Infinitive as Attribute

1. When a man is lost it is my duty to ascertain his fate, but having done so the matter ends so far as I am concerned, and so long as there is nothing criminal I am much more anxious to hush up private scandals than to give them publicity.

2. Manson swears the ship is haunted, and that he would not stay in her a day if he had any other place to go to.

3. With his disinterested passion for art, he had a real desire to call the attention of the wise to a talent which was in the highest degree original; but he was too good a journalist to be unaware that the "human interest" would enable him more easily to effect his purpose.

4. Then it was a distinction to be under forty, but now to be more than twenty-five is absurd.

5. I had nothing to say and so sat silent, trying politely to show interest in the conversation; and because I thought no one was in the least concerned with me, examined Strickland at my ease.

6. Do you mean to say you've had nothing to eat or drink for two days? It's horrible.

7. If I were writing a novel, rather than narrating such facts as I know of a curious personality, I should have invented much to account for this change of heart

8. Mrs. Macandrew shared the common opinion of her sex that a man is always a brute to leave a woman who is attached to him, but that a woman is much to blame if he does.

9. I've always thought it would be jolly to have someone to talk to when one was tired of work.

10. Some day those pictures will be worth more than all you have in your shop. Remember Monet, who could not get anyone to buy his pictures for a hundred francs. What are they worth now?

11. Oh, my dear, remember what we've just heard. He's been used to comfort and to having someone to look after him. How long do you think it'll be before he gets tired of a scrubby room in a scrubby hotel? Besides, he hasn't got any money. He must come back."

12. "That's what I always say," reflected Captain Nichols, "when you hurt a man, hurt him bad. It gives you a bit of time to look about and think what to do next."

13. "You're looking at my pictures," she said, following my eyes. "Of course, the originals are out of my reach, but it's a comfort to have these.

14. The passion that held Strickland was a passion to create beauty. It gave him no peace. There are men whose desire to find the truth is so great that to attain it they will shatter the very foundation of their world.

15. It was my intention to have stopped there, and to have said nothing of that event which has created a void in my life which the lapse of two years has done little to fill.

16. I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to understand that I am by no means a nervous man. At the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.

17. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed – the word is passed to the professor, the matter is organized and carried out.

18. Things had indeed been very slow with us, and I had learned to dread such periods of inaction, for I knew by experience that my companion's brain was so abnormally active that it was dangerous to leave it without material upon which to work. Therefore I blessed this Mr. Overton, whoever he might be, since he had come with his enigmatic message to break that dangerous calm which brought more peril to my friend than all the storms of his tempestuous life.

19. But I daresay it may have come to your notice that, if you walk into a postoffice and demand to see the counterfoil of another man's message, there may be some disinclination on the part of the officials to oblige you.

20. “Very good, sir,” said Sherlock Holmes. May I ask, in the meanwhile, whether you have yourself any theory to account for this young man's disappearance?” “No, sir, I have not. He is big enough and old enough to look after himself, and if he is so foolish as to lose himself, I entirely refuse to accept the responsibility of hunting for him.”

21. There is one explanation that this young man really is the heir of a great property, however modest his means may at present be, and it is not impossible that a plot to hold him for ransom might be concocted.

22. Of course, I had at the outset no particular reason to connect these journeys with the disappearance of Godfrey Staunton, and was only inclined to investigate them on the general grounds that everything which concerns Dr. Armstrong is at present of interest to us, but, now that I find he keeps so keen a look-out upon anyone who may follow him on these excursions, the affair appears more important, and I shall not be satisfied until I have made the matter clear.

23. He knows where the young man is, and if he knows, then it must be our own fault if we cannot manage to know also. It is not my habit to leave the game in that condition.

24. No doubt you will find some sights to amuse you in this city, and I hope to bring back a more favourable report to you before evening.