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Arthur Conan Doyle | Tales of Terror and Mystery | expecting me and he had spent the time between Euston and Willesden in saying all he could to harden my brother s heart and set him against me That is what I fancy for I had never found him so impossible to soften or to move I tried this way and I tried that I pictured his future in an English gaol I described the sorrow of his mother when I came back with the news I said everything to touch his heart but all to no purpose He sat there with a fixed sneer upon his handsome face while |
H.G. Wells | Invisible Man | had enabled me to compass even the downfall of my father s grey hairs Nothing seemed to matter I saw pretty clearly this was a transient mood due to overwork and want of sleep and that either by drugs or rest it would be possible to recover my energies All I could think clearly was that the thing had to be carried through the fixed idea still ruled me And soon for the money I had was almost exhausted I looked about me at the hillside with children playing and girls watching them and tried to think of all the |
H.G. Wells | Invisible Man | in a room with an open fireplace he said Saw a flicker and there was the prescription burning and lifting chimneyward Rushed towards it just as it whisked up the chimney So Just at that point to illustrate his story out came his arm Well No hand just an empty sleeve Lord I thought _that s_ a deformity Got a cork arm I suppose and has taken it off Then I thought there s something odd in that What the devil keeps that sleeve up and open if there s nothing in it There was nothing in it I tell |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Hound of Baskervilles | the noises on the moor at night There s not a man would cross it after sundown if he was paid for it Look at this stranger hiding out yonder and watching and waiting What s he waiting for What does it mean It means no good to anyone of the name of Baskerville and very glad I shall be to be quit of it all on the day that Sir Henry s new servants are ready to take over the Hall But about this stranger said I Can you tell me anything about him What did Selden say Did |
Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice | to think She is a very good kind of girl I believe I know no harm of her But he paid her not the smallest attention till her grandfather s death made her mistress of this fortune No why should he If it were not allowable for him to gain _my_ affections because I had no money what occasion could there be for making love to a girl whom he did not care about and who was equally poor But there seems an indelicacy in directing his attentions towards her so soon after this event A man in distressed circumstances |
H.G. Wells | The Island of Doctor Moreau | of thorny plants with spines that stabbed like pen knives I emerged bleeding and with torn clothes upon the lip of a long creek opening northward I went straight into the water without a minute s hesitation wading up the creek and presently finding myself kneedeep in a little stream I scrambled out at last on the westward bank and with my heart beating loudly in my ears crept into a tangle of ferns to await the issue I heard the dog there was only one draw nearer and yelp when it came to the thorns Then I heard no |
Charles Dickens | Oliver Twis | hues are delicate and need a clearer vision It is worthy of remark and Oliver did not fail to note it at the time that his morning expeditions were no longer made alone Harry Maylie after the very first morning when he met Oliver coming laden home was seized with such a passion for flowers and displayed such a taste in their arrangement as left his young companion far behind If Oliver were behindhand in these respects he knew where the best were to be found and morning after morning they scoured the country together and brought home the fairest |
H.G. Wells | The Sleeper Awakes | he caught snatches of that crude thick dialect that served the illiterate class the class that is beyond the reach of phonograph culture in their commonplace intercourse Everywhere this trouble of disarmament was in the air with a quality of immediate stress of which he had no inkling during his seclusion in the Wind Vane quarter He perceived that as soon as he returned he must discuss this with Ostrog this and the greater issues of which it was the expression in a far more conclusive way than he had so far done Perpetually that night even in the earlier |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | the guidance of Mr Merryweather we passed down a narrow passage and through a side door which he opened for us Within there was a small corridor which ended in a very massive iron gate This also was opened and led down a flight of winding stone steps which terminated at another formidable gate Mr Merryweather stopped to light a lantern and then conducted us down a dark earth smelling passage and so after opening a third door into a huge vault or cellar which was piled all round with crates and massive boxes You are not very vulnerable from |
Charles Dickens | Oliver Twis | rung very often and the servants ran up and down stairs perpetually from which tokens it was justly concluded that something important was going on above At length he returned and in reply to an anxious inquiry after his patient looked very mysterious and closed the door carefully This is a very extraordinary thing Mrs Maylie said the doctor standing with his back to the door as if to keep it shut He is not in danger I hope said the old lady Why that would _not_ be an extraordinary thing under the circumstances replied the doctor though I don |
Charles Dickens | Oliver Twis | are it has its barber its coffee shop its beer shop and its fried fish warehouse It is a commercial colony of itself the emporium of petty larceny visited at early morning and setting in of dusk by silent merchants who traffic in dark back parlours and who go as strangely as they come Here the clothesman the shoe vamper and the rag merchant display their goods as sign boards to the petty thief here stores of old iron and bones and heaps of mildewy fragments of woollen stuff and linen rust and rot in the grimy cellars It was |
Charles Dickens | Nicholas Nickleby | compressed into that short time There are no words which can express nothing with which can be compared the perfect pallor the clear transparent whiteness of the beautiful face which turned towards him when he entered Her hair was a rich deep brown but shading that face and straying upon a neck that rivalled it in whiteness it seemed by the strong contrast raven black Something of wildness and restlessness there was in the dark eye but there was the same patient look the same expression of gentle mournfulness which he well remembered and no trace of a single tear |
Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice | consent to her going Mary was the only daughter who remained at home and she was necessarily drawn from the pursuit of accomplishments by Mrs Bennet s being quite unable to sit alone Mary was obliged to mix more with the world but she could still moralize over every morning visit and as she was no longer mortified by comparisons between her sisters beauty and her own it was suspected by her father that she submitted to the change without much reluctance As for Wickham and Lydia their characters suffered no revolution from the marriage of her sisters He bore |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Kidnapped | you I have but one word to say said I for to all this dispute I am a perfect stranger But the plain common sense is to set the blame where it belongs and that is on the man who fired the shot Paper him as ye call it set the hunt on him and let honest innocent folk show their faces in safety But at this both Alan and James cried out in horror bidding me hold my tongue for that was not to be thought of and asking me what the Camerons would think which confirmed me it |
Charles Dickens | Nicholas Nickleby | include I presume correspondence Good interposed Mr Gregsbury The arrangement of papers and documents Very good Occasionally perhaps the writing from your dictation and possibly sir said Nicholas with a half smile the copying of your speech for some public journal when you have made one of more than usual importance Certainly rejoined Mr Gregsbury What else Really said Nicholas after a moment s reflection I am not able at this instant to recapitulate any other duty of a secretary beyond the general one of making himself as agreeable and useful to his employer as he can consistently with his |
H.G. Wells | Time Machine | it here and there I could see the many palps of its complicated mouth flickering and feeling as it moved As I stared at this sinister apparition crawling towards me I felt a tickling on my cheek as though a fly had lighted there I tried to brush it away with my hand but in a moment it returned and almost immediately came another by my ear I struck at this and caught something threadlike It was drawn swiftly out of my hand With a frightful qualm I turned and I saw that I had grasped the antenna of another |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Tales and Fantasies | be Nicholson said the stranger It was too late to avoid recognition and besides as John was now actually on the way home it hardly mattered and he gave way to the impulse of his nature Great Scott he cried Beatson and shook hands with warmth It scarce seemed he was repaid in kind So you re home again said Beatson Where have you been all this long time In the States said John California I ve made my pile though and it suddenly struck me it would be a noble scheme to come home for Christmas I see said |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Tales and Fantasies | successes to which we shall refer no farther pulling down his neckcloth with a smile That man exists no more by an exercise of will I have destroyed him There is something like it in the poets First a brilliant and conspicuous career the observed I may say of all observers including the bum bailie and then presto a quiet sly old rustic _bonhomme_ cultivating roses In Paris Mr Naseby Call him Richard father said Esther Richard if he will allow me Indeed we are old friends and now near neighbours and _à propos_ how are we off for neighbours |
Jane Austen | Persuasion | one with her new publications You need not tell her so but I thought her dress hideous the other night I used to think she had some taste in dress but I was ashamed of her at the concert Something so formal and _arrangé_ in her air and she sits so upright My best love of course And mine added Sir Walter Kindest regards And you may say that I mean to call upon her soon Make a civil message but I shall only leave my card Morning visits are never fair by women at her time of life who |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Hound of Baskervilles | foeman more worthy of our steel I am sorry that he has seen you And so was I at first But there was no getting out of it What effect do you think it will have upon his plans now that he knows you are here It may cause him to be more cautious or it may drive him to desperate measures at once Like most clever criminals he may be too confident in his own cleverness and imagine that he has completely deceived us Why should we not arrest him at once My dear Watson you were born to |
Arthur Conan Doyle | The Lost World | hands and knees among loose rubble which slid from beneath us Suddenly an exclamation broke from Lord Roxton It s blocked said he Clustering behind him we saw in the yellow field of light a wall of broken basalt which extended to the ceiling The roof has fallen in In vain we dragged out some of the pieces The only effect was that the larger ones became detached and threatened to roll down the gradient and crush us It was evident that the obstacle was far beyond any efforts which we could make to remove it The road by which |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Hound of Baskervilles | received any other letters in the same writing Well sir I took no particular notice of his letters I should not have noticed this one only it happened to come alone And you have no idea who L L is No sir No more than you have But I expect if we could lay our hands upon that lady we should know more about Sir Charles s death I cannot understand Barrymore how you came to conceal this important information Well sir it was immediately after that our own trouble came to us And then again sir we were both |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Hound of Baskervilles | call off your spaniel who is scratching at my front door and proceed to Waterloo to meet Sir Henry Baskerville And then And then you will say nothing to him at all until I have made up my mind about the matter How long will it take you to make up your mind Twenty four hours At ten o clock tomorrow Dr Mortimer I will be much obliged to you if you will call upon me here and it will be of help to me in my plans for the future if you will bring Sir Henry Baskerville with you |
Charles Dickens | David Copperfield | The rest of the half year is a jumble in my recollection of the daily strife and struggle of our lives of the waning summer and the changing season of the frosty mornings when we were rung out of bed and the cold cold smell of the dark nights when we were rung into bed again of the evening schoolroom dimly lighted and indifferently warmed and the morning schoolroom which was nothing but a great shivering machine of the alternation of boiled beef with roast beef and boiled mutton with roast mutton of clods of bread and butter dog s |
Jane Austen | Persuasion | and what Mr Musgrove had proposed the next and what had occurred to my sister Hayter and what the young people had wished and what I said at first I never could consent to but was afterwards persuaded to think might do very well and a great deal in the same style of open hearted communication minutiae which even with every advantage of taste and delicacy which good Mrs Musgrove could not give could be properly interesting only to the principals Mrs Croft was attending with great good humour and whenever she spoke at all it was very sensibly Anne |
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 | Jekyll and Hyde | than an eye lay caged in his flesh where he heard it mutter and felt it struggle to be born and at every hour of weakness and in the confidence of slumber prevailed against him and deposed him out of life The hatred of Hyde for Jekyll was of a different order His terror of the gallows drove him continually to commit temporary suicide and return to his subordinate station of a part instead of a person but he loathed the necessity he loathed the despondency into which Jekyll was now fallen and he resented the dislike with which he |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Jekyll and Hyde | came in gave a kind of cry and whipped upstairs into the cabinet It was but for one minute that I saw him but the hair stood upon my head like quills Sir if that was my master why had he a mask upon his face If it was my master why did he cry out like a rat and run from me I have served him long enough And then The man paused and passed his hand over his face These are all very strange circumstances said Mr Utterson but I think I begin to see daylight Your master |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Hound of Baskervilles | must be a wild place Yes the setting is a worthy one If the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men Then you are yourself inclining to the supernatural explanation The devil s agents may be of flesh and blood may they not There are two questions waiting for us at the outset The one is whether any crime has been committed at all the second is what is the crime and how was it committed Of course if Dr Mortimer s surmise should be correct and we are dealing with forces outside the ordinary |
Charles Dickens | Nicholas Nickleby | much of the patronising tone adopted by Squeers that if they had not been firmly checked when they were you would most probably have had no brains left to teach with This remark called up a discourse relative to the promptitude Nicholas had displayed and he was overwhelmed with compliments and commendations I am very glad to have escaped of course observed Squeers every man is glad when he escapes from danger but if any one of my charges had been hurt if I had been prevented from restoring any one of these little boys to his parents whole and |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Jekyll and Hyde | Dr Jekyll s disappearance or unexplained absence for any period exceeding three calendar months the said Edward Hyde should step into the said Henry Jekyll s shoes without further delay and free from any burthen or obligation beyond the payment of a few small sums to the members of the doctor s household This document had long been the lawyer s eyesore It offended him both as a lawyer and as a lover of the sane and customary sides of life to whom the fanciful was the immodest And hitherto it was his ignorance of Mr Hyde that had swelled |
H.G. Wells | Time Machine | out and about it went to my heart to tire her down and leave her at last exhausted and calling after me rather plaintively But the problems of the world had to be mastered I had not I said to myself come into the future to carry on a miniature flirtation Yet her distress when I left her was very great her expostulations at the parting were sometimes frantic and I think altogether I had as much trouble as comfort from her devotion Nevertheless she was somehow a very great comfort I thought it was mere childish affection that made |
Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice | young men who live in Derbyshire and their intimate friends who live in Hertfordshire are not much better I am sick of them all Thank Heaven I am going to morrow where I shall find a man who has not one agreeable quality who has neither manner nor sense to recommend him Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing after all Take care Lizzy that speech savours strongly of disappointment Before they were separated by the conclusion of the play she had the unexpected happiness of an invitation to accompany her uncle and aunt in a tour of pleasure |
Charles Dickens | Oliver Twis | friend if I could only see you now You will see him soon replied Rose gently taking his folded hands between her own You shall tell him how happy you are and how rich you have grown and that in all your happiness you have none so great as the coming back to make him happy too Yes yes said Oliver and we ll we ll take him away from here and have him clothed and taught and send him to some quiet country place where he may grow strong and well shall we Rose nodded yes for the boy |
Jane Austen | Emma | Yorkshire family and Miss Churchill fell in love with him nobody was surprized except her brother and his wife who had never seen him and who were full of pride and importance which the connexion would offend Miss Churchill however being of age and with the full command of her fortune though her fortune bore no proportion to the family estate was not to be dissuaded from the marriage and it took place to the infinite mortification of Mr and Mrs Churchill who threw her off with due decorum It was an unsuitable connexion and did not produce much happiness |
Jane Austen | Mansfield Park | her mother meant to part with her when her year was up Her year cried Mrs Price I am sure I hope I shall be rid of her before she has staid a year for that will not be up till November Servants are come to such a pass my dear in Portsmouth that it is quite a miracle if one keeps them more than half a year I have no hope of ever being settled and if I was to part with Rebecca I should only get something worse And yet I do not think I am a very |
H.G. Wells | The Sleeper Awakes | of the last twelve hours had left him inordinately fatigued even his curiosity was exhausted for a space he sat inert and passive with open eyes and for a space he slept He was roused by two medical attendants come prepared with stimulants to sustain him through the next occasion After he had taken their drugs and bathed by their advice in cold water he felt a rapid return of interest and energy and was presently able and willing to accompany Ostrog through several miles as it seemed of passages lifts and slides to the closing scene of the White |
Charles Dickens | Oliver Twis | until the women being committed for trial went flaunting out and then was quickly relieved by the appearance of another prisoner who he felt at once could be no other than the object of his visit It was indeed Mr Dawkins who shuffling into the office with the big coat sleeves tucked up as usual his left hand in his pocket and his hat in his right hand preceded the jailer with a rolling gait altogether indescribable and taking his place in the dock requested in an audible voice to know what he was placed in that ere disgraceful sitivation |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Tales of Terror and Mystery | why on earth could he not lock his door and so protect himself His own answer that he might wish to be attacked was absurd Why should he possibly wish to be attacked And who would wish to attack him Clearly Lord Linchmere was suffering from some singular delusion and the result was that on an imbecile pretext I was to be deprived of my night s rest Still however absurd I was determined to carry out his injunctions to the letter as long as I was in his employment I sat therefore beside the empty fireplace and listened to |
Robert Louis Stevenson | The Black Arrow | still Lord Foxham kept me in his hands and was a good lord to me And at last I was to be married or sold if ye like it better Five hundred pounds Lord Foxham was to get for me Hamley was the groom s name and to morrow Dick of all days in the year was I to be betrothed Had it not come to Sir Daniel I had been wedded sure and never seen thee Dick dear Dick And here she took his hand and kissed it with the prettiest grace and Dick drew her hand to him |
H.G. Wells | Time Machine | that makes the background of our lives all that was over As the darkness thickened the eddying flakes grew more abundant dancing before my eyes and the cold of the air more intense At last one by one swiftly one after the other the white peaks of the distant hills vanished into blackness The breeze rose to a moaning wind I saw the black central shadow of the eclipse sweeping towards me In another moment the pale stars alone were visible All else was rayless obscurity The sky was absolutely black A horror of this great darkness came on me |
Robert Louis Stevenson | The Black Arrow | said Dick to trudge afoot the while you ride my horse but it is good wood I trow Good Dick forgive me cried the other Nay y are the best heart in England I but laughed Forgive me now sweet Dick Nay no fool words returned Dick a little embarrassed by his companion s warmth No harm is done I am not touchy praise the saints And at that moment the wind which was blowing straight behind them as they went brought them the rough flourish of Sir Daniel s trumpeter Hark said Dick the tucket soundeth Ay said Matcham |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Jekyll and Hyde | below They saw it but for a glimpse for the window was instantly thrust down but that glimpse had been sufficient and they turned and left the court without a word In silence too they traversed the by street and it was not until they had come into a neighbouring thoroughfare where even upon a Sunday there were still some stirrings of life that Mr Utterson at last turned and looked at his companion They were both pale and there was an answering horror in their eyes God forgive us God forgive us said Mr Utterson But Mr Enfield only |
Jane Austen | Emma | and poor Miss Taylor But it would not do Emma hung about him affectionately and smiled and said it must be so and that he must not class her with Isabella and Mrs Weston whose marriages taking them from Hartfield had indeed made a melancholy change but she was not going from Hartfield she should be always there she was introducing no change in their numbers or their comforts but for the better and she was very sure that he would be a great deal the happier for having Mr Knightley always at hand when he were once got used |
H.G. Wells | Invisible Man | had evidently been stopping a bit at Sidderbridge to judge by his driving Ow do Teddy he said passing You got a rum un up home said Teddy Hall very sociably pulled up What s that he asked Rum looking customer stopping at the Coach and Horses said Teddy My sakes And he proceeded to give Hall a vivid description of his grotesque guest Looks a bit like a disguise don t it I d like to see a man s face if I had him stopping in _my_ place said Henfrey But women are that trustful where strangers are |
Charles Dickens | Oliver Twis | observant third person It was lost upon Sikes who was stooping at the moment to tie the boot lace which the dog had torn Possibly if he had observed the brief interchange of signals he might have thought that it boded no good to him Is anybody here Barney inquired Fagin speaking now that that Sikes was looking on without raising his eyes from the ground Dot a shoul replied Barney whose words whether they came from the heart or not made their way through the nose Nobody inquired Fagin in a tone of surprise which perhaps might mean that |
Charles Dickens | David Copperfield | done retorted Traddles Hurt his feelings and lost him his situation His feelings repeated Steerforth disdainfully His feelings will soon get the better of it I ll be bound His feelings are not like yours Miss Traddles As to his situation which was a precious one wasn t it do you suppose I am not going to write home and take care that he gets some money Polly We thought this intention very noble in Steerforth whose mother was a widow and rich and would do almost anything it was said that he asked her We were all extremely glad |
Jane Austen | Emma | my happiness nor were spacious apartments But said I to be quite honest I do not think I can live without something of a musical society I condition for nothing else but without music life would be a blank to me We cannot suppose said Emma smiling that Mr Elton would hesitate to assure you of there being a _very_ musical society in Highbury and I hope you will not find he has outstepped the truth more than may be pardoned in consideration of the motive No indeed I have no doubts at all on that head I am delighted |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Tales of Terror and Mystery | drew to a close with an insistence which showed that his nerves were thoroughly shaken Yes he said at last in answer to my looks rather than to my words I AM nervous Dr Hamilton I have always been a timid man and my timidity depends upon my frail physical health But my soul is firm and I can bring myself up to face a danger which a less nervous man might shrink from What I am doing now is done from no compulsion but entirely from a sense of duty and yet it is beyond doubt a desperate risk |
Arthur Conan Doyle | The Lost World | more so upon closer acquaintance I don t know what is inside this envelope but unless it is something pretty definite I shall be much tempted to take the next down river boat and catch the Bolivia at Para After all I have some more responsible work in the world than to run about disproving the assertions of a lunatic Now Roxton surely it is time Time it is said Lord John You can blow the whistle He took up the envelope and cut it with his penknife From it he drew a folded sheet of paper This he carefully |
H.G. Wells | The Sleeper Awakes | much is happening He indicated the exterior world Graham hesitated For a moment the figure of a possible woman dominated his mind with an intense attraction Then he flashed into anger _No_ he shouted He began striding rapidly up and down the room Everything you say everything you do convinces me of some great issue in which I am concerned I do not want to pass the time as you call it Yes I know Desire and indulgence are life in a sense and Death Extinction In my life before I slept I had worked out that pitiful question I |
Jane Austen | Mansfield Park | the ball and with Mr Crawford too She hoped they would not envy her that distinction _now_ but when she looked back to the state of things in the autumn to what they had all been to each other when once dancing in that house before the present arrangement was almost more than she could understand herself The ball began It was rather honour than happiness to Fanny for the first dance at least her partner was in excellent spirits and tried to impart them to her but she was a great deal too much frightened to have any enjoyment |
Jane Austen | Emma | with alphabets which no one seemed so much disposed to employ as their two selves They were rapidly forming words for each other or for any body else who would be puzzled The quietness of the game made it particularly eligible for Mr Woodhouse who had often been distressed by the more animated sort which Mr Weston had occasionally introduced and who now sat happily occupied in lamenting with tender melancholy over the departure of the poor little boys or in fondly pointing out as he took up any stray letter near him how beautifully Emma had written it Frank |
Jane Austen | Emma | I add too cheerful in my views to be captious We removed to Windsor and two days afterwards I received a parcel from her my own letters all returned and a few lines at the same time by the post stating her extreme surprize at not having had the smallest reply to her last and adding that as silence on such a point could not be misconstrued and as it must be equally desirable to both to have every subordinate arrangement concluded as soon as possible she now sent me by a safe conveyance all my letters and requested that |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Tales and Fantasies | he saw himself ruddy and comfortered sliding in the gutter and again a little woe begone bored urchin tricked forth in crape and weepers descending this same hill at the foot s pace of mourning coaches his mother s body just preceding him and yet again his fancy running far in front showed him his destination now standing solitary in the low sunshine with the sparrows hopping on the threshold and the dead man within staring at the roof and now with a sudden change thronged about with white faced hand uplifting neighbours and doctor bursting through their midst and |
Charles Dickens | Nicholas Nickleby | to deal with too well to suppose that any blinking of the question would induce him to subscribe towards the expenses I wasn t out of pocket by it after all either No said Ralph Not a halfpenny replied Squeers The fact is we have only one extra with our boys and that is for doctors when required and not then unless we re sure of our customers Do you see I understand said Ralph Very good rejoined Squeers Then after my bill was run up we picked out five little boys sons of small tradesmen as was sure pay |
Jane Austen | Emma | not at this time in a state of spirits to care really about Mr Frank Churchill s not coming except as a disappointment at Randalls The acquaintance at present had no charm for her She wanted rather to be quiet and out of temptation but still as it was desirable that she should appear in general like her usual self she took care to express as much interest in the circumstance and enter as warmly into Mr and Mrs Weston s disappointment as might naturally belong to their friendship She was the first to announce it to Mr Knightley and |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Hound of Baskervilles | I heard the creak of a door and the crisp sound of boots upon gravel The steps passed along the path on the other side of the wall under which I crouched Looking over I saw the naturalist pause at the door of an out house in the corner of the orchard A key turned in a lock and as he passed in there was a curious scuffling noise from within He was only a minute or so inside and then I heard the key turn once more and he passed me and reentered the house I saw him rejoin |
Charles Dickens | Nicholas Nickleby | spoons enough and to spare for all most graciously received Nor did the appearance of this unexpected visitor occasion the least embarrassment save in Kate and that only to the extent of a blush or two at first for the old gentleman was so kind and cordial and the young gentleman imitated him in this respect so well that the usual stiffness and formality of a first meeting showed no signs of appearing and Kate really more than once detected herself in the very act of wondering when it was going to begin At the tea table there was plenty |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | girl in every way So much for the servants My family itself is so small that it will not take me long to describe it I am a widower and have an only son Arthur He has been a disappointment to me Mr Holmes a grievous disappointment I have no doubt that I am myself to blame People tell me that I have spoiled him Very likely I have When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I had to love I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a moment from his face |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Tales and Fantasies | had trod and the railings in which he had rattled his clachan as he went to school and all those thousand and one nameless particulars which the eye sees without noting which the memory keeps indeed yet without knowing and which taken one with another build up for us the aspect of the place that we call home all these besieged him as he went with both delight and sadness His first visit was for Houston who had a house on Regent Terrace kept for him in old days by an aunt The door was opened to his surprise upon |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Tales of Terror and Mystery | had fled from it at the full speed of his monoplane but had been overtaken and devoured by these horrible creatures at some spot in the outer atmosphere above the place where the grim relics were found The picture of that monoplane skimming down the sky with the nameless terrors flying as swiftly beneath it and cutting it off always from the earth while they gradually closed in upon their victim is one upon which a man who valued his sanity would prefer not to dwell There are many as I am aware who still jeer at the facts which |
Jane Austen | Persuasion | with them Mrs Harville s little children to improve the noise of Uppercross and lessen that of Lyme Henrietta remained with Louisa but all the rest of the family were again in their usual quarters Lady Russell and Anne paid their compliments to them once when Anne could not but feel that Uppercross was already quite alive again Though neither Henrietta nor Louisa nor Charles Hayter nor Captain Wentworth were there the room presented as strong a contrast as could be wished to the last state she had seen it in Immediately surrounding Mrs Musgrove were the little Harvilles whom |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Kidnapped | a glance that meant the boy was dead as plain as speaking and took his place like the rest of us so that we all three stood without a word staring down at Mr Shuan and Mr Shuan on his side sat without a word looking hard upon the table All of a sudden he put out his hand to take the bottle and at that Mr Riach started forward and caught it away from him rather by surprise than violence crying out with an oath that there had been too much of this work altogether and that a judgment |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Kidnapped | brother disappear and the other succeed in the estate raised a cry of murder so that upon all sides he found himself evited Money was all he got by his bargain well he came to think the more of money He was selfish when he was young he is selfish now that he is old and the latter end of all these pretty manners and fine feelings you have seen for yourself Well sir said I and in all this what is my position The estate is yours beyond a doubt replied the lawyer It matters nothing what your father |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | is known He knows it already When I had cleared it all up I had an interview with him and finding that he would not tell me the story I told it to him on which he had to confess that I was right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite clear to me Your news of this morning however may open his lips For Heaven s sake tell me then what is this extraordinary mystery I will do so and I will show you the steps by which I reached it And let me |
Jane Austen | Emma | now begin to regret that you spent one whole day out of so few in having your hair cut No said he smiling that is no subject of regret at all I have no pleasure in seeing my friends unless I can believe myself fit to be seen The rest of the gentlemen being now in the room Emma found herself obliged to turn from him for a few minutes and listen to Mr Cole When Mr Cole had moved away and her attention could be restored as before she saw Frank Churchill looking intently across the room at Miss |
Arthur Conan Doyle | The Lost World | temperament like myself the blood tick with its lancet like proboscis and its distending stomach is as beautiful a work of Nature as the peacock or for that matter the aurora borealis It pains me to hear you speak of it in so unappreciative a fashion No doubt with due diligence we can secure some other specimen There can be no doubt of that said Summerlee grimly for one has just disappeared behind your shirt collar Challenger sprang into the air bellowing like a bull and tore frantically at his coat and shirt to get them off Summerlee and I |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Hound of Baskervilles | Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure A cast of your skull sir until the original is available would be an ornament to any anthropological museum It is not my intention to be fulsome but I confess that I covet your skull Sherlock Holmes waved our strange visitor into a chair You are an enthusiast in your line of thought I perceive sir as I am in mine said he I observe from your forefinger that you make your own cigarettes Have no hesitation in lighting one The man drew out paper and |
H.G. Wells | The Island of Doctor Moreau | to run at once towards this fire revolver in hand I saw the pink tongue of Montgomery s pistol lick out once close to the ground He was down I shouted with all my strength and fired into the air I heard some one cry The Master The knotted black struggle broke into scattering units the fire leapt and sank down The crowd of Beast People fled in sudden panic before me up the beach In my excitement I fired at their retreating backs as they disappeared among the bushes Then I turned to the black heaps upon the ground |
H.G. Wells | Invisible Man | Henfrey savagely upon the crown of his head Look out said everybody fencing at random and hitting at nothing Hold him Shut the door Don t let him loose I got something Here he is A perfect Babel of noises they made Everybody it seemed was being hit all at once and Sandy Wadgers knowing as ever and his wits sharpened by a frightful blow in the nose reopened the door and led the rout The others following incontinently were jammed for a moment in the corner by the doorway The hitting continued Phipps the Unitarian had a front tooth |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Jekyll and Hyde | off I would leap almost without transition for the pangs of transformation grew daily less marked into the possession of a fancy brimming with images of terror a soul boiling with causeless hatreds and a body that seemed not strong enough to contain the raging energies of life The powers of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll And certainly the hate that now divided them was equal on each side With Jekyll it was a thing of vital instinct He had now seen the full deformity of that creature that shared with him some of the |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Hound of Baskervilles | do not mean that I have done anything to forfeit your confidence Sir Henry had to assure him that it was not so and pacify him by giving him a considerable part of his old wardrobe the London outfit having now all arrived Mrs Barrymore is of interest to me She is a heavy solid person very limited intensely respectable and inclined to be puritanical You could hardly conceive a less emotional subject Yet I have told you how on the first night here I heard her sobbing bitterly and since then I have more than once observed traces of |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Tales of Terror and Mystery | of the Allertons lies fourteen hundred and twenty feet above sea level so it may well be a bracing climate Beyond the usual morning cough I have very little discomfort and what with the fresh milk and the home grown mutton I have every chance of putting on weight I think Saunderson will be pleased The two Miss Allertons are charmingly quaint and kind two dear little hard working old maids who are ready to lavish all the heart which might have gone out to husband and to children upon an invalid stranger Truly the old maid is a most |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | I was always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings with Sherlock Holmes Here I had heard what he had heard I had seen what he had seen and yet from his words it was evident that he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to happen while to me the whole business was still confused and grotesque As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought over it all from the extraordinary story of the red headed copier of the _Encyclopædia_ down to the visit to Saxe Coburg Square |
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 |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Tales of Terror and Mystery | it was very cold and I was conscious of that peculiar nausea which goes with rarefaction of the air For the first time I unscrewed the mouth of my oxygen bag and took an occasional whiff of the glorious gas I could feel it running like a cordial through my veins and I was exhilarated almost to the point of drunkenness I shouted and sang as I soared upwards into the cold still outer world It is very clear to me that the insensibility which came upon Glaisher and in a lesser degree upon Coxwell when in 1862 they ascended |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Tales and Fantasies | to I could not wait to see you really Please try to forgive me Your affectionate son JOHN NICHOLSON The coins abstracted and the missive written he could not be gone too soon from the scene of these transgressions and remembering how his father had once returned from church on some slight illness in the middle of the second psalm he durst not even make a packet of a change of clothes Attired as he was he slipped from the paternal doors and found himself in the cool spring air the thin spring sunshine and the great Sabbath quiet of |
H.G. Wells | The Island of Doctor Moreau | in depth and intensity as the afternoon wore on They were painful at first but their constant resurgence at last altogether upset my balance I flung aside a crib of Horace I had been reading and began to clench my fists to bite my lips and to pace the room Presently I got to stopping my ears with my fingers The emotional appeal of those yells grew upon me steadily grew at last to such an exquisite expression of suffering that I could stand it in that confined room no longer I stepped out of the door into the slumberous |
H.G. Wells | Invisible Man | sound of hurrying feet downstairs and voices With a quick movement Kemp thrust the Invisible Man back sprang aside and slammed the door The key was outside and ready In another moment Griffin would have been alone in the belvedere study a prisoner Save for one little thing The key had been slipped in hastily that morning As Kemp slammed the door it fell noisily upon the carpet Kemp s face became white He tried to grip the door handle with both hands For a moment he stood lugging Then the door gave six inches But he got it closed |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Tales and Fantasies | one place his money deserted in another and guarded by a corpse himself so sedulous of privacy the cynosure of all men s eyes about the station and as if these were not enough mischances he was now fallen in ill blood with the beast to whom his poverty had linked him In ill blood as he reflected dismally with the witness who perhaps might hang or save him There was no time to be lost he durst not linger any longer in that public spot and whether he had recourse to dignity or conciliation the remedy must be applied |
Charles Dickens | David Copperfield | would have been that he might have known his company this afternoon I felt embarrassed by these compliments but I was sensible too of being entertained as an honoured guest and I thought Mrs Heep an agreeable woman My Uriah said Mrs Heep has looked forward to this sir a long while He had his fears that our umbleness stood in the way and I joined in them myself Umble we are umble we have been umble we shall ever be said Mrs Heep I am sure you have no occasion to be so ma am I said unless you |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Tales and Fantasies | thoughts and then I can advise you But to go from here without a plan without forethought in the heat of a moment is madder than madness and can help nothing I am not speaking like a man but I speak the truth and I tell you again the thing s absurd and wrong and hurtful She looked at him with a lowering languid look of wrath So you will not take me she said Well I will go alone And she began to step forward on her way But he threw himself before her Esther Esther he cried Let |
H.G. Wells | The Island of Doctor Moreau | part of Moreau his face ovine in expression like the coarser Hebrew type his voice a harsh bleat his nether extremities Satanic He was gnawing the husk of a pod like fruit as he passed us Both of them saluted Montgomery Hail said they to the Other with the Whip There s a Third with a Whip now said Montgomery So you d better mind Was he not made said the Ape man He said he said he was made The Satyr man looked curiously at me The Third with the Whip he that walks weeping into the sea has |
H.G. Wells | The Sleeper Awakes | lit by the man on the cable Its light came glaring in through vast windows and arches and showed Graham that he was now one of a dense mass of flying black figures pressed back across the lower area of the great theatre This time the picture was livid and fragmentary slashed and barred with black shadows He saw that quite near to him the red guards were fighting their way through the people He could not tell whether they saw him He looked for Lincoln and his guards He saw Lincoln near the stage of the theatre surrounded in |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Jekyll and Hyde | said Poole We have all orders to obey him I do not think I ever met Mr Hyde asked Utterson O dear no sir He never _dines_ here replied the butler Indeed we see very little of him on this side of the house he mostly comes and goes by the laboratory Well good night Poole Good night Mr Utterson And the lawyer set out homeward with a very heavy heart Poor Harry Jekyll he thought my mind misgives me he is in deep waters He was wild when he was young a long while ago to be sure but |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Tales and Fantasies | next bludgeoned vanity raised its head again with twenty mortal gashes and the father was disowned even as he had disowned the son What was this regular course of life that John should have admired it what were these clock work virtues from which love was absent Kindness was the test kindness the aim and soul and judged by such a standard the discarded prodigal now rapidly drowning his sorrows and his reason in successive drams was a creature of a lovelier morality than his self righteous father Yes he was the better man he felt it glowed with the |
Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice | would be any other than highly desirable My situation in life my connections with the family of de Bourgh and my relationship to your own are circumstances highly in my favour and you should take it into further consideration that in spite of your manifold attractions it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made you Your portion is unhappily so small that it will in all likelihood undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable qualifications As I must therefore conclude that you are not serious in your rejection of me I shall |
H.G. Wells | The Sleeper Awakes | explained Unless we can do that they will land negroes At all costs we must prevent that He felt even as he spoke that this was not what had been in his mind before the interruption He saw a touch of surprise in her eyes She seemed about to speak and a shrill bell drowned her voice It occurred to Graham that she expected him to lead these marching people that that was the thing he had to do He made the offer abruptly He addressed the man in yellow but he spoke to her He saw her face respond |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Jekyll and Hyde | that man unveiled to me even with tears of penitence I cannot even in memory dwell on it without a start of horror I will say but one thing Utterson and that if you can bring your mind to credit it will be more than enough The creature who crept into my house that night was on Jekyll s own confession known by the name of Hyde and hunted for in every corner of the land as the murderer of Carew HASTIE LANYON HENRY JEKYLL S FULL STATEMENT OF THE CASE I was born in the year 18 to a |
Charles Dickens | Great Expectations | you look I do not returned Miss Havisham I am yellow skin and bone Camilla brightened when Miss Pocket met with this rebuff and she murmured as she plaintively contemplated Miss Havisham Poor dear soul Certainly not to be expected to look well poor thing The idea And how are _you_ said Miss Havisham to Camilla As we were close to Camilla then I would have stopped as a matter of course only Miss Havisham wouldn t stop We swept on and I felt that I was highly obnoxious to Camilla Thank you Miss Havisham she returned I am as |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Tales and Fantasies | that far away city that she had always honoured with her Sunday s best the place beside her family was to be empty till the crack of doom her innocent and almost venerable members to be exposed to that last curiosity of the anatomist Late one afternoon the pair set forth well wrapped in cloaks and furnished with a formidable bottle It rained without remission a cold dense lashing rain Now and again there blew a puff of wind but these sheets of falling water kept it down Bottle and all it was a sad and silent drive as far |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Hound of Baskervilles | of those called upon by my agent in search of evidence Here he kept his wife imprisoned in her room while he disguised in a beard followed Dr Mortimer to Baker Street and afterwards to the station and to the Northumberland Hotel His wife had some inkling of his plans but she had such a fear of her husband a fear founded upon brutal ill treatment that she dare not write to warn the man whom she knew to be in danger If the letter should fall into Stapleton s hands her own life would not be safe Eventually as |
Charles Dickens | Oliver Twis | me asked Noah setting down his cup and looking his employer eagerly in the face If you do it well a pound my dear One pound said Fagin wishing to interest him in the scent as much as possible And that s what I never gave yet for any job of work where there wasn t valuable consideration to be gained Who is she inquired Noah One of us Oh Lor cried Noah curling up his nose Yer doubtful of her are yer She has found out some new friends my dear and I must know who they are replied |
H.G. Wells | The Sleeper Awakes | Very probably not Our social order will probably seem very complex to you To tell you the truth I don t understand it myself very clearly Nobody does You will perhaps bye and bye We have to go to the Council Graham s attention was divided between the urgent necessity of his inquiries and the people in the passages and halls they were traversing For a moment his mind would be concentrated upon Howard and the halting answers he made and then he would lose the thread in response to some vivid unexpected impression Along the passages in the halls |
Robert Louis Stevenson | Kidnapped | hand and looking now at me and now upon the causeway of the street Yes says he that will be the best no doubt And he led me back with him into his house cried out to some one whom I could not see that he would be engaged all morning and brought me into a little dusty chamber full of books and documents Here he sate down and bade me be seated though I thought he looked a little ruefully from his clean chair to my muddy rags And now says he if you have any business pray be |
Jane Austen | Mansfield Park | Price there would have been every probability of success and felicity for him His affection had already done something Her influence over him had already given him some influence over her Would he have deserved more there can be no doubt that more would have been obtained especially when that marriage had taken place which would have given him the assistance of her conscience in subduing her first inclination and brought them very often together Would he have persevered and uprightly Fanny must have been his reward and a reward very voluntarily bestowed within a reasonable period from Edmund s |
Robert Louis Stevenson | The Black Arrow | ferry the other three with loose rein and flying raiment came galloping up the road from Tunstall From every clump they passed an arrow sped Soon a horse fell but the rider found his feet and continued to pursue his comrades till a second shot despatched him Another man fell then another horse out of the whole troop there was but one fellow left and he on foot only in different directions the noise of the galloping of three riderless horses was dying fast into the distance All this time not one of the assailants had for a moment shown |
Arthur Conan Doyle | Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | recovered his consciousness He had as it appears been returning from Fareham in the twilight and as the country was unknown to him and the chalk pit unfenced the jury had no hesitation in bringing in a verdict of death from accidental causes Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death I was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of murder There were no signs of violence no footmarks no robbery no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at |
H.G. Wells | The Sleeper Awakes | snake It had been cut by the men of the flying machine at its upper end and had crumpled down into the hall Men seemed to be hauling this out of the way But the whole effect was vague the very buildings throbbed and leapt with the roar of the voices He stood unsteadily and looked at those about him Someone supported him by one arm Let me go into a little room he said weeping a little room and could say no more A man in black stepped forward took his disengaged arm He was aware of officious men |
Subsets and Splits