I Forbid the Banns! — page 266: what you’re looking at

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

256 “7 FORBID THE BANNS !” Brackenshire. Now when they saw that That Woman— Bertha was already familiarly known in this way—was attracting the attention of the most eligible men, simply because she had a good figure, and had been well treated by her dressmaker, they made no attempt to conceal their indignation. Julian watched them with some malice in his heart, and not for a considerable time did he turn to where he had left Bertha. She was not there. The narrative of his own familiar friend became verv tame, in spite of the fact that, although it dealt with shoot- ing in the Rocky Mountains, it bordered on the probable every now and again. Where was Bertha? He followed the gaze of the ladies on the lawn—they were more indignant than ever—and he saw that Bertha was now standing apart from where she had been, and that only one man was by her side. She was looking very frankly into the man’s face, and he was replying with the frankest look of admiration possible to imagine ona face that is incapable of suggesting any emotion. They were evidently mutually responsive, Julian per- ceived, and he knew that for them to be responsive meant that they were well pleased with one another. Suddenly he became once more conscious of that feeling which had come to him for the first time in his life when he had seen Eric Vicars grasp Bertha by both her hands on coming aboard the steamer in the dock. It returned to him with the effect as of a sudden stab with a sharp instrument. Hekept his eyes fixed upon her. She laughed at something that the man beside her had said, and her face lighted up at that moment. He had an impulse to rush to her and take her away from (EMILY! KS (EC)