The judicial examination to which the ambush in the Gorbeau house eventually gave rise, established the fact that a large sou piece, cut and worked in a peculiar fashion, was found in the garret, when the police made their descent on it.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

"Great heavens!" exclaimed George Talboys, "is this the way you welcome me?
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

At the third glass his eyes got brighter, and he began to talk, the little family circle regarding with eager interest this visitor from distant parts, as he squared his broad shoulders in the chair and spoke of wild scenes and doughty deeds; of wars and plagues and strange peoples.
— from The Monkey's Paw The Lady of the Barge and Others, Part 2. by W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs

She must get her eight guineas.”
— from Dubliners by James Joyce

Just as the minstrel sounds were stayed, A stranger climbed the steepy glade; His martial step, his stately mien, His hunting-suit of Lincoln green, His eagle glance, remembrance claims— 'Tis Snowdoun's Knight, 'tis James Fitz-James.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott

One was the mother of four daughters, all still unmarried, earning their own livings, one in a shop, another a sempstress, two in service in good houses, earning good wages.
— from A Traveller in Little Things by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

She again repeats that the girl has every good quality under the sun, but “she has a cold and cough, and is in love—I cannot help it; can you?”
— from Wives of the Prime Ministers, 1844-1906 by Lucy Masterman

Had it not raised him to an absurd height, blown him out into a caricature of himself, pulled out his nose, goggled his eyes, given him a hunch back and a pot belly, forced him into overfeeding, overdrinking, over-talking, into writing a ridiculous, pontifical, instructive book, choked his humor and played the very devil with his imagination?
— from Old Mole Being the Surprising Adventures in England of Herbert Jocelyn Beenham, M.A., Sometime Sixth-Form Master at Thrigsby Grammar School in the County of Lancaster by Gilbert Cannan

He'll do anything he can, or give anything he can get his Ethiopian grubhooks on, for something that he thinks is going to make him more like a white man.
— from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis

Now Bigot was in his element, swelling with importance and good humor, easy, graceful, jesting with men and women, wishing the world well, knowing that he could milk from the royal treasury the money he was spending tonight, and troubled by no twinges of conscience.
— from The Hunters of the Hills by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

Mr. D.M. Nelson (Glasgow) gave his experience gained in connection with the light, remarking that one of the great drawbacks to it was the very great rarity of the mineral from which the zirconium was obtained.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 601, July 9, 1887 by Various