I Forbid the Banns! — page 169: what you’re looking at

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

ON A SHOW. 159 could see that she was admired on every side. Bertha, of course, being a woman, would have remained in ignorance of this fact if he had not told her of it. He told her that he expected she would create a distinct impression upon the personages of the world. It was on this account he had brought her into the midst of the most -notable society in the world. But he assured her that she had produced a far greater impression than he had antic- ipated. She gave no sign of displeasure. On the contrary, she laughed, and declared that she had felt, the instant she had seen her new frocks, that the young lady whom Mme. John Smith of Regent Street had sent to her in reply to her tele- gram was a thorough artist. ‘‘There is no satisfaction in the world like feeling that one is well dressed,’’ said she. ‘‘And there is no one better dressed than I am.’’ In the course of half an hour the associate from whom Julian had got his tickets came up and greeted his friend. Julian presented him to Bertha, and he inquired how it was that he had never met Miss Lancaster before. ‘You have set us all wondering, Miss Lancaster,’’ said he, assuming the air of an associate of fashion rather than of a narrow-minded corporation such as the academy. ‘*You have quite put in the shade Carpenter’s ‘A Morsel for a Monarch.’ Half an hour ago we were all talking about the picture, now we have all been talking about you. You have made an implacable enemy of Carpenter.’’ ‘Tam nobody,’’ said she. ‘‘I am a colonial nonentity, paying my first visit to home—we all call England home in Australia. I saw one of your pictures in the Sydney gallery. There is no picture more admired in the colony.”’ The painter thought he had never seen a more charming girl in all his life. “Mr. Phss toes has just shown me your new one—‘Where (E(0) t Gomichbooks