Hi, Anton!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AH>  Some folks consider it acceptable to introduce a tense
AH>  change at the beginning of a new paragraph, but AFAIC
AH>  it's distracting & unpleasant.  I would suggest you pick
AH>  one or the other & avoid changing horses in midstream....

AS>  This very morning I have enountered that device in Peter
AS>  Taylor for the second time,


           I think you mean Peter Taylor (1917-1944), from the US.  :-)



AS>  but it is the first time that I have found the time (time,
AS>  time, time...) to quote it:


           Not to worry!  I guess folks like you & Alexander are really paying
attention when you ask about something I posted months or even years ago.  ;-)



>>>  They were on their wa downstairs again now, and by the time
>>>  they had finished with this favorite subject the would be
>>>  downstairs.
>>>  They would be in the dark, flower-bedecked downstairs hall
>>>  and just before entering the dining room for the promised
>>>  refreshments: the fruit jello, the English tea biscuits,
>>>  the lime punch.

>>>  And now foor a moment Mr. Dorset bars the way to the dining
>>>  room and prevents is sister from opening the closed door.
>>>  "Now, my good friends," he says, "let us eat, drink, and
>>>  be merry!"


           Hmm.  Peter Taylor may have considered it acceptable to introduce a
tense change at the beginning of a new paragraph, but I don't see what purpose
it serves here.  Miss Langwidge wouldn't have allowed her students to do that.
And WRT the above example I find the tense change distracting at least in part
because... together with the content... it sounds much like what I overhear at
the local pub.  I can't help wondering if the narrator had already sampled the
lime punch and if that's the effect the author wanted to achieve... [chuckle].




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+