friendship,—but now she knew its real, royal name.
— from The Incomplete Amorist by E. (Edith) Nesbit

His soul kept its room, rarely rose, lounged on a couch, was torpid with the tepid langour still lulled by the sleepy mutter of mere lip-service, and prayers reeled off as by a worn-out machine of which the spring releases itself, so that it works all alone with no result, and without a touch to start it.
— from The Cathedral by J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans

What a contrast to the formal presentation of the queenly lady, crown and jewels and all, that Gentile Bellini has left us in his portrait of her now at Buda-Pesth!—and in that other picture of his where she is seen kneeling in royal robes, with her train of court ladies, as though attending a state function!
— from Giorgione by Herbert Frederick Cook

Lord Montacute scarce knew if regret, relief, or admiration were the feeling uppermost in his mind, as the youth he believed so worthy of his fair daughter, and perhaps not entirely indifferent to her dawning charms, thus frankly withdrew his claim upon her hand.
— from The Lord of Dynevor: A Tale of the Times of Edward the First by Evelyn Everett-Green