She put aside his hand, but did not leave go of it, blushing hotly, and laughing a little happy laugh.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Not without a sense of pleasure did Chichikov take her hand as, lisping a little, she declared that she and her husband were equally gratified by his coming, and that, of late, not a day had passed without her husband recalling him to mind.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

He stood for a moment paralyzed and speechless, then he recollected an engagement and, dropping all, absented himself thence with such surprising celerity that to the eyes of spectators along the route selected he appeared like a long, dim streak prolonging itself with inconceivable rapidity through seven villages, and audibly refusing to be comforted.
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

It was a water-snake, Tom told her; and Lucy at last could see the serpentine wave of its body, very much wondering that a snake could swim.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Then he put the small, curly head away from him a little, and looked at it affectionately, still repeating: “George!
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

And Pandarus gan him the lettre take, And seyde, `Pardee, god hath holpen us; Have here a light, and loke on al this blake.'
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

I requested likewise, “that the secret of my having a false covering to my body, might be known to none but himself, at least as long as my present clothing should last; for as to what the sorrel nag, his valet, had observed, his honour might command him to conceal it.”
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

"No," said Caddy, "I don't know that he does that, but he talks to Pa, and Pa greatly admires him, and listens, and likes it.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

And when at last the taffy was pulled into white ropes it was again coiled on buttered plates in fancy designs of hearts and links and left to harden until it could be broken into pieces with quick tap of knife or spoon.
— from Blue Ridge Country by Jean Thomas

Much satisfaction was displayed at the arrival of some 500 cattle and sheep which the Boers had apparently looted and left behind them.
— from South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 8) From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, 15th Dec. 1899 by Louis Creswicke

The board-nails snapping in the frost; And on us, through the unplastered wall, Felt the lightsifted snowflakes fall; But sleep stole on, as sleep will do When hearts are light and life is new; Faint and more faint the murmurs grew, Till in the summer-land of dreams They softened to the sound of streams.
— from Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 by Charles Herbert Sylvester

I was attending and following her about like a lackey.
— from The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood by Arthur Griffiths

Though night o’ertake it, though the tempests rise, Alike, through cloudy, and through smiling skies, Onward it hastens; and, with panting breast, Nestles at home at last, and loves the more its nest.
— from The Emigrant or Reflections While Descending the Ohio by Frederick W. (Frederick William) Thomas

And as his servants had all long ago left him, for he had no money to give them, he went to open it himself.
— from A Digit of the Moon: A Hindoo Love Story by F. W. (Francis William) Bain

They established themselves in an old convent with large courtyards and many rooms, and they worked hurriedly as long as light would allow, and afterwards in darkness, to get things ready for their tasks next day, when many wounded were expected.
— from The Soul of the War by Philip Gibbs

Altchuku is the largest, and Petuné next in size, each town having not far from 35,000 inhabitants; Larin is perhaps half as large, and like the others steadily increasing in numbers and importance.
— from The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2) A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants by S. Wells (Samuel Wells) Williams

My uncle swallowed hard and laughed a little wildly.
— from The Great Quest A romance of 1826, wherein are recorded the experiences of Josiah Woods of Topham, and of those others with whom he sailed for Cuba and the Gulf of Guinea by Charles Boardman Hawes