I Forbid the Banns! — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

ON THE VORACITY OF THE SHARK. 73 After breakfast he strolled quietly off to the bridge and took a cigar out of his case, and lighted it, as he usually did after breakfast, whether the day was fine or wet. Several of the other passengers were smoking at this part of the ship, and one of them joined him in a languid stroll to and fro. The stroll forward was extremely unin- teresting to Charlton, for only the forecabin passengers and the sailors around the fo’c’s'le were visible ; but the return stroll was different, for then he could see all the quarter- deck, beneath the white sailcloth awning. The first turn that he made enabled him to see Bertha Lancaster standing irresolute in front of the chair upon which her novel was lying; then his tiresome companion, talking away on the topic which he had made his own— the necessity for an international gallery of photographs— turned right about, and it was quite a minute and a half before Charlton was in a position to catch a glimpse of the girl again. It was an outrageous waste of time, to be sure, but he had only to submit to it. The next turn showed him the girl talking to her maid Miriam, who carried a cushion. ‘Then once more, to the marching song of “to increase the consolidation of the British Empire, my dear sir, is to consolidate the guarantees of peace,” the view of the fore part of the ship was forced upon Charlton. When this barren waste was again behind him he was in a position to notice that Miriam had placed the cushion in the trustworthy chair which Mrs. Hardy had occupied, and that Bertha had sunk back into his own. What exquisite feet she had, to be sure ! His companion was somewhat surprised at the eagerness with which he declared that he had never been so convinced of the magnificent possibilities of photography. The gentle- man, who had attained to the dignity of a Nuisance in the House of Commons, felt that at last he had got hold of a sensible man. CONNIE OOKS (C(O)