It would have seemed as foolish to expect dignified reserve or womanly gravity from this amber-haired siren, as to wish for rich basses amid the clear treble of a sky-lark's song.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

“I tell myself the same thing every day,” responded Olivo, with tears in his eyes.
— from Casanova's Homecoming by Arthur Schnitzler

It repeated the requirement that men must accept work when it was offered to them, established definite rates of wages for various classes of laborers, and required all such persons to swear twice a year before the stewards, bailiffs, or other officials that they would obey this law.
— from An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England by Edward Potts Cheyney

The elevator door remained open, waiting.
— from Slave Planet by Laurence M. Janifer