Sentence No. 77 · 12 June 2026
But in sooth Mr. Slope was pursuing Mrs. Bold in obedience to his better instincts, and the signora in obedience to his worser.
Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers
Anthony Trollope — Barchester Towers (1857) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
The second half — “the signora in obedience to his worser” — has no verb of its own: “pursuing” is understood again from the first clause. When a second object appears with no new verb, look back — the verb is shared.
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 clergyman's calculated romantic strategy is examined with dry irony. 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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