The prince, looking at the chevalier, took it into his head to ask him, in a most engaging manner to risk a card.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

They were, by a casting vote, adverse to the leading lady, whom the majority decided an inadequate Salome, without those great qualities which the author had evidently meant to redeem a certain coquettish lightness in her; the minority held that she had grasped the rôle with intelligence, and expressed with artistic force a very refined intention in it.
— from The Story of a Play A Novel by William Dean Howells

He said he had started for Santa Fé light, because he couldn't get enough men to run a caravan—afraid of Indians, you know.
— from Keith of the Border: A Tale of the Plains by Randall Parrish

My desires now increased for such a knowledge of the sacred Scriptures, as would enable me to read a chapter publicly to my hearers.
— from A Narrative of the Life of Rev. Noah Davis, A Colored Man Written by Himself, At The Age of Fifty-Four by Noah Davis

And so, making a very great effort, he managed to compose himself completely, not allowing his hand so much as to tremble, and even managing to raise a cheerful whistle.
— from Danny Again Further Adventures of "Danny the Detective" by Vera C. (Vera Charlesworth) Barclay

But on the other hand, it is really gratifying to me, as well as to them, to know that, after all, their sufferings for my sake will be amply compensated by the good karma they have certainly acquired for themselves through their acts of charity and benevolence, that have enabled me to read and carefully study with greater knowledge, accuracy and enthusiasm, the most sacred texts of our Holy Religion, than was possible for me before my travels in Tibet.
— from Three Years in Tibet by Ekai Kawaguchi

"I thought I was a big enough man to rise above conventional morality," he said.
— from What Dreams May Come by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

The public mind was [Pg 49] agitated during this time by plots and rumours of plots, by State trials and Tower Hill executions, which alternately excited men to rage and chilled them with horror.
— from The Old Showmen and the Old London Fairs by Thomas Frost

If I have failed in these respects it is unconsciously, and I shall gratefully accept criticism enabling me to recognise and correct errors.
— from Magic and Religion by Andrew Lang

The external commerce of Persia is principally carried on by the foreign merchants who reside at Muscat, on the Persian Gulph: into this place are imported from India, long cloths, muslins, silks, sugar, spices, rice, indigo, drugs, and European manufactures; the returns are copper, sulphur, tobacco, fruits, gum-arabic, myrrh, frankincense, and all the drugs which India does not produce.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson by William Stevenson