“There are ladies present; I deny nothing, and surrender.”
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

Mrs. Turner had dropped in, as she often did where the ladies were apt to gather, and, despite Mrs. Truscott's polite and modest expression of her disagreement with Mrs. Whaling's views, that amiable lady persisted in descanting upon Mr. Ray's intemperate language and conduct, and repeatedly intimating that it was all due to intemperate drink.
— from Marion's Faith. by Charles King

But he did not expect that a young girl, fresh from college, enjoying the first taste of London, would take a leading part in discussing a matter of business.
— from The Island Mystery by George A. Birmingham

The light had grown clearer now, and the snow was thinning, but it still whirled about them, and lay piled in drawn-out wreaths to lee of every hummock or ragged ridge.
— from Masters of the Wheat-Lands by Harold Bindloss

[983] and this seems all the more probable, for French rituals, in which the priest takes a leading part in directing the spousal contract, are preserved from a still earlier period.
— from A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3 by George Elliott Howard

"Ma," said Grace, when they were all safely in the cars at Buffalo, and Horace as well as ever, though a little pale, "I do believe there never was anybody had such an awful journey!
— from Little Prudy's Captain Horace by Sophie May