I Forbid the Banns! — page 291: what you’re looking at

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

ON THE LOCUST AS A COMESTIBLE. 281 ing her hands in his own, with a detestable air of propri- etorship. Yes, it was Eric Vicars who had caused him to yield to Bertha. He could not forget that, and he hated the man the more on this account. The first cloud had passed away, but it had left some effects behind it. The seeds of suspicion and distrust had obtained some moisture from it, and there was every prom- ise of a plentiful crop in the course of time. Bertha was not exactly the same, he could perceive. She was making noble efforts to be exactly the same, but she was not quite succeeding. The fact that she found it necessary to make such efforts proved to him that she was conscious that a change had taken place in her feelings, so far as he was concerned. Could it be possible that she, too, was feeling that the union of souls did not contain the elements of stability? He did not venture to ask her. During the next few days, several visitors appeared at the Court. Curiously enough, they were all men. Several of them Charlton had known before he had set out on his travels. Some of them had been presented to Bertha on the lawn at Ashmead, previous to the arrival of Sir Ecroyd to eclipse all lesser lights. They were for the most part pleasant fellows, with a nice appreciation of “form.” They did not look at it from a standpoint of art, but from the standpoint of a public school. They hoped Mrs. Charlton would enjoy the hunting when October came. They thought that they could show her some fun. Few districts were so conscientiously hunted as the Brackenthorpe neigh- borhood. Things were not done by halves here, they assured her. Eight years ago a farmer had been almost proved to have shot a fox, simply because it carried off some seventeen prize fowl of his, they told her. As the deed had almost been proved against him, he had been given to understand that the sooner he cleared off the (CONMMIELIOOKS (2(0)