“With your brother?” “Yes, my brother was her first lover, and she caused his death.
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

Say thou art a sinner, and I will hold with thee; say thou art a great sinner, and I will say so too; yea, say thou art one of the biggest sinners, and spare not; for the text yet is beyond thee, is yet betwixt he and thee; “Begin at Jerusalem,” has yet a smile upon thee; and thou talkest as if thou wast a reprobate, and that the greatness of thy sins do prove thee so to be, when yet they of Jerusalem were not such, whose sins, I dare say, were such, both for bigness and heineousness, as thou art incapable of committing beyond them; unless now, after thou hast received conviction that the Lord Jesus is the only Saviour of the world, thou shouldst wickedly and despitefully turn thyself from him, and conclude he is not to be trusted to for life, and so crucify him for a cheat afresh.
— from The Jerusalem Sinner Saved; or, Good News for the Vilest of Men by John Bunyan

I felt like a suspicious character haled before the local magistrate to give an account of his presence in the parish; putting on the best face I could, I pleaded superior orders.
— from Comedies and Errors by Henry Harland

Say thou art a sinner, and I will hold with thee; say thou art a great sinner, and I will say so too; yea, say thou art one of the biggest sinners, and spare not; for the text yet is beyond thee, is yet betwixt hell and thee; 'Begin at Jerusalem' has yet a smile upon thee; and thou talkest as if thou wast a reprobate, and that the greatness of thy sins do prove thee so to be, when yet they of Jerusalem were not such, whose sins, I dare say, were such, both for bigness and heinousness, as thou art not capable of committing beyond them; unless now, after thou hast received conviction that the Lord Jesus is the only Saviour of the world, thou shouldst wickedly and despitefully turn thyself from him, and conclude he is not to be trusted to for life, and so crucify him for a cheat afresh.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

she was a fine lass, and she carried her pail on her head as straight as a willow wand," and the old captain clasped his own waist above the hips, and strutted about with an imaginary pail on his head.
— from Garthowen A Story of a Welsh Homestead by Allen Raine

Mary, however, came to our rescue with her coaxing eloquence and potent, feminine logic, and soon convinced Henry that the queen, who really counted for little with him, had made a mountain out of a very small mole-hill.
— from When Knighthood Was in Flower or, the Love Story of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor the King's Sister, and Happening in the Reign of His August Majesty King Henry the Eighth by Charles Major

“I believe I am tired,” said Barbara, with a forced laugh, as she compelled herself to pay some sort of attention.
— from East Lynne by Wood, Henry, Mrs.

He wished to anchor me here for life, and, so cover his tracks.
— from The Midnight Passenger : A Novel by Richard Savage

"It is not for long, anyhow," she consoled herself with thinking, for she thought it could not be long before Ralph secured the divorce.
— from Kathleen's Diamonds; or, She Loved a Handsome Actor by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.

The first savage who thinks sees the sun, for example, and calls it the sun; but in talking about the sun he begins to use figurative language, and so converts his simple propositions into myths.
— from Studies of the Greek Poets (Vol 1 of 2) by John Addington Symonds