Sentence No. 156 · 30 August 2026
He penetrated a plot in a flash; and in a flash he formed one; but in both cases, it was after long hovering and not over-eager deliberation, by the patient exercise of his quick perceptives
George Meredith, The Egoist
George Meredith — The Egoist (1879) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
Notice the semicolons: they mark three balanced beats — a claim, its mirror, and a qualifying reversal beginning with 'but'. When a sentence stacks parallel clauses this way, the semicolons signal where each new movement starts, so fragments ending in a semicolon almost always precede a fresh clause.
How it appears in Sentle
On Sentle this sentence arrives in 8 pieces, shuffled, with the lines that lead up to it for context. A gentleman's shrewd instincts guide him through a delicate revelation. 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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