If she had any cattleyas pinned to her bodice, he would say: "It is most unfortunate; the cattleyas don't need tucking in this evening; they've not been disturbed as they were the other night; I think, though, that this one isn't quite straight.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

My uncle Toby came down, as the reader has been informed, with plans along with him, of almost every fortified town in Italy and Flanders; so let the duke of Marlborough, or the allies, have set down before what town they pleased, my uncle Toby was prepared for them.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Here he remained five Weeks, in which Time, he and half his Crew, for their Pleasure, took a Journey to the chief Town of the Island, which was 19 Miles up the Country: Davis making a good Appearance, was caressed by the Governor and the Inhabitants, and no Diversion was wanting which the Portuguese could shew, or Money could purchase; after about a Week’s Stay, he came back to the Ship, and the rest of the Crew went to take their Pleasure up to the Town, in their Turn.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

The coincidences between the design of these rites and that of Freemasonry, which must already begin to appear, will enable us to give its full value to the expression of Hutchinson, when he says that "the Master Mason represents a man under the Christian doctrine saved from the grave of iniquity and raised to the faith of salvation."
— from The Symbolism of Freemasonry Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols by Albert Gallatin Mackey

Men used to come down from Yedo on purpose to talk to me, moved as much by mere curiosity as by a desire to find out what foreign policy towards their country was likely to be.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

I will wait now, if you will allow me, until the company departs; I may just as well, for I have nowhere else to go to, and I shall certainly not do any sleeping tonight; I’m far too excited.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

These Jews, therefore, out of their anger, marched faster than ordinary, and, as if they had come but a little way, approached very near the city, and were come even to it; but Antonius, who was not unapprized of the attack they were going to make upon the city, drew out his horsemen beforehand, and being neither daunted at the multitude, nor at the courage of the enemy, received their first attacks with great bravery; and when they crowded to the very walls, he beat them off.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

Dilysiad, n. a making certain Dilysiant, n. unavoidableness Dilysol, a. unacceptionable Dilysioldeb, n. unavoidableness; inseparability Dilysrwydd, n. certitude Dilysu, v. to make unavoidable, to certify Dilywodraeth, a. anarchial Dill, a plait, a fold Dillad, n. apparel, clothes Dilladiad, n. a clothing Dilladu, v. to clothe, to dress Dilladwr, n. a clothier; a tailor, habit-maker Dilliad, n. a folding Dillni, n. smartness; elegance Dillyn, n. an ornament: a. smart, trim, spruce Dillynder, n. smartness, gaiety Dillynes, n. a smart female Dim, n. nothing; anything; something; everything, trifle: a. no; any: adv.
— from A Pocket Dictionary: Welsh-English by William Richards

188 My uncle Toby came down, as the reader has been informed, with plans along with him, of almost every fortified town in Italy and Flanders; so let the duke of Marlborough, or the allies, have set down before what town they pleased, my uncle Toby was prepared for them.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

My uncle Toby came down, as the reader has been informed, with plans along with him, of almost every fortified town in Italy and Flanders ; so let the Duke of Marlborough , or the allies, have set down before what town they pleased, my uncle Toby was prepared for them.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Witness the state of the Mediterranean under the Cilicians during the very sunset of Marius; or, again, of the Caribbean seas, in spite of a [Pg 69] vast Spanish empire, of Buccaneers and Filibusters.
— from The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 2 by Thomas De Quincey

Aunt Hannah, I loved her better than everything else upon the broad earth; I would have kissed the dust where she walked; I always loved her, and she was fond of me, until that college dandy came between us, and made a fool of her, a villain of me.
— from Infelice by Augusta J. (Augusta Jane) Evans

I was remembering one of the workers' songs we machines used to chant during the Big Strike— " Work and pray, Live on hay.
— from Bread Overhead by Fritz Leiber

He took an active part with Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, against the designs of John, Earl of Moreton, upon the crown, during the absence of his brother, Richard I. , in Palestine; died in 1198, and was buried at Dunmow.
— from Bygone London by Frederick Ross

It was there that Marcello had first learned to handle a gun, spending a week at a time there with his stepfather; and his mother used to come down now and then for a day or two on a visit, sometimes bringing her friend the Contessa dell' Armi.
— from Whosoever Shall Offend by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

Two assaults were made upon the Cerro de los Pueyos, which Suchet in his autobiography calls feints, but which Blake considered so serious that he sent off to this flank two battalions from his left wing and the whole of his cavalry.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 2, Jan.-Sep. 1809 From the Battle of Corunna to the End of the Talavera Campaign by Charles Oman

" Charnace's own ship was her target, and the well-aimed shot went straight to its mark, killing three men upon the crowded deck.
— from In Paths of Peril: A Boy's Adventures in Nova Scotia by J. Macdonald (James Macdonald) Oxley

“Some women can't love anybody except their own very much unless they can do something for them,” says Louisa; and I don't know
— from The Jamesons by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

The commonplace sun in the commonplace sky, Makes up the commonplace day; The moon and the stars are commonplace things, And the flower that blooms, and the bird that sings: But dark were the world and sad our lot If the flowers failed and the sun shone not; And God, who studies each separate soul, Out of commonplace lives makes his beautiful whole.
— from A Few More Verses by Susan Coolidge