"How," demanded Sir Oracle, "can a mother reasonably expect her child to learn correct speech, when she continually accustoms its impressionable gray matter to such absurd expressions and distortions of our noble tongue as thoughtless mothers inflict every day on the helpless creatures committed to their care?
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

The position of the cardinal was indeed critical, and recent events had added to his difficulties.
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

Speaking of the learned tongues, I may mention that, precarious and abandoned as the vagabond’s existence is, many persons of classical or refined education have from time to time joined the ranks,—occasionally from inclination, as in the popular instance of Bamfylde Moore Carew, but generally through indiscretion, and loss of character.
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

The doctor from Moscow, at my request, examined him the day before yesterday and told me that he was on the eve of brain fever—and all on his account, on account of this monster!
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

We have been unfortunate, and recent events have drawn us from that everyday tranquillity befitting my years and infirmities.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Not all the strength of all the terrible passions I had roused in that woman's heart, could loosen her desperate hold on the one fragment of social consideration which years of resolute effort had just dragged within her grasp.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

He played marbles, spun his top, played at foot-ball, bandy, and hop-scotch; slept quietly, rose early, had a good appetite, and was happy.
— from Detailed Minutiae of Soldier life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865 by Carlton McCarthy

At the Royal Exchange he would catch a green 'bus for the Mile End Road.
— from The King of Diamonds: A Tale of Mystery and Adventure by Louis Tracy

The regular epic, however, was given to Italy by Tasso at the end of the sixteenth century.
— from Studies in the Poetry of Italy, Part II. Italian by Oscar Kuhns

It is curious how far the significance of this remark extends, how exquisitely it illustrates and confirms the mediæval sense of hue;—how far, on the other hand, it cuts into the heart of the old umber idolatri
— from Modern Painters, Volume 3 (of 5) by John Ruskin

“Well, I vow!” said the old woman one day peering through her window that gave on the road, “ef here don’t come Huldy Spiller and the two Lusks.
— from Judith of the Cumberlands by Alice MacGowan

I do not remember ever having felt less respectable.
— from Fräulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther by Elizabeth Von Arnim

A rigid casuist might question the truthfulness of my statement to the Secession ferryman; but a man fleeing for his life, and hunted by a relentless enemy, has not much time to settle questions in casuistry.
— from Thirteen Months in the Rebel Army Being a Narrative of Personal Adventures in the Infantry, Ordnance, Cavalry, Courier, and Hospital Services; With an Exhibition of the Power, Purposes, Earnestness, Military Despotism, and Demoralization of the South by William G. Stevenson

"Perhaps you had better call at the vicarage first," returned Elizabeth hurriedly.
— from Herb of Grace by Rosa Nouchette Carey