Will Maskery might be a great deal worse fellow than he is.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

The loose sand of the desert was frequently raised by the wind into clouds of dust; and a great number of the soldiers of Julian, with their tents, were suddenly thrown to the ground by the violence of an unexpected hurricane.
— 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

8 October, and consummated on the same date with female issue born 15 June 1889, having been anticipatorily consummated on the 10 September of the same year and complete carnal intercourse, with ejaculation of semen within the natural female organ, having last taken place 5 weeks previous, viz.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

Rosamond, whose basis for her structure had the usual airy slightness, was of remarkably detailed and realistic imagination when the foundation had been once presupposed; and before they had ridden a mile she was far on in the costume and introductions of her wedded life, having determined on her house in Middlemarch, and foreseen the visits she would pay to her husband's high-bred relatives at a distance, whose finished manners she could appropriate as thoroughly as she had done her school accomplishments, preparing herself thus for vaguer elevations which might ultimately come.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

There is something about a roused woman: especially if she add to all her other strong passions, the fierce impulses of recklessness and despair; which few men like to provoke.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

By and by the Duke of York is ready; and I did wait for an opportunity of speaking my mind to him about Sir J. Minnes, his being unable to do the King any service, which I think do become me to do in all respects, and have Sir W. Coventry’s concurrence therein, which I therefore will seek a speedy opportunity to do, come what will come of it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

In 1823 he was killed and plundered in a deserted alley in Bordeaux by Diard, who found him, after being away many years, in a gambling-house at a watering-place.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Anatole Cerfberr

“It will not do,” whispered Frank to Emma; “they are most of them affronted.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

At the dance which follows, the Old Man has the right to choose his, or rather her, partner; it is an honour to dance with him.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

He and his friends smoked and drank all day, and, they said, made themselves perfectly happy; but it was dreadfully dull work for all the rest.
— from Digby Heathcote: The Early Days of a Country Gentleman's Son and Heir by William Henry Giles Kingston

It was to be a masquerade––the dance which followed on the wide, clean floors––not the kind of a masquerade which the church societies gave from time to time to eke out the minister’s salary and which, while he had never attended, Young Denny had often heard described as “poverty-parties,” because everybody wore the oldest of his old clothes––but a marvelously brilliant thing of hired costumes.
— from Once to Every Man by Larry Evans

Then the public fountains in the great thoroughfares, at the great crossings & in the great squares; noble works of art, at once to typify and to actualize a city's purity and to satiate a city's thirst, and for a city's joy and remembrance, in pleasant shower, to cast into the air the liquid drops which first fell for it, and fall, on the distant heights of snow.
— from The Arts and Crafts Movement by T. J. (Thomas James) Cobden-Sanderson

Their many quarrels had been about King Charles, or Oliver Cromwell—or Stephen de Wick, for Matilda was passionately attached to her youngest brother
— from The Lion's Whelp: A Story of Cromwell's Time by Amelia E. Barr

Ever and anon he interrupted the court by protesting his innocence, and assuring the Sahib that the whole of the depositions were false from beginning to end.
— from Wanderings in India, and Other Sketches of Life in Hindostan by John Lang

Miss Dahlia, with folded hands, was seated by the wide window gazing out at the sea and in her sweet grey eyes there was such a wistful loneliness.
— from Nan of the Gypsies by Grace May North

Instead of following down the river, he struck across the basaltic ranges and tableland northwards till he came to the heads of a river which he called the Norman, but which is more likely the head of the Saxby River; however, he followed it down to its junction with the Flinders, where he saw the tracks of Burke and Wills going down with four camels and one horse; crossing the river he found the same traces returning.
— from Early Days in North Queensland by Edward Palmer

With eyes narrowed, as when he was examining a face to paint it, Gerald watched the handsome fellow in an animated cousinly dispute with Francesca–with the result, really against his hope, of finding himself, instead of aided by his effort of good-will to discover new virtues, confirmed in his previous disesteem.
— from Aurora the Magnificent by Gertrude Hall Brownell

At dusk we found ourselves at a landing-place, where we left the boxes, which turned out to be eight in number, each of which weighed one hundred and twenty-five pounds.
— from In Indian Mexico (1908) by Frederick Starr