come apart at the seams

Sands was involved in a scandalous-for-the-time romance with the carpenter and there were rumors she was pregnant with his child.

In their shelter, Brion and Ulv crouched low and wondered why the attack didn't come.

Babylas raised his pale face; he knew what was coming; it had come so many times before.

He reached forward and took her hands, and if Mrs. Vivian had come in she would have seen him kneeling at her daughter's feet.

Vicars' wives had come and gone, but all had submitted, some after a brief struggle, to old Mrs. Wurzel's sway.

This wasn't at all what he meant to say, and it sounded very ridiculous; but somehow the words wouldn't come straight.