I Forbid the Banns! — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XI. ON LEADING A HORSE TO THE WATER. HILE Charlton and Bertha were engaged in their interesting conversation, Mrs. Hardy was getting on friendly terms with Marian Travers. The elder lady pos- sessed the invaluable faculty of getting on friendly terms with most people—even young ladies, who, with all the inso- lence of slimness, called her stout. Marian Travers had no objection in the world to be made acquainted with the chief incidents in the life of Mrs. Hardy and of her niece during the past year or two. She learned that Mrs. Hardy, on the death of her brother, Mr. Lancas- ter, two years before, had gone out from England to Austra- lia to take charge of Mr. Lancaster’s only child—the girl who was engaged in conversation with Mr. Charlton. She also learned that taking charge of Mr. Lancaster’s only child had been something of a care to her aunt. Just as her aunt had become reconciled to life in Australia, the girl had made up her mind to travel to England by easy stages, but they did not seem easy to the aunt. A month or two in Calcutta had seemed to the niece essential forthe study of the elements of Buddhism. Buta knowledge of the elements of Buddhism did not apparently enter intothe aunt’s ideas of how to make life agreeable, though it seemed that the niece found unbearable the prospect of existence without an intimate acquaintance with Buddhism. From Calcutta to Ceylon for further studies in what the aunt considered mysticism, and from Ceylon to Bombay to take a passing glance to find out if there was anything in Mo- hammedanism, and from Bombay to the Cape colonies to 66 Gomichbookssco