I Forbid the Banns! — page 248: what you’re looking at

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

238 “7 FORBID THE BANNS!” put their minds into a sack of guano without any fertilizing results accruing from the contact, should not plunge him into despair. At the same time he could not but feel that the scene through which he had passed was an extremely unpleasant one. It is always mortifying for a man of some intelligence to know that a person quite devoid of intelligence has parted from him with a feeling of having got the best of an encounter. He knew that Lady Rushton would feel that she had, by stalking out of the drawing room at the Court, completely overwhelmed him and Bertha, and that she would lose no time in spreading through the country the story of her victory. Therefore, though he had given Bertha to under- stand that all was well, he had some misgivings on the matter in his own mind. He had told Bertha that she might prepare for being isolated by the county. He believed that this at least was inevitable. Everyone in the county detested Lady Rush- ton, but no one had the courage to hold out against her. People visited-only where she visited. He was therefore greatly surprised when he received a card, expressing the pleasure that it would give Lord and Lady Ashenthorpe to see Mr. and Mrs. Charlton at a garden party at Ashmead on the following Friday afternoon. After some thought he accepted the invitation. He determined that he would give the county to understand that it was not his intention to alter his mode of life because Lady Rushton had: seen fit to stalk out of his wife’s drawing-room with her head in the air. He did not expect to have any more visitors during the week, but in this matter also he was mistaken. Lunch had just been laid on the Wednesday afternoon when Mr. and Mrs. Hardy appeared in the one fly that was available at the railway station. COMME OOOLKS (E)