I Forbid the Banns! — page 105: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CONCERNING PROPOSITIONS. 95 “ But I am certain from the way she smiled-——” It was now Bertha’s turn to smile. “The thief doth think each bush an officer,” she whis- pered, looking into his face with sparkling eyes. : ‘Perhaps so,’ said he, with a responsive laugh. But all the same he felt that Mrs. Hardy perceived that he had told Bertha that he loved her, and that Bertha had not received the information in a hostile spirit. He was set wondering how it could be that a common- place elderly lady, whose greatest trials in the world were steps and stairs, was able to read a matter which he believed to be a profound secret—in facta mystery. By what means did that lady, who seemed to devote so large a proportion of her few waking hours to the consideration of such com- estibles as possessed a minimum of flesh-forming qualities —by what means did she diseover that he and Bertha had come to an understanding with regard to the unity of their souls? (That was the phrase he wanted.) Even if Mrs. Hardy had been awake—which she had not been—when the electric light had blinked and gone out, she could not have witnessed the little incident which followed, leaving their faces flushed and their hearts beating with unusual rapidity. He began to think that Mrs. Hardy was gifted with higher _ powers of perception than he had placed to hercredit. Of course it was ridiculous to fancy that Mrs. Hardy could un- derstand anything of that mystery of mingling souls which. constituted real love ; but that system of smiles which she had developed in the course of the morning plainly suggested to him that Mrs. Hardy would, with a little encouragement, have actually expressed to him her warm congratulations upon a matter which she would probably have termed their engagement. (A horrid word !) He had a curious shrinking from commonplace con- _ gratulations ; and this caused him to remain apart from comicbookse EO