"I do not know," she continued after a pause: "I cannot— cannot see the reason; yet at this hour I can say with sincerity, what I never tried to say before, Inscrutable God, Thy will be done!
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

If you were decent people I could call somebody out, but what can I do now?
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

SYN: Drift, purport, Intent, course, character, sense, stamp, meaning, effect, aim, scope, direction.
— from A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms or, Synonyms and Words of Opposite Meaning by Samuel Fallows

The turf was hemmed with an edge of scarlet geranium and coleus, and cast-iron vases painted in chocolate colour, standing at intervals along the winding path that led to the sea, looped their garlands of petunia and ivy geranium above the neatly raked gravel.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

He has been coming here very often lately and though I like him so much it makes me uncomfortable, because I am afraid he is thinking that perhaps I could care something for him.
— from Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

They persisted in changing colour sometimes, and they would be occasionally dilated and contracted by something like a faint pulsation; then, they gave a look of treachery, and cruelty, to the whole countenance.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

But it is now time to return from this long digression, into which I have been insensibly led, in endeavouring to explain the reasons why the exchange between the countries which pay in what is called bank money, and those which pay in common currency, should generally appear to be in favour of the former, and against the latter.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The speech was a weak one; but the people in court cheered Sir Edward Clarke; the cheers were immediately suppressed by the Judge.
— from Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions Volume 1 by Frank Harris

Early in 1823, those Cubans who were more or less secretly in favor of independence sent an agent named Morales to Washington to try to discover what course the United States would pursue in case Cuba should declare her independence.
— from The History of Cuba, vol. 2 by Willis Fletcher Johnson

And Theodora, as she looked at the little sapphire on her finger, felt that not all the Phebes in creation could spoil her merry Christmas.
— from Teddy: Her Book A Story of Sweet Sixteen by Anna Chapin Ray

It is contained in a state of great purity in certain caves, such as the Grotto del Cane , near Naples.
— from Conversations on Chemistry, V. 1-2 In Which the Elements of that Science Are Familiarly Explained and Illustrated by Experiments by Mrs. (Jane Haldimand) Marcet

Pil. I cannot countenance such language.
— from Lady Huntworth's Experiment: An original comedy in three acts by R. C. (Richard Claude) Carton

Words may paint that picture in crimson colours so that our revulsion is intensified before we see it.
— from The Fiery Totem A Tale of Adventure in the Canadian North-West by C. F. Argyll Saxby