It told the hour by a little bell, and was kept in motion by a leaden bullet, which dropped from a spiral reservoir at the top of the clock, into a little ivory bucket.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Would that I understood the language of the country, and could make inquiries myself; it appears to me that those who pretend to know it make but a lamentable hand of it, and guess at half they ought to know.’
— from Tippoo Sultaun: A tale of the Mysore war by Meadows Taylor

"I mean, don't you know, it might be a little embarrassing if the jolly old gods really do give tongue; and I don't see anybody getting killed in the rush."
— from Bull-dog Drummond: The Adventures of a Demobilised Officer Who Found Peace Dull by H. C. (Herman Cyril) McNeile

I knew it must be; and, leaning back in the carriage, I sunk into one of those reveries which I used to indulge in childhood,—when the gates of sunset opened to admit my wandering spirit, and the mysteries of cloud-land were revealed to the dream-girl's eye.
— from Ernest Linwood; or, The Inner Life of the Author by Caroline Lee Hentz

He told Mrs. Klein, "I might be a little late for supper.
— from The Mighty Dead by William Campbell Gault

The strainers working one within the other, are kept in motion by a lever, moved by hand.
— from The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by P. L. (Peter Lund) Simmonds

Among them was a Madame de Tchiacheff, whom I had known in my boyhood at Littlehampton.
— from Memoirs of Life and Literature by W. H. (William Hurrell) Mallock

I knew it must be a lion from its bulk, yet dared not think so.
— from From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to North by Arthur H. (Arthur Henry) Sharp

When Geoffrey awoke the next morning, it was to find a single, long beam of sunlight streaming down into his prison, by which he knew it must be already late.
— from Geoffrey the Lollard by Frances Eastwood