The following sentence does seem sensible to me upon reading it, although, I confess that I am still wanting in terms of some… understanding. Therefore, I would like to request some aid in deconstructing this sentence.
I know that, in the past perfect form, when two clauses are separated by ‘and’ (or, being enumerated), the past perfect does not apply. e.g.:
’ Then Adelin, a worthy fellow, came in, laid down his hat on seeing me and, coming over to me, said softly… ’
Although, if a past continuous clause is followed by another clause, why should this clause be presented in the past perfect tense? Such as in,
’ I am grateful to you, Albert, for deceiving me: I was waiting for news of your wedding date, and had decided to take down Lotte’s silhouette profile from my wall on that day, with all solemnity, and bury it amidst my other papers. ’
For in a standard past continuous tense such as, ‘The boys had been discoursing for an hour before Edward arrived.’, it is separated by ‘before’ and is therefore apparent. It would, moreover, be apparent if the causes were separated by ‘since, because, etc.’
As a native English speaker, I rarely think about the tenses and so forth. Although, upon deconstructing this sentence, I’ve had much difficulty in truly understanding it.
Thank you for any assistance.