Chapter 1 of The Velvet Glove is here in full — 192 sentences across 39 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The Velvet Glove is here in full — 192 sentences across 39 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
"Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba. And I have a great fortune to leave." One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement. The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant. The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
Chapter 1 of The Velvet Glove is here in full — 192 sentences across 39 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 25/38 · 5 reading units · Lines 121–125
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.
a communist state in the Caribbean on the island of Cuba
From this reading “"Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba.”
in or associated with the process of passing from life or ceasing to be
From this reading “The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.”
plural of “friar” — a male member of a religious order that originally relied solely on alms
From this reading “One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.”
inflected form of “hide” — prevent from being seen or discovered
From this reading “The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.”
an aggressive and violent young criminal
From this reading “The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.”
not subject to the control of the will
From this reading “One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.”
-ing form of “pray” — address a deity, a prophet, a saint or an object of worship; say a prayer
From this reading “One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.”
city in the northern Dominican Republic
From this reading “"Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba.”
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 And I have a great fortune to leave."
prior to a specified or implied time
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading "Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba.
Directly under; in or to a lower position than.
From this reading The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.
the process of taking in and expelling air during breathing
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
an orange of low brightness and saturation
From this reading The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.
inflected form of “come” — move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
a communist state in the Caribbean on the island of Cuba
From this reading "Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba.
a Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies
From this reading "Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba.
in or associated with the process of passing from life or ceasing to be
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another
From this reading And I have a great fortune to leave."
plural of “friar” — a male member of a religious order that originally relied solely on alms
From this reading One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.
relatively large in size or number or extent; larger than others of its kind
From this reading And I have a great fortune to leave."
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading And I have a great fortune to leave."
inflected form of “hide” — prevent from being seen or discovered
From this reading The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
an aggressive and violent young criminal
From this reading The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading And I have a great fortune to leave."
not subject to the control of the will
From this reading One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.
used when the thing doing the action is also its object
From this reading The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.
go away from a place
From this reading And I have a great fortune to leave."
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
From this reading One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.
a strong positive emotion of regard and affection
From this reading The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.
an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
a male member of a religious order that originally relied solely on alms
From this reading The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.
the most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender
From this reading The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.
a change of position that does not entail a change of location
From this reading One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading "Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.
by chance
From this reading The love of money perhaps hid itself beneath the brown hood of the mendicant.
-ing form of “pray” — address a deity, a prophet, a saint or an object of worship; say a prayer
From this reading One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.
city in the northern Dominican Republic
From this reading "Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba.
an ancient city on the Ebro River in northeastern Spain; formerly the capital of Aragon
From this reading "Of Saragossa and Santiago de Cuba.
primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
support consisting of a radial member of a wheel joining the hub to the rim
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading One of the praying friars made a little involuntary movement.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading And I have a great fortune to leave."
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
which person or people
From this reading The man who spoke was dying; already his breath came short.
Chapter 1 of The Velvet Glove by Henry Seton Merriman holds 192 sentences, grouped into 39 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 1 holds 192 sentences of The Velvet Glove, unabridged, divided into 39 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The Velvet Glove by Henry Seton Merriman exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 192 sentences, grouped into 39 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 39 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 39 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 1 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 Velvet Glove by Henry Seton Merriman on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 4921 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #10342 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #10342, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 410 minutes of reading across 985 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Velvet Glove section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 29 chapters of The Velvet Glove 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 Velvet Glove, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
