If it were as you say, why did you write to me as you did at the time?
— from A Doll's House : a play by Henrik Ibsen

Our fortune is large enough for all our needs, therefore, dear Amina, do not seek to check yourself, but eat as much as you desire, as I do!" In reply to my affectionate words, I expected a cheerful answer; yet Amina said nothing at all, but continued to pick her rice as before, only at longer and longer intervals.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang

But now sit down a minute, if you can spare the time, and tell me all your doubts and fears; and I’ll try to remove them.”
— from Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

And now I understand so perfectly why you wrote to me as you did—although at the time that letter nearly finished my life.
— from Bliss, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

They have five times the number of troops you have; they also, as well as yourself, maintain to be Christians, and subjects of your emperor; they pay homage to the same image and cross, read the mass as you do, and everywhere spread the rumour that you have fled away from Spain from your emperor, and that he has sent them to take you back again, or put you to death.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

Mighty well, Mr. Robert! said I; I never saw an execution but once, and then the hangman asked the poor creature's pardon, and wiped his mouth, as you do, and pleaded his duty, and then calmly tucked up the criminal.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

'I am glad, that my lord the Count is come to live at the chateau, ma'amselle,' continued Dorothee, 'for it has been many a year deserted, and dreary enough; now, the place will look a little as it used to do, when my poor lady was alive.'
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

"I had not expected you to look at the matter as you do, Anne," he said a little stiffly, getting up and moving towards the office door.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

"Do you care as much about me as you do about Yap, Maggie?" said Philip, smiling rather sadly.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Talk to me about China, please, and tell me about your Dragon airship.
— from The Great Prince Shan by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim

Your first wort being all run off, you must soften the tap of the mash tub; and take a copper of hot liquor for your second mashing, stirring up the malt as you did at first, and then cover it close for two hours more.
— from The Practical Distiller An Introduction To Making Whiskey, Gin, Brandy, Spirits, &c. &c. of Better Quality, and in Larger Quantities, than Produced by the Present Mode of Distilling, from the Produce of the United States by Samuel McHarry

Now, there are two things you can do for me that will make me always your debtor, as, indeed, I am already, and the first is to purchase for me the yacht.
— from A Rock in the Baltic by Robert Barr

Pressed by Standard, Hautboy forthwith got out his dented old fiddle, and sitting down on a tall rickety stool, played away right merrily at Yankee Doodle and other off-handed, [267] dashing, and disdainfully care-free airs.
— from The Apple-Tree Table, and Other Sketches by Herman Melville

To us it seemed that you were brave, considering your years, in facing the grizzly this morning as you did; also, that you are brave to undertake this trip, young as you are, and with us whom you did not know, across this wild country, which daunted even Mackenzie and Fraser in the old days.
— from The Young Alaskans on the Trail by Emerson Hough

Wishes that are empty look like vanity; my vanity is to be thought capable of esteeming you as much as you deserve, and to be reckoned, though a very distant, a most sincere friend,—and give me leave to say, dear Madam, your most obedient humble servant, Hor.
— from Horace Walpole and His World: Select Passages from His Letters by Horace Walpole

I walked along, thinking, maybe, of inns and the part they have played in Romance, or of whitened walls and the time when even London was a city of white buildings; or I thought about myself (as you do), and what a fine fellow I should be if I were not a fool.
— from Papers from Lilliput by J. B. (John Boynton) Priestley

But I need not have asked this, for you usually guess my wishes before I can utter them; and if you are as kindly disposed towards 328 me now as you were then, you will fulfil this desire of mine as you did all the others.—Yours, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
— from Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and Switzerland by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Here am I now who fain would be elsewhere; More would I wish and yet no more I would; I could no more and yet did all I could: And new tears born of old desires declare That still I am as I was wont to be, And that a thousand changes change not me.
— from The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch by Francesco Petrarca