Chapter 16 of The three strings is here in full — 245 sentences across 49 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XVI
Chapter 16 of The three strings is here in full — 245 sentences across 49 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
THE BEST LAID PLANS.... MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden. “Things look black,” he admitted. “Devilish black for René La Montagne.” Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
Chapter 16 of The three strings is here in full — 245 sentences across 49 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/49 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
replying
From this reading “Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.”
a suite of rooms usually on one floor of an apartment house
From this reading “MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.”
showing the cunning or ingenuity or wickedness typical of a devil
From this reading ““Devilish black for René La Montagne.””
an item inserted in a written record
From this reading “Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.”
easily agitated
From this reading “MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.”
(music) the speed at which a composition is to be played
From this reading “MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.”
possessive form of “palmer” — United States golfer (born in 1929)
plural of “stride” — a step in walking or running
From this reading “MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.”
English keeps certain words together, and knowing the pair is worth more than knowing each word alone. Every partnership below was counted across our whole published library, and earns its place by appearing far more often than two unrelated words of the same frequency would.
Shown as this reading writes them, with the form the library counts, what kind of pairing it is, and how often it occurs.
at or in the front
In this reading “MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.”
In this reading “Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
inflected form of “admit” — declare to be true or admit the existence or reality or truth of
From this reading “Things look black,” he admitted.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
replying
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
a suite of rooms usually on one floor of an apartment house
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
earlier than; in front of
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
the supreme effort one can make
From this reading THE BEST LAID PLANS....
being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
From this reading “Things look black,” he admitted.
a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together)
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
showing the cunning or ingenuity or wickedness typical of a devil
From this reading “Devilish black for René La Montagne.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
an item inserted in a written record
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading “Devilish black for René La Montagne.”
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
the side that is forward or prominent
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading “Things look black,” he admitted.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
relating to or being on the side closer to the center or within a defined space
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
a white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily; occurs in rare earth minerals and is usually classified as a rare earth
From this reading “Devilish black for René La Montagne.”
set down according to a plan
From this reading THE BEST LAID PLANS....
immediately past
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
perceive with attention; direct one's gaze towards
From this reading “Things look black,” he admitted.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading “Devilish black for René La Montagne.”
easily agitated
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
(music) the speed at which a composition is to be played
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
possessive form of “palmer” — United States golfer (born in 1929)
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
past form of “pause” — interrupt temporarily an activity before continuing
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
plural of “plan” — a series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished
From this reading THE BEST LAID PLANS....
a small pouch inside a garment for carrying small articles
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading “Devilish black for René La Montagne.”
inflected form of “slip” — move stealthily
From this reading Hayden made a last entry in his day book and slipped it inside his pocket before answering.
plural of “stride” — a step in walking or running
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading THE BEST LAID PLANS....
any movable possession (especially articles of clothing)
From this reading “Things look black,” he admitted.
in the company of; together with
From this reading MAYNARD, pacing with nervous strides back and forth in Palmer’s apartment, paused in front of Dr. Hayden.
Chapter 16 of The three strings by Natalie Sumner Lincoln holds 245 sentences, grouped into 49 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 16 holds 245 sentences of The three strings, unabridged, divided into 49 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 16 of The three strings by Natalie Sumner Lincoln exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 245 sentences, grouped into 49 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 49 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 49 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 16 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading The three strings by Natalie Sumner Lincoln on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 0 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #? are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #?, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 5 minutes of reading across 0 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The three strings section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 0 chapters of The three strings to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in The three strings, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
