"No engagement? Had I no engagement, do you ask me?" cried Ella. "Oh, yes, yes! I had an engagement, but I broke it--I broke it--I broke it, and that is why I am here. Whatever may come of it, I am here, and here I mean to stay. I am safe here. At home I am in danger."英文原著 · 《Phyllis of Philistia》
But they were in no condition to make any such engagement. Their recommendatory powers for obtaining contributions were so openly neglected by the several states that they declined an engagement which they were conscious they could not fulfill with punctuality; and so it fell through.英文原著 · 《AUTOBIOGRAPHY》
"She is not at all to my taste, I confess. Your father, too, dislikes the Taylors very much. The way in which she spoke of this story about Elinor's engagement was really unfeeling. Not that I believe it; but breaking off an engagement without good reason, is no such trifle in my opinion, as it seems to be in that of Miss Taylor."英文原著 · 《Elinor Wyllys-1》
A man threatened by ruin is in no state of mind to keep an engagement at a lady's tea-table. Ernest sent a letter of apology to Mrs. Call ender, alleging extreme pressure of business as the excuse for breaking his engagement.英文原著 · 《LITTLE NOVELS》
With his debts paid, Clemens was anxious to be getting home. Two weeks following the above he wrote Redpath that he would accept no more engagements at any price, outside of New England, and added, "The fewer engagements I have from this time forth the better I shall be pleased." By the end of February he was back in Hartford, refusing an engagement in Boston, and announcing to Redpath, "If I had another engagement I'd rot before I'd fill it." From which we gather that he was not entirely happy in the lecture field.英文原著 · 《Letters Vol. 2》
He was always forgetting engagements, or getting them wrong. Once he hurried to an afternoon party, and finding the mistress of the house alone, sat down and talked to her comfortably for an hour or two, not remembering his errand at all. It was only when he reached home that he learned that the party had taken place the week before. It was always dangerous for him to make engagements, and he never seemed to profit by sorrowful experience. We, however, may profit now by one of his amusing apologies. To Mrs. Grover Cleveland, in Washington:
HARTFORD, Nov. 6, 1887.英文原著 · 《Letters Vol. 4》
Sorry, Wanda and I have to get to a prior engagement-- - Party. - A prior engagement party.美剧 · 《Bojack Horseman》