Sentence The Twentythird
Daphne laid the papers on the table, for Maude and the three girls to see; she indicated the separate piles – those relating to Sister Evadne Eglantine, the celebrated Scottish nun and bibliophile (not, however a bibliomaniac, for her collection was quite defined by her interest in medicine and healing, and of course her religious calling, and there were no random or impulsive acquisitions in it as catalogued by Dr Dean Dumbiedykes, Daphne and Maude's great-grandfather, curator of the Signet Library of his day and a noted collector of historic books and manuscripts himself); then those which detailed the life of Sir Parlane MacFarlane, infamous seducer of noble ladies and debaucher of young girls – and boys, it was whispered - openly atheist in a time and place where atheophobia was dominant – yet never brought to account because of it – perhaps he knew too much about those who might have pursued him – a man who relished his reputation and flaunted it everywhere he went; Griselda Longformacus was next, though less well documented than the first two, she was the daughter of Muckle-Heid Menstrie, and a renowned beauty who had caught the eye of several
suitors, eventually marrying Angus MacAngus, son and heir of Angus MacIan and father of the dynasty which despite the vicissitudes of time still rules the Kingdom to this day; and lastly, evidence regarding the children of Angus and Griselda, including Sister Evadne's last testament discovered by Daphne in the deep oubliette far beneath the site of the Heart of Midlothian (Maude had applied her skills to the annotation of this evidence which came from diverse sources and – omitting the technobabble of Scottish legalese with it's reference to havers and pursuers and hereuntoaforesaids and assoilzied, art and part, and fugitation – she had turned all of the salient facts into a spreadsheet which delineated the relationships and dates of events for all those concerned), “and I even identified the shadchan who negotiated the match between Griselda and Angus - and you'll never guess who she was!”
Daphne laid the papers on the table, for Maude and the three girls to see; she indicated the separate piles – those relating to Sister Evadne Eglantine, the celebrated Scottish nun and bibliophile (not, however a bibliomaniac, for her collection was quite defined by her interest in medicine and healing, and of course her religious calling, and there were no random or impulsive acquisitions in it as catalogued by Dr Dean Dumbiedykes, Daphne and Maude's great-grandfather, curator of the Signet Library of his day and a noted collector of historic books and manuscripts himself); then those which detailed the life of Sir Parlane MacFarlane, infamous seducer of noble ladies and debaucher of young girls – and boys, it was whispered - openly atheist in a time and place where atheophobia was dominant – yet never brought to account because of it – perhaps he knew too much about those who might have pursued him – a man who relished his reputation and flaunted it everywhere he went; Griselda Longformacus was next, though less well documented than the first two, she was the daughter of Muckle-Heid Menstrie, and a renowned beauty who had caught the eye of several
suitors, eventually marrying Angus MacAngus, son and heir of Angus MacIan and father of the dynasty which despite the vicissitudes of time still rules the Kingdom to this day; and lastly, evidence regarding the children of Angus and Griselda, including Sister Evadne's last testament discovered by Daphne in the deep oubliette far beneath the site of the Heart of Midlothian (Maude had applied her skills to the annotation of this evidence which came from diverse sources and – omitting the technobabble of Scottish legalese with it's reference to havers and pursuers and hereuntoaforesaids and assoilzied, art and part, and fugitation – she had turned all of the salient facts into a spreadsheet which delineated the relationships and dates of events for all those concerned), “and I even identified the shadchan who negotiated the match between Griselda and Angus - and you'll never guess who she was!”
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