Mrs. Jervis began to excuse me, and to beg he would pity a poor maiden, that had such a value for her reputation.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

"Papa is very ill," Alicia wrote; "not dangerously ill, thank God; but confined to his room by an attack of low fever which has succeeded a violent cold.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

“He seems a very amiable person,” said Holmes, laughing.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Illustrated by Arthur Conan Doyle

and he had Scarce any voice to answer, and yet gasped, "Whence and what art thou?"
— from Idylls of the King by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

She heard steps and voices.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Now we have scarcely any village games or sports, except when some energetic rector or curate starts a cricket club.
— from English Villages by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield

His speed and vigor commanded their obedience: he passed the Hellespont with a chosen guard: and at the distance of a mile from Adrianople, the viziers and emirs, the imams and cadhis, the soldiers and the people, fell prostrate before the new sultan.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Amongst devices used for horizontal steering are vertical " FINS ."
— from The Theory and Practice of Model Aeroplaning by V. E. (Valentine Edward) Johnson

If he had had work all the year round, he might have saved a very handsome sum, he used to tell me."
— from Little By Little; or, The Cruise of the Flyaway by Oliver Optic

He does not know that he saw any volumes.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

Would you believe that in very good houses, I have seen, and very plainly too ...
— from John Bull's Womankind (Les Filles de John Bull) by Max O'Rell

He seems a very promising fellow, with a good deal of independence of character; and if you knew the conditions of education in this country, and of the preparation to fill chairs of philosophy in colleges, you would not express any surprise at his, or mine, or any other American's small amount of "Information über die philosophische Literatur."
— from The Letters of William James, Vol. 1 by William James

"Ha-ha!" said a voice from immediately below, so loudly as to sound almost insulting.
— from Queensland Cousins by Eleanor Luisa Haverfield

When one has said in my Hearing, Such a one is no wiser than he should be, I immediately have reply'd, Now 'faith, I can't see that, he said a very good Thing to my Lord such a one, upon such an Occasion, and the like. Such an honest Dolt as this has been watch'd in every Expression he uttered, upon my Recommendation of him, and consequently been subject to the more Ridicule.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

He had promised to convince Dr. Kennedy that, "though wanting, perhaps, in faith, he at least had patience:" but the process of so many hours of lecture,—no less than twelve, without interruption, being stipulated for,—was a trial beyond his strength; and, very early in the operation, as the Doctor informs us, he began to show evident signs of a wish to exchange the part of hearer for that of speaker.
— from Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore