He immediately made arrangements to receive her, and then dispatched the letter which had thrown the little household at Riverdale into such sorrow and dismay.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 4, October 1852 by Various

Their surprise was great when they saw how many evils the First Consul had already repaired in so short a time, and all the improvements that he still intended to carry out; and they spread through their own country the report of what they themselves called the prodigies of the First Consul, by which thousands of their compatriots were influenced to come and judge with their own eyes.
— from Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon — Complete by Louis Constant Wairy

She sat on a stool or on the floor somewhere, with a book clasped in her arms, reading; in summer she and her book together crouched themselves against the window in the room, getting the last gleam of daylight, and in winter she read by the firelight, which crimsoned her all over with a ruddy glow, and scorched her cheeks.
— from At His Gates: A Novel. Vol. 1 (of 3) by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant