"May I stay here a little, Mary, or shall I bore you?" "Pray sit down," said Mary; "you will not be so heavy a bore as Mr. John Waule, who was here yesterday, and he sat down without asking my leave.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

The awnings covered the deck with a white roof from stem to stern, and a faint hum, a low murmur of sad voices, alone revealed the presence of a crowd of people upon the great blaze of the ocean.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

In the evenings there was no place for him to go except a barroom; no place where there was light and warmth, where he could hear a little music or sit with a companion and talk.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

I know I have always loved my own sisters; and I know on what my affection for them is grounded,—respect for their worth and admiration of their talents.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

"We're having a little music on Sunday night," said Hilda, as it were apologetically, and scorning herself for being apologetic.
— from These Twain by Arnold Bennett

All the money transactions of the family went through his hands; and, like most old servants, his sway over the household was despotic.
— from George Leatrim by Susanna Moodie

In the vestibule, a little further on, as he was about to quit the fatal palace which fate had condemned him never to re-enter, he had a last moment of scruple and hesitation.
— from Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty by Imbert de Saint-Amand

Jan had already heaped a little mound of sticks and twigs near by, and soon the potatoes were cooking in the ashes, and a most appetizing smell of frying eel filled the air.
— from The Belgian Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins

To this translation, first printed at Venice, 1761, there is prefixed a long and elaborate preface, in which the author discusses the historical and literary merits of Sallust, and enumerates the translations of his works which had at that time appeared in the different languages of Europe.
— from History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Vol. II by John Colin Dunlop

As to all that happened afterwards, let me only say, that although I must call myself a lost creature as to this world, yet have I this consolation left me, that I have not suffered either for want of circumspection, or through careful credulity or weakness.
— from Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 6 by Samuel Richardson

But presently there was a quick, frightened movement among the fishes, and the dreamer beheld descending slowly from unknown heights a ladder made of stout rope and weighted heavily at the bottom.
— from A Secret of the Sea: A Novel. Vol. 3 (of 3) by T. W. (Thomas Wilkinson) Speight