I have heard them before.

If you have anything to tell me about Mrs.Sydney Bamborough, for Heaven's sake tell it to me quite plainly.

I like plain dishes and unvarnished stories.

I am a German, you know; that is to say, a person with a dull palate and a thick head." De Chauxville laughed again in an unemotional way.
"You alter little," he said.

"Your plainness of speech takes me back to Petersburg.