"I was never was privy to secret talks between the minister and the president"," said the secretary.

There's a subtlety of word order here. The more obvious meaning would be "I was never privy to" - "I was never told about", "they never told me about". Simple.

"I never was privy to" implies, maybe, something like a resigned lament. The minister's secretary is told that the minister is dead and the president is missing, and asked if he knows anything about it. "No," he sighs, "I never was privy to the minister's personal affairs."

It is unquestionably safer to just go with "was never".

"He lost all his marbles"," said the wife.

"all his marbles" does work! But the standard form of the idiom is just "lost his marbles". The effect here is that the wife is saying he didn't simply go mad, he went completely and utterly mad.

"He woke up at 4 am and started vaccuuming the house.

The police tore off in their car when they got the report about the robbery.

Or "tore away".

Sentences 042: Privy, Marbles, Toearing Off

"I was never was privy to secret talks between the minister and the president", said the secretary.

"He lost all his marbles", said the wife.

The idiom is "He's lost his marbles"

"He woke up at 4am and started vaccuuming the house.

The police tore off in their car when they got the report about the robbery.