The end must come some day, but in the meantime Jack thrives as much as ever; people are glad enough to shake him by the hand, ignore the little dark stories that are whispered every now and then against him, and pronounce him a good-natured, jovial, reckless fellow.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Nay, I had already returned the purse and the girdle to the baggage who brought them, that she might carry them back to him, and had given her a rough dismissal, but after, fearing she might keep them for herself and tell him that I had accepted them, as I hear women of her fashion do whiles, I called her back and took them, full of despite, from her hands and have brought them to you, so you may return them to him and tell him I want none of his trash, for that, thanks to God and my husband, I have purses and girdles enough to smother him withal.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

Bridesmaids, bridesmaids' presents, and general expenses, to say nothing of the publicity when the parties principally concerned wanted to get it over quietly and quickly.
— from Aaron the Jew: A Novel by B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon

The school in which Osmond Waymark taught was situated in "a pleasant suburb of southern London" (Brixton, to wit); had its "spacious playground and gymnasium" (the former a tolerable back-yard, the latter a disused coach-house); and, as to educational features, offered, at the choice of parents and guardians, either the solid foundation desirable for those youths predestined to a commercial career, or the more liberal training adapted to minds of a professional bias.
— from The Unclassed by George Gissing

To begin with, she is often poorer than her prosperous neighbour, compelled to practise petty and galling economies, travel second class, wear cleaned gloves, and spend unpleasant moments in street-cars and omnibuses.
— from Her Royal Highness Woman by Max O'Rell

However, the question was brought forward at the conclusion of a Council, and the delegates decided to pay a grant equal to strike allowance, but the trustees refused to allow the money to be drawn from the bank.
— from A History of the Durham Miner's Association 1870-1904 by John Wilson

Catholic historians have never hesitated to state that the facts bore them out in claiming that the governing motive of Gustavus Adolphus in taking the important part he did in the Thirty Years' War, was not religious enthusiasm, nor even a religious motive; but on the contrary one that was far from possessing any greater elevation than self-interest and political advantage.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 10, October, 1869 to March, 1870 by Various

A boy must on no account punch a girl, even though she is older and bigger than himself.
— from Pip : A Romance of Youth by Ian Hay

It is not, perhaps, a great exaggeration to say that, had there been no blind folks in the world, there would have been few ballads.
— from Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs (1886) by Martinengo-Cesaresco, Evelyn Lilian Hazeldine Carrington, contessa

The clan had also purchased at great expense two sailing vessels and a steamer and was thus, as the Council thought, well equipped to expel the handful of barbarians.
— from A Boy of Old Japan by R. (Robert) Van Bergen