As spring came on, and victory after victory proclaimed that the war was drawing to an end, Christie's sad resignation was broken, by gusts of grief so stormy, so inconsolable, that those about her trembled for her life.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

The minister took great credit to himself for his share in this transaction, and the scheme was always called by his flatterers “the Earl of Oxford’s masterpiece.”
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Here She intended to throw a tender and significant look upon Don Christoval; But, as She unluckily happened to squint most abominably, the glance fell directly upon his Companion: Lorenzo took the compliment to himself, and answered it by a profound bow. 'May I enquire,' said He, 'the name of the Marquis?' 'The Marquis de las Cisternas.'
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

D’Artagnan, mute with anger and anxiety, took a seat in the threatening attitude of a judge.
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

Here, after a short meeting, we broke up, and I home to the office, where they are sitting, and so I to them, and having done our business rose, and I home to dinner with my people, and there dined with me my uncle Thomas, with a mourning hat-band on, for his daughter Mary, and here I and my people did discourse of the Act for the accounts, [“An Act for taking the Accompts of the several sums of money therein menconed, 19 and 20 Car.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

My education, till past fourteen, was no better than very vulgar: reading, or rather spelling, an illegible scrawl, and a little ordinary plain work, composed the whole system of it; and then all my foundation in virtue was no other than a total ignorance of vice, and the shy timidity general to our sex, in the tender age of life, when objects alarm or frighten more by their novelty than anything else.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

Sometimes I think there are people who are fools forever.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

There was something in the tone and attitude of Floriani—something more than the chevalier’s assurance which, from the beginning, had so annoyed the count.
— from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc

I have spoken in this chapter of the little crippled birds so often seen in this town and in some of the villages, and my belief was that these had all been caught in gins and had got away, leaving a foot or leg behind.
— from The Land's End: A Naturalist's Impressions In West Cornwall, Illustrated by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

But the populace, seeing in that title an allusion damaging to Barbicane's project, broke into the auditorium, smashed the benches, and compelled the unlucky director to alter his playbill.
— from From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon by Jules Verne

Corn and malt were also sold at Smithfield in the times, apparently, of Edward I., and his successor.
— from Mediæval London, Volume 1: Historical & Social by Walter Besant

The poet turns his face to earth and not to heaven; he finds the miraculous, the spiritual, in the things about him, and gods and goddesses in the men and women he meets.
— from Whitman: A Study by John Burroughs

She made no objection, so I took the Ariosto, and began to read the history of the Spanish princess who fell in love with Bradamante.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 20: Milan by Giacomo Casanova

He did so to the general satisfaction of the nation, cast Somerset into the Tower, and replaced the old ministers by more capable men.
— from A History of England Eleventh Edition by Charles Oman

"I'm a stranger in this town, and I'd like a little company." "And—-afterwards?" pursued Reade.
— from The High School Boys in Summer Camp by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock

Francesco had retired into a dim corner, seemingly indifferent to the advent of the visitor.
— from The Hill of Venus by Nathan Gallizier

The "Pomp and Circumstance" Marches are saved, despite the frequent triteness of their melody, by their buoyant high spirits; but of the vapid and sentimental "Salut d'Amour," which has sold in the thousands and been arranged for all possible combinations of instruments, including two mandolins and a guitar, the less said the better.
— from Contemporary Composers by Daniel Gregory Mason