In order to collect my thoughts thoroughly, and that I might proceed step by step in that systematic order so characteristic of all my wonderful exploits, I sat down, and putting my arm around dear Bulger’s neck and drawing him up against me, I communed with myself for a good half-hour.
— from Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey by Ingersoll Lockwood

“It appears I come at an inopportune time, madam,” said he, “when my friend, Mr. Rochester, is from home; but I arrive from a very long journey, and I think I may presume so far on old and intimate acquaintance as to instal myself here till he returns.”
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

But, of course—” “PLANNING on them!” interrupted Miss Polly, sharply.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

Mr Francis writes further 5 that “in many places, stone slabs may be seen set up in the outskirts of the villages, on what are said to be the old boundaries.
— from Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston

Therefore in my presence still smile, dear my sweet, I prithee.'
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

‘And how long do you keep him out at a time?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick, searching for further information.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Who has not noticed in the home a snake in a book that has changed the character of a boy through its moral poison so that he was never quite the same again?
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

Where are they now?" "You see, I was playing jackstones with Nellie Yarrow, and afterward I—I left them in my pocket—" Sister's voice trailed off.
— from Brother and Sister by Josephine Lawrence

True, I might pass some hours in sweet reflection upon the pleasant incident of the day—I might dream rosy dreams—but, alas!
— from The War Trail: The Hunt of the Wild Horse by Mayne Reid

10 I have just said, § 12, that if, quitting hold of this original impression, the artist tries to compose something prettier than he saw, it is all over with him; but, retaining the first impression, he will, nevertheless, if he has invention, instinctively modify many lines and parts of it—possibly all parts of it—for the better; sometimes making them individually more pictorial, sometimes preventing them from interfering with each other's beauty.
— from Modern Painters, Volume 4 (of 5) by John Ruskin

Several times in my presence she treated him so uncivilly that I was surprised, as I had thought her aesthetic nature incapable of such an exhibition of temper.
— from Without Dogma: A Novel of Modern Poland by Henryk Sienkiewicz

'This is my prettiest set.
— from Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories by H. G. (Harrison Griswold) Dwight