I Forbid the Banns! — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

IIo ‘“T] FORBID THE BANNS!” has brought us together, making us one by that love which is God’s best gift and God’s deepest mystery ?”’ “Can I doubt it, Bertha? Only—England !” ‘England is no more to us than any other part of the world. Why, I do believe that you will talk to me of Mrs, Grundy next.” ‘ Bertha,” said he gravely, “I can understand a pure- minded girl, such as you are, hoping to carry out what she believes in her heart to be a great plan to make the world look at a purely spiritual matter, such as we know love to be, from a spiritual standpoint, and not from a merely social standpoint. But, believe me, dearest, the world is too gross to be regarded as ripe for such an experiment as you sug- gest. The men and women of the civilized world require to be bound by such a contract as that which we call, for want of a better name, marriage. It is found necessary for the law of the land to be framed so as to punish the man who deserts his wife.” “Deserts the woman with whom he is living,” said the girl quickly. ‘If she were really his wife—his wife as you and I and Heaven regard wifehood—he would never desert her. That love which alone is the mystic bond of true union does not come and go. It is eternal. It cannot be severed.” “I feel that every day, Bertha,” saidhe. “I thank God that every day but increases my love for you. But I feel that I should be behaving as a scoundrel if I were to take advantage of your . “Do not say ‘impulses,’ Julian—say ‘principles.’ I have held these principles for some time—since I was sey- enteen, I think—three years ago. I have never had a hope of being able to realize my dream in this matter. I never felt the least suggestion of love fof any man until I met you, and then I knew that the hour had come—I knew that I must love you, dearest.” Gomichbooks (C(O)