Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT
174
Frodo sat silent and motionless. Fear seemed to stretch out a vast
hand, like a dark cloud rising in the East and looming up to engulf
him. 'This ring!' he stammered. 'How, how on earth did it come to
me?'
'Ah!' said Gandalf. 'That is a very long story. The beginnings lie
back in the Black Years, which only the lore-masters now remember.
If I were to tell you all that tale, we should still be sitting here when
Spring had passed into Winter.
'But last night I told you of Sauron the Great, the Dark Lord. The
rumours that you heard are true: he has indeed arisen again and left
his hold in Mirkwood and returned to his ancient fastness in the Dark
Tower of Mordor. That name even you hobbits have heard of, like a
shadow on the borders of old stories. Always after a defeat and a
respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.'
-J.R.R. ToLKIEN, The Lord of the Rings
Nondialogue text may appear in the same paragraph as dialogue.
'Nice furniture!' said Haresh, in the belief that this was the kind of
small talk that needed to be made.
Meenakshi looked at him and forbore from comment.
But Mrs Khandelwal gazed at him with her sweetest, most charming
expression. He had provided her with an opportunity to say what she
had been waiting to say. 'Do you think so?' she asked Haresh. 'It has
been done by Kamdar's-Kamdar's of Bombay. Half our rooms are
decorated by them.'
Meenakshi looked at the heavy corner-settee-in dark, solid wood
with dark blue upholstery. 'If you like this sort of thing, you can always
get it in Calcutta,' she said. 'There's the Chowringhee Sales Bureau,
for instance, for old-fashioned furniture. And if you want something
more modern in style, there's always Mozoomdar. It's a little less'­
she paused for a word-' a little less ponderous. But it depends on your
taste. These pakoras are delicious,' she added by way of compensation,
helping herself to another one.
Her bright laugh tinkled across the china, though there was nothing
very obviously humorous in her previous remarks.