Sentence No. 105 · 10 July 2026
She was so gentle that she appeared fragile; but she was more solid than granite.
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Victor Hugo — Les Misérables (1862) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
Notice the semicolon: it pivots between two contrasting clauses joined by 'but'. Whenever you see this structure, the fragment after the semicolon almost always introduces the counter-image — here, fragility yielding to granite. Let the contrast guide the order.
How it appears in Sentle
On Sentle this sentence arrives in 7 pieces, shuffled, with the lines that lead up to it for context. A devoted nun's defining virtue is examined. Putting it back in the author’s order is the puzzle — and the order is rarely arbitrary, which is what the note above is about.
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