and rather sheepishly he got the gray red and gold ribbon over his dripping head, and placing it in her hand without explanation, he said—'A warming-pan as quickly as may be, I beg, Mrs. Mason—and the posset, I do earnestly request.
— from The House by the Church-Yard by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

“Not but, for my part, I 'd equally refuse her leave to touch the moulding in the surbase.
— from The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly by Charles James Lever

Par son génie, mais surtout par le charme et l'ascendant de sa vertu, il organisera le domaine temporel des papes, il développera et régularisera leur souveraineté spirituelle, il fondera leur paternelle suprématie sur les royautés naissantes et les nations nouvelles qui vont devenir les grands peuples de l'avenir, et s'appeler la France, l'Espagne, l'Angleterre.
— from Walks in Rome by Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert) Hare

When the matter was investigated it was found that the whole plot had been carefully concocted and worked up; that the circulars had been printed and put in directed envelopes ready for mailing in advance of the placing of the so-called "trust," and that when the trust officer of the solid financial institution had given his receipt for the "sealed package said to contain valuable papers," a telegram had been sent by the "fiscal agent" to "mail out trustee circulars."
— from Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World by Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman) Wooldridge

Marie took great pleasure in doing everything required by Alphonse, who was fond of her, and liked to be with her, and whose presence never embarrassed her, as he had similar tastes with herself.
— from Moral Tales by Madame (Elisabeth Charlotte Pauline) Guizot

Another illusion of the disease was his: that he succeeded perfectly in deceiving everybody round him with his pathetic make-believe; and, unlike most deceivers, he deceived himself as well.
— from The Pomp of the Lavilettes, Complete by Gilbert Parker

The Colonel, as a result of continued oratory in favor of his son-in-law's candidacy, is laid up at home with an attack of laryngitis; but he has strength left to whisper to Elmer Wiggins who has come up to see him: "Yesterday, after twenty years of solid work, Flamsted entered upon its industrial majority through the throes of civic travail," a mixture of metaphors that Mr. Wiggins ignores in his joy at the result of the election; for Mr. Wiggins has been hedging with his New England conscience and fearing, as a consequence, punishment in disappointmenting election results.
— from Flamsted quarries by Mary E. (Mary Ella) Waller

I dont luv lazy pholks, i dont even respekt them, but i kant help but admire the way they eat.
— from Josh Billings' Farmer's Allminax, 1870-1879 by Josh Billings

This was a remnant of the notion that the order of nature must be perfect, and that perfection consisted in conformity to rules of precedency in dignity, either real or conventional.
— from A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive by John Stuart Mill