I abroad with Sir W. Batten to the Council Chamber, where all of us to discourse about the way of measuring ships and the freight fit to give for them by the tun, where it was strange methought to hear so poor discourses among the Lords themselves, and most of all to see how a little empty matter delivered gravely by Sir W. Pen was taken mighty well, though nothing in the earth to the purpose.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Even in her haste she paused deliberately at the door of this room, double-locked it, and dropped the key into her pocket.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Sometimes they played out the toll across a bridge or ferry, and once exhibited by particular desire at a turnpike, where the collector, being drunk in his solitude, paid down a shilling to have it to himself.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Titus on the other hand, said, 'Prætor, do as thou seest, this man is a stranger and was found without arms beside the murdered man, and thou mayst see that his wretchedness giveth him occasion to wish to die; wherefore do thou release him and punish me, who have deserved it.'
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

He should acquire learning in his childhood, in his youth and middle age he should attend to Artha and Kama, and in his old age he should perform Dharma, and thus seek to gain Moksha, i.e. , release from further transmigration.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana Translated From the Sanscrit in Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks by Vatsyayana

The little man’s fervor, his boldness, his shrewd argument carried his audience with him, as he stood pointing dramatically at the accused but unflinching man.
— from The One-Way Trail: A story of the cattle country by Ridgwell Cullum

For some time past he has been quite strange; he seems preoccupied, distraught, anxious even—at times his mind seems to be far away."
— from Woman and Artist by Max O'Rell

His son Peter Dollond, already mentioned, continued the business in partnership with a younger brother; and it is now most ably carried on by his daughter’s son, who has, by permission, assumed the name of Dollond.
— from The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 3 (of 7) by Arthur Thomas Malkin

The ceremonials observed upon this occasion were much the same as the preceding, with the exception that Bending–willow paid a visit to Prairie–bird, received from her several presents, drank a cup of the wonderful black liquor, of which her husband had told her, namely, coffee sweetened with sugar, and told her fair hostess that his affections had not as yet strayed to any other of his spouses,—a fact, the truth of which was attested by her displaying, with the most ostentatious coquetry, the mirror–backed brush, of which he was more proud of than of any thing that he possessed.
— from The Prairie-Bird by Murray, Charles Augustus, Sir