I could not even see him at church: for Miss Murray, under some trivial pretext, chose to take possession of that corner in the family pew which had been mine ever since I came; and, unless I had the presumption to station myself between Mr. and Mrs. Murray, I must sit with my back to the pulpit, which I accordingly did.
— from Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

“To-morrow afternoon at four o’clock, Sherlock Holmes, the famous English detective, for whom such a thing as mystery does not exist; Sherlock Holmes, the most remarkable solver of enigmas the world has ever known, that marvelous man who would seem to be the creation of a romantic novelist—Sherlock Holmes will be my guest!”
— from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc

She was so entirely ignorant of all forms of business that in nearly everything she had to refer to him.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

It was about the same time that the French and English began mutually to oppress each other's industry, by the like duties and prohibitions, of which the French, however, seem to have set the first example, The spirit of hostility which has subsisted between the two nations ever since, has hitherto hindered them from being moderated on either side.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

She has lost her lover and nobody else shall have him.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

The employment, naturally enough, suggested her conversation with the girl in the morning; and turning to her husband, she said, carelessly, “By the by, Arthur, who was that low-bred fellow that you lugged in to our dinner-table today?”
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

One could not even say he has been thinking all this while.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 20th day of November, 1852, Charles Hughes , J. P. State of New-York : Washington County, ss Nicholas C. Northup, of the village of Sandy Hill, in said county, being duly sworn, doth depose and say, that he is now fifty-eight years of age, and has known Solomon Northup, mentioned in the annexed memorial of Ann Northup, ever since he was born.
— from Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana by Solomon Northup

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you?
— from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

No, the fiskman won’t have that; it is not enough, so he makes no reply, but pretends to be washing his boat.
— from Chasing the Sun by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

"When I was in England," he began, "I did not experience such hardship as is commonly supposed to exist.
— from The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by W. H. (William Henry) Davies

With a careful air of carelessness, he went up to the proctor's desk, took one off the pile of the printed examination sheets, and with it in his hand, not entirely steady, he went back to his seat.
— from Rough-Hewn by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

It was to be expected that the Irishman, endowed with a southern vivacity, and at the same time thrown into deep anxiety by the Norwegian expeditions, should have regarded them in quite a different light from the tranquil Norwegian himself, who in the conquests in Ireland beheld only a repetition of what was occurring at the same time in so many other countries.
— from An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland by Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae

Not even Stark himself seems to have thought of a rescuing force.
— from Burgoyne's Invasion of 1777 With an outline sketch of the American Invasion of Canada, 1775-76. by Samuel Adams Drake

The thoughts which came presently led her to go to the dead man’s room—a simple, spartan-like chamber which she had not entered since his death.
— from The Herapath Property by J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher

But damn the bit of manners has the fellow, any more than if he was one of them Guineas down in the kitchen there; and so as he was sheering nearer, every stretch he made toward the house, I could do no better than to let your honor know that the chap was in the offing.”
— from The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna by James Fenimore Cooper

Kepler could see 14 stars in the Pleiades with the naked eye, so his eyesight must have been exceptionally keen.
— from Astronomical Curiosities: Facts and Fallacies by J. Ellard (John Ellard) Gore