“Soon, sir?” “Very soon, my—that is, Miss Eyre: and you’ll remember, Jane, the first time I, or Rumour, plainly intimated to you that it was my intention to put my old bachelor’s neck into the sacred noose, to enter into the holy estate of matrimony—to take Miss Ingram to my bosom, in short (she’s an extensive armful: but that’s not to the point—one can’t have too much of such a very excellent thing as my beautiful Blanche): well, as I was saying—listen to me, Jane!
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

This speech was accompanied with such a very expressive look at that particular portion of Mr. Smangle’s attire, by the appearance of which the skill of laundresses in getting up gentlemen’s linen is generally tested, that he was fain to turn upon his heel, and, for the present at any rate, to give up all design on Mr. Pickwick’s purse and wardrobe.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Original Mr Quilp delivered this last command in such a very energetic voice, and moreover accompanied it with such a sudden gesture, indicative of an intention to spring out of his hammock, and, night-capped as he was, bear his wife home again through the public streets, that she sped away like an arrow.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

How the old woman managed it, I know not; but the walls of the rooms were hung with silk and velvet, embroidered chairs were there, and richly ornamented arm-chairs by marble tables; crystal chandeliers hung down from the ceilings, and mirrored themselves in the smooth pavement; green parrots were there in gilt cages, and so were strange birds which sang most beautifully, and there was on all sides as much magnificence as if a king were going to live there.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

They were cruel and unmitigated scoundrels working for purely selfish and vainglorious ends.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

Perhaps the scenes of travel conjure themselves up before me, and pass and repass in my imagination all the more vividly, because I lead such a vegetable existence, that a call to travel would fall upon me like a thunderbolt.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

he was dismissed with the following answer: "Constantius had a right to disclaim the officiousness of his ministers, who had acted without any specific orders from the throne: he was not, however, averse to an equal and honorable treaty; but it was highly indecent, as well as absurd, to propose to the sole and victorious emperor of the Roman world, the same conditions of peace which he had indignantly rejected at the time when his power was contracted within the narrow limits of the East: the chance of arms was uncertain; and Sapor should recollect, that if the Romans had sometimes been vanquished in battle, they had almost always been successful in the event of the war."
— 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

He pulled out from the bottom a palm-wood box lined with red velvet, and from it took out a pair of smart and very expensive pistols.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

But I will try to tell you what I mean, though I speak as a fool; and if I say anything very egregious, you must let my ignorance be my excuse, and pardon the clumsy [Pg 301] expression of my intentions because they are so well meant.
— from The Farringdons by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler

Great plenty is to be found thereof in Carpasia, as likewise in the climate Dia Sienes, at very easy rates.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

They saw and visited each other several times.
— from The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi by Candide Chalippe

The cavalry divisions in advance of the First Army had a sharp and victorious encounter with French horse on the plateau between the Meuse and Aisne, who retreated afterwards towards Laon, and our leading corps made good the passage of the Meuse, between Mezieres and Sedan, and upstream towards Mouzon, their advance guards bivouacking on the line, Rancourt—Omont—Poix.
— from The Great War of 189-: A Forecast by Frank Scudamore

Between the mouth and the nose are four slender and very elastic barbs, or wattles, like so many little worms.
— from A Natural History for Young People: Our Animal Friends in Their Native Homes including mammals, birds and fishes by Phebe Westcott Humphreys

The sestina , a very elaborate canzonet, was invented in Provence and borrowed by the Italians.
— from The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) by George Saintsbury

While the evidence is conflicting in some cases, in others it has been well established that the germ-cells are set apart very early from the cells which are to [Pg 37] differentiate into the ordinary body tissues.
— from Being Well-Born: An Introduction to Eugenics by Michael F. (Michael Frederic) Guyer

You can imagine that this caused great rejoicing, for all the quicksilver previously used was sent in ships to this part of the world, which, of course, made it scarce and very expensive.
— from St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878 by Various