Bautista dropped the sword onto the table, then adopted a portentous tone of voice.

There was the bullying portentous tone, which said, "This is unbelievably important--so you, shut up."

"Ah," the voice would say in a portentous tone.

Valtu heard him out, then spoke in portentous tones.

The writing doesn't explain everything, and you may be put off by its portentous tone, but it sets you thinking fruitfully along certain interpretive lines.

"Meat eater," he said, in the portentous tone of one crying "Taccuse!"

The portentous tone immediately raises suspicions as to this narrator's identity.

"I have one more question, Prisoner," the General continued in portentous tones.

The peddler's reply, in portentous tones, brought shocked murmurs that increased as he went on.

"I shall wait upon you this evening," he told Mairelon in portentous tones, and left.