For these reasons he has very little to do with letters, either as sender or receiver.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

It is therefore somewhat surprising that there is so little evidence of artistic foreign influence in the weavings; but this is due, perhaps, to the fact that pieces with an authentic age of over two centuries no longer exist, and such old rugs as remain are very scarce; whilst the modern pieces are derived largely from the mountainous districts that find a market in the city.
— from Oriental Rugs, Antique and Modern by W. A. (Walter Augustus) Hawley

The jester had stood there, and looked down with deep-set, eager eyes, his crooked face pathetically sad and drawn, but alive with a swift and meaning intelligence, while the thin and mobile lips expressed a sort of ready malice which could break out in bitterness or turn to a kindly irony according as the touch that moved the man's sensitive nature was cruel or friendly.
— from In the Palace of the King: A Love Story of Old Madrid by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

He seemed to be watching Chick, in some dim light, examining a scroll or roll of paper-thin, almost transparent.
— from The Ghost of Mystery Airport by Van Powell

Like Lower Egypt and some other regions at the mouths of great rivers, it is a delta land, the soil of which has been carried down from the interior by the Rhine and deposited here, little by little, in the course of the ages; so that Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have laid claim to the country on the whimsical plea that it was land robbed from other countries which were his by right of conquest.
— from A Year in Europe by Walter W. (Walter William) Moore

She looked educated and sort of refined and—and—she looked a bit lonely as she stood there gazing at the stars.
— from The Purple Flame A Mystery Story for Girls by Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell

The route of the strugglers lay either across sponge or rock, and the choice was not exhilarating.
— from South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 8) From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, 15th Dec. 1899 by Louis Creswicke

Keziah had brought their tea, and amid the litter of their needlework they drank it leisurely, enjoying a spell of rest.
— from Sisters by Ada Cambridge

One cannot go far in Scotland without crossing the path of Prince Charlie or standing in the shadow of some ancient building associated with the melancholy memory of Queen Mary, and, despite the unquestioned loyalty of the Scottish people to the present government, there seems to linger everywhere a spirit of regret over the failure of the chevalier to re Pg 172 gain the throne of his fathers.
— from British Highways and Byways from a Motor Car Being a Record of a Five Thousand Mile Tour in England, Wales and Scotland by Thos. D. (Thomas Dowler) Murphy

II} Preparations for returning Home — Breaking out of the Small-pox — The Start — Our Caravan — Manuel the Comanche — A new Route — The Prairie on Fire — Danger to be apprehended from these Conflagrations — A Comanche Buffalo-chase — A Skirmish with the Pawnees — An intrepid Mexican — The Wounded — Value of a thick Skull — Retreat of the Enemy and their Failure — A bleak Northwester — Loss of our Sheep — The Llano Estacado and Sources of Red River — The Canadian River — Cruelties upon Buffalo — Feats at 'Still Hunting' — Mr. Wethered's Adventure — Once more on our own Soil — The False Washita — Enter our former Trail — Character of the Country over which we had travelled — Arrival at Van Buren — The two Routes to Santa Fé — Some Advantages of that from Arkansas — Restlessness of Prairie Travellers in civilized Life, and Propensity for returning to the Wild Deserts, 203 CHAPTER XXV {IX of Vol.
— from Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, 1831-1839, part 2 by Josiah Gregg