Complex sentence: At Mary's seventy-fifth birthday party, Ralph goes to great lengths to avoid Meggie, now seventeen and dressed in a beautiful rose-pink evening gown; later, he explains that others might not see his attention as innocent.
Split into simpler sentences: At Mary's seventy-fifth birthday party, Ralph goes to great lengths to avoid Meggie, now seventeen and dressed in a beautiful rose-pink evening gown. Later, he explains that others might not see his attention as innocent.