A few chairs of the Louis-quatorze taste, with blue velvet linings, faded and worn, a cracked marble table upon legs that once had been gilt; two scarcely detectable portraits of a mail-clad hero and a scarcely less formidable fair, with a dove upon her wrist, formed the principal articles of furniture in the dismal abode, where so "triste" and depressing did every thing appear, that I half regretted the curiosity that had tempted me from the balmy air, and cheerful morning without, to the gloom and solitude around me.
"The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete"
Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
Half an hour later, there was another one at five light-minutes; a very small one, and then a third at two light-seconds, and this was detectable by radar and microray as a ship's pinnace.
"Space Viking"
Henry Beam Piper
But what if there is no detectable reality outside the mind?
"Suite Mentale"
Gordon Randall Garrett