I Forbid the Banns! — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

ON AN OAK SETTEE. 137 The motion of the steamer;whose deck he had only left at noon was still felt by him, as it is by most persons during the first day or two after a long voyage; and with this motion there came to him all the gracious mem- ories of the past seventeen days, when Bertha had been by his side. There was no suggestion of sadness in any of these memories, such as there had been in his recol- lections of the years long dead. It was only when he thought of what the future would be without her that he felt overwhelmed. Then the thought came to him of how he had seen her last. That man whom she called Eric Vicars had been by her side, smiling joyously upon her face opposite to his own in the cab. He had not failed to notice how the smile upon the man’s face had changed suddenly into a scowl when he saw that the girl was waving a farewell to her lover. If he were to go to Bertha the next day and tell her that, upon consideration, he found that he could not take her to himself unless she submitted to the ancient and common- place ceremony of marriage with him, they should part. - And then? There came over him once again that curious feeling which he had experienced for the first time in his life when he had seen her by the side of Eric Vicars. He felt certain what were the designs of this man Vicars in regard to Bertha. He felt certain that Mr. Vicars would not have any delicate scruples in the matter of humoring the girl. At any rate, if he had the least scruple, there were numbers of men who would have none. | Was he prepared, then, to see this virgin life sacrificed to the inclination of some other man—of someman who would be unable to appreciate that purity of soul which was actu- ating her to set at defiance a social law which nearly every- one looked upon as the very foundation of civilized society ? Gomichbookssco