After labouring for two or three years in their precious scheme, to find that they’ve got a beggar at last, and one of them tied for life.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

One can never get any but a loose and ignorant notion of such things except by experience.
— from The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories by Mark Twain

A gleam of light shone into the place, and presently the servant girl appeared, bearing a light, and followed by her young mistress, who seemed to be overwhelmed by modesty and confusion.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

I soon became excessively lazy; it was so pleasant to be dressed from head to foot, and from lingerie to gloves, by this tall, timid girl, always blushing a little, and never saying a word.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

Then on the blessed Gods who dwell In heavenly homes great terror fell: They gathered all, by Agni led, And counselled thus disquieted: “The hermit by ascetic pain
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

Had he stated This fact but of the wretched crowd, E'en then I should have hesitated; But that we mortals, great and small, Both good and bad, are liars all, I should deny at once, of course, Did I not know the maxim's source.
— from The Fables of La Fontaine Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury and Illustrated by Gustave Doré by Jean de La Fontaine

You will remember that I was a girl, abandoned by all, left alone among strangers and spies, without friend or adviser."
— from Starvecrow Farm by Stanley John Weyman

It is from these sources, greatly aided by accurate, learned and unwearied Dahlmann, 1 the German Professor, that the following rough notes of the early Norway Kings are hastily thrown together.
— from Early Kings of Norway by Thomas Carlyle

I profited by this absence to go and breathe a little at my chateau of Petit-Bourg, where I was accompanied by Mademoiselle de Blois, and the young Comte de Toulouse; after which I betook myself to the mineral waters of Bourbonne, for which I have a predilection.
— from Memoirs of Madame la Marquise de Montespan — Complete by Madame de Montespan

Then Wallis's other words came to her, "He was always laughing then," and suddenly there surged up in Phyllis a passionate resolve to give Allan back at least a little of his lightness of heart.
— from The Rose-Garden Husband by Margaret Widdemer

It happened, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, 017:028 brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and meal, and parched [grain], and beans, and lentils, and parched [pulse], 017:029 and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were with him, to eat: for they said, The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.
— from The World English Bible (WEB): 2 Samuel by Anonymous

As time goes on it becomes overgrown with grass and bushes and looks as if it were a natural bank, just like this one," said Raven Wing.
— from Hawk Eye by David Cory

She had not been satisfied to be gentle and benevolent and look after their clothes and morals.
— from Joy in the Morning by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews