Its head was squeezed and elongated to a point, and its large eyes seemed popping out of its head.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

As for little Pearl, the earnestness soon passed out of her face.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Yet this very prejudice will never fail to turn to the account of every stranger possessed of ordinary talents; for he will always find opportunities of conversing with them in coffee-houses and places of public resort, in spite of their professed reserve, which, by the bye, is so extraordinary, that I know some people who have lived twenty years in the same house without exchanging one word with their next-door neighbours; yet, provided he can talk sensibly, and preserve the deportment of a sober gentleman, in those occasional conversations, his behaviour will be the more remarkably pleasing, as it will agreeably disappoint the expectation of the person who had entertained notions to his prejudice.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

With him resided several accomplished, kind-hearted sisters, all of handsome and even stately presence; one of them the belle of the day in society at York.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

He seems to think that the end of poetry is, or should be, instruction; yet it is a truism that the end of our existence is happiness; if so, the end of every separate part of our existence, everything connected with our existence, should be still happiness.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

but have that happiness, my lord, that you would once use our hearts, whereby we might express some part of our zeals, we should think ourselves for ever perfect.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

And yet farther, I may safely urge, that all this is no more than the same with what is done by several seemingly great and wise men, who with a new-fashioned modesty employ some paltry orator or scribbling poet, whom they bribe to flatter them with some high-flown character, that shall consist of mere lies and shams; and yet the persons thus extolled shall bristle up, and, peacock-like, bespread their plumes, while the impudent parasite magnifies the poor wretch to the skies, and proposes him as a complete pattern of all virtues, from each of which he is yet as far distant as heaven itself from hell: what is all this in the mean while, but the tricking up a daw in stolen feathers; a labouring to change the black-a-moor's hue, and the drawing on a pigmy's frock over the shoulders of a giant.
— from In Praise of Folly Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Desiderius Erasmus

Perhaps they arise in me desde el cielo en donde mora from heaven where she dwells, esa sombra protectora one of the guardian angels, que por mi mal no respira.
— from Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla

The day advanced; she continued to gain, and towards evening she passed on our weather-side.
— from A Boy's Voyage Round the World by Samuel Smiles

—We are not aware of any remarkable appearances of this kind, 4 neither are there to be found extensive sand plains or other tracts entirely destitute of herbage.
— from Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch by Edwin Thompson Denig

Perhaps Easterners would not have rated it as a skyscraper; but in our country the skies are low and friendly skies, and a structure of eight stories, piled one on the other, with a fancy cornice to top off with, rears mightily high and imposing when about it, for contrast, are only two and three and four story buildings.
— from Old Judge Priest by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb

There were even some photographs, one of which I especially noticed of a young lady, who had written on the card a few lines of sympathy for poor Juliet's faithful and devoted love.
— from Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo Comprising a Tour Through North and South Italy and Sicily with a Short Account of Malta by W. Cope Devereux

Fouchette had, happily unconscious of this exciting scene, passed out of sight, inquired as to the condition of Lerouge, sent in the letter by a trusty nurse, and was returning across the Parvis de la Notre Dame at the same moment that Madeleine, alternately weeping and cursing, was thrown into her cell at the Préfecture.
— from Mlle. Fouchette: A Novel of French Life by Charles Theodore Murray