The sun shone, the birds sang, and the children sang too, and each held the other by the hand; for as yet they had none of them any high office, and were all of equal rank in the eye of God.
— from Andersen's Fairy Tales by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

At that time Goriot was paying twelve hundred francs a year to his landlady, and Mme.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

By all appreciable signs, they loved; they had looked love with eyes that conveyed the holy secret from the depths of one soul into the depths of the other, as if it were too sacred to be whispered by the way; they had even spoken love in those gushes of passion when their spirits darted forth in articulated breath like tongues of long-hidden flame; and yet there had been no seal of lips, no clasp of hands, nor any slightest caress such as love claims and hallows.
— from Mosses from an Old Manse, and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

There never lived a better knight; I had rather lose my kingdom for a year than have him dead.”
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

They say he blushed like a girl to whom Joconde is read, when he said to Kutúzov: ‘Your Emperor and the Fatherland award you this honor.’
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

None are held back neither by fear nor slackness, but it seems to be the will of almighty Jove that the Achaeans should perish ingloriously here far from Argos: you, Thoas, have been always staunch, and you keep others in heart if you see any fail in duty; be not then remiss now, but exhort all to do their utmost.
— from The Iliad by Homer

And in any case in which the evidence is rightly found to be false, and yet to have given the victory to him who wins the suit, and more than half the witnesses are condemned, the decision which was gained by these means shall be rescinded, and there shall be a discussion and a decision as to whether the suit was determined by that false evidence or not; and in whichever way the decision may be given, the previous suit shall be determined accordingly.
— from Laws by Plato

You frittered away your time, he very sensibly maintained, and health and also character besides which, the squandermania of the thing, fast women of the demimonde ran away with a lot of £.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

Tis unfair to hold me to account for a matter for which you yourself are to blame.” “Your brother was not at Fredericksburg as you thought he would be, Mistress Harriet,” answered he.
— from Peggy Owen at Yorktown by Lucy Foster Madison

And here, indeed, the umpires advanced, and their chief—an old mercer, who had once borne arms, and indeed been a volunteer at the battle of Towton—declared that the contest was over,—"unless," he added, in the spirit of a lingering fellow-feeling with the Londoner, "this young fellow, whom I hope to see an alderman one of these days, will demand another shot, for as yet there hath been but one prick each at the butts."
— from The Last of the Barons — Volume 01 by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

Any but such a Hen-peck'd Fool as you, that had but heard her say so, wou'd straight have given her such a dash o'th' Chops as shou'd have beat her Teeth into her Throat, and quickly spoil'd her Prating.
— from The London-Bawd: With Her Character and Life Discovering the Various and Subtle Intrigues of Lewd Women by Anonymous

We may admit his evidence as to the former, and yet think his opinion as to the latter worthless.
— from Collected Essays, Volume V Science and Christian Tradition: Essays by Thomas Henry Huxley

Likewise if one's heart should happen to beat a little, its mute language will not be without its meaning, as you will perceive when the arm you hold begins to tremble,—a circumstance like to occur, if you happen to be a good-looking young fellow, and you two have the "stoop" to yourselves.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 23, September, 1859 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

They waited patiently for a year, their hopes growing fainter each day, and when it became only too evident that the petition had had no effect, Timoléon ventured to remind the Empress of it, and drew up in his own name a fresh request for his mother's pardon, with no better result than before.
— from The House of the Combrays by G. Lenotre

The merchant asked to see it, and when he had examined it, "Glass shoes," said he, "are not by any means such rare articles, my good friend, as you think here in Rodenkirchen, because you do not happen to go much into the world.
— from The Fairy Mythology Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries by Thomas Keightley

For a year they had been held at bay by a skill and cunning which outmatched their most heroic efforts, and now, at last, the hour of victory was theirs.
— from The Native Born; or, the Rajah's People by I. A. R. (Ida Alexa Ross) Wylie

English opera conquered, aided, no doubt, by the fact that the section of the city in which the Italian Opera House was situated was fatally unfashionable, and after standing vacant for a year the house was leased to James W. Wallack, father of John Lester Wallack, who turned it into a home for the spoken drama.
— from Chapters of Opera Being historical and critical observations and records concerning the lyric drama in New York from its earliest days down to the present time by Henry Edward Krehbiel