Sentence No. 83 · 18 June 2026
It would take a good deal to stir him from his cool manner of speaking; but his face strikes me as anxious
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell — North and South (1855) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
The semicolon joins two contrasting independent clauses: the first concedes ("It would take a good deal to stir him from his cool manner of speaking"), the second counters ("but his face strikes me as anxious"). When a semicolon sits beside "but," the clause carrying "but" always follows the break, never leads the sentence.
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 young woman walks home through quiet streets after a dinner party. 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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