Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/340

326 To think of the campaign without the scene is as who should read a play by candle-light among the ghosts of an empty theatre.–.

1. Omission of a dependent noun in the second of two parallel series: 'The brim of my hat is wider than yours'. For this there is some justification: an ugly string of words is avoided, and the missing word is easily supplied from the first series; it has usually the effect, however, of attaching a preposition to the wrong noun:

Here the right preposition is retained.

A man holding such a responsible position as Minister of the United States.–D..

2. A preposition is sometimes left out, quite unwarrantably, from a mistaken idea of euphony:

3. Impossible compromises between two possible alternatives.

One compromise of this kind has come to be generally recognized:

So far from being annoyed, he agreed at once. ('So far was he from being annoyed that...': 'far from being annoyed, he agreed')