I Forbid the Banns! — page 90: what you’re looking at

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

80 ‘7 FORBID THE BANNS!” caster replied that authors were so variable she had long ago abandoned the habit she once had had, of looking at the outside of a novel by a favorite writer for some days, anticipating the enjoyment that the reading would bring her. She now preferred, she said, the enjoyment of read- ing quickly, and thinking slowly over her favorites. At this point Charlie Barham turned round and strolled away to the stern of the steamer. He spent half an hour looking over the side into the snows of the wake, and would not so much as give a glance in the direction of Miss Lancaster and the man—he was a very contemptible man, Charlie felt—who was talking to her, and occasionally, as he could hear, making her laugh. At the end of half an hour, however, his sulky mood had dropped from him into the wake of the steamer, and he went amidships to where a game of rope quoits was being played. He flattered him- self that if he knew nothing about Thomas Hardy as a novel writer, he could knock the head off anybody aboard the ship at rope quoits. When he came aft in an hour or two, Mr. Charlton and Miss Lancaster were still talking. Well, what did he care? Let them talk. Only he would be even with that fellow Charlton yet. CONNIELIOOKS (E(0)