As she gazed an unmirthful smile spread over her features, like sunshine that grows melancholy in some desolate spot.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

There were three other guests besides the bride and groom: a United States Senator, and a diplomat and his wife who were on their way from a post in Europe to one in South America.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

And Sir Palomides might not sleep for anguish; and in the dawning of the day he took his horse privily, and rode his way unto Sir Gaheris and unto Sir Sagramore le Desirous, where they were in their pavilions; for they three were fellows at the beginning of the tournament.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

None of the Murrays were disposed to attend church in the afternoon, excepting Rosalie: she was bent upon going as usual; so she ordered the carriage, and I went with her: nothing loth, of course, for at church I might look without fear of scorn or censure upon a form and face more pleasing to me than the most beautiful of God’s creations; I might listen without disturbance to a voice more charming than the sweetest music to my ears; I might seem to hold communion with that soul in which I felt so deeply interested, and imbibe its purest thoughts and holiest aspirations, with no alloy to such felicity except the secret reproaches of my conscience, which would too often whisper that I was deceiving my own self, and mocking God with the service of a heart more bent upon the creature than the Creator.
— from Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

And according as, on the one hand, my sense of direct participation is keen and deep, and, on the other hand, the distress is great and urgent, so shall I be constrained by this motive, which (be it noted) is purely and wholly moral, to make a greater or less sacrifice in order to meet the need or the calamity which I observe; and this sacrifice may involve the expenditure of my bodily or mental powers, the loss of my property, freedom, or even life.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer

One of the infants was dead, and Jean took her machete and dug a little cavity in the ground, and upon some soft leaves the child was laid and covered up.
— from Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary by W. P. (William Pringle) Livingstone

The Governor made kindly remarks on the hospital, which fluent Mr. Ng Choy doubtless rendered into the most fulsome flattery; the chairman complimented the Governor, and unlimited "soft sawder," in Oriental fashion, passed all round.
— from The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

"They seem to have hit upon another way of getting at us," said Stefan.
— from Princess Maritza by Percy James Brebner

Sugar-maple, viburnum, threeleaved arum, blue violet, small panax, prostrate mitella, fly honeysuckle, white berried gaultheria, and umbelled Solomon's seal, in flower.
— from American Journal of Science, Vol. 1. by Various

Yonder, where the Rhone glides along under Savoy's snow-topped mountains and not far from its mouth, in the lake lies a little island, indeed it is so small, that from the coast it is taken for a vessel.
— from The Ice-Maiden: and Other Tales. by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen