I Forbid the Banns! — page 146: what you’re looking at

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

136 ‘7 FORBID THE BANNS!” boughs of the distant trees a silver band of moonlight stretched. It swept across the grassy slopes and lay upon the still water beside him. In the mystery of moonlight the figure of a boy with bright hair ran out from the shrub- bery and stood facing him across the fish pond. He started at the sight of that figure. He knewit well. He knew that he was looking at the ghost of his dead boyhood. Then as he remained sitting there the silence of the night was broken by the sound of the church bell. At nine o’clock every night, in all seasons, it was the custom to ring the church bell. Even the oldest inhabitant, who could by judicious coaxing be brought to recollect occurrences as recent as Monmouth’s rebellion, the execution of Charles the First, and, after a little persuasion, the stir caused by the appearance of the Spanish Armada, and all the talk there was when the news reached England that Lord Nel- son had been killed at that time—even this interesting per- sonage—who could read the Bible, only he didn’t, without the aid of spectacles, resolutely declined to say positively in which reign this custom of bell-ringing at nine o’clock had originated. But the sound of the bell brought back to Julian Charlton many memories. It brought back to him the memory of the two saddest days in his life. When the bell had tolled for the death of his mother he felt that he was alone in the world, for he had been his mother’s constant companion. Just when he had come to understand his father the bell had tolled once more. Once again he asked himself if his father and mother were alive would he have agreed to take the step which he was contemplating. “T'll not do it,’’ he cried resolutely as he started again to his feet. ‘I'll not do it.” He returned to the house and threw himself upon the oak settee in front of the burning logs in the now lighted dining room. Gomichbooks (€() m =