“But not before I come, and therefore in my presence.” “I should prefer not in your presence.” “You remember you promised to write and to sign all I dictated.”
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

1 Then the toliwaga says: “I shall treat my canoe magically in its middle part, I shall treat it in its body.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

“But I had fastened the door—I had the key in my pocket: I should have been a careless shepherd if I had left a lamb—my pet lamb—so near a wolf’s den, unguarded: you were safe.”
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

To this order I belong, brother goatherds, to whom I return thanks for the hospitality and kindly welcome ye offer me and my squire; for though by natural law all living are bound to show favour to knights-errant, yet, seeing that without knowing this obligation ye have welcomed and feasted me, it is right that with all the good-will in my power I should thank you for yours.” All this long harangue (which might very well have been spared) our knight delivered because the acorns they gave him reminded him of the golden age; and the whim seized him to address all this unnecessary argument to the goatherds, who listened to him gaping in amazement without saying a word in reply.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

These fellows, knowing the extravagant gullibility of the age, set their wits to work in the imagination of improbable possibilities—-of odd accidents, as they term them; but to a reflecting intellect (like mine,” I added, in parenthesis, putting my forefinger unconsciously to the side of my nose,) “to a contemplative understanding such as I myself possess, it seems evident at once that the marvelous increase of late in these ‘odd accidents’ is by far the oddest accident of all.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

“The blood rushed to my head, I no longer knew what I was doing, I had my compass in my pocket; I struck him with it as often as I could.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

“Do you know,” said she, “that if it had been in my power I should have taken her from her parents.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

He mentioned the name of a young lady, in a manner—in such a manner that incensed me beyond all patience, and, in my passion, I struck him.” Jones answered, “That he believed no person living would blame him; for my part,” said he, “I confess I should, on the last-mentioned provocation, have done the same thing.”
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

You understand that, in my profession, I sometimes have as much as a million about me.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

In most parts it still reigns supreme.
— from Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied Symbols by Thomas Inman

I added, however, that, if I knew more of his mental history for some years past, (into which my affection-should never induce me impertinently to pry,) I might, perhaps, in some measure, account for his scepticism; that I could even conceive cases of minds so "encompassed with infirmity," or so dependent on states of health, as to render such a state involuntary, and therefore to take them out of the sphere of our argument.
— from The Eclipse of Faith; Or, A Visit to a Religious Sceptic by Henry Rogers

But in this case, if I may put it so, the rash of symbolism seemed to have broken out all over the man, in a fashion that indicated that the fever was far advanced.
— from What I Saw in America by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Later in my life it was in my power in some measure to repay her kindness, if indeed a kind deed can ever be repaid.
— from Hammer and Anvil: A Novel by Friedrich Spielhagen

"When I got that note that was slipped into my pocket in St. Louis I ought to have guessed that it was you, but you are so clever at disguise that you always fool me."
— from Ted Strong's Motor Car Or, Fast and Furious by Edward C. Taylor

557 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Monsieur Perrot Is Scalped Facing Page i Wingenund and Lucy ” ” 70 Prairie–bird and Mahéga ” ” 218 Reginald and the Crow Chief ” ” 313 Mahéga Spying the Camp of the Delawares ” ” 398 War–eagle and the Grizzly Bear ” ” 482 THE PRAIRIE–BIRD.
— from The Prairie-Bird by Murray, Charles Augustus, Sir

Mine is good, plain, vulgar English, but his is French, so we will begin with it —' Mon premier —'" I stop suddenly, for Mr. Musgrave is looking at me with an expression simply murderous .
— from Nancy: A Novel by Rhoda Broughton

Had I had a copy in my possession I should certainly have shown it to Sir Ian, or else to Braithwaite, with whom, as he had been a brother-Director on the General Staff at the War Office for some months previously, I was in close touch.
— from Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918 by Callwell, C. E. (Charles Edward), Sir

When prospectuses break out like a rash, money pours into my pockets; I stand treat all round.
— from Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac

I asked, eagerly; "believe me, if it is in my power it shall be done!"
— from The Strand Magazine, Vol. 05, Issue 28, April 1893 An Illustrated Monthly by Various

“I’ll tell you all about it when I come back,” I cried as the knot of clean cord was handed to me; and putting an arm through it and the hooks in my pocket I started off at a run, to find myself face to face with Gentles before I overtook my uncles.
— from Patience Wins: War in the Works by George Manville Fenn