret, are most unclean spirits, and most malignant and deceitful demons, even to such a pitch that they take delight in crimes which, whether real or [Pg 136] only fictitious, are yet their own, which it has been their will to have celebrated in honour of them at their own festivals; so that human infirmity cannot be called back from the perpetration of damnable deeds, so long as authority is furnished for imitating them that seems even divine.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Had Clifford, every time that he emerged out of dreams so lifelike, undergone the torture of transformation from a boy into an old and broken man, the daily recurrence of the shock would have been too much to bear.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Then came Sir Pertolepe from the castle, and there encountered with him Sir Lionel, and there Sir Pertolepe, the Green Knight, smote down Sir Lionel, brother to Sir Launcelot.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

Leave it to me, I'll try and devise some lucky chance for you people!
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

Sometimes the dancing season lasts only for a few weeks or even days, sometimes it is extended into a special dancing period called usigola .
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

The "Theogony" might be tentatively placed a century later; and the "Catalogues" and "Eoiae" are again later, but not greatly later, than the "Theogony": the "Shield of Heracles" may be ascribed to the later half of the seventh century, but there is not evidence enough to show whether the other 'developed' poems are to be regarded as of a date so low as this.
— from Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica by Hesiod

She held it with both hands, afraid that she might drop it, and carrying it to the dining-room table set it down slowly, looking at him.
— from Dust by Marcet Haldeman-Julius

I think it is much safer to do so, Lady Stutfield.
— from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde

From what source have you drawn so large a supply of tender pity for the woes of all?" "Nay, the secret of my sincere commiseration with the woes of others consists in my having deeply suffered myself,—nay, in still sighing over heavy sorrows none can alleviate or cure."
— from The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 3 of 6 by Eugène Sue

Did she love George—or was it all delusion, and was he less to her than mere superfluities, the fringe of life?
— from The Talking Horse, and Other Tales by F. Anstey

She laughs his apologies to scorn, declares she loves nursing, and so manages that the convalescent blesses the hour when he fell ill under such tender handling, and in consequence improves twice as soon as he otherwise would have done, had he fretted and worried over the bother he was giving, and had he been shown plainly he was as great a nuisance as he undoubtedly is.
— from From Kitchen to Garret: Hints for young householders by J. E. (Jane Ellen) Panton

In discussing the qualities requisite in a fairy story to make it a pedagogical treasure, Wilmann says: [1] "When it is laid down as a first and indispensable requirement that a story be genuinely childlike, the demand sounds less rigorous than it really is.
— from Special Method in Primary Reading and Oral Work with Stories by Charles A. (Charles Alexander) McMurry

Rabelais called wine “ purée septembrale ,” or “ eau beniste de cave ,” as appears from the following:— Maistre Janotus, tondu à la césarine, vestu de son liripipion à l’antique, et bien antidoté l’estomach de cotignac de four et eau beniste de cave, se transporta au logis de Gargantua.— Gargantua.
— from Argot and Slang A New French and English Dictionary of the Cant Words, Quaint Expressions, Slang Terms and Flash Phrases Used in the High and Low Life of Old and New Paris by Albert Barrère

"Lady Doris Studleigh, let me be the first, your ladyship—my dear—to wish you health and strength to enjoy your good fortune."
— from A Fair Mystery: The Story of a Coquette by Charlotte M. Brame