Would I sketch a portrait of her, to show to papa?”
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

Now, therefore, the king laid the foundations of the temple very deep in the ground, and the materials were strong stones, and such as would resist the force of time; these were to unite themselves with the earth, and become a basis and a sure foundation for that superstructure which was to be erected over it; they were to be so strong, in order to sustain with ease those vast superstructures and precious ornaments, whose own weight was to be not less than the weight of those other high and heavy buildings which the king designed to be very ornamental and magnificent.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

And I tell you what—it’s a most uncommon chair to smoke a pipe in.’
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

It drowns the buzzing talk of many tongues and draws each man's mind from his own business; it rolls up and down the echoing street, and ascends to the hushed chamber of the sick, and penetrates downward to the cellar kitchen where the hot cook turns from the fire to listen.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The audience laughed, but next day, sure enough, the Countryman appeared on the stage, and putting his head down squealed so hideously that the spectators hissed and threw stones at him to make him stop.
— from Aesop's Fables by Aesop

So while this debate went on, with its interminable silence and pauses, and while the Aces called their own meeting, and formed themselves into a Committee, to find some obsolete dealing with the question, the Three Companions themselves were eating all they could find, and drinking out of every vessel, and breaking all regulations.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

In the evening her father found her looking rather tired, but he seemed as pleased as I was.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The sharpness of the Scythian and Arabian arrows had been severely felt; and the emperors lament the decay of archery as a cause of the public misfortunes, and recommend, as an advice and a command, that the military youth, till the age of forty, should assiduously practise the exercise of the bow.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

They told us a story of a house in a place called Swan Alley, passing from Goswell Street, near the end of Old Street, into St John Street, that a family was infected there in so terrible a manner that every one of the house died.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

Which the driver (knowing there was no other fare left inside) stared at prodigiously.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

The inside of the walls has been constructed with small stones, and plenty of fluid mortar to fill the interstices.
— from Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 by John Roby

All this time the Queen continued opening and shutting and playing with the new crown.
— from Cinq Mars — Volume 6 by Alfred de Vigny

The first man I ran across there was a sergeant who had served in the Mounted Infantry in the South African picnic that we used to call a war.
— from The New Army in Training by Rudyard Kipling

“If you’d let me mix it up with him it would take some of the starch and pig-headedness out of him, and he’d have to let us play.”
— from Ned, Bob and Jerry at Boxwood Hall; Or, The Motor Boys as Freshmen by Clarence Young

v. 20); or it signifies the internal operation of the Holy Spirit upon the soul, regenerating, purifying, and sanctifying our nature: and the Sacraments, when duly regarded, are signs and pledges of the one, and effectual means of conveying the other.
— from The Life and Letters of the Rev. George Mortimer, M.A. Rector of Thornhill, in the Diocese of Toronto, Canada West by John Armstrong

This he did after a sharp contest; and Brigadier W. Campbell, with his cavalry, placed himself in such a position, that he was enabled to attack the enemy who were put to flight by Lugard, and to inflict heavy loss on them during a pursuit of six miles.
— from The History of the Indian Revolt and of the Expeditions to Persia, China and Japan, 1856-7-8 by George Dodd

When all of this should have been accomplished, there would be scarcely a process in the steel industry, from the smelting of the ore to the completion of a bridge, which the Boyne Iron Works could not undertake.
— from Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill

We want you on your legs again as soon as possible."
— from The Coil of Carne by John Oxenham

Farewells were being spoken, tears shed, and parting admonitions given.
— from A Modern Madonna by Caroline Abbot Stanley