“Tell me in my ear,” said Miss Havisham, bending down.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

“But melancholy,” interrupted Master Edward, snatching the feathers out of the tail of a splendid paroquet that was screaming on its gilded perch, in order to make a plume for his hat.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

“These are all the men in my employ,” said the master, and he asked if any of them had received the money from me.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

When the business of the husbandman devolves not on the citizen, the matter is much easier settled; but when those labour together who have a common right of possession, this may occasion several difficulties; for there may not be an equal proportion between their labour and what they consume; and those who labour hard and have but a small proportion of the produce, will certainly complain of those who take a large share of it and do but little for that.
— from Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle

Perhaps if we were to confess our lingering fondness for the cadence prepared by the 6/4 chord, when not too frequently introduced, it might only show that we retain a liking for New England "psalm-tunes"; but it does seem to us that a sense of final repose, of entire cessation of movement, is more effectually secured by this cadence than by any other.
— from The Unseen World, and Other Essays by John Fiske

There she sat, so near that her voice was making a wonder of music in my ears, so near that her eyes from time to time flashed a palpable radiance upon my face; yet further away than when I lightened with dreams of her the long marches beside the Miami or lay awake to think of her, in the remote huts of the Natchez.
— from A Sister to Evangeline Being the Story of Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went into exile with the villagers of Grand Pré by Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir

I approached softly, with the soul of me in my eyes, so to speak, yet, despite my caution, she seemed to become aware of my presence in some way--the foot faltered in its swing and vanished as the leaves were parted, and Lisbeth looked down at me.
— from The Chronicles of the Imp: A Romance by Jeffery Farnol

If I am to turn mummer, I must enact something fit for a man of my parts to appear in."
— from William Shakespeare as He Lived: An Historical Tale by Henry Curling

Witty and cultured in much; in much else she had been as stupid as the dumb beast.
— from The Strolling Saint; being the confessions of the high and mighty Agostino D'Anguissola, tyrant of Mondolfo and Lord of Carmina, in the state of Piacenza by Rafael Sabatini

Dear me, it means ever so many things," said Polly, with a little laugh.
— from The Adventures of Joel Pepper by Margaret Sidney

This would greatly intensify my danger, for, at any moment, I might encounter some one who knew me, who might denounce me to the authorities.
— from My Lady of Doubt by Randall Parrish