Some did it in a rough, offhand way, as if one was only a piece of wood; while others would take their hands gently over one's body, with a pat now and then, as much as to say, “By your leave.”
— from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

“The public reason was that you had forged your passports; the private one, which was only whispered at the ear, was that you spent all your nights with Nina.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The figure on the outside drew still closer, peered in, tip-toed upon the piazza, pressed the ear against the window to catch as much as possible of what went on within.
— from Hanover; Or The Persecution of the Lowly A Story of the Wilmington Massacre. by Jack Thorne

As to the khaki-coloured shirts, would you have them put away by sizes, please, when they are made up, till wanted; the present ones will wear out with a rush from being worn night and day, and from having been badly washed and scorched when drying, so they may be wanted in a hurry.
— from Letters of Lt.-Col. George Brenton Laurie (commanding 1st Battn. Royal Irish Rifles) Dated November 4th, 1914-March 11th, 1915 by G. B. (George Brenton) Laurie

In the June nights she stood at her window, only one small pane of which would open, watching the mists shifting and curling in the moonlight, or the sheet lightning which now and then revealed the lake in the bosom of the mountains, or appeared to lay open the whole sky.
— from The Billow and the Rock by Harriet Martineau

This was the reason that was publicly assigned for his quitting the army; but a much more probable one, which was only whispered, seems to have been, that this prince, than whom none ever was more remarkable for humanity and the social virtues, disliking the violent proceedings of the king his brother, could not refrain from expostulating with him on that subject: upon which his majesty, with an air of great disapprobation, told him, “That the air of Berlin would be better for him than that of the camp.”
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II. by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Nevertheless, we may imagine what Carlyle would call a fool’s paradise, where the production of wealth went on without the aid of labor, and solely by the reproductive force of capital—where sheep bore ready-made clothing on their backs, cows presented but 202 ter and cheese, and oxen, when they got to the proper point of fatness, carved themselves into beefsteaks and roasting ribs; where houses grew from the seed, and a jackknife thrown upon the ground would take root and in due time bear a crop of assorted cutlery.
— from Progress and Poverty, Volumes I and II An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth by Henry George

The interruption from without had seemed part and parcel of what went on within.
— from Back Home: Being the Narrative of Judge Priest and His People by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb

Among the many memorial gifts of the Silver Wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales was one which would have delighted Sir Roger de Coverley or the Squire of Bracebridge Hall.
— from Speeches and Addresses of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales: 1863-1888 by King of Great Britain Edward VII

The emetic may consist of a 1 ⁄ 2 dr. of sulphate of zinc dissolved in 1 ⁄ 2 pint of warm water, of which one third should be taken at once, and the remainder at the rate of a wine-glassful every 5 or 10 minutes, until vomiting commences.
— from Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume II by Richard Vine Tuson

Afterwards in the course of a long conference he enumerated many other grounds of dissatisfaction, the principal of which were our want of attention to him as chief, the weakness of the rum formerly sent to him, the smallness of the present now offered, and the want of the chief's clothing, which he had been accustomed to receive at Fort Providence every spring.
— from The Journey to the Polar Sea by John Franklin

"The public reason was that you had forged your passports; the private one, which was only whispered at the ear, was that you spent all your nights with Nina."
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 27: Expelled from Spain by Giacomo Casanova