hand, conjunctions are an annoyance when not
needed. Just as guideposts along a road where there is no chance to
leave the direct path are useless, and their recurrence is a cause of
aggravation, so it is with unnecessary conjunctions. They attract
attention to themselves, and so draw it from the thought. The first
caution is, Do not use conjunctions unless needed.

In the following, the repetition of _and_ is unnecessary and annoying.

"Six shillings a week does not keep body and soul together
very unitedly. They want to get away from each other when
there is only such a very slight bond as that between them;
and one day, I suppose, the pain and the dull monotony of it
all had stood before her eyes plainer than usual, and the
mocking spectre had frightened her. She had made one last
appeal to friends, but, against the chill wall of their
respectability, the voice of the erring outcast fell
unheeded; _and_ then she had gone to see her child--had held
it in her arms and kissed it, in a weary, dull sort of way,
_and_ without betraying any particular emotion of any kind,
_and_ had left it, after putting into its hand a penny box
of chocolate she had bought it, _and_ afterwards, with her
last few shillings, had taken a ticket _and_ come down to
Goring.

"It seemed that the bitterest thoughts of her life must have
centred about the wooded reaches and the bright green
meadows around Goring; but women strangely hug the knife
that stabs them, and, perhaps, amidst the gall, there may
have mingled also sunny memories of sweetest hours, spent
upon those shadowed deeps over which the great trees bend
their branches down so low.

"She had wandered about the woods by the river's brink all
day, _and_ then, when evening fell _and_ the gray twilight
spread its dusky robe upon the waters, she stretched out her
arms to the silent river that had known her sorrow and her
joy. _And_ the old river had taken her into its gentle arms,
_and_ had laid her weary head upon its bosom, _and_ had
hushed away the pain."

The other word is: When possible put the conjunction that connects two
sentences into the body of the sentence, rather than at its beginning.
In this way its binding power is increased. This principle should
limit the use of _and_ and _but_ at the beginning of a sentence.
Rarely is _an