He is very entertaining company, and very vain of his personal beauties; yet nevertheless his character is exceptionable.
— from American Historical and Literary Curiosities: Second Series, Complete by J. Jay (John Jay) Smith

he inquired very earnest and deliberate.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

Nicholas was about to return a cheerful reply, when he was greatly disconcerted by the sudden apparition of Mrs. Grudden, who it seemed had declined to attend the supper in order that she might rise earlier in the morning, and who now burst out of an adjoining bedroom, habited in very extraordinary white robes; and throwing her arms about his neck, hugged him with great affection.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

“You then love Haydée?” asked Monte Cristo with an emotion he in vain endeavored to dissimulate.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

“And surely it is a great thing that the people should have their Parliament lawfully meeting in open day, and their delegates from the whole realm declaring their grievances in language which would not disgrace the conquering race which has in vain endeavoured to degrade them.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

Exhausted with fatigue, and overcome with cold, the traveller sinks down by the wayside, and the guides, after having in vain endeavoured to urge him on, are compelled, in order to save their own lives, to leave him to his fate and press forward.
— from The Story of the Hills: A Book About Mountains for General Readers. by H. N. (Henry Neville) Hutchinson

After six days' arrest, and after the Prince of Peace had in vain endeavoured to discover something to inculpate Their Royal Highnesses, they were invited to Court, and reconciled both to him and their royal parents.
— from Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon by Various

He is vaguely encouraged by that silence.
— from A House-Party, Don Gesualdo, and A Rainy June by Ouida

“He is very English.
— from The Works of John Galsworthy An Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Galsworthy by John Galsworthy

He is very economical.
— from Round the World in Seven Days by Herbert Strang

The Marquise d'Ancre having in vain endeavoured to dissuade her royal foster-sister from this journey, became so thoroughly dispirited by the disappointment of her husband, and the evident decline of her own influence, that she resolved to excuse herself from accompanying the Court, and to remain in the capital; a project from which she was, however, dissuaded by MM. de Villeroy and Jeannin, who represented to her the impolicy of incurring the displeasure of her Majesty, and thus insuring her own ruin.
— from The Life of Marie de Medicis, Queen of France, Consort of Henri IV, and Regent of the Kingdom under Louis XIII — Volume 2 by Miss (Julia) Pardoe

The king-maker, however, treated this piece of knightly bravado with contempt; and Edward, having in vain endeavored to bring his great foe to battle by threatening the town of Warwick, was fain to throw himself between the earl and the capital.
— from The Wars of the Roses; or, Stories of the Struggle of York and Lancaster by John G. (John George) Edgar