All at once in the midst of the silence Vassya drew himself up and, fixing his lustreless eyes on one point, pricked up his ears.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Such various developments are numerous and of importance for us because we frequently are unwilling to believe the witness testifying in a certain field for the reason that his memory in another field had shown itself to be unreliable.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

I am sure,” says Mrs Whitefield, “if half what this gentleman hath said be true, Mr Jones hath the most deceitful countenance I ever saw; for sure his looks promise something very different; and I must say, for the little I have seen of him, he is as civil a well-bred man as you would wish to converse with.”
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

‘It’s so very dreadful!’
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Nov. Testamenti, secul. viii. dissert.
— 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

Le marché conclu, le voiturier se rend au cabaret pour y déjeuner, et se vante d'avoir trompé l'étranger, disant que son
— from French Conversation and Composition by Harry Vincent Wann

So Blacky talked to himself and tried to hush the still, small voice down inside that tried to tell him that what he was planning to do was really a dreadful thing.
— from Blacky the Crow by Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess

It wasn’t so very dirty, you know.
— from Three Little Women: A Story for Girls by Gabrielle E. (Gabrielle Emilie) Jackson

[35] But Socrates conceived the future state to be something very different; a place in which he could hold high discourse with the great ones of the past.
— from Pagan Ideas of Immortality During the Early Roman Empire by Clifford Herschel Moore

Other ladies of noble birth, Julie von Voss and Countess Sophie von Donhoff, exacted almost a formal marriage from the king while the queen was actually alive, and the Evangelical Consistory was compelled submissively to sanction the royal bigamy.
— from Women of the Teutonic Nations by Hermann Schoenfeld

[1530.] It̃m the xv daye paied to John Rede gardyner at Beaulie in Rewarde for bringing swete waters to the kingꝭ grace at hamptoncourte xv s̃. It̃m the same daye paied to humfrey Raynezford for his Cote by the kingꝭ com̃aundement xxij s̃. vj d. It̃m the xvj daye paied for the caryage of the Boyes to Bery and taryng there xx wokꝭ and for expenses com̃yng home and other necessaries xl
— from The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII from November MDXXIX, to December MDXXXII by Nicolas, Nicholas Harris, Sir

It was not so very rough, nor so very dangerous, but of course he only knew that fact afterward.
— from King--of the Khyber Rifles: A Romance of Adventure by Talbot Mundy

Cincinnati, O. SABATA, V. di [Pg 259] 1918.
— from Annals of Music in America: A Chronological Record of Significant Musical Events by Henry Charles Lahee

Leaves very large; upper surface dark green, glossy; lower surface pale green, smooth; leaf entire, terminus acuminate; petiolar sinus very deep, narrow, often closed and overlapping; basal and lateral sinuses usually lacking; teeth shallow, wide.
— from Manual of American Grape-Growing by U. P. Hedrick