half-enigmatical

Updated: May 7, 2025

God's whole policy consists in rendering slopes less steep. It was about this epoch that Enjolras, in view of a possible catastrophe, instituted a kind of mysterious census. All were present at a secret meeting at the Cafe Musain. Enjolras said, mixing his words with a few half-enigmatical but significant metaphors: "It is proper that we should know where we stand and on whom we may count.

Victor Hugo - Les Misérables

From some recess of memory there came to her some half-enigmatical words; they had been quoted by Charles Osmond in his speech, but she did not remember where she had heard them, only they began to ring in her ears now: "There is no gain except by loss, There is no life except by death, Nor glory but by bearing shame, Nor justice but by taking blame."

Edna Lyall - We Two, a novel