Now, the good-nature of the little miniature painter would by no means allow of Smike’s walking back again, until he had been previously refreshed with just a sip of something comfortable and a mixed biscuit or so; and Smike, entertaining no objection either to the sip of something comfortable, or the mixed biscuit, but, considering on the contrary that they would be a very pleasant preparation for a walk to Bow, it fell out that he delayed much longer than he originally intended, and that it was some half-hour after dusk when he set forth on his journey home.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

In writing these lines, I yield to a feeling that the witness of mysterious facts ought to give, in the interests of humanity or science, a scrupulously exact narration of what he has seen.
— from Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations by J. (Joseph) Maxwell

The centre of her life was, of course, her religion, but of this she never spoke, although strangely enough no one doubted the intensity of her belief and the reality of her devotion.
— from The Captives by Hugh Walpole

"And I'll bet you my Cloth of Gold Pansy to your Black Prince that Bessy's aunt takes three bottles of my dandelion and camomile mixture for 'the swimmings,' bathes her eyes every morning with my elder-flower lotion to strengthen the sight, and sleeps every night on my herb pillow (if Mary 'll make me a flannel bag) before the week's out."
— from Mary's Meadow, and Other Tales of Fields and Flowers by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

On the other hand, a jerky and strained action spoils entirely not only the effect from a spectator’s point of view, but also neutralises the benefit that should accrue to the performer.
— from The Boy's Own Book of Indoor Games and Recreations A Popular Encyclopædia for Boys by Gordon Stables

The destruction of the mummy entailing that of the soul, his act gave the Saitic population a satisfaction similar to that experienced by the refined cruelty of those who, a few centuries ago, killed their enemies when in a state of deadly sin, and so ensure not only their dismissal from this world, but also their condemnation in the next.
— from History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 9 (of 12) by G. (Gaston) Maspero

Of these strange and stirring events no one knew but
— from The Art of Disappearing by John Talbot Smith

They are, with scarcely a single exception, northern or eastern; and we know from Ælfric's Glossary, from Domesday and the Chartularies, that this distinction of pronunciation was established as early as the eleventh century. 'Kirby' or 'Kirkby,' is a specimen of joint Anglian and Page 539 {539} Scandinavian influence, furnishing a clue to the ethnology of the district wherever it occurs.
— from The English Language by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham