Mary was just finishing the delicious tale of Rumpelstiltskin, which she had well by heart, because Letty was never tired of communicating it to her ignorant elders from a favorite red volume.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

The husband is eager for the death of the wife, she for that of her husband.
— from The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII by Ovid

This had its effect; for he led me back into the house, and ordered a mare-servant to open a room, where a good store of milk lay in earthen and wooden vessels, after a very orderly and cleanly manner.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

And now I was more uneasy than ever; I would have given the world to have seen Mrs. Mirvan, and begged of her to make my apologies; for what, thought I, can I possibly say to him in excuse for running away?
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

This was an invitation to Steerforth to place himself under her hands; who, accordingly, sat himself down, with his back to the table, and his laughing face towards me, and submitted his head to her inspection, evidently for no other purpose than our entertainment.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

He was found at the bottom of the hole, in eight feet of water, as I have said.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

Διασείω, ( διά & σείω ) f. σω, pr. to shake thoroughly or violently; to harass, intimidate, extort from, Lu. 3.14.
— from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield

And they have in every foot eight toes.
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

This had its effect, for nobody replied; and M. du Vernai remarked that if the worst came to the worst the lottery could be suppressed.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The honour is enough for me; and thou, my boy, shalt have the winnings.”
— from Peveril of the Peak by Walter Scott

The heat is emitted from the surface, and at a rate depending on the extent of surface.
— from The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature All volumes by Various

Notwithstanding that she had made no answer to her insult, Euphra felt satisfied that her letter was safe from profanation.
— from David Elginbrod by George MacDonald

What immediate interest could then have impelled either France or England to enter a formal protest against the antiquated claim of Spain to a country with which they had never attempted even to trade?
— from The Oregon Question by Albert Gallatin

They continued to advance directly towards him till within fifty yards of his covert, when the horse, in emerging from a clump of bushes, which still enveloped the rider, stopped short, and, looking keenly into the thicket, gave a quick, significant snort.
— from The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter A Tale Illustrative of the Revolutionary History of Vermont and the Northern Campaign of 1777 by Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce) Thompson

And I can tell you the quantity of gold they have is endless; for they find it in their own islands.”
— from Japan by David Murray

I started back so violently that how I escaped falling into the river I do not know to this day.
— from The Devil Doctor by Sax Rohmer

'So I told him, in excuse for his coxcombry—but my youth stared me rebukingly in the face, without taking the jest, and answered, that it was only the insensate ear that the music pleased, whereas the book (the description of the plague, mind you!) elevated the heart.
— from The Last Days of Pompeii by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron