“He is dressed rather handsomely in red, blue and gold,” replied the priest promptly with precision, “and in this striking, and even showy, costume he entered Himylaya Mansions under eight human eyes; he killed Smythe in cold blood, and came down into the street again carrying the dead body in his arms—” “Reverend sir,” cried Angus, standing still, “are you raving mad, or am I?”
— from The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

I will do anything,” said she, catching his eye.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Upon the broad black marble flagstones at the entrance of the palace, and a few steps above the water, stood a figure which none who then saw can have ever since forgotten.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe

"Yes, of course." "Oh, my dear," she said, closing her eyes, "all is well that ends well; but before this happy ending, what suffering there has been!
— from The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Her distance from the chateau again alarming her, she paused to listen; the night was so calm, that no sound could have escaped her, but she heard only the plaintive sweetness of the nightingale, with the light shiver of the leaves, and she pursued her way towards the pavilion, having reached which, its obscurity did not prevent the emotion, that a fuller view of its well-known scene would have excited.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

The same high power of reason, intent in every one to explore and display some truth; some truth of judicial, or historical, or biographical fact; some truth of law, deduced by construction, perhaps, or by illation; some truth of policy, for want whereof a nation, generations, may be the worse—reason seeking and unfolding truth; the same tone, in all, of deep earnestness, expressive of strong desire that what he felt to be important should be accepted as true, and spring up to action; the same transparent, plain, forcible, and direct speech, conveying his exact thought to the mind—not something less or more; the same sovereignty of form, of brow, and eye, and tone, and manner—everywhere the intellectual king of men, standing before you—that same marvelousness of qualities and results, residing, I know not where, in words, in pictures, in the ordering of ideas, infelicities indescribable, by means whereof, coming from his tongue, all things seemed mended—truth seemed more true, probability more plausible, greatness more grand, goodness more awful, every affection more tender than when coming from other tongues—these are, in all, his eloquence.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

When she writes an essay on a Shakespearean character, her English is fine and strong, her grasp of the subject is the grasp of one who knows, and her page is electric with light.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

One day he was recounting to a group of spellbound school children his experiences of the day.
— from The Wee Scotch Piper by Madeline Brandeis

“Only from this central position, and only with the help of an authority which had at its disposal the whole synagogal system, could He effect within a short time much, perhaps all, of what was needful.
— from The Quest of the Historical Jesus A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede by Albert Schweitzer

Suddenly she ceased her efforts and looked beyond him with a gasp and such a startled expression, that he knew some unusual cause had produced it.
— from The Land of Mystery by Edward Sylvester Ellis

It seemed, as she stood there shivering, covering her eyes, an age before the crash came, and the cry of those human souls in their extremity.
— from I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales by Arthur Quiller-Couch

"It is a pity," says a favourable critic, in a letter from Vienna (January, 1787), "that in his truly artistic and beautiful compositions Mozart should carry his effort after originality too far, to the detriment of the sentiment and heart of his works.
— from Life of Mozart, Vol. 3 (of 3) by Otto Jahn

He sank to the ground under a crushing weight of shame, covering his eyes with his hands and cowering face downward upon the stones.
— from The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke

Cromwell, with his officers, had spent part of the day in calling upon the Lord; while he prayed, the enthusiast felt an enlargement of the heart, a buoyancy of spirit, which he took for an infallible presage of victory; and, beholding through his glass the motion in the Scottish camp, he exclaimed, "They are coming down; the Lord hath delivered them into our hands.
— from The History of England from the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of King George the Fifth Volume 8 by Hilaire Belloc