“I like your specimen English gentleman very much,” Isabel said to Ralph after Lord Warburton had gone.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

The conception which is realized in the Gregorian chant, and which exclusively prevailed until the rise of the modern polyphonic system, is that of music in subjection to rite and liturgy, its own charms merged and, so far as conscious intention goes, lost in the paramount significance of text and action.
— from Music in the History of the Western Church With an Introduction on Religious Music Among Primitive and Ancient Peoples by Edward Dickinson

The poor woman pressed her handkerchief with both hands to her face, and wept for a few moments in silence, then rose and left the room.
— from Heather and Snow by George MacDonald

I have not looked at it since it was published; and now turning back to it in my memory, I seem to remember almost less of it than of any book that I have written.
— from An Autobiography of Anthony Trollope by Anthony Trollope