She listened, turned her eyes to the door, when a person now appeared, and immediately a bright gleam, that flashed from the fire, discovered—Valancourt!
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

17 Since the introduction of letters, they have explored their own antiquities with a strong and laudable impulse of patriotic curiosity.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

As for fixed abode, he said he had no other than that which chance offered wherever night might overtake him; and his words ended in an outburst of weeping so bitter that we who listened to him must have been very stones had we not joined him in it, comparing what we saw of him the first time with what we saw now; for, as I said, he was a graceful and gracious youth, and in his courteous and polished language showed himself to be of good birth and courtly breeding, and rustics as we were that listened to him, even to our rusticity his gentle bearing sufficed to make it plain.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Should Athelstane of Coningsburgh obtain the prize, Ivanhoe is like to hear evil tidings when he reaches England.—How looked he, stranger, when you last saw him?
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

The first actual pain which Miss Crawford occasioned her was the consequence of an inclination to learn to ride, which the former caught, soon after her being settled at Mansfield, from the example of the young ladies at the Park, and which, when Edmund's acquaintance with her increased, led to his encouraging the wish, and the offer of his own quiet mare for the purpose of her first attempts, as the best fitted for a beginner that either stable could furnish.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

It seems to me quite likely that he entrusted the papers to this girl, believing that she, as a woman, had a greater chance of bringing them safely to shore.
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

The generality of people cannot see or feel poetically, they want fancy, and therefore fly from solitude in search of sensible objects; but when an author lends them his eyes, they can see as he saw, and be amused by images they could not select, though lying before them.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

Since the introduction of letters, they have explored their own antiquities with a strong and laudable impulse of patriotic curiosity.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

But we all know the power of the passion of love; and I would ask you to remember, gentlemen, in listening to her evidence, that, married to a drunken and violent husband, she has no power to get rid of him; for, as you know, another offence besides violence is necessary to enable a woman to obtain a divorce; and of this offence it does not appear that her husband is guilty.
— from The Works of John Galsworthy An Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Galsworthy by John Galsworthy

The disconsolate look, the haggard eyes, the open mouth, the comb sticking in the hair, the broken, gapped teeth, which, as it were, hitch in an answer—every thing about him denotes the utmost perplexity and dismay.
— from The Collected Works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 01 (of 12) by William Hazlitt

though I am more and more involved in a mystery, which I long to hear explained.” “That shall be my task,” cried Renaldo, “but first permit me to implore your sanction to my passion for the incomparable Serafina.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

This train he laid to have entrapped thy life; Now, Selim, note the unhallowed deeds of Jews: Thus he determined to have handled thee,
— from The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 2 (of 3) by Christopher Marlowe

ministers Bhímabhuja and Vikramaśakti, who, like themselves, had entered that wilderness after escaping from the sea, in order to look for their master, and had been already bound and thrown into prison.
— from The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story by active 11th century Somadeva Bhatta

My brothers and I always write to him just as we write to one another; indeed, we generally pass our letters on to him, because we know that he likes to hear everything that we are doing.
— from Ernest Bracebridge: School Days by William Henry Giles Kingston

America has produced one man who has been called a reincarnation of Socrates; that man was Bronson Alcott, who peddled clocks and forgot the flight of time whenever any one would listen to him expound the unities.
— from Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 by Elbert Hubbard

Drawing the noose tight, he next knelt on the negro’s back, rapidly lashing the hands ere the fellow could make any movement to wrench himself free.
— from The Motor Boat Club in Florida; or, Laying the Ghost of Alligator Swamp by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock

They equally spoke different languages; they had equally the gift of prophesying, without distinction of rank, age, or sex.
— from A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 03 by Voltaire

It was not a thing he should like to have explained to Philip Gouverneur, his bosom friend, for example.
— from The Faith Doctor: A Story of New York by Edward Eggleston