Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:05

Excerpt #1, from The Last Stroke: A Detective Story, by Lawrence L. Lynch

…At the next corner Doran halted. “Have to tear myself away,” he said, amiably. “See you later,” and the two men separated. “Well, old man, how have you fared during the lull in your business?” asked Doctor Barnes, as his man came to meet him. “You don’t look overworked.” “I ain’t been, neither, sah. Your Mr. Grant or Ferrars, I ain’t rightly got his name, I guess, sir, he ’pears ter like the cooks down to the Glenville better than me. I ain’t had no bother with him since you left, sir, ’cept to make up his bed.” “I know. He has found some friends there, I fancy, Jude. Any news or messages?” and the doctor became at once absorbed in his neglected business. Ferrars made his appearance at “supper time” as Doran had described the evening meal, and the two men had much to discuss. When Jude had placed the last dishes and retired, the detective, who thus far had been listening to the doctor’s account of the journey and the sad funeral obsequies, looked up and said: "I suppose you have heard of my wanderings, doctor, and how I have forsaken poor Jude? The fact is, I have found plenty of leisure, and Mrs. Jamieson, when one comes to know her a little, is a very ab–interesting woman. The sort of woman, in fact, whose society I now and then enjoy. I have not neglected my duty,…

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Excerpt #2, from The Principles of the Art of Conversation, by J. P. Mahaffy

…this preference were shared by all society. But even the young must be here perpetually upon the watch, and show their tact by refraining from too many questions or too much argument upon any single subject, which becomes a bore to others.[6] Every host and hostess should make it their first duty to watch this human weakness, and should lead away the conversation when it threatens to stay in the same groove. It is better to do this bluntly and confessedly than to refrain from doing it. But the quality of tact, as it quickly perceives the growing mischief, is also quick of resource in devising such interruptions as may seem natural or unavoidable, so as to beguile the company into new paths, and even make the too persistent members lay aside their threadbare discussion without regret. Footnote 6: Even too careful an attention to grammar, and the careful rounding of periods in easy intercourse, is apt to be tedious, and should be avoided. The instant the company has grasped your idea, you should pass to something else without regard to the form of your sentence. ———————————————————————— CONDITIONS TOO GENERAL—MORAL WORTH AND TRUTHFULNESS § 26. In all the faculties hitherto enumerated, it has been my principle to select and specify those which are capable of improvement by…

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Excerpt #3, from The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit

…“We didn’t mean any harm,” said Peter. “It ain’t what you means so much as what you does,” said Perks. “Oh, DON’T!” cried Bobbie, trying hard to be braver than Phyllis, and to find more words than Peter had done for explaining in. “We thought you’d love it. We always have things on our birthdays.” “Oh, yes,” said Perks, “your own relations; that’s different.” “Oh, no,” Bobbie answered. “NOT our own relations. All the servants always gave us things at home, and us to them when it was their birthdays. And when it was mine, and Mother gave me the brooch like a buttercup, Mrs. Viney gave me two lovely glass pots, and nobody thought she was coming the charity lay over us.” “If it had been glass pots here,” said Perks, “I wouldn’t ha’ said so much. It’s there being all this heaps and heaps of things I can’t stand. No–nor won’t, neither.” “But they’re not all from us–” said Peter, “only we forgot to put the labels on. They’re from all sorts of people in the village.” “Who put ’em up to it, I’d like to know?” asked Perks. “Why, we did,” sniffed Phyllis. Perks sat down heavily in the elbow-chair and looked at them with what Bobbie afterwards described as withering glances of gloomy despair. “So you’ve been round telling the neighbours we can’t make both…

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Excerpt #4, from The power and the glory, by Henry Kuttner

…awhile. What’s been happening? Are you safe?” Miller let a ripple of amusement run through his mind. “Thanks to you. Can you tell from my thoughts that I didn’t know what I was bringing into your castle? I didn’t mean to attack you.” “I believe that—with reservations. Does Orelle?” “She thought I was Brann. She may still think so though I hope I’ve convinced her.” “I can’t read your mind. But I must trust you—no more than I can avoid! Get up, Miller, and look toward Brann’s castle. I have a feeling of danger. I think that was what roused me. Something evil is coming our way.” Conscious of a slight chill at the gravity with which Llesi spoke, Miller rose. The floor was ineffably soft to his bare feet. He stepped out into the little glass bay that formed one side of the room. From there he could look down over the valley he had traversed that day. Far off lights glimmered at the height of a sheer cliff—Brann’s castle. “Why—I can see in the dark!” he exclaimed in surprise, staring out at the soft, dim landscape that seemed to be lit by a soil of invisible starshine so that details were delicately visible as they had never been before. “Yes, yes,” Llesi’s mental voice said impatiently. “Turn your eyes to…

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Excerpt #5, from Ten Months in a German Raider: A prisoner of war aboard the Wolf, by Cameron

…the increasing swells, both guns and both torpedo tubes on the after deck were covered with coal. If a cruiser had happened along at that particular moment, the Wolf’s after battery would have been out of commission. However, these conditions did not continue long, as all hands worked feverishly at the job until all the coal was under decks. After the two vessels had parted, we took stock of damages and found that several frames or ribs in the side of Igotz Mendi were broken, that some plates on her side were badly stove in. These flattened or stove-in places varied in size from six feet to forty feet in length. Luckily all our damage was above water line, and the vessel leaked only when rolling heavily, or when a big sea was running. The Wolf was also damaged, having several frames broken and four plates cracked. She was leaking eleven tons of water per hour, while we averaged about one and one-half tons per hour. From this point the two vessels separated after arranging another and final rendezvous at latitude 61 degrees north and longitude 33 degrees west, a point some little distance southwest of Iceland. The weather from now commenced to get colder and we with our impoverished blood and scanty clothing commenced to feel the cold keenly. Then came another heartbreaking disappointment. Be it remembered that our daily prayer and hope was that we would meet a cruiser before…

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Excerpt #6, from Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, by Thomas Preston

…266. CLOAK. Have not the cloak to make when it begins to rain. 267. CLOAK. Though the sun shines, leave not your cloak at home. 268. CLOCK. The clock goes as it pleases the clerk. 269. CLOSE MOUTH. A close mouth catcheth no flies. 270. CLOTHES. It is good keeping his clothes who is going to swim. 271. CLOUD. Every cloud hath a silver lining. 272. CLOUDS. Clouds that the sun builds up darken him. 273. CLOUDS. When the clouds are on the hills, They’ll come down by the mills. 274. CLOUDS. After clouds comes clear weather. 275. CLOUDY. Cloudy mornings turn to clear evenings. 276. CLOVER. He is in clover. 277. CLOWN. Even a clown clings to his cloak when it rains. 278. COAT. Cut your coat according to your cloth. 279. COAT. It’s not the gay coat that makes the gentleman. 280. COBBLE. They that can cobble and clout, Shall have work when others go without. 281. COBBLER. Let not the cobbler go beyond his last. 282. COBBLER’S WIFE. Who goes worse shod than the cobbler’s wife?…

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Excerpt #7, from Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë

…“Well, well,” I cried, “after all, we needn’t trouble ourselves; for listen, Miss,—and mind, I’ll keep my word,—if you attempt going to Wuthering Heights again, with or without me, I shall inform Mr. Linton, and, unless he allow it, the intimacy with your cousin must not be revived.” “It has been revived,” muttered Cathy, sulkily. “Must not be continued, then,” I said. “We’ll see,” was her reply, and she set off at a gallop, leaving me to toil in the rear. We both reached home before our dinner-time; my master supposed we had been wandering through the park, and therefore he demanded no explanation of our absence. As soon as I entered I hastened to change my soaked shoes and stockings; but sitting such a while at the Heights had done the mischief. On the succeeding morning I was laid up, and during three weeks I remained incapacitated for attending to my duties: a calamity never experienced prior to that period, and never, I am thankful to say, since. My little mistress behaved like an angel in coming to wait on me, and cheer my solitude; the confinement brought me exceedingly low. It is wearisome, to a stirring active body: but few have slighter reasons for complaint than I had. The moment Catherine left Mr. Linton’s room she…

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Excerpt #8, from History of biology, by L. C. Miall

…It must not be supposed that the labours of Linnæus and Cuvier were bestowed in vain. All that was really valuable in their writings has been saved, and biology will never forget how much it owes to their life-long exertions. [Illustration: CARL VON LINNÉ (CAROLUS LINNÆUS). From an engraving (1779) after the portrait by Roslin.] Réaumur and the History of Insects. Réaumur was born to wealth, and made timely use of his leisure to study the sciences and win for himself a place among natural philosophers. His inclinations directed him first towards mathematics, physics, and, a little later, towards the practical arts. He took a leading part in a magnificent description of French industries, which had been undertaken by the Académie des Sciences. Not content with describing the processes in use, he perpetually laboured to improve them. The manufacture of steel, tin-plate, and porcelain, the hanging of carriages and the fitting of axles, the improvement of the thermometer, glass hives, and the hatching of fowls’ eggs by artificial heat are among the many objects to which his attention was directed. Natural History gradually took a more and more prominent place in his studies, and a great History of Insects engaged the last years of his busy life. Réaumur was neither an anatomist nor a systematist, at least he…

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Excerpt #9, from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories, by Kate Chopin

…degree of passion which had not before entered into his caress, and strained her to him. “I love you,” she whispered, “only you; no one but you. It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream. Oh! you have made me so unhappy with your indifference. Oh! I have suffered, suffered! Now you are here we shall love each other, my Robert. We shall be everything to each other. Nothing else in the world is of any consequence. I must go to my friend; but you will wait for me? No matter how late; you will wait for me, Robert?” “Don’t go; don’t go! Oh! Edna, stay with me,” he pleaded. “Why should you go? Stay with me, stay with me.” “I shall come back as soon as I can; I shall find you here.” She buried her face in his neck, and said good-by again. Her seductive voice, together with his great love for her, had enthralled his senses, had deprived him of every impulse but the longing to hold her and keep her. XXXVII Edna looked in at the drug store. Monsieur Ratignolle was putting up a mixture himself, very carefully, dropping a red liquid into a tiny glass. He was grateful to Edna for having come; her presence would be a comfort to his wife. Madame Ratignolle’s sister, who had always been with her at such trying times, had not been able to come up from the…

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Excerpt #10, from An Account of Egypt, by Herodotus

…matter as follows:–If the Phenicians did in truth carry away the consecrated women and sold one of them into Libya and the other into Hellas, I suppose that in the country now called Hellas, which was formerly called Pelasgia, this woman was sold into the land of the Thesprotians; and then being a slave there she set up a sanctuary of Zeus under a real oak-tree; as indeed it was natural that being an attendant of the sanctuary of Zeus at Thebes, she should there, in the place to which she had come, have a memory of him; and after this, when she got understanding of the Hellenic tongue, she established an Oracle, and she reported, I suppose, that her sister had been sold in Libya by the same Phenicians by whom she herself had been sold. Moreover, I think that the women were called doves by the people of Dodona for the reason that they were barbarians and because it seemed to them that they uttered voice like birds; but after a time (they say) the dove spoke with human voice, that is when the woman began to speak so that they could understand; but so long as she spoke a Barbarian tongue she seemed to them to be uttering voice like a bird: for if it had been really a dove, how could it speak with human voice? And in saying that the dove was black, they indicate that the woman was Egyptian. The ways of delivering oracles too at Thebes in Egypt and at Dodona closely resemble each other, as it happens, and also the method of divination by victims…

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Excerpt #11, from History for ready reference, Volume 3 (of 6), Greece to Nibelungen, by J. N. Larned

…romance, ‘Amadis.’ Entirely unaffected by the Reformation, what he understood by this was a spiritual brotherhood in the true mediæval sense, which should convert the heathen in the newly-discovered countries of the world. With all the zeal of a Spaniard he decided to live to the Catholic Church alone; he chastised his body with penances and all kinds of privations, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and, in order to complete his defective education, he visited the university of Paris; it was among his comrades there that he formed the first associations out of which the order was afterwards formed. Among these was Jacob Lainez; he was Loyola’s fellow-countryman, the organizing head who was to stamp his impress upon the order. … Then came the spread of the new doctrines, the mighty progress of Protestantism. No one who was heartily attached to the old Church could doubt that there was work for such an association, for the object now in hand was not to make Christians of the aboriginal inhabitants of Central America, but to reconquer the apostate members of the Romish Church. About 1539 Loyola came with his fraternity to Rome. He did not find favour in all circles; the old orders regarded the new one with jealousy and mistrust; but Pope Paul…

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Excerpt #12, from Memories and Adventures, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…join at this period of their history than a great oak could combine with a well-rooted pine to make one tree. The roots of each are far too deep. It is impossible. Then there is the alternative of Canada becoming an independent nation. That is not so impossible as a union with the States, but it is in the last degree improbable. Why should Canada wish her independence? She has it now in every essential. But her first need is the capital and the population which will develop her enormous territory and resources. This capital she now receives from the Mother-Country to the extent in 1914 of 73 per cent, the United States finding 14 per cent, and Canada herself the remaining 13. Her dependence upon the Mother-Country for emigrants, though not so great as her financial dependence, is still the greatest from any single source. Besides all this, she has the vast insurance policy, which is called the British Navy, presented to her for nothing–though honour demands some premium from her in the future–and she has the British diplomatic service for her use unpaid. Altogether, looking at it from the material side, Canada’s interests lie deeply in the present arrangement. But there is a higher and more unselfish view which works even more strongly in the same direction. Many of the most representative Canadians are descendants of those United Empire Loyalists who in 1782 gave up everything and emigrated…

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