Thank you Vic. I was too hasty to dismiss the possibility of a house style. I checked a few pages and the loose lines I examined happened to contain unconsolidated contractions, and the tight lines happened to have the exceptions you noted (plus one error by a type-setter) and I was misled. I should have recalled Henry James' troubles with the house styles of his early magazine publishers. P&P's antiquated speech presented some challenges to the house style (thou'lt, etc) and "Some Rambling Notes" in STW must have given that compositor fits. Still, if you count the first ten letters backwards.... Kevin Mac Donnell Austin TX