Sentence No. 50 · 16 May 2026
Madame de Rênal was going out of the salon by the folding window which opened on to the garden with that vivacity and grace which was natural to her when she was free from human observation, when she noticed a young peasant near the entrance gate.
Stendhal, The Red and the Black
Stendhal — The Red and the Black (1830) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
The sentence uses a double "when" construction: the first "when she was free from human observation" modifies her manner, while the second "when she noticed" pivots the entire action. Spotting repeated subordinating conjunctions helps you sequence phrases that might otherwise seem interchangeable.
How it appears in Sentle
On Sentle this sentence arrives in 8 pieces, shuffled, with the lines that lead up to it for context. Julien Sorel arrives at the Rênal household to take up his position as tutor — and makes his first impression on its mistress. 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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