As Dorcas sang, the walls of her forsaken home seemed to encircle her; she no longer saw the gloomy pines, nor heard the wind which still, as she began each verse, sent a heavy breath through the branches, and died away in a hollow moan from the burden of the song.
— from Mosses from an Old Manse, and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Would you like to have me for a friend?”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

A peace having been made, Henry, and the French king Henry the Great, were unanimous to have the mass abolished in their kingdom, and Cranmer set about this great work; but the death of the English monarch, in 1546, suspended the procedure, and king Edward his successor continued Cranmer in the same functions, upon whose coronation he delivered a charge that will ever honour his memory, for its purity, freedom, and truth.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

One day, just before the snow fell, Moodie had gone to Peterborough for letters; our servant was sick in bed with the ague, and I was nursing my little boy, Dunbar, who was shaking with the cold fit of his miserable fever, when Jacob put his honest, round, rosy face in at the door.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

As Avarice conducted himself by the Counsels of Poverty , his Antagonist was entirely guided by the Dictates and Advice of Plenty , who was his first Counsellor and Minister of State, that concerted all his Measures for him, and never departed out of his Sight.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

Had you not been really amiable you would have hated me for it; but in spite of the pains you took to disguise yourself, your feelings were always noble and just; and in your heart, you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Two editors of this age have made for themselves an enviable place in our literature.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

Or if it was not good that He who was good should not also frame and create something that were good, then, that evil matter being taken away and brought to nothing, He might form good matter, whereof to create all things.
— from The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

And so on for nearly a hundred lines, in many a changeful strain, arch-angelical all, of heaven-remembering passion, while ever, as thus he spoke, "Each passion dimm'd his face, Thrice changed with pale, ire, envy, and despair; Which marr'd his borrow'd visage, and betray'd Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld; For heavenly minds, from such distempers foul Are ever clear."
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 353, March 1845 by Various

He must draw the sword upon the world and his own race, and, armed with the most awful means of destruction that the wit of man had ever devised, he must fight his way through universal war to that peace which alone he could ask her to share with him.
— from The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror by George Chetwynd Griffith

415] he might make an end of himself before he could finish his penance, and so disappoint the happy effects of it: "Hold," cried he, "hold, my friend; as thou lovest thy life, hold, I conjure thee: no more at this time.
— from The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Mr. Washington, desiring time to arrange his private affairs at Mount Vernon, was unable to depart with his military family for eight days after they left.
— from Seaport in Virginia George Washington's Alexandria by Gay Montague Moore

He confesses that before his conversion to the Christian faith he, in his merry fits, pointed his keenest satire against it (Apol., c. 18), had been an adulterer (De Resur.
— from The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Vol. 7. July by Alban Butler

On and on Mr. Sagittarius—or Malkiel the Second, as he may from henceforth be called—went blindly, on and on till the Park was left behind, till crescents gave way to squares, and squares to streets.
— from The Prophet of Berkeley Square by Robert Hichens

He was employed in dictating magisterially to an assembly of divines concerning points of faith and discipline, and in receiving the applauses of these holy men for his superior zeal and learning.
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. From Elizabeth to James I. by David Hume

However low he may fall, a man can never deny himself the delight of feeling cleverer, more powerful, or even better fed than his companions.
— from Creatures That Once Were Men by Maksim Gorky

No! had my friend been cast into this 'Devil's Hole,' here he must remain.
— from Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 682 January 20, 1877. by Various

It was a happy moment for the Little Colonel when she was lifted down from Maggie Boy at the cottage gate.
— from The Little Colonel by Annie F. (Annie Fellows) Johnston