I Forbid the Banns! — page 300: what you’re looking at

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

290 “7 FORBID THE BANNS I!” of the season, did you not? Then the dinner is not aban- doned, only postponed. You will let me have your address— we have dinners almost every Wednesday—that is my free night. Thank Heaven, we have still our Wednesdays and Saturdays. You will only meet congenial souls—not a politician among them—only Fairleigh.” | “He is a member of the cabinet, consequently exempted from the list of politicians.”’ “Of course—in that sense. You will find him congenial, so will your—ah—Mrs. Charlton. You see they have re- sumed their conversation which we interrupted at the pond. Did you see the paragraph that appeared in that iniquitous print 7istledown regarding the pond business? It is really monstrous that a man cannot ask a few friends to his place for an hour or two without finding afterward that some of them are making ‘copy’ for these wretched prints that spring up around us and die away after a month or two.”’ “T never heard of Z%zstledown,” said Julian. ‘ What did it say ?” , “Some trash about the fondness of some members of the government for wild fowl,’’ replied Lord Ashenthorpe. ‘ After alluding to the fact that Fairleigh was feeding the ducks all the afternoon, it twisted the thing round so as to suggest that the fondness for wild fowl may be carried too far by any government. ‘Then it alluded to’our East Afri- can business as a wild-goose chase, and declared that our love for ornithology was so marked that we made ducks and drakes of everything we attempted to do. It went on in that sickening style for half a page,’’ added the under secretary. While Julian Charlton was listening to the indignant remarks of Lord Ashenthorpe, he was casually watching Sir Ecroyd examining, by the side of Bertha, one of the famous Sévres vases for which, in the eyes of collectors, the Court was the shrine. (COMIC LOOKS (E()