I Forbid the Banns! — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XII. ON THE VORACITY OF THE SHARK. R. JULIAN CHARLTON was no fool—that is to say, he was no greater fool than any other person of his sex becomes when a girl appears before his eyes. He did not hasten to seat himself beside Bertha on the deck. He knew that she would find the novel which she had been reading on his deck chair in which she had been sitting, and he also believed that, if he were not at hand, she would reseat herself in that chair. If he were at hand in a seat- less condition, or, what was worse, having only a carpet deck stool to sit upon, she would insist on yielding his - own chair back to him. He did not want her to do this. He was anxious that she should appropriate his chair. He felt that if he suc- ceeded in inducing her to do so he would have jus- tified a claim to seat himself—in another chair—beside her. It is questionable if the validity of such a claim would be acknowledged by anyone not accustomed to life as it exists on the quarter-deck of an ocean steamship. But it has already been stated that the fact of Bertha’s hav- ing appeared in Charlton’s deck chair was accepted by ‘some of the best informed passengers as equivalent to his advancing a claim of appropriation of the girl. This was, however, an exaggerated view to take of the incident ; but there was nothing extravagant in Charlton’s hope that he might claim to sit on another and a much less comfortable chair in the vicinity of his own at any time of the day. 72 Gomichooks. co