I Forbid the Banns! — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER II. ON THE CUTTING OF CAMEOS. HEN Waring and his victim had disappeared within the deck house, Mr. Cyril Southcote gave a little laugh, which he meant to be expressive of the subtle enjoyment which his intellectual achievements conveyed to his own senses. It was his belief that his intellect stood out asa white cameo does against its dull background. If his intel- lect was the cameo he had no difficulty whatever in assigning to the combined intellects of his friends the position of the dull background against which his own—clear cut and finely finished to a hair’s breadth—became the more’ con- spicuous. He was not a vain man: he only believed that his own intellect was the cameo and his friends’ intellects the background. He felt it to be his duty to see that this homely commonplace surface was not wasted. Asa back- ground it had a destiny to fulfill. He seldom felt that he had any reason to reproach himself for neglecting his duty, in respect of making the cameo conspicuous by keeping the background in its legitimate position. People occasionally said he was scarcely so clever as he seemed to be. When a whisper now and again reached him to this effect, he was accustomed to find fault with his background. It mani- fested certain inartistic irregularities. The cameo was all right. And so he fancied that he always cut the figure which he wished to cut. He was clever enough to be a fine art auctioneer, and unscrupulous enough to be a statesman of the first rank. He was generally clever, but he was sometimes good- natured. 5 | CONNIE LOOKS (EC)