I Forbid the Banns! — page 66: what you’re looking at

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

56 “7 FORBID THE BANNS!” ‘And perhaps persuaded them that this tub is far and away ahead of all the Castes that sail the seas, so that they couldn’t do better than take berths aboard. Just like what Charlton would do. Look at the young one.” Miss Travers glanced in the direction of Bertha, and she could scarcely fail to agree with Captain Waring that if Mr. Charlton had used whatever power of persuasion he had at his command to induce the two strangers to join the ship’s company of the Carnarvon Castle, such a course would by no means be inconsistent with human nature. This was not exactly how Waring had put it ; but it was probably what he meant. “Mr. Charlton brought them aboard last night,” whispered someone who had just come on deck behind Waring and Miss Travers. The new arrival was Miss Crawford, the very attractive young person whose side the major of engineers had exhausted all his knowledge of modern strategy to reach. She was the daughter of Mr. Lionel Crawford. He wasa literary gentleman who had been for some time engaged upon his magnum opus, which it was understood took the form of a political key to “Alice in Wonderland.’”’ He had been ordered a long voyage for the benefit of his health, which had naturally suffered through the undue application to his desk entailed by the conscientious discharge of his self-imposed task. “ Yes, he brought them aboard last night. I found out all about them from Mrs, Robinson.” Mrs. Robinson was the stewardess, and she was generally found to know all about everyone. ‘They are Australians; the stout one is Mrs. Hardy, the other one is a Miss Lancaster. They have a maid’; her name is Miriam. ‘Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt's dark sea!’ ”’ ‘‘Where’s the maid ?”’ asked Captain Waring, for whom the first chord of interest had been struck. ‘ Where’s the maid ?” (CONNICLOOOKS (20)