I rose and met the handkerchief half-way, received it with decorum, wiped therewith my eyes, and, resuming my seat, and retaining the flag of truce in my hand and on my lap, took especial care during the remainder of the lesson to touch neither needle nor thimble, scissors nor muslin.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

NICK, exact amount; right moment; "set in the—," meaning uncertain.
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson

Stepping to the kitchen door, I uttered the word “cod” with great emphasis, and resumed my seat.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

However often experiment and reasoning may show a man that under the same conditions and with the same character he will do the same thing as before, yet when under the same conditions and with the same character he approaches for the thousandth time the action that always ends in the same way, he feels as certainly convinced as before the experiment that he can act as he pleases.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

I think our attitude was really one of more intimately sympathetic understanding of the Filipinos than that of Governor Taft himself, because we had all known them longer, and all spoke their language, i. e. , the language of the educated and representative men (Spanish), and knew their ways, their foibles, and their many indisputably noble traits.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

NICK, exact amount; right moment; "set in the —," meaning uncertain.
— from Epicoene; Or, The Silent Woman by Ben Jonson

Taking some azotic acid, he mixed it with glycerine, which had been previously concentrated by evaporation, subjected to the water-bath, and he obtained, without even employing a refrigerant mixture, several pints of an oily yellow mixture.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

I began to be afraid of being detained in my journey, at the very moment when the necessity of speed became most urgent; and when I had to wait for five or six hours in front of a post-house, (as there was seldom an apartment into which I could enter) I thought with trembling of that army which might overtake me at the extremity of Europe, and render my situation at once tragical and ridiculous; for it is thus with the failure of an undertaking of this kind.
— from Ten Years' Exile Memoirs of That Interesting Period of the Life of the Baroness De Stael-Holstein, Written by Herself, during the Years 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, and Now First Published from the Original Manuscript, by Her Son. by Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine) Staël

As far as I could see extended a rich muddy soil partially covered with water.
— from The Fire People by Ray Cummings

Bessie felt more troubled than she could express, and, recalling Madge’s strange and excited ways, she felt now sure that there was something wrong.
— from The Vicar's People by George Manville Fenn

They looked alarmed, and affected not to understand it; and, perceiving I had done wrong, I replaced the print without farther explanation: but they both called this evening, and reproached me separately for thus exposing their sentiments to each other.—This is a trifling incident, yet perhaps it may partly explain the great aenigma why no effectual resistance is made to a government which is secretly detested.
— from A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Complete Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: with General and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners by Charlotte Biggs

Thus a rat who becomes a marcheuse,—that is to say, an ordinary figurante in a ballet,—must have some solid attachment which keeps her in Paris: either a rich man she does not love or a poor man she loves too well.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

75 are obtained under certain conditions (especially when manganese is present), Heyn considers that all the curves in that figure, except ACB, represent metastable systems—systems, therefore, akin to supercooled liquids.
— from The Phase Rule and Its Applications by Alexander Findlay

[113] Meanwhile, the most fearful disclosures were shocking the public ear, and rendering more secure than ever the prosperity of Villiers.
— from The life and times of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, Volume 1 (of 3) From original and authentic sources by Thomson, A. T., Mrs.

"Every attempt," remarks Mr. Stoddart, who has introduced this anecdote into his interesting Tour, "to illustrate the slightest circumstance, concerning such a mind, deserves our gratitude; but in this instance, conjecture seems to have gone its full length, if not to have overstepped the modesty of nature.
— from Shakspeare and His Times [Vol. 2 of 2] Including the Biography of the Poet; criticisms on his genius and writings; a new chronology of his plays; a disquisition on the on the object of his sonnets; and a history of the manners, customs, and amusements, superstitions, poetry, and elegant literature of his age by Nathan Drake