Sentence No. 80 · 15 June 2026
Her voice never faltered; and she herself gained strength by doing this
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell — North and South (1855) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
The semicolon here joins two independent clauses that have a cause-and-effect relationship. When you see a semicolon phrase, look for two complete statements on either side — the second clause ("she herself gained strength") explains the consequence of what the first describes.
How it appears in Sentle
On Sentle this sentence arrives in 6 pieces, shuffled, with the lines that lead up to it for context. A bereaved daughter struggles to console her grieving father. 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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