In beauty, form and grace could she, Dear lord, surpass or rival me?
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

Oh, I don't half like such openings!— ROS.
— from Life Is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

There were just enough people left in the long suite of rooms to make their progress conspicuous, and Lily was aware of being followed by looks of amusement and interrogation, which glanced off as harmlessly from her indifference as from her companion's self-satisfaction.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Without staying for an Answer he fell into the Exercise Above-mentioned, and practised his Airs to the full House who were turned upon him, without the least Shame or Repentance for his former Transgressions.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

IX, 19.—The rumors about Antiochus occupied a large share of Rome's attention and caused the Romans no small degree of uneasiness.
— from Dio's Rome, Volume 1 (of 6) An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek during the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form by Cassius Dio Cocceianus

As Philip sat holding her weak hand and watching the least sign of resolution in her face, Ruth was able to whisper, “I so want to live, for you, Phil!”
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

First, then, let us provide money, and not allow ourselves to be carried away by the talk of our allies before we have done so: as we shall have the largest share of responsibility for the consequences be they good or bad, we have also a right to a tranquil inquiry respecting them.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Presently we came to a long stretch of road walled in on the river side by brown canvas, exactly the sort of thing that is used at football games to shut out the non-paying public.
— from They Shall Not Pass by Frank H. (Frank Herbert) Simonds

In one of these bands in the lower series of rocks, which are the most ancient, there were discovered, in 1858, certain flattish rounded masses, which seemed to be of organic origin.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 01, April to September, 1865 A Monthly Eclectic Magazine by Various

When a strangely larger-eyed, strangely thinner, a whitened and somehow a tightened Stella Schump drew up, those ten days later, before the little old row with the little old iron balconies, there was already in the ridiculous patches of front yards a light-green powdering of grass, and from the doorbell of her own threshold there hung quite a little spray of roses, waxy white against a frond of fern and a fold of black.
— from Humoresque: A Laugh on Life with a Tear Behind It by Fannie Hurst

It's a lonesome stretch of road here.”
— from Walter Sherwood's Probation by Alger, Horatio, Jr.

gentleman had communicated his intentions to him before bringing his motion before the House—the very lucrative situation of Receiver-General of the Post-office Revenue had within these few days become vacant, and he thought that had he been consulted, he could have placed this subject in so feeling a point of view to the hon.
— from The Choice Humorous Works, Ludicrous Adventures, Bons Mots, Puns, and Hoaxes of Theodore Hook by Theodore Edward Hook

"Yes, we shall be little shreds of rottenness," she said placidly.
— from The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth Von Arnim

Theirs was love in all its artlessness, with its interminable conversations, unfinished speeches, long silences, oriental reposes, and oriental ardor.
— from Vendetta by Honoré de Balzac