I got but one flash of sheet lightning in the shape of a single bantering smile from his eyes; and then he said, "Courage!—à vrai dire je ne suis pas fâché, peut-être même suis je content qu'on s'est fait si belle pour ma petite fête."
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

A bow from Mr. Phunky, as he entered, and took his seat behind the row appropriated to the King’s Counsel, attracted Mr. Pickwick’s attention; and he had scarcely returned it, when Mr. Serjeant Snubbin appeared, followed by Mr. Mallard, who half hid the Serjeant behind a large crimson bag, which he placed on his table, and, after shaking hands with Perker, withdrew.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Then he went forth into the freshness of the morning, and the stableman that was up and about the stables opened his eyes as though he saw a green mouse before him, for such men as the friars of Emmet were not wont to be early risers; but the man bottled his thoughts, and only asked Robin whether he wanted his mule brought from the stable.
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

In summe, he that holdeth this Foundation, Jesus Is The Christ, holdeth Expressely all that hee seeth rightly deduced from it, and Implicitely all that is consequent thereunto, though he have not skill enough to discern the consequence.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

For ten years then he was blind, and in the eleventh year there came to him an oracle from the city of Buto saying that the time of his punishment had expired, and that he should see again if he washed his eyes with the water of a woman who had accompanied with her own husband only and had not had knowledge of other men: and first he made trial of his own wife, and then, as he continued blind, he went on to try all the women in turn; and when he had at least regained his sight he gathered together all the women of whom he had made trial, excepting her by whose means he had regained his sight, to one city which now is named Erythrabolos, and having gathered them to this he consumed them all by fire, as well as the city itself; but as for her by whose means he had regained his sight, he had her himself to wife.
— from An Account of Egypt by Herodotus

He loaded it, and rammed home the loading with his thumb-end; but hardly had he ignited his match across the rough sandpaper of his hand, when Tashtego, his harpooneer, whose eyes had been setting to windward like two fixed stars, suddenly dropped like light from his erect attitude to his seat, crying out in a quick phrensy of hurry, “Down, down all, and give way!—there they are!”
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

The strange words rang in his ears, as though he still heard them in the distance—wild language of a suddenly stricken mind.
— from The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood

He raised his eyes and to his surprise saw a lady— une dame et elle en avait l’air, somewhat over thirty, very modest in appearance, dressed not like a peasant, in a dark gown with a grey shawl on her shoulders.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

He thought of the miserable portion which Providence had allotted to him; that woman and the pleasure of love, would pass forever before his eyes, and that he should never do anything but behold the felicity of others.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

And sinful-looking diamonds dangled from her ears almost to her shoulders.
— from It Pays to Smile by Nina Wilcox Putnam

Although we did not make her healing a special subject of prayer, yet we asked God to do for her eyes all that he saw fit.
— from Trials and Triumphs of Faith by Mary Cole

She breathlessly awaited the operation, which was one of some tediousness, watching him one moment, averting her face the next; and when it was done she shut her eyes at the hideous spectacle that was revealed.
— from A Group of Noble Dames by Thomas Hardy

Opening his eyes a trifle, he saw the stranger bending over the other’s pillow.
— from Doctor Izard by Anna Katharine Green

Clive could muster only some two hundred Europeans and three hundred sepoys, but this slender force, infused with the daring and irresistible determination of the young leader, sufficed to seize and hold the citadel of Arcot against thousands of assailants.
— from A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. by Carlton J. H. (Carlton Joseph Huntley) Hayes

He looked into her eyes, and there he saw No trace of that bright gleam which poets say Comes from the faery orb of love's sweet day, No blushing coyness causes her to withdraw Her gaze from his.
— from Ventures Into Verse Being various ballads, ballades, rondeaux, triolets, songs, quatrains, odes and roundels, all rescued from the potters' field of old files and here given decent burial by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken

And the fear which he entertained as to his son's intended marriage with Grace Crawley, tended to increase the strength of his belief.
— from The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope

He must just trust to his eyes, and to his skill as a navigator.
— from In the grip of the Mullah: A tale of adventure in Somaliland by F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton