And in the beginning of this his book he treated of the nature of colours, both the minerals and the earth-colours, according as he learnt from Agnolo his master, wishing, for the reason perchance that he did not succeed in learning to paint perfectly, at least to know the nature of the colours, the distempers, the sizes, and the application of gesso, and what colours we must guard against as harmful in making the [Pg 222] mixtures, and in short many other considerations whereof there is no need to discourse, there being to-day a perfect knowledge of all those matters which he held as great and very rare secrets in those times.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

And when her aunt had gone away, Vera remained standing in the middle of her room uncertain whether to dress or to go back to bed.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Lenormand, the head gardener at Versailles, raised six pounds of coffee a year which was for the exclusive use of the king.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

Then he ran, lengthened straight out and belly to the ground, a vivid ruddy streak darting smoothly through the bushes.
— from Red Fox The Story of His Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak Wilds and of His Final Triumph over the Enemies of His Kind by Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir

We were travelling on the Gatineau, a very rapid stream that joins the Ottawa, a little below Hull.
— from Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory Volume I. by John McLean

When they do, they may give a very rude shock to that sense of security which he has gained from his experience of the fact that hard words, even when uttered by eloquent essayists and lecturers, or carried unanimously at enthusiastic public meetings on the motion of eminent reformers, break no bones.
— from Preface to Major Barbara: First Aid to Critics by Bernard Shaw

"In some way the red and orange and yellow rays of the sunlight have been lost, but the blue and green and violet rays seem to be all here.
— from The Sunbonnet Babies in Italy by Eulalie Osgood Grover

Gold only was sought for, but at last diamonds were discovered in the Riacho Fundo , whence they were first obtained, and afterwards in the Rio de Peire ; a great number were likewise obtained from the Giguitignogna , a very rich stream; and, lastly, in the end of 1780, and beginning of 1781, a gang of nearly three thousand interlopers, called Grimpeiros , discovered diamonds, and obtained an immense quantity from the Terra de Santo Antonio ; but they were forced to abandon this spot to the royal farm, who took possession of it.
— from The History of the Revolutions of Portugal by abbé de Vertot

All were in gala dresses, the men brilliant in Albanian costumes of fustanelli, embroidered jackets, gaudy gaiters, and vivid red silk sashes; while the women, in accordance with the edict of the Demarch, still wore their graceful, antique robes of white; indeed, the male bird here had the more splendid plumage of the two, but what the female lacked in color, she made up for in grace.
— from The Island of Fantasy: A Romance by Fergus Hume

The number of slight, slippery ladders we have descended gives a very realizing sense that we are getting down, down, deep into the bowels of the earth.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 14, October 1871-March 1872 A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

Miss Evelyn Underhill is, therefore, doing lovers [viii] not only of Catholic mysticism, but also of mysticism in general, a very real service by her monograph, which deals more satisfactorily than any existing work in English with the life and teachings of one of the most spiritual minds in Christendom.
— from Ruysbroeck by Evelyn Underhill

steel feed roll, which gives a very rigid support and ensures all the variation in the thickness of the cotton under the plates being communicated to the Evener belt.
— from Illustrated Catalogue of Cotton Machinery by Howard & Bullough American Machine Company