I Forbid the Banns! — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

ON THE CAPTAIN'S PROFANITY. T5 would be wise to let her do so. He was now carrying out his instructions to the letter. He was an extremely con- scientious man to be the commander of a large steamship with his heart set on breaking records. He was also a Cautious man, and he invariably steamed at full speed ahead through fogs, for he was so extremely careful of the lives of his passengers he would not ask them to remain a moment longer than was absolutely necessary in the middle of a fog. He had had a variety of strange experiences in the course of his life. He said he had hunted in Leicestershire. Some people believed him. He had had many opportunities of reading when on long voyages, and he had made good use of the time at his disposal. He was a diligent, if a desultory reader. He held certain theories on the subject of Hamlet's madness, He never brought his wife on a voyage with him. He was now sitting very much at his ease, narrating a pleasant little story of how he had fought some hundreds of pirates in the cool of an evening in the China seas, This was meant for the ear of the little girl on the cushion at his feet. At the same time he was replying to the inquiries of the judge’s daughter as to the feasibility of the steamer’s anchoring alongside the Tower of London in order to give her an opportunity of exploring that historic building pre- vious to going on to Westminster Abbey by a barge. Miss Joyce was under the impression that nearly all the passen- ger traffic of the river Thames was conducted on barges, with silken canopies aft, and sixteen rowers in fourteenth century costumes. Her ideas of the Thames were derived from an intimate acquaintance with the pictorial title of the ///ustrated London News. At the same time the captain was recounting to Mrs, CONMIELIOO KS aero)