Fond hearts and true are sighing.
OBS. 10. The former comma is frequently omitted. Especially is this the case when the previous part of the sentence has required commas. Liberal pointing would omit the comma after “where,” in the above example. And in the following sentence, from General Marcy’s “Ramblings in the West,” note the omission of the comma after “and,” and from the parenthetic clause “it was believed”:
This, with the destruction of our trains, consumed the greater part of our winter supplies, and as they could not be replenished from the Missouri River before the following June, General Johnston, the commander, determined to send a detachment directly over the mountains to New Mexico, from whence it was believed supplies could be obtained earlier than from farther east. {p103}
Notice, also, the omission of the comma after “and” and “but,” in the following paragraphs:
He left college; and forsaken by his friends, he took refuge with the parliament party.—Marsh, Eccl. Hist.
The written law is sufficient to decide this case; but inasmuch as the irregularity in question is a fertile source of disputes, the case has been deemed worthy of insertion.—Cavendish.
(The most common parenthetic expressions are at least, at most, accordingly, as it were, beyond question, consequently, doubtless, furthermore, generally speaking, in the mean time, on the other hand, etc.)
17. Words or phrases expressing contrast, or emphatically distinguished, and terms having a common relation to some other term that follows them, require the comma.
a. Contrast or notable difference.
His style is correct, yet familiar.