I never have been so surprised in my life, as I was when I let out the first blow, and saw him lying on his back, looking up at me with a bloody nose and his face exceedingly fore-shortened.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Lizzie, with a drooping head, glanced down at the glow in the fire where her first fancies had been nursed, and her first escape made from the grim life out of which she had plucked her brother, foreseeing her reward.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

The poetry of motion is a phrase much in use, and to enjoy the epic form of that gratification it is necessary to stand on a hill at a small hour of the night, and, having first expanded with a sense of difference from the mass of civilised mankind, who are dreamwrapt and disregardful of all such proceedings at this time, long and quietly watch your stately progress through the stars.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

As to Xenophon, I believe you have done him a good turn by not appointing him; for even now Dexippus has gone some way in traducing him to Anaxibius, as far as it lay in his power to do so, and that, in spite of my attempts to silence him.
— from Anabasis by Xenophon

The corporal—with nothing—to remember—of no deeper reading than his muster-roll—or greater names at his fingers end, than the contents of it.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Perhaps she would rather not answer her friends, even.
— from A Little Princess Being the whole story of Sara Crewe now told for the first time by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Namanyak siya human makatilaw ug kausa, She became a nympho after her first experience.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

He inquired next after her family, especially William: and his kindness altogether was such as made her reproach herself for loving him so little, and thinking his return a misfortune; and when, on having courage to lift her eyes to his face, she saw that he was grown thinner, and had the burnt, fagged, worn look of fatigue and a hot climate, every tender feeling was increased, and she was miserable in considering how much unsuspected vexation was probably ready to burst on him.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Quhou capitane Volscens, cumand Turnus till, Recontrit Nysus and hys fallow Ewrill.
— from The Æneid of Virgil Translated Into Scottish Verse. Volumes 1 & 2 by Virgil

An upholsterer rebuked his apprentice because he was not nimble enough at his work, and had not his nails and hammer in readiness when he should use them; and said that when he himself was an apprentice he was taught to have his nails at his fingers' ends.
— from The Handbook of Conundrums by Edith B. (Edith Bertha) Ordway

The interference of the woman's father in this case affords another proof that a woman's own family does not necessarily abandon her for ever to the caprice of the family into which she has married.
— from Lion and Dragon in Northern China by Johnston, Reginald Fleming, Sir

She had never admitted his faults even to herself; or, at all events, had found excuses for them in her kind and affectionate heart.
— from The Forgery; or, Best Intentions. by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

For explanation, take a 300 machine; allow 100 needles and hooks for each section, distributed as follows: Section I., 1 to 100; Section II., 101 to 200; Section III., 201 to 300.
— from The Jacquard Machine Analyzed and Explained With an appendix on the preparation of jacquard cards, and practical hints to learners of jacquard designing by E. A. (Emanuel Anthony) Posselt

His glossy coat, his perfect form, his noble attitude, his fiery eye, his strange look of intelligence—all these spoke of the art of Athens and the Greeks.
— from A Flight in Spring In the car Lucania from New York to the Pacific coast and back, during April and May, 1898 by J. Harris (John Harris) Knowles

He had on his feet heavy boots with large heels, with [Pg 302] which he tramped noisily, and his footsteps echoed resoundingly in the vast, shed-like editorial room.
— from Orlóff and His Wife: Tales of the Barefoot Brigade by Maksim Gorky

Nan and her friends enjoyed it, but Adair MacKenzie grumbled throughout despite all that Alice could do to mollify him.
— from Nan Sherwood on the Mexican Border by Annie Roe Carr