I had time to get seated, to enforce perfect silence, to take out my work, and to commence it amidst the profoundest and best trained hush, ere M. Emanuel entered with his vehement burst of latch and panel, and his deep, redundant bow, prophetic of choler.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

After supper that evening, Pollyanna, sitting on the back porch, told Nancy all about Mr. John Pendleton's wonderful carved box, and the still more wonderful things it contained.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

Variable passions throng her constant woe, As striving who should best become her grief; 968 All entertain’d, each passion labours so, That every present sorrow seemeth chief, But none is best, then join they all together, Like many clouds consulting for foul weather.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

When the sun shines the entire population seeks the street, carrying on its household work, its bargaining, its love-making on street or sidewalk, or idling there when it has nothing better to do, with the reverse of the impulse that makes the Polish Jew coop himself up in his den with the thermometer at stewing heat.
— from How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis

In how many different ways could he place those sheep, each in a separate pen, so that every pen should be either occupied or in line (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) with at least one sheep?
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

It is the product of an amphoteric and intercalatory interchange of—" "Have you seen the evening paper, sir?" interrupted the man opposite, holding out a newspaper.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

Risk anything rather than her displeasure; and if you find it likely to be raised by your coming to us again, which I should think exceedingly probable, stay quietly at home, and be satisfied that we shall take no offence.”
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The number from each tribe, large or small, was the same; the entire portion selected being but a very small part of the whole.
— from Notes on the New Testament, Explanatory and Practical: Revelation by Albert Barnes

Alfred came in timidly, and was received with perfect benignity and self-possession by Mrs. Dodd, but Julia's face was dyed with blushes, and her eyes sparkled the eloquent praise she was ashamed to speak before them all.
— from Hard Cash by Charles Reade

"Tie them fast," said the eldest Prince, smiling wickedly at the Scarecrow.
— from The Royal Book of Oz In which the Scarecrow goes to search for his family tree and discovers that he is the Long Lost Emperor of the Silver Island by Ruth Plumly Thompson

We may frequently see a person voluntarily raising his eyebrows to express surprise, or smiling to express pretended satisfaction and acquiescence.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

This marriage seemed to excite people's sympathy, and many had come from far around; at each turn of the road there were groups stationed to see them pass.
— from An Iceland Fisherman by Pierre Loti

In order to prevent such insurrections for the future, the justices assembled at the sessions of the peace established regulations, importing, that no negro-slave should be allowed to quit his plantation without a white conductor, or a ticket of leave; that every negro playing at any sort of game should be scourged through the public streets; that every publican suffering such gaming in his house should forfeit forty shillings; that every proprietor suffering his negroes to beat a drum, blow a horn, or make any other noise in his plantation, should be fined ten pounds; and every overseer allowing these irregularities should pay half that sum, to be demanded, or distrained for, by any civil or military officer; that every free negro, or mulatto, should wear a blue cross on his right shoulder, on pain of imprisonment; that no mulatto, Indian, or negro, should hawk or sell any thing, except fresh fish or milk, on pain of being scourged; that rum and punch houses should be shut up during divine service on Sundays, under the penalty of twenty shillings; and that those who had petit licenses should shut up their houses on other nights at nine o’clock.
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II. by T. (Tobias) Smollett

She'll be [Pg 37] down in a minute, she said; she thought she'd have time afore supper to get to the bottom of the big chist, and see if that 'ere vest pattern ain't there, and them sticks o' twist for the button-holes, 'cause Roxy she says she never see nothin' so rotten as that 'ere twist we've been a-workin' with, that Mis' Pennel got over to Portland; it's a clear cheat, and Mis' Pennel she give more'n half a cent a stick more for 't than what Roxy got for her up to Brunswick; so you see these 'ere Portland stores charge up, and their things want lookin' after."
— from The Pearl of Orr's Island: A Story of the Coast of Maine by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Now, she gave her opinion of the woman question in Italy, and it would seem that, realising that her own marriage has been anything but satisfactory to either party, she wrote from her heart.
— from Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Her Life and Letters (1689-1762) by Lewis Melville

From the threshold he remarked, "If you will come to my business-room about half an hour before luncheon, I shall hope to have the last bars polished off, and I 'll sing you something sweeter than ever plummet sounded.
— from The Lady Paramount by Henry Harland