I Forbid the Banns! — page 278: what you’re looking at

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

268 ‘7 FORBID THE BANNS!” ‘‘My dear Fairleigh, you would have done nothing of the sort,’’ said he. ‘“T assure you I would. Great Heavens, man, don’t you fancy that I know my own mind?”’ ‘Yes, I fancy you do know your own mind. ‘Mind’—- yes, it has come to that. You say ‘mind’ now, but twenty years ago you would have said ‘heart.’ Mark the difference. You say you know your own mind regarding that bright young thing. Soyoudo. She appeals toyour mind. But what appeals to the mind of a cabinet minister of’ forty- three is not what appeals to the heart of a stripling of twenty- three. Somuch is certain. Therefore I say that you would not have wanted to make her your wife twenty years ago. Twenty years ago your heart was incapable of appreciating what your mind appreciates now. You would not have appreciated that young woman when you were twenty- three years of age.”’ “When I said ‘mind’ just now,’”’ remarked Sir Ecroyd, ‘‘I was merely paying a just tribute to modern scientific research. Love has been proved to be the result of cerebra- tion—perhaps unconscious cerebration—perhaps automatic cerebration. The affecting of the heart is the natural sequence of the phenomena of the brain in such cases—the heart is by no means the seat of the origin of that incident known as love. If anyone were to talk about the heart of a cabinet minister nowadays, those who heard the phrase would put their tongues in their cheeks. It would make a capital cry for the opposition. ‘What about that heart?’ we should hear on all sides when that minister rose to advo- cate a coercive measure. That is why I made use of the word ‘mind.’ ’’ ‘But I tell you the mind has nothing to do with the matter.”’ “That is because you are an under secretary, Ashen- thorpe. There is nothing absurd about the idea of an 3 CORNNIELOOOKS (E(0)