Ralph the Heir

The time for hearing the petition at Percycross had at length come, and the judge had gone down to that ancient borough. The day fixed was Monday, the 27th, and Parliament had then been sitting for three weeks. Mr. Griffenbottom had been as constant in his place as though there had been no sword hanging over his head; but Sir Thomas had not as yet even taken the oaths.

Election victory stalls under petition sword — plot braids borough law with family inheritance — so plot scores 88.

There are men who cannot communicate themselves to others, as there are also men who not only can do so, but cannot do otherwise. And it is hard to say which is the better man of the two.

Cast framed as communication types before names settle — Sir Thomas as reticent pole of the machine — so cast scores 87.

The election took place on a Tuesday,--Tuesday, the 17th of October. On the following day one of the members received a visit in his bedroom at the Percy Standard which was very pleasant to him. His daughter Patience had come down to nurse Sir Thomas and take him back to Fulham.

Dated election then bedroom nursing visit — serial calendar as pace, politics interrupted by family care — so pace scores 85.

We do not specially respect him who wears his heart upon his sleeve for daws to peck at, who carries a crystal window to his bosom so that all can see the work that is going on within it, who cannot keep any affair of his own private.

Shakespearean sleeve image turned into social taxonomy — essayistic comic prose — so prose scores 88.

The time for hearing the petition at Percycross had at length come, and the judge had gone down to that ancient borough.

Ancient borough under petition judge — electoral England as lived place, not backdrop — so world scores 86.

There are men who cannot communicate themselves to others, as there are also men who not only can do so, but cannot do otherwise.

Reader hooked by moral typology before plot stakes — heir novel opened as character problem — so hook scores 89.

The time for hearing the petition at Percycross had at length come, and the judge had gone down to that ancient borough.

Inheritance twin-names fused to contested seat — Trollope invents heir comedy as political petition machine — so innov scores 87.

Clarissa had found it hard to change the object of her love, so hard, that for a time she had been unwilling even to make the effort;--and she had been ashamed that those around her should think that she would make it; but when the thing was done, her second hero was dearer to her than ever had been the first. He at least was true.

Second love dearer because true — ending settles transfer without melodrama — so ending scores 86.