@toplesstopics aww :(
did they get any books or reading material?
Maybe their friends were buying the stuff they bought too?
@toplesstopics If I might chip in, seems to me to be plausible that :
Maid : every day
Pool guy : dunno, how dirty is the pool? once a week or less?
Gardener : at least once a week if it's just potted plants, if its big house then permenant staff!
Staff learn to look the other way or come back later (is my understanding)
I use commas waaay too much.
But
Howabout :
Lysander responded more hesitantly than Theo had expected. Theo paused, then put more effort into...
or Lysander responded somewhat hesitantly. Theo put more effort into..
I'm just wondering if a stop rather than a comma gives the sentence a bit more impact ?
@toplesstopics I think it was because disease was blamed on the miasma theory (bad smelling air) for a very long time and doctors were very slow to accept disease theory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory
This sort of thing fascinates me. The modern scientific method, where theories are tested and re-tested to try to prove them wrong, is a very recent idea. Stuff just used to be accepted as true because an ancient Greek wrote about it!