Meantime the current, with a rising gale, Still set them onwards to the welcome shore, Like Charon's bark of spectres, dull and pale: Their living freight was now reduced to four, And three dead, whom their strength could not avail To heave into the deep with those before,
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

You will excuse me,” he said, with a rather ghastly smile, “for being well acquainted with my secretarial duties.”
— from The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

The Emperor with a rapid glance scanned Kutúzov from head to foot, frowned for an instant, but immediately mastering himself went up to the old man, extended his arms and embraced him.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

As she had said, the letter was torn in two; but with a rapid gesture she laid the torn edges together and smoothed out the page.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

I heard afterwards of Mr. Lincoln's saying, to those who would inquire of him as to what he thought about the safety of Sherman's army, that Sherman was all right: "Grant says they are safe with such a general, and that if they cannot get out where they want to, they can crawl back by the hole they went in at."
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

He jumped up from the sofa and suddenly, with a rapid gesture, snatched up the revolver from the window, ran with it into the next room, and closed the door behind him.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

One, who was a retired Government servant, had told him that whenever he saw the Chota Lord Sahib he always asked for the latest news about the Babus of Nayanjore, and the Chota Lard had been heard to say that in all Bengal the only really respectable families were those of the Maharaja of Burdwan and the Babus of Nayanjore.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

Residing as he did in the country, we never met Mr. Poe in hours of leisure; but he frequently called on us afterward at our place of business, and we met him often in the street-invariably the same sad mannered, winning and refined gentleman, such as we had always known him.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

This rises up with a round green smooth stalk, about two feet high, set with divers long and somewhat narrow, smooth, dark green leaves, somewhat nipped about the edges, for the most part, being else all whole, and not divided at all, or but very seldom, even to the tops of the branches, which yet are smaller than those below, with one rib only in the middle.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

This was a real guiding star, growing larger and larger as we were carried up the stream.
— from Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico by E. L. (Ellsworth Leonardson) Kolb

One of the children was a very little girl, richly dressed in a white frock with a blue sash that almost covered it, with big brown eyes and yellow ringlets; the other child was a ragged girl several years older, with tangled hair, gray eyes, and the ruddy, chubby cheeks so often seen in children of her class.
— from Gordon Keith by Thomas Nelson Page

It was a rousing great success, certainly, that rose there before me, but somehow it was not an inscrutable mystery, and it seemed to me, not perhaps that I should some day do as well, but that at least I might!”
— from Roderick Hudson by Henry James

She paid no great attention to athletics, but she could swim a mile, could sit a horse, and was a really good shot with a revolver.
— from The Exiles of Faloo by Barry Pain

She sought it in the chances of the crowded streets, and with a restless glance searched among the carriages as she passed alone, or in gay company, up the avenue.
— from The Salamander by Owen Johnson

Or again, "It may be safely affirmed," he observes, "that a conciliatory reply will frequently allay irritation in an angry assailant;" and he entertains us with a really good story of a choleric old gentleman who challenged him once for poaching on his grounds, but who was gradually talked over till he asked him to dinner.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846 by Various

[135] On her third finger the girl wore a silver colored ring with a red glass stone.
— from The Cry at Midnight by Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine) Wirt

And," he added reminiscently, "Bill was a right good sort.
— from A Sub. of the R.N.R.: A Story of the Great War by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman

Captain Hall has, therefore, no doubt whatever that the architect, in rearing his successive courses of stones, gained or stole a little at each layer, so as to render his work less and less overhanging as he went up; and thus, without betraying what he was about, really gained stability.
— from Invention and Discovery: Curious Facts and Characteristic Sketches by Anonymous

he returned, with a rather grim smile about his wide mouth.
— from Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall; Or, The Mystery of the Haunted Boathouse by Annie Roe Carr