In about half an hour I wished to take my leave, after having put a ducat on the table, but this by a singular scruple she refused until she had deserved it, and I from as singular a folly consented to remove her doubts.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

It was vain to urge that his time was already fully occupied, for the young lady had come with the determination to tell her story, and it was evident that nothing short of force could get her out of the room until she had done so.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

‘“Rise up, Sir Harry Dawe,” he says, and, in the same breath, “I’m pressed, too,” and slips through the tapestries, leaving me like a stuck calf.
— from Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling

Here he fasted, and remained until, sleeping, he dreamed.
— from Po-No-Kah: An Indian Tale of Long Ago by Mary Mapes Dodge

She thought there must be some sentimental reason for a man of fifty or more carrying a bird about with him; and she did not rest until she had drawn from Jean Jacques that he was taking the bird to his daughter in the West.
— from The Money Master, Complete by Gilbert Parker

When the messenger arrived, he told his errand to the Khoja, who at once rose up, saddled his donkey, took a stick in his hand, and mounted, saying to the Tatar, "Go before me!"
— from Miscellanea by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

When Summer came, a sickle Stuck in her sheaf of gleams, And let the honey trickle From out the beehives' seams; Within the violet-blotted Sweet book to us alloted,— Whose lines are starry dotted,— Love read us still his dreams.
— from One Day & Another: A Lyrical Eclogue by Madison Julius Cawein

The estate of Maintenon being for sale, Madame de Montespan did not let the King rest until she had drawn from him enough to buy it for Madame Scarron, who thenceforth assumed its name.
— from Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Complete by Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de

His voice was clear, strong, resonant, and of wonderful compass; and whether it sank, as it often did, to the tender tones which give expression to the deep pathos that sometimes moved his soul, or calmly reasoned upon some heavenly doctrine, or was raised to its grandest swell or thunder tones to denounce injustice or oppression, no one could grow weary of listening to it.
— from The Life of John Taylor Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts

tempted Buster, pretending to roll up sleeves he didn’t have.
— from Nancy Brandon by Lilian Garis