I Forbid the Banns! — page 343: what you’re looking at

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

ON THE APPROACH OF D4 WH. 333 myself? Do men change like this when they have lived with a woman fora few months? Is that love which was the foundation of this union of ours no more certain basis than that ceremony which goes by the name of marriage?” No more certain? When had she ever heard of a man such as Julian Charlton, when less than two months married to such a woman as herself, adopting such a tone of bitter- ness as she had just heard from his lips? Young wives had told her of the trials to which they had been subjected owing to the shortness of temper of their respective husbands. Butshe had never heard a complaint respecting the first six months of marriage. It nearly always took a year to develop the husband’s temper to the swearing point. Was it possible that the bond of union which existed between herself and Julian was weaker than the other bond to withstand the daily strains of life? And with these vain questionings there was forced upon her the most important inquiry of all: “If the first two months of our wtnion have ended like this, what future may we anticipate ?” Once more she was lying on the sofa with her face buried upon one of its pillows. She felt that she could not face such a future as appeared before her eyes. And the most hopeless aspect of the case was that she felt that she loved him as much as she had ever done. She loved him so well that she felt strong enough to sepa- rate herself from him for evermore, if that would make him happy. It had actually cometo this. She no longer fell back on the assurance that they were bound together by a tie that admitted of no severing—the tie of love—God’s best gift to man—the bondage of soul to soul. She. had never spent so miserable a night in all her life. As the exquisite dawn forced its way through the blinds of the room and glimmered upon the various objects having (e(0) (CORNIECLOOOKS