"I wish you'd brought me the money to look at, Tom," he said, fingering the sovereigns on the table; "I should ha' felt surer."
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

"Then come again and look at the hole," said a neighbour; "it will do you just as much good."
— from Aesop's Fables by Aesop

The little door out of which he had thrust his head was close to the inn larder; and there he stood, bowing with grotesque politeness; as much at his ease as if the door were that of his own house; blighting all the legs of mutton and cold roast fowls by his close companionship, and looking like the evil genius of the cellars come from underground upon some work of mischief.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

This lane, and the high street near adjoining, hath been inhabited for the most part with wealthy drapers, from Birchover’s lane, on that side the street down to the stocks, in the reign of Henry VI., had ye for the most part dwelling Fripperers or Upholders, that sold old apparel and household stuff.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

Chaucer not only attempted this new realistic task, but accomplished it so well that his characters were instantly recognized as true to life, and they have since become the permanent possession of our literature.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

Yes! look upon that face lugubrious, long, As thoughtfully he stands with folded arms Amid his realm of charr'd and spectral stumps, Which once were trees, but now, with sprawling roots, Cling to the rocks which peep above the soil.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

Here did the business I come about, and so back home by water, and there Cocke comes to me and tells me that he is come to an understanding with Fisher, and that he must give him L100, and that he shall have his goods in possession to-morrow, they being all weighed to-day, which pleases me very well.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum, A blethering, blustering, drunken blellum; That frae November till October, Ae market-day thou was na sober; That ilka melder wi' the Miller, Thou sat as lang as thou had siller; That ev'ry naig was ca'd a shoe on
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

These works are full of valuable information presented in a form which, though somewhat fragmentary, is equally pleasing to the literary and the historical sense.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole

God put him here, an' look at the way He made him live; look at this house; see the floor, how the water runs down into that corner: it is all sagged an' leanin'—the whole thing is rotten look at that one window, up against the wall; not a ray of sunshine ever struck it.
— from John Ward, Preacher by Margaret Wade Campbell Deland

But as the secretary paid little attention to his sayings, the German began to direct his remarks to Matsadi.
— from Ashton-Kirk, Secret Agent by John Thomas McIntyre

The sentry before the guardhouse shifted his position and looked about, then he settled back, transferring his weight to the other foot, and resumed his bovine meditations.
— from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Captain Lloyd averred that he saw it at twenty minutes to eight on a fine, sunshiny morning, so close and clear to him that he forbore lowering a boat.
— from The Grain Ship by Morgan Robertson

She would have broken down, she must have broken down, but for one thought; that, long as the hours seemed to her, and far distant as the moment of her entrance appeared, she might be a great way out in her reckoning of time.
— from Starvecrow Farm by Stanley John Weyman

I hurried after the latter, and twice he stopped till I was close to him, then turned round and cantered away.
— from A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

He proposed that he get a look at the hospital situation right away.
— from This World Is Taboo by Murray Leinster

It was hearing herself called Laughing Anne that had started her sobbing like a fool.
— from Within the Tides: Tales by Joseph Conrad