Taking a pinch of the substance between my thumb and finger, I rubbed it thoughtfully for a moment, and then a ray of hope broke through the awful gloom that enshrouded me so pitilessly.
— from Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey by Ingersoll Lockwood

I was very tired too, and glad to get to bed early, but am quite well to-day.
— from The Letters of Jane Austen Selected from the compilation of her great nephew, Edward, Lord Bradbourne by Jane Austen

Letters are no matter of indifference; they are generally a very positive curse.”
— from Emma by Jane Austen

Tom King's Coffee-house was one of the old night-houses of Covent Garden Market; it was a rude shed immediately beneath the portico of St. Paul's Church, and was one "well known to all gentlemen to whom beds are unknown."
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

Now the King said to his daughter, at the royal table, "What did all the wild animals want, which have been coming to thee, and going in and out of my palace?"
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

She forbore to point it out to St. Aubert, but it threw a gloom over her spirits, and made her anxious to hasten forward, that they might with certainty reach Rousillon before night-fall.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

The Allied Governments might justly require Germany to surrender to them the use of such of her mines, and mineral deposits as would yield, say, from $500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 annually for the next 30, 40, or 50 years.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes

He no longer bullies her, and she is no longer afraid of him, and every time she does something brave for him, or he does something kind for her, they grow more and more alike, so that when they are grown up he may as well be called Lucius and she Harriett, for all the difference there will be between them.
— from Oswald Bastable and Others by E. (Edith) Nesbit

Some people attribute to pride all expressions of confidence in one's self: these may be offensive to common society, but they are sometimes powerful over the human mind, and where they are genuine, mark somewhat superior in character.
— from Practical Education, Volume I by Richard Lovell Edgeworth

And when we all thought he was on the verge of suicide, we discovered that he was deep in a flirtation with that American girl.
— from Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. by E. Oe. (Edith Oenone) Somerville

Before the green railings of one of these a gentleman played hoop with a very young, blond-haired child.
— from Monsieur de Camors — Volume 1 by Octave Feuillet

It was further known that the Austrian Government had proposed to the Czar plans that were hostile to Turkey, and were not decisively rejected at St. Petersburg; and it is clear from the notes left by Czartoryski that the prospect of gaining Corfu, Moldavia, parts of Albania, and the precious prize of Constantinople was kept in view.
— from The Life of Napoleon I (Complete) by J. Holland (John Holland) Rose

The Abbess grew calm, and with the death-sweat came resignation.
— from The Curse of Koshiu: A Chronicle of Old Japan by Lewis Wingfield

Her temple and grove, xxvi. 12; xxvii.
— from The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books by Livy

] Dust to dust; ashes to ashes; granite to granite; the last of the Puritans!
— from The Story of the Innumerable Company, and Other Sketches by David Starr Jordan

they are gone!"
— from The Last of the Foresters Or, Humors on the Border; A story of the Old Virginia Frontier by John Esten Cooke