I Forbid the Banns! — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

142 “7 FORBID THE BANNS!” “Australian? Ah! Botany Bay was all the talk when I was aslip of a girl. An Australian, did you say, sir? God forbid!” ‘She was born in Australia, Mrs. Barwell, but her father and mother were both English. That makes her English, doesn’t it ?” ‘“T’d be very cautious who I’d call an Englishman or an Englishwoman. If we weren’t very cautious there's no knowing who mightn’t claim to be called English—the Cornish folk, perhaps, or the Presbyterians. ”’ ‘Why, Mrs. Barwell, the Australians are far more Eng- lish than the English themselves. ‘They keep their hats in their hands while the entire of ‘God Save the Queen’ is being performed by the band.” ‘“'That’s a good sign, sir, if the young women are yellow. And may I ask when the happy event is to take place ?”’ Julian Charlton was silent. The woman repeated her question ; but even then there was a long pause before he burst into an unnaturally loud laugh, saying : ‘When? Why, we are married already, Mrs. Barwell.” “What! Married already, sir? And not a word about it among the obituaries in the Z7zmes, sir—not a word about it even in the Brackenshire Chronicle? 1 don't like that, sir. It doesn’t seem altogether square when a Charl- ton of Brackenhurst Court gets married without it appear- ing among the obituaries in the Zzmes or to the length of a column, maybe, in the Chronztcle.”’ “T am sorry you don’t like it, Mrs. Barwell. If I had thought that you wouldn’t be pleased—but there! it’s too late now.” ‘And where did it happen, sir?’ the housekeeper asked as if she were alluding to an accident. “Where? Why, in Australia, to be sure. Where else should it happen ?”’ “Then they have a sort of marriage there—they don’t C@ONNIELNCYO KS (€(0)