What was the secret behind this underwater navigating, whose explanation the whole world had sought in vain?
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

Shortly afterwards we met an Echizen official of low rank (he was a metsuké or assistant clerk), and our Kaga friends took their final leave of us, not without expressing the opinion that the Echizen people showed very little courtesy in not deputing some one of more exalted rank to offer us a welcome.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

"An umbrella never was exposed to more [Pg 182] contempt than I received on that occasion.
— from The Cricket's Friends: Tales Told by the Cricket, Teapot, and Saucepan by Virginia W. (Virginia Wales) Johnson

In which manner we may remaine, till we see (if death otherwise prevent us not) what ende the gracious Heavens have reserved for us.
— from The Decameron (Day 1 to Day 5) Containing an hundred pleasant Novels by Giovanni Boccaccio

“Not unless you know him,” whispered the detective; and immediately launched out into an easy talk about some totally different business which George neither understood, nor was expected to, I dare say.
— from Initials Only by Anna Katharine Green

She then attempted to give her a message to Emilie, of which she uttered not words enough to be wholly understood by the auditor; then the wonderful expression faded, and hardly had done so when the last breath came.
— from Some Noble Sisters by Edmund Lee

Her father grieved for his son, but, angry at him also, had uttered no word either to help or to hinder the cause of the man who had made Allison’s promise the price of her brother’s safety.
— from Allison Bain; Or, By a Way She Knew Not by Margaret M. (Margaret Murray) Robertson

We had been discussing the question whether sardines served their purpose better as a hors d'oeuvre or as a savoury; and I found myself wondering for the moment why sardines, above all other fish, should be of an unbelieving nature; while endeavouring to picture to myself the costume best adapted to display the somewhat difficult figure of a sardine.
— from The Observations of Henry Illustrated by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

Political constitutions also count for something; but in the beginning of the seventeenth century, the political constitutions of the several European states, except the Italian republics, the Swiss Cantons, and the United Netherlands, were essentially the same, that is, Roman monarchy engrafted on feudalism.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 10, October, 1869 to March, 1870 by Various

It is a vast dark source of life and strength in us now, waiting either to issue into true action, or to burst into cataclysm.
— from Aaron's Rod by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

That is what he drawled, and though I was then a schoolboy who had struggled through the dull prose of Cæsar to the loftier realms of Virgil, I must confess that fear had so deprived me of my wits that I understood no word, except the first.
— from Treasure of Kings Being the Story of the Discovery of the "Big Fish," or the Quest of the Greater Treasure of the Incas of Peru. by Charles Gilson