War and Peace vocabulary

the Germans or the English would have worked their way to freedom from them, while we simply turn them into ridicule."

 "But how can it be helped?" said Levin penitently. "It was my last effort. And I did try with all my soul. I can't. I'm no good at it."

Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina (Translated by Constance Garnett)

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As soon as I arrived, I sent a penitential codfish and barrel of oysters to Joe (as reparation for not having gone myself), and then went on to Barnard's Inn.

Charles Dickens. Great Expectations (1861)