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Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lost World
obscurity one learned that there were different degrees of darkness among the trees that some were dimly visible while between and among them there were coal black shadowed patches like the mouths of caves from which I shrank in horror as I passed I thought of the despairing yell of the tortured iguanodon that dreadful cry which had echoed through the woods I thought too of the glimpse I had in the light of Lord John s torch of that bloated warty blood slavering muzzle Even now I was on its hunting ground At any instant it might spring upon
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twis
and manners of a man He was short of his age with rather bow legs and little sharp ugly eyes His hat was stuck on the top of his head so lightly that it threatened to fall off every moment and would have done so very often if the wearer had not had a knack of every now and then giving his head a sudden twitch which brought it back to its old place again He wore a man s coat which reached nearly to his heels He had turned the cuffs back half way up his arm to get
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
you would spare the money to do my friend Herbert a lasting service in life but which from the nature of the case must be done without his knowledge I could show you how Why must it be done without his knowledge she asked settling her hands upon her stick that she might regard me the more attentively Because said I I began the service myself more than two years ago without his knowledge and I don t want to be betrayed Why I fail in my ability to finish it I cannot explain It is a part of the
Robert Louis Stevenson
Jekyll and Hyde
of a particular salt which I knew from my experiments to be the last ingredient required and late one accursed night I compounded the elements watched them boil and smoke together in the glass and when the ebullition had subsided with a strong glow of courage drank off the potion The most racking pangs succeeded a grinding in the bones deadly nausea and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death Then these agonies began swiftly to subside and I came to myself as if out of a great sickness There was
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow
in Tunstall hamlet a group of poor countryfolk stood wondering at the summons Tunstall hamlet at that period in the reign of old King Henry VI wore much the same appearance as it wears to day A score or so of houses heavily framed with oak stood scattered in a long green valley ascending from the river At the foot the road crossed a bridge and mounting on the other side disappeared into the fringes of the forest on its way to the Moat House and further forth to Holywood Abbey Half way up the village the church stood among
Jane Austen
Persuasion
Oh but Charles tell Captain Wentworth he need not be afraid of mentioning poor Dick before me for it would be rather a pleasure to hear him talked of by such a good friend Charles being somewhat more mindful of the probabilities of the case only nodded in reply and walked away The girls were now hunting for the Laconia and Captain Wentworth could not deny himself the pleasure of taking the precious volume into his own hands to save them the trouble and once more read aloud the little statement of her name and rate and present non commissioned
H.G. Wells
The Sleeper Awakes
casual phrases that had fallen from the old man with whom he had talked in the darkness recurred to him The Surveyor General in effect endorsed the old man s words We try and make the elementary schools very pleasant for the little children They will have to work so soon Just a few simple principles obedience industry You teach them very little Why should we It only leads to trouble and discontent We amuse them Even as it is there are troubles agitations Where the labourers get the ideas one cannot tell They tell one another There are socialistic
H.G. Wells
Invisible Man
breed and the colour s come off patchy instead of mixing I ve heard of such things before And it s the common way with horses as any one can see CHAPTER IV MR CUSS INTERVIEWS THE STRANGER I have told the circumstances of the stranger s arrival in Iping with a certain fulness of detail in order that the curious impression he created may be understood by the reader But excepting two odd incidents the circumstances of his stay until the extraordinary day of the club festival may be passed over very cursorily There were a number of skirmishes
H.G. Wells
The Island of Doctor Moreau
voices were dry and thin so that we bent towards one another and spared our words I stood out against it with all my might was rather for scuttling the boat and perishing together among the sharks that followed us but when Helmar said that if his proposal was accepted we should have drink the sailor came round to him I would not draw lots however and in the night the sailor whispered to Helmar again and again and I sat in the bows with my clasp knife in my hand though I doubt if I had the stuff in
Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped
would sometimes hang about our rock so that we scarce dared to breathe It was in this way that I first heard the right English speech one fellow as he went by actually clapping his hand upon the sunny face of the rock on which we lay and plucking it off again with an oath I tell you it s ot says he and I was amazed at the clipping tones and the odd sing song in which he spoke and no less at that strange trick of dropping out the letter h To be sure I had heard Ransome
Robert Louis Stevenson
Tales and Fantasies
was already dense the snow was growing thicker and he moved like a blind man and with a blind man s terrors At last he climbed a fence thinking to drop into the road and found himself staggering instead among the iron furrows of a ploughland endless it seemed as a whole county And next he was in a wood beating among young trees and then he was aware of a house with many lighted windows Christmas carriages waiting at the doors and Christmas drivers for Christmas has a double edge becoming swiftly hooded with snow From this glimpse of
Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
or read to Edmund was the companion he preferred His aunt worried him by her cares and Sir Thomas knew not how to bring down his conversation or his voice to the level of irritation and feebleness Edmund was all in all Fanny would certainly believe him so at least and must find that her estimation of him was higher than ever when he appeared as the attendant supporter cheerer of a suffering brother There was not only the debility of recent illness to assist there was also as she now learnt nerves much affected spirits much depressed to calm
H.G. Wells
The Island of Doctor Moreau
presently expected Montgomery to arise therefrom and exact vengeance Now these said I pointing to the other bodies They took care not to approach the place where they had thrown Montgomery into the water but instead carried the four dead Beast People slantingly along the beach for perhaps a hundred yards before they waded out and cast them away As I watched them disposing of the mangled remains of M ling I heard a light footfall behind me and turning quickly saw the big Hyena swine perhaps a dozen yards away His head was bent down his bright eyes were
H.G. Wells
The Island of Doctor Moreau
this I ve done some science myself I did my Biology at University College getting out the ovary of the earthworm and the radula of the snail and all that Lord It s ten years ago But go on go on tell me about the boat He was evidently satisfied with the frankness of my story which I told in concise sentences enough for I felt horribly weak and when it was finished he reverted at once to the topic of Natural History and his own biological studies He began to question me closely about Tottenham Court Road and Gower
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twis
of and maltreated by that ingenious gentleman with the candle in his hand who has placed his life in considerable danger as I can professionally certify Messrs Blathers and Duff looked at Mr Giles as he was thus recommended to their notice The bewildered butler gazed from them towards Oliver and from Oliver towards Mr Losberne with a most ludicrous mixture of fear and perplexity You don t mean to deny that I suppose said the doctor laying Oliver gently down again It was all done for the for the best sir answered Giles I am sure I thought it
Charles Dickens
David Copperfield
ardently though I felt miserable Mr Creakle then caned Tommy Traddles for being discovered in tears instead of cheers on account of Mr Mell s departure and went back to his sofa or his bed or wherever he had come from We were left to ourselves now and looked very blank I recollect on one another For myself I felt so much self reproach and contrition for my part in what had happened that nothing would have enabled me to keep back my tears but the fear that Steerforth who often looked at me I saw might think it unfriendly
Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
what signifies a theatre We shall be only amusing ourselves Any room in this house might suffice We must have a curtain said Tom Bertram a few yards of green baize for a curtain and perhaps that may be enough Oh quite enough cried Mr Yates with only just a side wing or two run up doors in flat and three or four scenes to be let down nothing more would be necessary on such a plan as this For mere amusement among ourselves we should want nothing more I believe we must be satisfied with _less_ said Maria There
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow
church It stood wide open within every corner of the pavement was crowded with fugitive burghers surrounded by their families and laden with the most precious of their possessions while at the high altar priests in full canonicals were imploring the mercy of God Even as Dick entered the loud chorus began to thunder in the vaulted roofs He hurried through the groups of refugees and came to the door of the stair that led into the steeple And here a tall churchman stepped before him and arrested his advance Whither my son he asked severely My father answered Dick
Arthur Conan Doyle
Tales of Terror and Mystery
such a man should be living this double life and I tried to persuade myself that my suspicions might after all prove to be ill founded But there was the female voice there was the secret nightly rendezvous in the turret chamber how could such facts admit of an innocent interpretation I conceived a horror of the man I was filled with loathing at his deep consistent hypocrisy Only once during all those months did I ever see him without that sad but impassive mask which he usually presented towards his fellow man For an instant I caught a glimpse
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
no reasonable evidence to implicate any person but this woman and on the improbabilities of her having been able to do it Mr Jaggers principally rested his case You may be sure said Wemmick touching me on the sleeve that he never dwelt upon the strength of her hands then though he sometimes does now I had told Wemmick of his showing us her wrists that day of the dinner party Well sir Wemmick went on it happened happened don t you see that this woman was so very artfully dressed from the time of her apprehension that she looked
Robert Louis Stevenson
Jekyll and Hyde
said here we are and God grant there be nothing wrong Amen Poole said the lawyer Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner the door was opened on the chain and a voice asked from within Is that you Poole It s all right said Poole Open the door The hall when they entered it was brightly lighted up the fire was built high and about the hearth the whole of the servants men and women stood huddled together like a flock of sheep At the sight of Mr Utterson the housemaid broke into hysterical whimpering and the
Robert Louis Stevenson
Jekyll and Hyde
last I had a chance of clearly seeing him I had never set eyes on him before so much was certain He was small as I have said I was struck besides with the shocking expression of his face with his remarkable combination of great muscular activity and great apparent debility of constitution and last but not least with the odd subjective disturbance caused by his neighbourhood This bore some resemblance to incipient rigour and was accompanied by a marked sinking of the pulse At the time I set it down to some idiosyncratic personal distaste and merely wondered at
H.G. Wells
The Sleeper Awakes
his bright eyes on Graham You are indeed the Sleeper he said I saw you asleep When it was the law that anyone might see you I am the man who was in the trance said Graham They have imprisoned me here I have been here since I awoke at least three days The intruder seemed about to speak heard something glanced swiftly at the door and suddenly left Graham and ran towards it shouting quick incoherent words A bright wedge of steel flashed in his hand and he began tap tap a quick succession of blows upon the hinges
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twis
FRIENDS About noon next day when the Dodger and Master Bates had gone out to pursue their customary avocations Mr Fagin took the opportunity of reading Oliver a long lecture on the crying sin of ingratitude of which he clearly demonstrated he had been guilty to no ordinary extent in wilfully absenting himself from the society of his anxious friends and still more in endeavouring to escape from them after so much trouble and expense had been incurred in his recovery Mr Fagin laid great stress on the fact of his having taken Oliver in and cherished him when without
Arthur Conan Doyle
Hound of Baskervilles
noticed one peculiarity above all other windows in the house it commands the nearest outlook on to the moor There is an opening between two trees which enables one from this point of view to look right down upon it while from all the other windows it is only a distant glimpse which can be obtained It follows therefore that Barrymore since only this window would serve the purpose must have been looking out for something or somebody upon the moor The night was very dark so that I can hardly imagine how he could have hoped to see anyone
Jane Austen
Emma
not care whether I meet him or not except that of the two I had rather not see him and indeed I would go any distance round to avoid him but I do not envy his wife in the least I neither admire her nor envy her as I have done she is very charming I dare say and all that but I think her very ill tempered and disagreeable I shall never forget her look the other night However I assure you Miss Woodhouse I wish her no evil No let them be ever so happy together it will
Arthur Conan Doyle
Hound of Baskervilles
last offices to our poor friend Together we made our way down the precipitous slope and approached the body black and clear against the silvered stones The agony of those contorted limbs struck me with a spasm of pain and blurred my eyes with tears We must send for help Holmes We cannot carry him all the way to the Hall Good heavens are you mad He had uttered a cry and bent over the body Now he was dancing and laughing and wringing my hand Could this be my stern self contained friend These were hidden fires indeed A
Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped
of it But I think I might as well trust to a blind fiddler Pray God you re right Pray God I am says Alan to me But where did I hear it Well well it will be as it must As we got nearer to the turn of the land the reefs began to be sown here and there on our very path and Mr Riach sometimes cried down to us to change the course Sometimes indeed none too soon for one reef was so close on the brig s weather board that when a sea burst upon it
Arthur Conan Doyle
Hound of Baskervilles
laws of Nature there is an end of our investigation But we are bound to exhaust all other hypotheses before falling back upon this one I think we ll shut that window again if you don t mind It is a singular thing but I find that a concentrated atmosphere helps a concentration of thought I have not pushed it to the length of getting into a box to think but that is the logical outcome of my convictions Have you turned the case over in your mind Yes I have thought a good deal of it in the course
Charles Dickens
David Copperfield
the visit beforehand with Miss Lavinia and Agnes was expected to tea I was in a flutter of pride and anxiety pride in my dear little betrothed and anxiety that Agnes should like her All the way to Putney Agnes being inside the stage coach and I outside I pictured Dora to myself in every one of the pretty looks I knew so well now making up my mind that I should like her to look exactly as she looked at such a time and then doubting whether I should not prefer her looking as she looked at such another
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
myself and perhaps if I have very good luck I may meet with another Mr Collins in time The situation of affairs in the Longbourn family could not be long a secret Mrs Bennet was privileged to whisper it to Mrs Phillips and she ventured without any permission to do the same by all her neighbours in Meryton The Bennets were speedily pronounced to be the luckiest family in the world though only a few weeks before when Lydia had first run away they had been generally proved to be marked out for misfortune Chapter 56 One morning about a
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twis
your hearts love will carry you all lengths even such as you who have home friends other admirers everything to fill them When such as I who have no certain roof but the coffinlid and no friend in sickness or death but the hospital nurse set our rotten hearts on any man and let him fill the place that has been a blank through all our wretched lives who can hope to cure us Pity us lady pity us for having only one feeling of the woman left and for having that turned by a heavy judgment from a comfort
H.G. Wells
Time Machine
monster crab that stood just behind me Its evil eyes were wriggling on their stalks its mouth was all alive with appetite and its vast ungainly claws smeared with an algal slime were descending upon me In a moment my hand was on the lever and I had placed a month between myself and these monsters But I was still on the same beach and I saw them distinctly now as soon as I stopped Dozens of them seemed to be crawling here and there in the sombre light among the foliated sheets of intense green I cannot convey the
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
she was very bad handwriting apart a more than indifferent speller and as Joe was a more than indifferent reader extraordinary complications arose between them which I was always called in to solve The administration of mutton instead of medicine the substitution of Tea for Joe and the baker for bacon were among the mildest of my own mistakes However her temper was greatly improved and she was patient A tremulous uncertainty of the action of all her limbs soon became a part of her regular state and afterwards at intervals of two or three months she would often put
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow
Dick she cried Dick And then to the wonder of the lad this beautiful and tall young lady made but one step of it and threw her arms about his neck and gave him a hundred kisses all in one Oh the fool fellow she cried Oh dear Dick Oh if ye could see yourself Alack she added pausing I have spoilt you Dick I have knocked some of the paint off But that can be mended What cannot be mended Dick or I much fear it cannot is my marriage with Lord Shoreby Is it decided then asked the
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lost World
dear hand rested like warm velvet upon my lips Not another word Sir You should have been at the office for evening duty half an hour ago only I hadn t the heart to remind you Some day perhaps when you have won your place in the world we shall talk it over again And so it was that I found myself that foggy November evening pursuing the Camberwell tram with my heart glowing within me and with the eager determination that not another day should elapse before I should find some deed which was worthy of my lady But
Robert Louis Stevenson
Jekyll and Hyde
I next turned my attention might have been about half full of a blood red liquor which was highly pungent to the sense of smell and seemed to me to contain phosphorus and some volatile ether At the other ingredients I could make no guess The book was an ordinary version book and contained little but a series of dates These covered a period of many years but I observed that the entries ceased nearly a year ago and quite abruptly Here and there a brief remark was appended to a date usually no more than a single word double
Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
her mind into a sober state and incline her to a juster estimate of the value of that home of greater permanence and equal comfort of which she had the offer It was a medicinal project upon his niece s understanding which he must consider as at present diseased A residence of eight or nine years in the abode of wealth and plenty had a little disordered her powers of comparing and judging Her father s house would in all probability teach her the value of a good income and he trusted that she would be the wiser and happier
Arthur Conan Doyle
Hound of Baskervilles
more than a mile or two off Hardly that Well it cannot be far if Barrymore had to carry out the food to it And he is waiting this villain beside that candle By thunder Watson I am going out to take that man The same thought had crossed my own mind It was not as if the Barrymores had taken us into their confidence Their secret had been forced from them The man was a danger to the community an unmitigated scoundrel for whom there was neither pity nor excuse We were only doing our duty in taking this
Robert Louis Stevenson
Tales and Fantasies
Dick and Esther met at the stile beside the cross roads had there been any one to see them but the birds and summer insects it would have been remarked that they met after a different fashion from the day before Dick took her in his arms and their lips were set together for a long while Then he held her at arm s length and they looked straight into each other s eyes Esther he said you should have heard his voice Dick said she My darling It was some time before they started for their walk he kept
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lost World
it was only Maretas the youngster whom we had saved who looked wistfully at us and told us by his gestures that he was grieved for our thwarted wishes Ever since their crowning triumph with the ape men they looked upon us as supermen who bore victory in the tubes of strange weapons and they believed that so long as we remained with them good fortune would be theirs A little red skinned wife and a cave of our own were freely offered to each of us if we would but forget our own people and dwell forever upon the
H.G. Wells
Time Machine
be my only hope a poor hope perhaps but better than despair And after all it was a beautiful and curious world But probably the machine had only been taken away Still I must be calm and patient find its hiding place and recover it by force or cunning And with that I scrambled to my feet and looked about me wondering where I could bathe I felt weary stiff and travel soiled The freshness of the morning made me desire an equal freshness I had exhausted my emotion Indeed as I went about my business I found myself wondering
H.G. Wells
Time Machine
awful fate to which it seemed destined As I thought of that I was almost moved to begin a massacre of the helpless abominations about me but I contained myself The hillock as I have said was a kind of island in the forest From its summit I could now make out through a haze of smoke the Palace of Green Porcelain and from that I could get my bearings for the White Sphinx And so leaving the remnant of these damned souls still going hither and thither and moaning as the day grew clearer I tied some grass about
Arthur Conan Doyle
Hound of Baskervilles
all his little arrangements exactly as he left them These are his wigwams with the roofs off You can even see his hearth and his couch if you have the curiosity to go inside But it is quite a town When was it inhabited Neolithic man no date What did he do He grazed his cattle on these slopes and he learned to dig for tin when the bronze sword began to supersede the stone axe Look at the great trench in the opposite hill That is his mark Yes you will find some very singular points about the moor
H.G. Wells
The Sleeper Awakes
quick movement and a confusion of brilliant fabrics poured out over his knees You lived Sire in a period essentially cylindrical the Victorian With a tendency to the hemisphere in hats Circular curves always Now He flicked out a little appliance the size and appearance of a keyless watch whirled the knob and behold a little figure in white appeared kinetoscope fashion on the dial walking and turning The tailor caught up a pattern of bluish white satin That is my conception of your immediate treatment he said The thickset man came and stood by the shoulder of Graham We
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twis
was in a state of considerable irritation They might have been talking thus for a quarter of an hour or more when Monks by which name the Jew had designated the strange man several times in the course of their colloquy said raising his voice a little I tell you again it was badly planned Why not have kept him here among the rest and made a sneaking snivelling pickpocket of him at once Only hear him exclaimed the Jew shrugging his shoulders Why do you mean to say you couldn t have done it if you had chosen demanded
Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby
the world But he let it go and it closed with a loud noise There was no light How very dreary cold and still it was Shivering from head to foot he made his way upstairs into the room where he had been last disturbed He had made a kind of compact with himself that he would not think of what had happened until he got home He was at home now and suffered himself to consider it His own child his own child He never doubted the tale he felt it was true knew it as well now as
H.G. Wells
Invisible Man
the cat began miaowing about the room I tried to hush it by talking to it and then I decided to turn it out I remember the shock I had when striking a light there were just the round eyes shining green and nothing round them I would have given it milk but I hadn t any It wouldn t be quiet it just sat down and miaowed at the door I tried to catch it with an idea of putting it out of the window but it wouldn t be caught it vanished Then it began miaowing in different
Robert Louis Stevenson
Jekyll and Hyde
the private room gnawing his nails there he dined sitting alone with his fears the waiter visibly quailing before his eye and thence when the night was fully come he set forth in the corner of a closed cab and was driven to and fro about the streets of the city He I say I cannot say I That child of Hell had nothing human nothing lived in him but fear and hatred And when at last thinking the driver had begun to grow suspicious he discharged the cab and ventured on foot attired in his misfitting clothes an object
H.G. Wells
Invisible Man
movement made them aware of me I suppose they saw merely a figure moving quietly and quickly away Who s that cried one and Stop there shouted the other I dashed around a corner and came full tilt a faceless figure mind you on a lanky lad of fifteen He yelled and I bowled him over rushed past him turned another corner and by a happy inspiration threw myself behind a counter In another moment feet went running past and I heard voices shouting All hands to the doors asking what was up and giving one another advice how to
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
rector of Longbourn I should very strenuously have opposed it You ought certainly to forgive them as a Christian but never to admit them in your sight or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing _That_ is his notion of Christian forgiveness The rest of his letter is only about his dear Charlotte s situation and his expectation of a young olive branch But Lizzy you look as if you did not enjoy it You are not going to be _missish_ I hope and pretend to be affronted at an idle report For what do we live but
H.G. Wells
Invisible Man
that tramp has hidden there are marvels miracles But this was not a method it was an idea that might lead to a method by which it would be possible without changing any other property of matter except in some instances colours to lower the refractive index of a substance solid or liquid to that of air so far as all practical purposes are concerned Phew said Kemp That s odd But still I don t see quite I can understand that thereby you could spoil a valuable stone but personal invisibility is a far cry Precisely said Griffin But
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
choice bird Sauces wines all the accessories we wanted and all of the best were given out by our host from his dumb waiter and when they had made the circuit of the table he always put them back again Similarly he dealt us clean plates and knives and forks for each course and dropped those just disused into two baskets on the ground by his chair No other attendant than the housekeeper appeared She set on every dish and I always saw in her face a face rising out of the caldron Years afterwards I made a dreadful likeness
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lost World
memory and one at least the man who lay in the damp grasses by my side will know if I have lied A wide open space lay before us some hundreds of yards across all green turf and low bracken growing to the very edge of the cliff Round this clearing there was a semi circle of trees with curious huts built of foliage piled one above the other among the branches A rookery with every nest a little house would best convey the idea The openings of these huts and the branches of the trees were thronged with a
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
he came back is inseparable from the person to whom you have adverted is it Wemmick looked very serious I couldn t undertake to say that of my own knowledge I mean I couldn t undertake to say it was at first But it either is or it will be or it s in great danger of being As I saw that he was restrained by fealty to Little Britain from saying as much as he could and as I knew with thankfulness to him how far out of his way he went to say what he did I could
Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby
why he hadn t said there was a ring before instead of talking about all manner of things that had nothing to do with it and keeping her half pint of beer waiting on the steps There s a change come over you Mrs Peg said Arthur following her out with his eyes What it means I don t quite know but if it lasts we shan t agree together long I see You are turning crazy I think If you are you must take yourself off Mrs Peg or be taken off All s one to me Turning over
Jane Austen
Emma
not allow yourself Her arm was pressed again as he added in a more broken and subdued accent The feelings of the warmest friendship Indignation Abominable scoundrel And in a louder steadier tone he concluded with He will soon be gone They will soon be in Yorkshire I am sorry for _her_ She deserves a better fate Emma understood him and as soon as she could recover from the flutter of pleasure excited by such tender consideration replied You are very kind but you are mistaken and I must set you right I am not in want of that sort
Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
could put in the course of an hour you would never be able to prove that it was _not_ Thornton Lacey for such it certainly was You inquired then No I never inquire But I _told_ a man mending a hedge that it was Thornton Lacey and he agreed to it You have a good memory I had forgotten having ever told you half so much of the place Thornton Lacey was the name of his impending living as Miss Crawford well knew and her interest in a negotiation for William Price s knave increased Well continued Edmund and how
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow
uneven causeway Dick with his hand upon the other s knee How call ye your name asked Dick Call me John Matcham replied the lad And what make ye to Holywood Dick continued I seek sanctuary from a man that would oppress me was the answer The good Abbot of Holywood is a strong pillar to the weak And how came ye with Sir Daniel Master Matcham pursued Dick Nay cried the other by the abuse of force He hath taken me by violence from my own place dressed me in these weeds ridden with me till my heart was
Robert Louis Stevenson
Tales and Fantasies
a distaste or nourished a grudge against him Then you don t love me he said drawing back from her he also as though her touch had burnt him and then as she made no answer he repeated with another intonation imperious and yet still pathetic You don t love me _do_ you _do_ you I don t know she replied Why do you ask me Oh how should I know It has all been lies together lies and lies and lies He cried her name sharply like a man who has taken a physical hurt and that was the
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
understand that if he was aware of anybody Tom Jack or Richard being about the chambers or about the immediate neighborhood he had better get Tom Jack or Richard out of the way while you were out of the way He would be greatly puzzled what to do He _was_ puzzled what to do not the less because I gave him my opinion that it was not safe to try to get Tom Jack or Richard too far out of the way at present Mr Pip I ll tell you something Under existing circumstances there is no place like a
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twis
a thing that s enough without any why or because either replied Mr Claypole with dignity Well you needn t be so cross said his companion A pretty thing it would be wouldn t it to go and stop at the very first public house outside the town so that Sowerberry if he come up after us might poke in his old nose and have us taken back in a cart with handcuffs on said Mr Claypole in a jeering tone No I shall go and lose myself among the narrowest streets I can find and not stop till we
Jane Austen
Emma
very much for thinking of sending for Perry and only regretted that she had not done it She should always send for Perry if the child appeared in the slightest degree disordered were it only for a moment She could not be too soon alarmed nor send for Perry too often It was a pity perhaps that he had not come last night for though the child seemed well now very well considering it would probably have been better if Perry had seen it Frank Churchill caught the name Perry said he to Emma and trying as he spoke to
Arthur Conan Doyle
Hound of Baskervilles
think It was hard to say whence it came It rose and fell with the wind Isn t that the direction of the great Grimpen Mire Yes it is Well it was up there Come now Watson didn t you think yourself that it was the cry of a hound I am not a child You need not fear to speak the truth Stapleton was with me when I heard it last He said that it might be the calling of a strange bird No no it was a hound My God can there be some truth in all these
Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped
must have been partly turned for I could scarcely understand the things I saw Presently I observed Mr Riach and the seamen busy round the skiff and still in the same blank ran over to assist them and as soon as I set my hand to work my mind came clear again It was no very easy task for the skiff lay amidships and was full of hamper and the breaking of the heavier seas continually forced us to give over and hold on but we all wrought like horses while we could Meanwhile such of the wounded as could
H.G. Wells
Time Machine
it be I think I must have had a kind of frenzy I remember running violently in and out among the moonlit bushes all round the sphinx and startling some white animal that in the dim light I took for a small deer I remember too late that night beating the bushes with my clenched fist until my knuckles were gashed and bleeding from the broken twigs Then sobbing and raving in my anguish of mind I went down to the great building of stone The big hall was dark silent and deserted I slipped on the uneven floor and
Robert Louis Stevenson
Tales and Fantasies
sumptuous that the tavern was thrown into commotion and when all was done commanded Macfarlane to settle the bill It was late before they separated the man Gray was incapably drunk Macfarlane sobered by his fury chewed the cud of the money he had been forced to squander and the slights he had been obliged to swallow Fettes with various liquors singing in his head returned home with devious footsteps and a mind entirely in abeyance Next day Macfarlane was absent from the class and Fettes smiled to himself as he imagined him still squiring the intolerable Gray from tavern
Arthur Conan Doyle
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
out at a moment s notice To me with my nerves worked up to a pitch of expectancy there was something depressing and subduing in the sudden gloom and in the cold dank air of the vault They have but one retreat whispered Holmes That is back through the house into Saxe Coburg Square I hope that you have done what I asked you Jones I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door Then we have stopped all the holes And now we must be silent and wait What a time it seemed From comparing notes
Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped
like himself in his fine French clothes though to be sure they were now grown almost too battered and withered to deserve the name of fine I was then taken out in my turn by another of the sons and given that change of clothing of which I had stood so long in need and a pair of Highland brogues made of deer leather rather strange at first but after a little practice very easy to the feet By the time I came back Alan must have told his story for it seemed understood that I was to fly with
Arthur Conan Doyle
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Every clue seems to slip through my fingers I have been at work upon it all day And very wet it seems to have made you said Holmes laying his hand upon the arm of the pea jacket Yes I have been dragging the Serpentine In Heaven s name what for In search of the body of Lady St Simon Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain he asked Why What do you mean Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in the
Charles Dickens
David Copperfield
Before him I have step by step abandoned name and reputation peace and quiet house and home I have kept your name and reputation for you and your peace and quiet and your house and home too said Uriah with a sulky hurried defeated air of compromise Don t be foolish Mr Wickfield If I have gone a little beyond what you were prepared for I can go back I suppose There s no harm done I looked for single motives in everyone said Mr Wickfield and I was satisfied I had bound him to me by motives of interest
Jane Austen
Persuasion
and while the Musgroves were in the first class of society in the country the young Hayters would from their parents inferior retired and unpolished way of living and their own defective education have been hardly in any class at all but for their connexion with Uppercross this eldest son of course excepted who had chosen to be a scholar and a gentleman and who was very superior in cultivation and manners to all the rest The two families had always been on excellent terms there being no pride on one side and no envy on the other and only
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lost World
CHALLENGER This was the letter that I read aloud to Tarp Henry who had come down early to hear the result of my venture His only remark was There s some new stuff cuticura or something which is better than arnica Some people have such extraordinary notions of humor It was nearly half past ten before I had received my message but a taxicab took me round in good time for my appointment It was an imposing porticoed house at which we stopped and the heavily curtained windows gave every indication of wealth upon the part of this formidable Professor
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twis
not been possessed of that very useful appendage a voice for a much longer space of time than three minutes and a quarter As Oliver gave this first proof of the free and proper action of his lungs the patchwork coverlet which was carelessly flung over the iron bedstead rustled the pale face of a young woman was raised feebly from the pillow and a faint voice imperfectly articulated the words Let me see the child and die The surgeon had been sitting with his face turned towards the fire giving the palms of his hands a warm and a
H.G. Wells
The Island of Doctor Moreau
morning Then I went to the corner of the enclosure and stared inland at the green bush that had swallowed up Moreau and Montgomery When would they return and how Then far away up the beach a little grey Beast Man appeared ran down to the water s edge and began splashing about I strolled back to the doorway then to the corner again and so began pacing to and fro like a sentinel upon duty Once I was arrested by the distant voice of Montgomery bawling Coo ee Moreau My arm became less painful but very hot I got
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow
ye would he choose You for a good wager answered Hatch My surcoat to a leather belt it would be you cried the old archer Ye burned Grimstone Bennet they ll ne er forgive you that my master And as for me I ll soon be in a good place God grant and out of bow shoot ay and cannon shoot of all their malices I am an old man and draw fast to homeward where the bed is ready But for you Bennet y are to remain behind here at your own peril and if ye come to my
H.G. Wells
The Island of Doctor Moreau
where the shadows lurked and down a bushy slope I could see the Thing rather more distinctly now It was no animal for it stood erect At that I opened my mouth to speak and found a hoarse phlegm choked my voice I tried again and shouted Who is there There was no answer I advanced a step The Thing did not move only gathered itself together My foot struck a stone That gave me an idea Without taking my eyes off the black form before me I stooped and picked up this lump of rock but at my motion
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
t be foolish about its effect on you It may have its effect on others and may be meant to have It s not worth discussing Yes it is said I because I cannot bear that people should say she throws away her graces and attractions on a mere boor the lowest in the crowd I can bear it said Estella Oh don t be so proud Estella and so inflexible Calls me proud and inflexible in this breath said Estella opening her hands And in his last breath reproached me for stooping to a boor There is no doubt
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
regard but though we have both reason to think my opinions not entirely unalterable they are not I hope quite so easily changed as that implies When I wrote that letter replied Darcy I believed myself perfectly calm and cool but I am since convinced that it was written in a dreadful bitterness of spirit The letter perhaps began in bitterness but it did not end so The adieu is charity itself But think no more of the letter The feelings of the person who wrote and the person who received it are now so widely different from what they
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
he walked up and down the street and had Mr Wickham appeared Kitty and Lydia would certainly have continued the occupation but unluckily no one passed windows now except a few of the officers who in comparison with the stranger were become stupid disagreeable fellows Some of them were to dine with the Phillipses the next day and their aunt promised to make her husband call on Mr Wickham and give him an invitation also if the family from Longbourn would come in the evening This was agreed to and Mrs Phillips protested that they would have a nice comfortable
H.G. Wells
Time Machine
happened For a moment I suspected that my intellect had tricked me Then I noted the clock A moment before as it seemed it had stood at a minute or so past ten now it was nearly half past three I drew a breath set my teeth gripped the starting lever with both hands and went off with a thud The laboratory got hazy and went dark Mrs Watchett came in and walked apparently without seeing me towards the garden door I suppose it took her a minute or so to traverse the place but to me she seemed to
Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped
true that I could only groan and even my groan served Alan s purpose for it was overheard by the lass as she came flying in again with a dish of white puddings and a bottle of strong ale Poor lamb says she and had no sooner set the meat before us than she touched me on the shoulder with a little friendly touch as much as to bid me cheer up Then she told us to fall to and there would be no more to pay for the inn was her own or at least her father s and
Robert Louis Stevenson
Tales and Fantasies
and you would think now that we love each other we might marry when we pleased But I fear darling we may have long to wait and shall want all our courage I have courage for anything she said I have all I want with you and my father I am so well off and waiting is made so happy that I could wait a lifetime and not weary He had a sharp pang at the mention of the Admiral Hear me out he continued I ought to have told you this before but it is a thought I shrink
Arthur Conan Doyle
Tales of Terror and Mystery
felt about for a comfortable seat among the rocks and having discovered a place where I could get a support for my back I stretched out my legs and settled myself down to wait I was wretchedly damp and cold but I tried to cheer myself with the reflection that modern science prescribed open windows and walks in all weather for my disease Gradually lulled by the monotonous gurgle of the stream and by the absolute darkness I sank into an uneasy slumber How long this lasted I cannot say It may have been for an hour it may have
H.G. Wells
Invisible Man
apparently yelped and ran howling into Huxter s yard and with that the transit of the Invisible Man was accomplished For a space people stood amazed and gesticulating and then came panic and scattered them abroad through the village as a gust scatters dead leaves But Jaffers lay quite still face upward and knees bent at the foot of the steps of the inn CHAPTER VIII IN TRANSIT The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief and relates that Gibbons the amateur naturalist of the district while lying out on the spacious open downs without a soul within a couple of miles
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow
How demanded his lordship Come sound ashore There is then a question of it The ship laboureth the sea is grievous and contrary replied the lad and by what I can learn of my fellow that steereth us we shall do well indeed if we come dry shod to land Ha said the baron gloomily thus shall every terror attend upon the passage of my soul Sir pray rather to live hard that ye may die easy than to be fooled and fluted all through life as to the pipe and tabour and in the last hour be plunged among
H.G. Wells
The Sleeper Awakes
the worker with the gravitational force of seemingly endless work the employer with their suggestion of an infinite ocean of labour And as the standard of comfort rose as the complexity of the mechanism of living increased life in the country had become more and more costly or narrow and impossible The disappearance of vicar and squire the extinction of the general practitioner by the city specialist had robbed the village of its last touch of culture After telephone kinematograph and phonograph had replaced newspaper book schoolmaster and letter to live outside the range of the electric cables was to
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twis
and happy when I have dreamed of her The old lady made no reply to this but wiping her eyes first and her spectacles which lay on the counterpane afterwards as if they were part and parcel of those features brought some cool stuff for Oliver to drink and then patting him on the cheek told him he must lie very quiet or he would be ill again So Oliver kept very still partly because he was anxious to obey the kind old lady in all things and partly to tell the truth because he was completely exhausted with what
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
not offensive to his patron He must write his own sermons and the time that remains will not be too much for his parish duties and the care and improvement of his dwelling which he cannot be excused from making as comfortable as possible And I do not think it of light importance that he should have attentive and conciliatory manners towards everybody especially towards those to whom he owes his preferment I cannot acquit him of that duty nor could I think well of the man who should omit an occasion of testifying his respect towards anybody connected with
Jane Austen
Persuasion
it had better not be attempted perhaps She had spoken it but she trembled when it was done conscious that her words were listened to and daring not even to try to observe their effect It was soon generally agreed that Tuesday should be the day Charles only reserving the advantage of still teasing his wife by persisting that he would go to the play to morrow if nobody else would Captain Wentworth left his seat and walked to the fire place probably for the sake of walking away from it soon afterwards and taking a station with less bare
Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby
forth a variety of most unaccountable and entangled sentences the upshot of which was that Mrs Kenwigs had examined him at great length that morning touching the origin of his acquaintance with and the whole life adventures and pedigree of Nicholas that Newman had parried these questions as long as he could but being at length hard pressed and driven into a corner had gone so far as to admit that Nicholas was a tutor of great accomplishments involved in some misfortunes which he was not at liberty to explain and bearing the name of Johnson That Mrs Kenwigs impelled
H.G. Wells
The Sleeper Awakes
without understanding the smoky shapes that drove slowly across this disc His attention was arrested by a sound that began abruptly It was cheering the frantic cheering of a vast but very remote crowd a roaring exultation This ended as sharply as it had begun like a sound heard between the opening and shutting of a door In the outer room was a noise of hurrying steps and a melodious clinking as if a loose chain was running over the teeth of a wheel Then he heard the voice of a woman the rustle of unseen garments It is Ostrog
Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
Yates and followed soon afterwards by Mr Rushworth Edmund almost immediately took the opportunity of saying I cannot before Mr Yates speak what I feel as to this play without reflecting on his friends at Ecclesford but I must now my dear Maria tell _you_ that I think it exceedingly unfit for private representation and that I hope you will give it up I cannot but suppose you _will_ when you have read it carefully over Read only the first act aloud to either your mother or aunt and see how you can approve it It will not be necessary
Robert Louis Stevenson
Tales and Fantasies
by himself in a state of some bewilderment and even distress There were elements of laughter in the business but the black dress and the face that belonged to it and the hand that he had held in his inclined him to a serious view What was he under the circumstances called upon to do Perhaps to avoid the girl Well he would think about that Perhaps to break the truth to her Why ten to one such was her infatuation he would fail Perhaps to keep up the illusion to colour the raw facts to help her to false
Arthur Conan Doyle
Tales of Terror and Mystery
to England from Smyrna but next week I go back once more Many things I brought with me and I have a few things left but among them to my sorrow is one of these daggers You will remember that I have an appointment sir said the surgeon with some irritation pray confine yourself to the necessary details You will see that it is necessary Today my wife fell down in a faint in the room in which I keep my wares and she cut her lower lip upon this cursed dagger of Almohades I see said Douglas Stone rising
Jane Austen
Persuasion
such an evening could supply from Lady Russell To her its greatest interest must be in having been very much talked of between her friend and Mr Elliot in having been wished for regretted and at the same time honoured for staying away in such a cause Her kind compassionate visits to this old schoolfellow sick and reduced seemed to have quite delighted Mr Elliot He thought her a most extraordinary young woman in her temper manners mind a model of female excellence He could meet even Lady Russell in a discussion of her merits and Anne could not be
Jane Austen
Persuasion
it was a secret gratification to herself to have seen her cousin and to know that the future owner of Kellynch was undoubtedly a gentleman and had an air of good sense She would not upon any account mention her having met with him the second time luckily Mary did not much attend to their having passed close by him in their earlier walk but she would have felt quite ill used by Anne s having actually run against him in the passage and received his very polite excuses while she had never been near him at all no that
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lost World
over me entirely and rested on my shoulders He had the face and beard which I associate with an Assyrian bull the former florid the latter so black as almost to have a suspicion of blue spade shaped and rippling down over his chest The hair was peculiar plastered down in front in a long curving wisp over his massive forehead The eyes were blue gray under great black tufts very clear very critical and very masterful A huge spread of shoulders and a chest like a barrel were the other parts of him which appeared above the table save
Arthur Conan Doyle
Tales of Terror and Mystery
its entire length it runs through a deep cutting and that unless someone had been on the edge of that cutting he could not have seen it There WAS someone on the edge of that cutting I was there And now I will tell you what I saw My assistant had remained at the points in order that he might superintend the switching off of the train He had four armed men with him so that if the train ran off the line we thought it probable because the points were very rusty we might still have resources to fall
Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby
stand who had exactly the face of Digby though as he very properly says Digby may not be the same but only his brother or some near relation Oh cried Nicholas again Yes said Mr Folair with undisturbed calmness that s what they say I thought I d tell you because really you ought to know Oh here s this blessed phenomenon at last Ugh you little imposition I should like to quite ready my darling humbug Ring up Mrs G and let the favourite wake em Uttering in a loud voice such of the latter allusions as were complimentary