I Forbid the Banns! — page 192: what you’re looking at

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

182 ‘7 FORBID THE BANNS!” door of the room where Bertha was brushing her hair open, and the light tap of her shoes upon the oak staircase. ‘Then he left the boudoir—faded festoons and all—and actually stole along the corridor to the pink room, opening the door as cautiously as though he were a burglar uncertain of the soundness of the inmates’ sleep beyond the door. The apartment seemed pervaded with her presence. He had read of the Blessed Damozel whose breast, leaning against a gold bar, had made the metal warm. He thought of it as he stood in the center of this room, feeling the gra- cious warmth of her presence in everything around him. He felt that if he had come suddenly into the room, not know- ing that she had been here, he would have known in a moment that she had just departed. _And it was to this room that the housekeeper was about to give him access quite unconcernedly! » He went to the dressing table and lifted the brush that she had beenusing. Surely the ivory—that most unsuscep- tible of materials—was warm from her hand. It cast a deli- cate scent like that of apeach around the room. Her grace- ful summer wrap—a triumph of the art of that ingenious French artiste, Mme. John Smith of Regent Street—lay upon the mahogany Cupid which was carved upon one of the low posts of the bed. A little chubby arm projected beyond the quilted satin lining. It seemed to belong to the garment, this half-concealed Love. He put his hand under the cloak and touched the body of the Cupid. Beyond doubt the mahogany was warm. ‘The warmth that had come to her mantle from her shoulders had warmed this little chubby Cupid into life. His Blessed Damozel had made her influ- ence felt upon everything in the apartment. The gong sounded in the hall below. He hastened to dress, and to descend to the drawing room. She was standing at one of the open French windows, the exquisite glow of the soft summer twilight around her. Gomichookssco m =)